Category: Arts

REVIEW: AZAR 2022 ANNUAL NOWRUZ CULTURE SHOW

IseeUsee Leave a comment

The Persian student association’s 2022 cultural show Azar was like going to a high class award ceremony and a family event at the same time. This show was a display of cultural pride and love. I got to learn a lot about Iranian culture and what it meant for the performers to showcase their Iranian heritage. 

The audience members were students but a lot of Persian families as well. I have heard from performers that this show attracts Persians from all around Ann Arbor and surrounding areas. In short, this show is a really big deal.

In keeping with displaying Iranian culture and the fact that a lot of the audience spoke Persian, the anchors in the program spoke in both English and Persian. Also, did I mention they had anchors (MCs)? 

As I mentioned, this show felt like a high class award ceremony because between performances there were MCs entertaining the audience and telling them about the show. 

The show had a diverse range of performances. It had a number of dances from different regions of Iran, a stand-up comedian, a few videos about the Persian Student Association, a very funny skit, and a piano performance. 

You could see that the performers were really dedicated to this show. They had a lot of love for their community and it was hard to not love the show because of it. The energy and love were palpable and seeing such diverse performances from areas of the world I did not know much about was an eye opening experience. 

I got to see how college students like me show their dedication to their culture and strive to bring together members of their diaspora. In videos shown at the cultural show, PSA members talked about how essential this show is to them for bringing together community members and strengthening their identity as children of immigrants. It was touching to hear that and realize how this show goes beyond just dances and skits. 

Their strong sentiments translate to a really amazing show and I hope everyone sees a show like this at least once. It feels like being invited to an intimate affair because the show was so deeply embedded in Persian culture and as someone who is not from Iran I could not have experienced that otherwise. I got to learn so much about Persian culture and I am grateful for that. If you get the chance then I highly highly recommend seeing the show!

Review: Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower at the Power Center

havaliebowitz 1 Comment

This past Saturday, I and some friends saw the Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower, a new opera developed by Toshi Reagon and Bernice Johnson Reagon from Butler’s masterwork written in 1993 and set in 2024. This musical adaption utilizes the styles of folk, blues, and gospel to tell the story of Lauren Oya Olamina, a young prophet of a post-apocalyptic America. A true parable, this musical provides a sketch of an incredibly rich story created by Butler. Through beautifully layered choral performances and compelling narration, Reagon and the performers offer us the greatest lessons of Earthseed, Lauren’s religion created around the ethos that “God is Change” and that people have a responsibility to shape God, to adapt and learn from the Earth and become its collaborator.

Lauren confronts her community at church.
Colorful compositions reflect the action

She comes of age in a community walled off from the outside world. Her father is a professor and Baptist minister and he along with the other able-bodied adults of the community enforce their security from the outside world. Lauren knows that this can’t last forever and at first her ideas are met with fierce disapproval from those around her. Soon enough, she is proved right in the worst of ways when her community is razed to the ground and she is forced to flee along with a couple of her peers. A lot of the strength of this musical is not so much what happens, but how it’s shown through music, color, and lighting. In one of the show’s greatest moments of pathos, the entire theater goes dark except for single light on Marie Tattiana Aqeel’s face while she, performing as Lauren, beseechingly sings to the crowd “Has anybody seen my father?” During moments of tension, a triptych showing explosive and swirling textures of paint is lighted in various colors.

Toshi introduces herself to the audience

Unlike dystopian works of more recent acclaim like the Hunger Games or the Giver, the world Octavia Butler has created is remarkably familiar but no less terrifying. A lot of the inventions of her future setting have parallels or precedents in reality. (Such as addictive sensory VR technology or new prescription drugs with performance enhancing side effects). As some who has read the source material, I was aware of a lot of the worldbuilding that was left on the cutting room floor. A lot of these details are left out of the musical, but there is one number included which deviates from the main plot line to warn us, the audience, of Olivar. This is Toshi, our narrator’s, solo. Toshi tells us about the “company town” of Olivar, in which people become indentured servants in exchange for housing and stable employment but are really no better than slaves. (This hitting home for anybody?) Toshi interrupts Lauren’s story to remind the world not to sell our freedom for security. Toshi explains the role of the folk singer, to be critical of corruption in society and government, even if it means foregoing conventional life and societal expectations. Toshi, like Lauren, remind us of the consequences of our apathy and complacency.

Refugees wait in line to buy water.

I think Butler’s masterworks should be on the must read list of anyone serious about surviving a changing world or just looking for an incredible and unique piece of literature. Likewise, this musical performance is an emerging landmark work in a new school of Afrofuturist thought. Music lovers will  not be disappointed by Reagon’s opera. The powerful voices of the performers brought many to tears and at various points the audience clapped or sang along. This is a work of “pleasure activism”, something to be enjoyed while shifting the consciousness and asking important questions about our unsustainable economic system. I have no doubt that we will be seeing and hearing more of Earthseed in the years to come.

REVIEW: Cece June, Big Chemical, and Jacob Sigman

Angela Gosselin 1 Comment

Last Friday at the Blind Pig, I had the pleasure of attending Cece June’s set, situated between performances by Big Chemical and Jacob Sigman. It was a cold trek out to the west side of downtown, but as I find with many shows I’ve attended at the Blind Pig, it was definitely worth it. Cece June’s presence in the University of Michigan music scene has grown immensely over this past year, and this set shows exactly why.

 

A mix of covers and originals, Cece Durán commanded the room as a solo act with her powerful voice and clear proficiency on both acoustic and electric guitar. She offered a fair amount of music from her excellent EP, and we were able to hear soon-to-be released material from her forthcoming LP. She also had a distinct grip on the mood of the room, offering both thoughtful, soulful moments and energetic, uplifting points throughout her set. Her ability to oscillate between the two and carry the room with her was a joy to witness.

 

Now a part of a group as well, Cece and the Crawlers, her ability to adapt between solo and collaborative performance shined through that evening. Speaking to this point, during her set she invited fellow act Jacob Sigman onstage and performed a touching duet of an unreleased song of his. Their voices complemented each other perfectly as the power and passion in their musical expression matched so well.

 

Another highlight included her cover of a song by Nothing But Thieves. This performance showed the way Durán was capable of filling the room with her voice, the ballad providing a certain emotional dimensionality to her set. In addition to her voice, Durán’s capabilities on the guitar were stellar, punctuating and accentuating her act in a highly effective way. The song she performed in her native language, Spanish, was also captivating and showed off yet another facet of her musical oeuvre.

 

Durán had natural stage presence, interacting with the crowd and encouraging participation in a way that didn’t feel forced or one-sided. It was easy to find oneself singing along, feeling the music just as much as others in the crowd.

REVIEW: Jujutsu Kaisen 0: Jujutsu High

Ruth Leave a comment

Jujutsu Kaisen 0: Jujutsu High follows  Yuta Okkotsu, a dangerous and powerfully unstable curse user who is unaware of the world of Jujutu sorcerers until he is taken under the wing of another powerful curse user: Satoru Gojo. Yuta, along with the rest of his class at Jujutsu High (a school for Jujutsu sorcerers), learn and grow together, forming bonds of trust and friendship that are put to the test by evil curses and curse users that strive to gain the power Yuta holds.

As underwhelming as the title may be, Jujutsu Kaisen 0: Jujutsu High was a welcome addition to the world of curse fighting, power wielding sorcerers that is Jujutsu Kaisen.  The movie itself takes place a year before the Jujutsu Kaisen anime begins. This allows audiences that haven’t watched the anime to still be able to enjoy and understand the film. And those who are familiar with the anime are gifted with brief appearances of beloved characters from the anime such as Nanami, to give an example.

 

I personally loved seeing another side of Jujutsu Kaisen brought to life on screen. A personal favorite character of mine from the series is Inumaki Toge, and because he is Yuta’s classmate I was able to see him shine on screen! Something Jujutsu Kaisen does spectacularly well is create depth within every character we are introduced to. The audience is able to learn so much about characters in an entertaining way rather than through tedious expositions.

Another aspect that makes Jujutsu Kaisen so enjoyable on the whole is the humor. Because it is a darker anime filled with blood, gore, and heartache, Jujutsu Kaisen balances itself hilarious character personalities as well as spontaneous moments that cause frequent moments of laughter for the audience. 

I personally am not the biggest fan of darker anime, but Jujutsu Kaisen balances itself so well that I couldn’t help but fall in love.

I would recommend Jujutsu Kaisen 0:Jujutsu High to anyone who would like to dip their toes into a darker anime. If you haven’t seen the anime or watched the manga, Jujutsu Kaisen 0 is a time effective way to see whether you’d be interested in delving deeper. For those of you who have watched the anime and read the manga, it’s nice to see Yuta brough to life on screen!

 

 

 

 

PREVIEW: Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower

Joann Leave a comment

Parable of the Sower hits the Power center from March 25th to 27th.

This performance is an opera consisting of 30 original anthems which originate from 200 years history of African-American music. The storyline is from the novels Parable of the Sower’ and ‘Parable of the Talents’ by the late Afro-futurist and science fiction author Octavia E. Butler. These novels are Post-Apocalyptic novels-the story will follow young Lauren Olamina’s spiritual awakening in a dystopian America destroyed by greed and systemic injustice. I’m excited to check out how Opera could be set in a Post-Apocalyptic setting and can be combined with activism, ethnic and humane messages as the background of the numbers suggests. March 25th performance will also feature a brief Q&A with artists hosted by Dr. Toni Pressley-Sanon, the Eastern Michigan University’s Associate Professor of Africology and African American Studies. Tickets could be purchased at UMS website.

 

PREVIEW: Cece June, Big Chemical, and Jacob Sigman

Angela Gosselin Leave a comment

This Friday at the Blind Pig you can catch a variety of great performances from Cece June, Big Chemical, and Jacob Sigman. I’ll be reviewing Cece June, or Cecelilia Durán’s act in particular, as she’s quickly become a staple in the Ann Arbor music scene. An LSA student herself, Durán has a new album in the works now–it’s a great time to catch some fresh music from her in preparation for her eventual full-length release. With a stacked lineup, there’s sure to be a variety of musical offerings as well.

 

Tickets are only $10, so make sure you find yourself at the Blind Pig this weekend!