ArtsX UMMA will be putting on Spectra: Voicing Our Experience A Night of Spoken Art & Music, featuring a wide array of participating student groups and individuals performing music, poetry, and song. Giving voice to the students’ stories, this event aims to display the diversity of experiences through art forms. Performances hosted at UMMA situated in the middle of the gallery spaces always prove to be beautiful; the sound echoes off the walls, amplifying and reverberating back at the audience to immerse the senses. If an event hosted in UMMA’s Apse surrounded by art and performance can’t tempt you enough, perhaps the hot cocoa bar will.
A Dangerous Experiment, apart of U-M’s Bicentennial Semester, follows the college careers of the fictional first class of women at Michigan, beginning in 1871 and concluding in 1875. It tells of their trials, triumphs, and the different paths they choose to take. All the women choose a varying way, emphasizing the factions within one movement. Imbued with school spirit, it took a different form than the usual maize and blue rally cry, acknowledging both the strengths and pitfalls of the University’s history.
As I waited in line for the doors of the Keene Theater to open, I looked around and realized the awaiting audience – including myself – was 95% female. While it was not entirely unexpected, being a play about women, it always strikes me that this seems to be the theme in contemporary culture: if the plot is composed of women, it is likely the audience will too.
Emma McGlashen, a U-M student as well as the writer and director, proved to write a script that featured the female-empowering speeches I want to wake up to and drink my coffee over, steeping myself in the fierce words of other women. The play opened to a stage full of men, unintelligibly rumbling about the future of women – not so different than what our country looks like today. As I talked with my friends over intermission, we had to keep reminding ourselves that this was taking place 150 years ago, butalso only 150 years ago. It sometimes seems as though the extent of our progress surpasses the decade and half timeline, yet the dialogue was simultaneously present and poignant. One of the points emphasized in the play was that these women, fighting for the right to study alongside men at the University of Michigan, were not only fighting for themselves, but for the women who would come after them. The play’s sharp and timely dialogue hit the center of an ongoing injustice against women; the statements were composed of a century-plus discussion without being trite.
Walking out of the theater, I realized that almost three hours had passed, and yet it felt as though we had just begun to hear this history. I suppose I’m just a sucker for any story about women supporting women. Within the main female characters, I saw the same fears and determination of female students I know today. This play only reaffirmed my love for portraying a female-studded history within the arts.
While it confirmed that I have no wish to return to the roots of Michigan, where women are subject to wearing corsets and attending class behind a curtain, I discovered a nostalgia for one aspect of the past: petitioning every male on campus to return to wearing suits and ascots to class. This, though, is a one-sided street; I will continue to wear pants.
If you get the chance, I could not recommend going to see this show more. If you’ve missed both Friday and Saturday nights’ showings, there is one more performance on Sunday afternoon!
Consent. Relationships. Although these two topics occupy a certain space on university campuses, Valentine’s Day makes these subjects more relevant than ever. SAPAC — the sexual assault prevention and awareness center of the University of Michigan — will be addressing these topics through a zine that has compiled student art and written work showcasing these topics. The release party will be celebrating the publication of this zine.
SAPAC has been working all year to compile this zine of artwork and poetry, and is proud to celebrate its release. Come support SAPAC and attend the event! Details are on the image above, but also in text below!
Details When: Monday, February 13th
Time: 7:00 to 9:00PM
Location: North Quad Room 2435
TEDx UofM 2017 was as busy as ever, adding to the disruption part of this year’s theme: Dreamer’s and Disruptors. The army of volunteers running the independent conference have by now created a finely-tuned machine with the perfect mix of emotional roller-coaster, thought-provoking ideas, and blissful entertainment.
The student group Groove = bliss
A student jazz band played in the minutes before the conference started. Their grooving, polished performance was a reminder that so many students at this university are talented and sound like professionals even before they’ve graduated.
Then the first speaker took the stage. Koen Vanmechelen came all the way from Belgium to talk about chickens. Specifically, about how breeding various species of chickens can be used to teach us important lessons about human nature.
Next was Sophia Brueckner, a brilliant woman who was a preeminent software engineer at Google until she suffered an injury that prevented her from using computers for two years. She argued that we as a society have developed a dichotomy of looking at technology as either a complete disaster, or as completely awesome. Instead, she asserted, we need to approach technology with critical optimism.
Ironically, Sophia Brueckner pointed out that making an app to solve all our problems is a fallacious idea, but the 2017 TEDx prize went to a student that developed an app called FoodFind. Meant for low income families to find free food, you have to wonder how many families can actually afford and use the smartphones that the app runs on.
Caitlin Holman proposed three things we need to learn: autonomy, competency, and belonging. Videogames, she suggested, provide all of this. With that in mind, she founded GradeCraft with the purpose of making learning more “gameful.”
Erika Newman–a pediatric surgeon–talked about both clinical and personal experiences with cancer. She was introduced to the lack of information on neuroblastoma when one of her patients asked her about the disease and she realized how she didn’t have any answers. The only surprise here was that she was having trouble getting funding from the NIH to treat the cancer using DNA repair mechanisms.
Rollie Tussing and the Midwest Territory Band played during the break. Although they were a stereotypical band you’d hear in Ann Arbor (at least one instance of well-manicured beard, a cello, and music reminiscent of vintage records), they were entertaining. Their sound was both stripped down and full, and antique without feeling archaic.
Next was Abdul El-Sayed, the current Executive Director of the Detroit Health
Department. In case that didn’t already tell you what a monumental task that entails, he cited several facts about the city of 600,000+ people such as a life expectancy of 70, an asthma rate of three times that of the rest of the country, and vision and other problems that far surpass the rest of Michigan. His argument was to think about pathophysiology in the social realm so that we can help people prevent health problems from developing. Abdul was also one of the best speakers of the night and I highly recommend watching his talk at least.
Next was Jeffrey Veidlinger, a historian who went to Eastern Europe to interview survivors of the Holocaust as a way of preserving their culture via understanding Yiddish. He challenged the audience to “Ask your loved ones about their life. Ask them about their dreams. Ask them about what they cherish.”
The most heart-wrenching talk of the night came from Scott Matzka, who was a talented athlete and is now a husband and father battling ALS. This is another talk to watch, and to check out his organization MyTurn.
Documentary filmmaker Sophia Kruz was the last speaker of the evening. Showing clips from her latest documentary Little Stones, she showed how sharing individual stories is important, as well as using culture to address problems in society.
In less than a week, the organizers of TEDxUofM will open the doors to: TEDxUofM 2017: Dreamers and Disruptors.
Although tickets are sold out, you will be able to watch a livestream here
Also, you can still arrive early for live music, interactive activities, coffee from RoosRoast, and pastries from Avalon Bakery all in the lobby area of the Power Center
This year has another incredible list of speakers, as well as performances by Groove and Midwest Territory Band
Twenty minutes before the event started, the 4th floor Rackham Auditorium was already packed. Students, friends, family, and curious people filled the seats, the stairs, the walls, and the walkways. Organizers had to repeatedly clear the overflowing doorways, and we we were repeatedly warned that if any more audience members came, it would be a fire hazard and Rackham would have to shut the event down. Both sophomore event organizers, Alyiah and Fatima, introduced Halfway Hijabi as an event for Muslim women who wore hijabs (headscarves) to “reclaim our voices and our space rather than having others speak on our behalf.”
To create a safe space, photographs and video recording by audience members was not allowed. All that really mattered, however, were the words that flowed out of these powerful, well-spoken women.
The first of many female performers read an essay speaking of themes that would become a common thread throughout the night. Anger and humiliation at being forcibly strip searched at an airport because she had a metal leg brace. Comments like “you look like you came out of Iraq” and “This is America sweetheart–you can take that [the hijab] off now.” She ended with the words “I do not allow the hijab to limit me, so why do you?”
Another performer talked of women reclaiming the American flag from a symbol of oppression to a symbol of pride by wearing the design on headscarves.
Most of the performers were students, and they pointed out how often they walk into a room and find that they are the only hijabi, and having to represent the entire Muslim population.
Although many of the performances were raw and heartbreaking, a few of the women lightened the mood. One international student from Malaysia read a short speech regarding her reasons for wearing her hijab, and comparing what it was like to wear one in Malaysia versus the US. She concluded that “I was told that God wants me to wear hijab and actually I’m okay with that” and then hilariously quoted Miley Cyrus when she said “only God can judge us.”
The one musical piece of the night was naturally one of the saddest songs ever created: a rendition of Leonard Cohen/Jeff Buckley’s Hallelujah. It was not only beautifully sung, but also refreshing to hear it sung in this context.
My only regret about the event is that it wasn’t in Rackham’s larger auditorium. The Hijabi Monologues is the kind of event that should be shown to as many students as possible, because much of the hate and rudeness that these women experienced comes from ignorance.
