Author: audreymg

REVIEW: she was here, once

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Monday night the Institute for Research on Women and Gender welcomed Nastassja Swift and her exhibit she was here, once as part of their Narrating Black Girls’ Lives Conference series. Over three days they hosted speakers and other events, including a wool art workshop, focusing on the stories of Black women’s lives. The opening of the she was here, once exhibit took place in the Lane Hall entrance, utilizing the space as an unconventional gallery. The exhibit was not large, it featured a half dozen photos down two hallways, short films looping on two screens, and three large masks hanging above our heads. The exhibit opening was small; everyone who was there knew someone there and was clearly comfortable in the space.
This art exhibit is based on a performance art piece. The performance was a journey of three and a half miles for eight African women in Richmond, Virginia. These women traveled from the port on the James river, past the old auction blocks, and finally into a majority Black neighborhood. Throughout their journey, the women, ranging in age from teen-aged to mid-40s, stopped along the way to dance and sing. Swift was inspired to create this piece after learning about the historical significance of the city she had spent so much time in.
I looked at the photographs first. I was struck by the last four photos I looked at (below) featuring some of the performers without their masks on, one of the few chances to see their faces. The photographs featured such raw, beautiful emotion and their placement in a quadrant of four panels made it even more striking. Next, I took in the masks. The performers wore larger-than-life, white, wool masks for the majority of their journey. Three of these masks were featured in the exhibit hanging above us as almost caricatures of stereotypical African features. Finally, I watched the two short films documenting the performance art piece and the creative process. As I moved throughout the space the sound of the women singing in the videos was omnipresent, creating an ambiance in the space and a moving experience.

REVIEW: Arab Xpressions

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The theme for Arab Xpressions this year was “ajyal” which means generations in Arabic. This theme was represented well in the show presented by the Arab Student Association and wider Arab community. While last year’s show was very outwardly political, this show was more subtle and nuanced. From the fashion show to the five dabke troupes we were shown the progression of Arab culture as something that is vibrant and alive, not stagnant. The fashion show was a magnificent representation of this range with some eighty Arab students displaying both old fashioned and modern representations of Arab fashion, from traditional thobes to artfully draped kuffiyehs. The dabke dance troupes showed a similar progression with more traditional dance and costumes to the more modern representations.
A friend of mine danced with one of the co-ed troupes representing modern dabke, dancing in track suits to songs by popular artists like Nancy Ajram; I caught up with her to see what the experience was like for student performers. Maya Chamra is a sophomore in LSA who identifies as Lebanese and Syrian. We talked a little bit about what it meant for her to be performing at Arab Xpressions with a crowd full of friends and family. Maya expressed how special it was for her to connect with a dance so important to her culture and the pride she felt. After watching the show last year from the audience, Maya felt the the need to be more involved with the Arab community on campus so she joined her dabke troupe this last October and had been practicing ever since. One aspect of Arab Xpressions that Maya and I discussed is its role in uniting the Arab community on campus. Maya herself is not particularly active in the larger Arab Student Union but connects with her community through dabke. She perceived this to be a common occurrence for many of her fellow Arab-identifying students participating in the show. Arab Xpressions is always a wonderful way for the University to come together and show support for the Arab student community. The night is always full of laughter, cheers, and often a few tears and Arab Xpressions 2019 was no exception.

Image courtesy of the Arab Xpressions Facebook event page.

REVIEW: Stories Never Told

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Friday night felt like the perfect evening to take in a thoughtful, emotional exhibit like Stories Never Told: Yemen’s Crises and Renaissance. The exhibit was held on the 10th floor of Weiser which is a view in and of itself. The walls were lined with paintings, prints, and photos taken by artists from Yemen and the Yemeni diaspora. At the back of the space was a stand put up by Qahwah House, a Yemeni cafe based in Dearborn, with coffee, tea, and treats such as sabaya (a Yemeni honey cake) drizzled with locally sourced honey. These treats were perfect to keep me company as I made my way over to the screen for the speakers and short films. Before programming began, they had screens playing music videos by Yemeni artists. A short documentary was featured telling the story of Yemeni singer-songwriter Methal and her path to releasing a song featuring the major American band X Ambassadors. They also showed an interview of a Yemeni social media influencer based in South Korea sharing her story in Arabic. I was surprised to find that, after a year and a half without practicing or using my Arabic, I was able to understand a fair amount of the video, which was necessary since there were no subtitles.
After opening remarks from the Arab American National Museum and the curator, Hanan Ali Yahyah, there was a short presentation given by an expert from Michigan State University on the background of the crisis in Yemen. This truly put things in context when watching the eight following short films. Yemen is experiencing the worst humanitarian crisis of our time and this exhibit truly portrayed that. The short film that cut the deepest was about a woman living in Yemen whose heart condition left her dependent on medication which is difficult to find in conflict-torn Yemen. At the end of the film we learned that she died four minutes before her son arrived with the medication to save her life. The audience heaved a collective sigh and we all started to understand why there were boxes of tissue along the aisles. The visual art was equally stunning and emotional. One artist expressed her struggle with identity through photographs with her face edited out. Another piece that caught my attention, as a former cellist, was a painting featuring a young girl playing cello in the wreckage of her city.

PREVIEW: Arab Xpressions

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One of my favorite events last year was Arab Xpressions put on by the Arab Student Association, so my expectations for Arab Expression 2019 are high. I have every reason to believe that those expectations will be met for tomorrow evening’s show. The community of students involved in Arab Xpressions is highly dedicated to this annual extravaganza so they’ve been practicing since the Fall. Arab Xpressions is truly a unique experience in that you can spend a night getting a glimpse into the diverse cultural heritage of the Arab world and, more specifically, the Arab community on campus. Last year’s performance was particularly unique as it highlighted the work of Arabs on campus and in the state of Michigan. On campus, the Arab community successfully petitioned the school to have Middle East/North African added as a racial/ethnic category on official documents and worked to have the divestment proposal recognized by Central Student Government. Abdul El-Sayed, democratic gubernatorial primary candidate, was also featured at the performance. Other parts of the performance which we can be assured will return this year is the fashion show and many dabke dance troupes. One of my favorite parts of last year’s show was the many different interpretations of dabke by the various troupes put together for Arab Xpressions. I’m sure there will also be plenty of musical performances and spoken word, as well. This event is at 7pm tomorrow, February 23rd, at the Power Center and tickets are only $5 so make sure you’re there!

Image courtesy of the Arab Student Association.

PREVIEW: Stories Never Told

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This Friday I will be going to the multimedia exhibition Stories Never Told: Yemen’s Crises & Renaissance. This exhibit will be making its second stop in Ann Arbor with its first being at the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn Thursday evening. After this pilot, the exhibit will hit the road traveling to other parts of Michigan, the United States, and further. The exhibit is a mix of various mediums of art including visual, film, poetry, writings, and more centering around the Yemeni Crisis through the eyes of Yemeni citizens and the Yemeni diaspora. Stories Never Told is put together by Hanan Ali Yahya, a Yemeni-American social entrepreneur. Yemen has undergone a long and terrible conflict resulting in widespread famine and a refugee crisis. This conflict and the suffering of the Yemeni people has gone unnoticed by much of the international community despite international involvement such as Saudi Arabia bombing civilians with U.S. weaponry. Through this exhibit, the Yemeni community and diaspora are able to express their experiences with art and the written word and gain a voice in the communities that it reaches.

Image courtesy of the Global Islamic Studies Center.

REVIEW: Green Book

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Green Book was a good movie. I laughed multiple times, felt emotionally connected with the characters, and left feeling uplifted. However, Green Book was a film made for the early 2010s that just cannot find its place in 2019. I went into the theater on a Tuesday night after Green Book has been showing at the State for over three months expecting to have the place to myself, but it was almost full. People are still flocking to see this movie and it is a strong contester in several fields for the Oscar’s coming up this weekend. So what do I have against this well-loved film?
After conversations over the past few years have sprung up about representation of minorities on the big screen we have seen more movies with minority casts and those movies are being better represented by the top awards shows. Three of the movies nominated for best picture at the Oscar’s focus largely on Black characters and issues (Green Book, BlackkKlansmen, and Black Panther) which is surely a move in the right direction. However, Green Book is the least progressive of these three films. What makes BlackkKlansmen and Black Panther such important, compelling films is their feature of Black main characters, focusing on empowering tales, made by Black directors and screenwriters. These are all the ways in which Green Book is lacking. In Green Book the main character is a white man (hence Viggo Mortenson’s nomination for best actor and Mahershala Ali’s nomination for best supporting actor), the Black character is used as a vessel to humanize the main, white character, and the film was both directed and written by, you got it, more white men. Green Book is not about sharing the story of a fantastic, highly-educated, queer, Black, virtuoso pianist who fought the barriers of his time; Green Book is about another white man from the 1960’s and how he moved past his biases. To make things worse, Dr. Don Shirley’s family have come out saying that Green Book falsely represents his life and the nature of his relationship with his driver. The movie makes Tony Vallelonga into a hero, playing into the white audience’s white savior complex and their desire to feel a bit less problematic in today’s world.
The film industry will not make progress toward being a more inclusive and representative space until it learns that representation means much more than the presence of minorities; representation means featuring minorities as complex, main characters in stories told by their peers. When we see more of these films represented in the top awards shows the academy can finally say that they are truly representing the American audience in a way that is not tokenizing. The Oscar’s should be recognizing the amazing films that are paving the way for American cinema. If Beale Street Could Talk is a perfect example of a gorgeous film that features an almost entirely Black cast, is based on a book written by a Black man, was directed and adapted for the screen by a Black man, and represents race relations of the 1960’s in a nuanced way. Another film that was snubbed by the Oscar’s this year is Sorry to Bother You. This movie was unique and compelling, quickly formed a cult following, and easily should have earned a nomination for best original screenplay.
While I enjoyed Green Book, I simply cannot say it was a great or progressive film and I will be highly disappointed if it wins best picture at the Oscar’s this Sunday. The American audience is ready for good movies that empower minorities, we saw that when Black Panther shredded box office records last spring. Now, it is Hollywood’s job to make sure we get movies that can stand up to that legacy. Personally, I would love to see a movie that showed Dr. Shirley’s path to becoming a world-renowned pianist and delved into the complex nature of being a queer black man in 1960’s.

Image courtesy of the State Theater.