I'm a Junior in LSA majoring in Italian and minoring in Art History. I love writing for art[seen] because it gives me the opportunity to show all of these amazing shows that the University brings to Ann Arbor. We get some world class performers and I would be really bummed if I missed out on anything that I'll never have to opportunity to see again. What you need to know about me? I'm not a writer, an art expert, and I didn't grow up around this much culture. I am a busy student at UofM, so if you are judging me for something, it's okay because I won't have time to respond. I'll just keep seeing shows and you can be jealous!
The Martin Luther King Symposium was a beautiful display of spoken word and visual art. Taking place in the Pendleton room in the Michigan Union, this event really embodied the work of the great Dr. King and the freedoms that he fought for.
The slam was dazzling, with many talented student poets, such as AJ, TJ, Aisha, Brandon, and Chloe, who all spoke from the heart about freedom, peace, and inequality. The judges unanimously declared AJ the winner and he received a $100 visa gift card, while the crowd favorite was undoubtedly Ame (sorry, I don’t know the exact spelling and she told us to write “Amy” if we wanted to vote for her) who won the gift bag. Both were poets of amazing talent and emotion.
There were four artworks at the event also, paintings and drawings, to be admired and rewarded. These works were creative depictions of what civil rights meant to the artists, or at least shared some relation to MLK and his dreams.
The best part of the night, however, came with the feature poets Jessica Moore and Dee Matthews. They were Amazing! Dee was definitely my favorite with her second poem telling the untold story of Eve. She is such a passionate performer with such wonderful word strings and ideas. I could listen to her for hours, and so could most of the crowd, I believe. She also read a poem about the old folk that decided to ride the storm during hurricane Katrina and another about the revolution that never happened for the African American community. Both were intriguing and amazing, but the poem about Eve outstripped them emotionally and made us want to cry.
Airea "Dee" Matthews
Jessica Moore was another great addition to the show. She read so many amazing poems that I can’t list all of them, but I can suggest that you look her up. Jessica Care Moore is the CEO of a poetry company, an Apollo legend, and a proud single mother from Detroit. What I really like about Jessica was that she was so real, I mean soooo real. She told us about what it is like to be world famous and still broke. How it feels to have people in countries all over the planet recognize your name and still have to receive welfare to feed your child. Moore is a beautiful person and I think to know her would make a person’s life better. I wish her and her son all the best, because she is fantastic.
…And it is coming true this Thursday night, January 28, 2010 from 8:00-11:00 pm. The dream is materializing thanks to Alpha Phi Alpha, Inc. Epsilon Chapter, in conjunction with MESA and UUAP, and U-Club Poetry. A Right to Dream: An Art and Poetry Exhibition! Is an annual symposium that comes together to honor the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Tomorrow is the 24th annual MLK Symposium here at the University of Michigan and it promises a venue that is not to be missed, including art from the campus at large, student performers in the open-mic and poetry slam, and two speakers: Jessica Care Moore and Airea “Dee” Mathews. The art and poetry competition winners will be rewarded with over $500 in prizes, including visa gift cards and gift baskets!
This event is a wonderful way to honor the dreams that MLK gave us and to see some of the talent your classmates have to offer. You should definitely show up, especially since there is only a $5 cover charge, $2 of which is being donated to the construction of the MLK Monument in Washington, D.C.
So, details:
What: MLK Symposium-A Right to Dream: An Art and Poetry Exhibition!
When: January 28, 2010 8:00 pm to 11:00 pm
Where: Pendleton Room, Michigan Union
How Much: $5
Who: Jessica Care Moore, Airea “Dee” Matthews, and UofM Students
I hope to see you there!
And As Always,
This is Danny Fob: Artist and Art Reviewer
Incredible. Absolutely unbelievable. These are words that I would use to describe Saturday night’s production of Fondly Do We Hope…Fervently Do We Pray by the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. Indescribable. It really is. The show was something that you really had to be there to understand anything that I will tell you, but I’ll do my best.
The group is a contemporary/interpretative dance company led by renowned choreographer Bill T. Jones. I’ve learned that the Power Center doesn’t put on ‘small’ shows. The performance utilized the power of words and dance to express its deeply rooted identities. It tells the story of Abraham Lincoln, his death, the war against slavery and that against the same forms of oppression in today’s world.
The only bad thing I have to say about the show, and I’m getting it out of the way first, is that I didn’t personally like the singers, but this is just my opinion. There were only two of them, and the only thing about them that I did not fall in love with was their voices, because what they had to say and what they represented was deep, cultural, and deserving of every ounce of respect one can muster. The music they played and the songs they sang did exactly what they were supposed to do; when the music was angry-I felt angry, when it was mourning-I cried for the death of Lincoln.
That is something I want to get across about this show. It was powerful; so full of emotions and pain that the crowd had to feel it. When I left the show I felt heartbroken, terrified, and so disgusted that I was physically gagging. That is how powerful the mixture of the dance, poetry, and music was. None of those sound like good feelings, and they weren’t, but it is good to feel them for the right reasons.
Let’s start with heartbroken. I cried at least four times during the performance. I literally didn’t smile for about three hours until a friend came and gave me hugs and consoled me. My heart actually hurt for the people in this show. They portrayed the separation of the United States, the fight against slavery, Lincoln’s death, and their ramifications in today and tomorrow’s worlds. The characters, introduced one at a time by the voice of the man that spoke to us throughout the production, came from different eras and backgrounds, but still took the story of Lincoln to heart. The movement of their bodies was so fluent and flexible, totally in tuned with the music, the story, and especially that voice.
There were two scenes that repulsed and terrified me. It sounds strange and dramatic to say that I was trying not to throw up, but that is exactly how they made me feel. The show had started with (and throughout the show, repeated) an excerpt from Walt Whitman’s “Poem of the Body”-
“Head, neck, hair, ears, drop and tympan of the ears,/Eyes, eye-fringes, iris of the eye, eye-brows, and the waking or sleeping of the lids,/ Mouth, tongue, lips, teeth, roof of the mouth, jaws, and the jaw-hinges, Nose, nostrils of the nose, and the partition, (for the complete poem visit Whitman)” The poem continues down the human form through each physical piece of flesh on the body. The first time the poem was recited was an artistic dance. The next time started with the deafening crack of a whip and the surge of pain from the dancer on the center of the stage. The announcer voice started to recite the poem, the whip kept cracking as the dancer went through the same motions of the first dancer, but this time as an item to be auctioned off. The announcer continued the poem and became an auctioneer as the speakers began to spew out the horrifying reenactments of a slave auction. Shouts and bids yelled into our ears, verbal abuse, the sound of that whip and the convulsions of the ‘slave,’ the shame and pain that the audience was feeling. I can honestly say that this is one of the most terrifying experiences I’ve ever had, but in a different way than normal things terrify a person. These people were bidding, offering amounts of money, for the life of another person; for the legal right to possess another human being. Jones built the show so perfectly that those speakers and that dancer made me feel like a slave at auction, or even like one of those people bidding. It was terrifying to find myself a possession to be tagged for certain parts of my body and I was disgusted with the screams of the auction attendees. Even now, writing this, I get the sickest feeling in my stomach and I feel the need to think of something happy, but I know that only by continuing to think of the issue can the problems that Lincoln and MLK stood for ever be resolved. So when I say that I was physically trying not to regurgitate, it isn’t a bad thing, the show was that amazing. So deep that there was no way to avoid the feelings that it put into our hearts.
The other scene that got me was a debate that has happened throughout history, reenacted by the performers. The argument over slavery, segregation, inter-racial relations, the idea of liberty mixed with security, and the separation of powers. It was hard to integrate the different thoughts without infringing on someone’s liberty, yet by keeping them separate, one group was granted full liberty and the other was left second-class citizens.
The last dancer, and issue, to be introduced was the announcer. His character was born in 2009 and he is now one hundred years old. Times have changed, but people still fight in wars, kill each other, and are treated unequally, but love and friendship still exist, and so does the urge to do right and promote moral action. He left us with an image of hope, not of peace, but hope. With the knowledge that war is terrible, no matter what, but that some things are worth fighting for (personally I do not believe that anything can be solved by war and that this violent, murderous invention of our species only makes things worse and that diplomacy and the active delivery of love are the only moral solutions to ‘conflicts’). The message is still clear. Human rights are worth protecting, love is a value that cannot be destroyed, and possession of your own physical and mental choices and actions is an inalienable right.
Every generation has a civil rights movement and every one of these movements finds its roots in the words, actions, and spirits of people like Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., The Beatles, and Judy Shepard. Equal civil rights under the law for all races, gender identities, sexual orientations, socio-economic classes, and religious affiliations is our goal. Our current movement is that of LGBTQ rights and equality. How will our generation make MLK’s dream come true? How will we continue Lincoln’s work? How will our children correct the crimes committed in the name of hate, such as the deaths of Lincoln, MLK, Harvey Milk, and Mathew Shepard? These are questions I asked myself when thinking about this show, and I hope that they are questions the other audience members were thinking of as they left the Power Center on Saturday night.
Bill T. Jones
So what should you, the reader, take from my review? Take the message of hope, for one thing, and that of political equality. But most of all, realize the overwhelming power of art. Let shows like Fondly Do We Hope…Fervently Do We Pray flow through you and don’t be afraid to feel the way it makes you feel. And push yourself to create your own art and to express your own identity. Art really is a beautiful thing, and it is more than being able to paint a masterpiece or sing a ballad. Art is what you make it.
As always,
This is Danny Fob: Artist and Art Reviewer
…With the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. This Friday and Saturday night, Jan 22 and 23, at 8pm the show begins. Jones has put together a fantastic show commemorating the life of Abraham Lincoln and is bringing it to the Power Center. Fondly Do We Hope…Fervently Do We Pray is a theater experience that should not be missed. The show has promised to have the unique dancing and music that Jones’ company is famous for and to bring us the same visions of peace that people like Lincoln dreamed of. If you do not have tickets yet, I’d suggest that you get on it. They’re going fast and student rush tickets are only $10, so everyone wants them. I’m attending the event on Saturday and there is way too much anticipation. Once again:
Fondly Do We Hope…Fervently Do We Pray
Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company
Bill T. Jones, artistic director
When: Friday, January 22, 8 pm
Saturday, January 23, 8 pm
Where: Power Center
How much: $10
As always,
This is Danny Fob: Artist and Art Reviewer
They’re people. Gender, race, sexuality are only parts of who people are. We can love people for everything that they are. This is one of the main themes of Still Black: A Portrait of Black Transmen, along with loving yourself and being yourself. This documentary looks into the lives of six African American people that have undergone female to male transitions or identify as transmales.
The film introduces people one at a time in an interview format, only it is artistically rendered by leaving out all questions and responses of the interviewer, leaving only the voice of experience. We hear people’s life stories from the comfort of their own homes.
Kylar Broadus from Columbia, MO used to be a corporate attorney, but after being fired by his company for announcing and beginning his transition he has become an activist for transgender and gender queer people. He tells the story of how hard it is to be something that you’re not and how he struggled every day to dress in “hose and makeup” to comply with his company’s conservative views on image. Now he is an activist and he is finally happy with himself.
Ethan Young of Toledo, OH tells us the story of his transition and the journey he took to find his own identity. After originally believing himself to be a lesbian, he realized that he was a transsexual gay man. Ethan shows us how hard it is to find ourselves in a world that is so set on its views and how one must be brave enough to be oneself, no matter what. Ethan also tells us the story of how dating has changed and how he asks people if they are attracted to him or not. His results are interesting, since many men and women, both gay and straight, still find him attractive.
Jay Welch from Evanston, IL is a poet (a man out for my own heart). He lives and breathes for poetry. He discovered his trans identity while in a relationship with a woman. He says that he just woke up one day and knew that he was meant to be someone else, something he had always known, but never actually understood. Family reactions are always hard to take, but Jay’s father was incredibly supportive, and even happy to have a son. Though Jay is still in the beginning stages of transitioning, his father is happy to help him find a job in construction, help him dress appropritately, and is ‘showing him the ropes,’ so to say, of being a man. Jay’s mother, on the other hand, is taking it badly and feels as if she is losing a daughter. It’s an interesting continuity of opposites, the way people are treated before and after such a huge stage in their lives.
Nicholas Rashad of Chicago, IL is a proud transman that tells us how his journey has affected his life and the lives of his family. His brothers are happy to have a new man in the family and teach him how to date women as a man. His younger sister, however, is not so happy with the transition and is having a hard time with the entire idea.
Louis Mitchell, of Springfield, MO, expresses his feelings about the new stereotypes he must face as a black man as opposed to those of a black woman. The media conveys that black men are either obnoxious rap artists, or street thugs and thieves. Louis says that people are afraid of him now that he is a big black man, and that the media makes it harder for him to be who he is. Another obstacle Louis faced was that of his lesbian partner. Even though they love each other dearly, they were unsure whether his partner would still be attracted to him after the transition. They are still together and they are very open with communication. Louis’ new identity also makes his partner feel as if she is losing her identity as a lesbian. These sorts of issues and stories are the reasons that this documentary is so interesting. It asks questions that one may not think of when considering the hardships and joys of being black transmen in different geographies of the country.
Carl Madgett, also of Chicago, IL, is a preacher at the church “Pillar of Love.” He met his wife through the church and found an incredible amount of support from its loving membership. Carl and his wife were lucky enough to go through the process of artificial insemination, using Carl’s eggs, a sperm donor, and his wife’s uterus. They were given a 0.7% chance of actually conceiving a child and lo and behold they had twin baby girls. The family is now living happily, but like any family they have disagreements every now and then.
Each of these brave men agreed to tell their life stories to an entire generation and provided us with a new view on identity. What we see on people isn’t important, it’s what we see inside them that matters.
After finishing the movie, Gabe and Lauren from the Spectrum Center, facilitated a conversation with the audience. We talked about the different artistic values of the movie, such as it being filmed without any color, unique screen shots, and strange angles. We discussed how the movie made us feel about having an identity that others may not understand or that is different than the “normal” way of doing things. And we talked about what we thought the film was missing, what questions we still had for the men on the screen, and what sorts of experiences we didn’t hear about. I believe that there were only about two people, out of at least thirty, that didn’t say anything during this talk, which was great. Everyone participated and enjoyed themselves.
As if to give us another mission, Jim Toy (founder of the Spectrum Center almost forty years ago and current GLBT activist) asked if anyone knew of any films about people that identify as gender queer (outside the gender binary male-female system). None of us had heard of one, but I’m sure someone will be making such a film in the near future.
The documentary was great. The interviews and characters themselves were amazing, and they were only improved by the unique style of the director. Many different effects, such as splitting the screen, inverting the picture, and having multiple views at once, helped the movie create its own style and mood. The lack of bad commentators and random experts provided us with a closeness that normal documentaries do not have. Instead of hearing what doctors thought of Transmen, we actually heard the men tell their own stories. And that’s what’s important when it comes to issues of identity. It is not who others label you as, but who you are and how you express yourself.
It’s MLK week 2010 and a time to celebrate empowerment and equality. What Martin Luther King Jr. said in his speeches and sermons was powerful and inspiring, but not only for racial equality. His ideas and dreams were about equality for all, including those of the LGBT community. That’s why I’m choosing to attend this event in honor of MLK, though I will be going to other events this month to honor what he’s done for us too.
“Still Black: A Portrait of Black Transmen” is a documentary of six black transgender men around the US. The movie goes deep into each person’s life and explores their identities as minorities in race, sexuality, and gender. Directed by Kortney Ryan Ziegler, the movie is a groundbreaking look into the equality that MLK dreamed of and how that dream has materialized in today’s America.
What: Still Black: A Portrait of Black Transmen
When: Wenesday, January 20, 2010 6:00pm
Where: School of Social Work’s Educational Conference Center (ECC), 1st floor, Room 1840 School of Social Work Building (SSWB).
Bonuses: Free! And a Facilitated discussion after the movie.
Happy MLK everyone!
Danny Fob: Artist and Art Reviewer
