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metrotimes.com | May 11-17, 2022

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NEWS & VIEWS

Feedback

Readers respond to freelancer Brian J. Bowe’s cover story about Wayne Kramer reviving the MC5 name for his new music.

“I think it was time to make money again so I used the band name,” would have been an honest answer. —@dangerdoodle, Instagram Many of the folks complaining the loudest showed up a couple of years ago to the 50th anniversary of the Grande Ballroom where the “Yardbirds” headlined. With one original member! They see a Rolling Stones without Brian, Bill, or Charlie on board.

They sing along to the Who in concert without Keith Moon and John Entwistle.

Get over yourselves. I saw the original MC5

at the Grande and throughout the state back in the day. I’m not gonna miss the chance to hear the Five songs one more time with Wayne and Dennis laying it down. The holier-than-thou’s can stay home and listen to their eight tracks. —Earnest Thompson, Facebook Went see latest incarnation of Wayne Kramer/MC5 May 5 at El Club. Yes, I was there at the Grande and scores of MC5 shows back in the late ’60s/early ’70s.

So… can a 74-year-old man still “kick out the jams”? OH… HELL… YES!!!!! Rama lama fa fa fa, brother Wayne. —Doug Kowalske, email Have a comment? Of course you do! Sound off: letters@metrotimes.com.

Vol. 42 | No. 29 | May 11-17, 2022

News & Views Feedback ............................... 4 News ...................................... 6 Best of the Rest ..................... 8 Informed Dissent ................ 10 The Incision......................... 12

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metrotimes.com | May 11-17, 2022

5

NEWS & VIEWS Levantine’s day

Detroit- and L.A.-based relationship app Baklava connects Arabs in living diaspora

By Rasha A lmulaiki

Arab Americans are enthu-

siastically seeking an alternative way to find meaningful connections within the community, based on the impressive growth of the Detroit-based Arab relationship app, Baklava.

“We decided to open up a headquarters in Detroit because of the huge community we [Arabs] have here,” says Serena Skaf, Baklava’s chief marketing officer. “For Arabs looking to meet people, they want to feel culturally seen and also want what anyone wants … love and connection.”

Named after the popular Levantine dessert, Baklava launched in December 2020 and is dual headquartered in Los Angeles and Detroit. The team, led by Arab women, is committed to honoring and keeping Arab culture alive while helping people make real connections without the stigma of traditional dating app features and filters.

Skaf says she has seen many Arabs convert to Baklava from other relationship apps because they feel they will have more mutual values, interests, and connections with other Arabs. The app has modes for friendship, dating, and marriage, making the app a social app hub for Arabs to connect.

Skaf and Leila Muhaizen, Baklava’s founder and CEO, met as schoolmates while in high school before reconnecting years later to discuss the possibilities of a dating app that “infuses and resonates with our culture.” Skaf joined as CMO with a background in tech entrepreneurship, tasked with growing the app’s user base in Arab market demographics and targeted campaigns of awareness and accessibility.

Today, the app is growing with more than 160,000 downloads and more than 75,000 active members daily worldwide, including the U.S., the Arab world, and Europe. Since its launch, Baklava has created 3 million “matches” and 10 million exchanged messages per month.

In Summer of 2021, Baklava became the most downloaded app in Germany, surpassing social media giants Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram.

Baklava also hit No. 1 on Global Dating Insights Startup Roundup in April 2021.

“We have been so excited to hear from folks about their success stories in finding love and friendships,” Skaf says.

“It’s crazy and such a privilege, we’ve been invited to so many weddings and events. [We get] messages from people all over about the new lasting relationships they found with us.”

Online dating as an alternative to traditional Arab matchmaking According to the Arab American Institute, there are an estimated 436 million Arabs in the world, roughly 3.7 million of which identify and live in the United States as Arab Americans.

Many from the community live in diaspora, and oftentimes individuals find themselves displaced from their home country and alienated from each other due to political conflicts caused by war and instability in the region.

In his seminal prose poetry book, The P rophet, the late, beloved Lebanese writer and poet Khalil Gibran captured the yearning by many for love in times of emotional or physical dissonance, famously writing, “And ever has it been known that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.”

Skaf says one of the main intentions in creating the app was to bridge gaps of social alienation for Arabs while they regenerate their lives in new homes, especially those living in more remote locations worldwide away from the larger community.

“We are already displaced in our new communities and usually we live as minorities,” Skaf says. “We are scattered all over the place and already so divided.”

The open-platform concept on the Baklava app challenges Arabs to build a sense of collectivism by removing filters such as religion or ethnicity preferences.

When it comes to romantic relationships, traditional Arab culture is predicated on a close knit communitycentered approach to navigating social

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Serena Skaf, chief marketing officer of Arab dating app Baklava.

situations, typically involving family and friends in the process.

This communal approach is intended to weigh in the considerations from those who know the couple best in hopes of collectively guiding them toward a successful marriage.

The app allows Arabs to explore an alternative avenue to find connection on their own while also circumventing discomforts that seekers may encounter through more traditional matchmaking.

Arabs can choose to pursue connection independently through the app and help mediate common issues such as “people pleasing (putting up a facade for the other family and prospect out of respect) and a lack of control (looking for your own partner offers better odds as you know what you prefer).”

Although there still exists a stigma of online dating in the Arab community from those that frown upon individuals taking their own reins toward love, Skaf says she noticed conservative Arabs now being more open to chat and getting to know someone when they haven’t found luck within their own networks.

The app features a user-friendly interface that resembles other dating apps, including steps to build a profile complete with pictures and background information. For those concerned with privacy, one of Baklava’s niche features includes Incognito

COURTESY PHOTO

Mode, a paid option allowing users to make their profile invisible to others and only reveal themselves to those in the queue by a match made on their own terms.

In contrast to other traditional matchmaking apps, while Baklava users can include preferences in their bio descriptions, they cannot filter people by height, skin color, religion, or other attributes. This is to challenge users to be open-minded when it comes to making connections with others who they may not have given a chance to explore otherwise within limited social circles.

The platform is inviting to both Arabs and non-Arabs who are interested in Arab people and culture. Arab users can select Arab flags in their profiles denoting their background, and the app includes teasing graphic illustrations of the classic Persian and Arab love poem “Layla and Majnun” and culturally curated playful prompts, such as “FOB [fresh off the boat], whitewashed, or in-between?”

Looking ahead, Baklava is working on expanding access for Arabs in more countries, including the Arab world, and is building toward being available on Anghami and Podio, the largest music and podcast streaming services in the Middle East.

The basic level for joining the app is free with advanced features available with membership. To learn more, see baklavaapp.com.

metrotimes.com | May 11-17, 2022

7

NEWS & VIEWS

Eminem.

Congrats, Imani!

SHUTTERSTOCK

Best of the Rest

Eminem inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, MC5 snubbed

By L ee DeV ito

Will the real Slim Shady please

stand up and accept your induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

The iconic Detroit rapper leads the latest class of 2 02 2 inductees, along with ‘ 8 0s act Duran Duran, Dolly P arton, P at Benatar & N eil Giraldo, Eurythmics, Lionel Richie, and Carly Simon.

Judas P riest and producers Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis will also receive a Musical Ex cellent A ward, and Harry Belafonte and Eliz abeth Cotton will receive an Early Influence Award.

“This diverse group of inductees each had a profound impact on the sound of youth culture and helped change the course of rock ‘ n’ roll,” said John Sykes, Chairman of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, in a press release. “Their music moved generations and influenced so many artists that followed.”

The induction ceremony is scheduled for Saturday, N ov. 5 at the Microsoft Theater in Los A ngeles. To be eligible for induction, an artist had to have released their first records 25 years ago. Eminem dropped his debut record ite in 1 9 9 6.

OK, Eminem’s music isn’t ex actly rock ‘ n’ roll, at least in the narrowest sense of the term, but he certainly embodies its devil-may-care attitude. But another Michigan act that absolutely embodies rock ‘ n’ has been snubbed

from the Rock Hall this year.

Classic rock act MC5 once again did not make the cut. It was the groundbreaking group’s six th time getting nominated. The group’s debut Kick Out the Jams, recorded at Detroit’s former Grande Ballroom, came out more than a half-century ago, in 1 9 69 .

Metro Times did not snub MC5 last week, however. Guitarist Wayne Kramer, who has revived the band ( at least by name) for his latest tour, is the subject of last week’s cover story.

Rihanna is opening a Savage X Fenty store in Detroit

Savage X Fenty, the lingerie brand created by pop singer and businesswoman Rihanna, is coming to Detroit.

The brand announced on its social media pages Wednesday that it’s opening six new retail locations. A long with Detroit, it’s also planning stores in Chicago; Long Island, N ew York; A tlanta; St. Louis; and N ewark, Delaware.

“Y’all were so good to us during our# SavageX IRLdebut, we just had to X tend the X perience,” the brand wrote on Instagram. “That’s right, we’re X cited to announce the opening of SIX new retail locations. See you soon: # ChicagoIsSavage # N YisSavage # A TLisSavage # DetroitIsSavage # STLisSavage # DEisSavage”

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Crain’s Detroit Business reported that the store could be headed to a space owned by Dan Gilbert’s real estate firm, Bedrock Detroit. A map obtained by Crain’s last year shows a Savage X Fenty logo in the retail space immediately south of the Cornerstone Barrel House bar at the corner of Woodward A venue and John R Road.

Launching in 2 01 8 , the popular brand celebrates and speaks to all body types. The brand has stylish and affordable pieces for all genders, which includes lingerie, sleepwear, and coz y loungewear in siz es up to 4X L. Savage X Fenty also operates on a subscription-based platform online, which allows customers to return to the site monthly for new products. The brand also offers new members at least 50 off their first purchase.

The new stores will join ex isting Savage X Fenty locations in Culver City, California; A rlington, V irginia; Las V egas; Houston; and King of P russia, P ennsylvania.

In January, the brand also announced stores in Los A ngeles, P hiladelphia, and Washington, D.C. The Savage X Fenty has a loyal following of 5 million across social media.

The brand has accomplished a great deal in a short amount of time from major ambassadors promoting the line to fashion shows that debuted on A maz on P rime ex clusively. Models include Detroit rapper Kash Doll, singer Summer Walker, and Cindy Crawford.

Details about when and where these new stores will be opening have yet to be disclosed.

Savage X Fenty is a joint venture between Rihanna, the company’s founder, and TechStyle Fashion Group.

—Darlene A. White

Congratulations are in order for Metro Times freelancer Imani Mix on, who earned third place, feature reporting for her 2 02 1 cover story on the late pop star A aliyah.

The kudos was announced at the SP J Detroit chapter awards ceremony in Troy last Thursday. ( The full list of winners is available at the SP J Detroit web site.)

When I started as editor in chief of Metro Times, I saw that there wasn’t much in our archives on the singer born A aliyah Haughton, a graduate of the Detroit School of A rts whose rapid ascent into superstardom was cut short when she tragically died in a plane crash in the Bahamas in 2 001 at age 2 2 . I wanted to do something to commemorate the 2 0th anniversary of her death, and when Mix on approached me with the same idea, I knew the story was in ex cellent hands.

Mix on spent months writing her story, which coincided with an ex traordinary moment in the singer’s posthumous history. In the aftermath of her death, A aliyah’s music label dissolved, and as a result her hits from the era of CD sales and MTV music videos never migrated into the digital streaming era.

For a long time her only available record was A ge A in’t N othin’ but a N umber, her collaboration with the controversial singer R. Kelly, who was charged with multiple counts of sex ual assault of minors. It seemed like the singer’s legacy was doomed to obscurity, or at worst being a footnote in Kelly’s sordid history.

But then, weeks before the 2 0th anniversary of A aliyah’s death, her uncle Barry Hankerson made a surprise announcement that despite the wishes of the singer’s estate, he was reviving his label Blackground Records and reissuing the rest of her catalog, including her groundbreaking work with producers Missy Elliott and Timbaland. Then, on A ug. 1 8 came another ex traordinary headline: A aliyah’s name was spoken, for the first time, in federal court as an underage victim of Kelly’s as part of his high-profile sex ual trial.

Mix on consciously chose not to get into the details of those splashy developments, and her story is better for it. Instead, she focused on A aliyah’s music and what it meant to be a fan, interviewing the singer’s other collaborators and recalling what it was like to mourn the singer’s death at a roller skating rink as a young girl.

It’s a heartfelt story, and the beautiful cover illustration by Rachelle Baker makes it even sweeter.

—Lee DeVito

metrotimes.com | May 11-17, 2022

9

NEWS & VIEWS

The Supreme Court is overturning Roe v. Wade just because it can.

PUBLIC DOMAIN

Informed Dissent

The Court of LOL, Nothing Matters effre

Of the five Supreme Court jus-

tices about to set women’s rights back a half-century: • Four were nominated by presidents who lost the popular vote, and three of them were confirmed by senators who represented less than half the population.

• Three lied to the Senate about oe . e being “settled law.”

• Two were credibly accused of sexual harassment or assault.

• One is sitting in a seat stolen under made-up Senate rules.

• Another was rushed through just before a president lost reelection and his party lost control of the Senate.

• Another is married to a conspiracy theorist who actively participated in plotting a coup.

So let’s not pretend the forthcoming reversal of oe . e and se . l e re t oo has an ounce of legitimacy, or that a future court should consider it stare decisis and not overturn it at the first opportunity.

Let’s not pretend that Justice Alito’s screed is rooted in the law, history, science, or anything except sneering contempt for women’s autonomy.

Let’s not pretend that anyone actually gives a shit about who leaked it.

And let’s not pretend they’re going to stop here.

Alito, of course, went out of his way

. illm

to s they would stop here, to ss re us that abortion exists on its own moral plane. “None of the other decisions cited by Roe and se involved the critical moral questions posed by abortion.”

That’s absurd. And the implication that this decision is a one-off is an obvious lie in two ways.

The first is direct The foundation on which the constitutional right to abortion has existed for the last 49 years protects other civil rights that are now in a very perilous place.

The second is unimaginably broad.

By overturning Roe — one of the most litigated cases of the last century — for no other reason than they re ll re ll te to, the Alito 5 is signaling that anything goes. Precedent is irrelevant.

The old rules no longer apply. This is the Court of LOL, Nothing Matters.

Don’t believe me? In Texas on Wednesday, Gov. Greg Abbott said he wanted to revisit l ler . oe, a 1981 case in which the court ruled that states must provide a public education to undocumented immigrants. What’s changed? “The times are different.”

North Carolina Republicans have a pending appeal asking the court to embrace a right-wing fever dream called “independent state legislature theory,” which courts have rejected for decades.

If this one bites — at least four justices are interested — neither state courts

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nor state constitutional amendments could block legislatures from setting draconian voting rules, gerrymandering till their hearts’ content, and appointing their own presidential electors.

That might prove a bridge too far even for this crew. Or not. Who knows?

But for now, let’s return to the direct threat.

Roe determined that the constitutional right to abortion lay in the Due Process clause of the 14th Amendment, which says that no state shall “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”

Beginning in a 1965 decision striking down a Conneticut law that banned married couples from using contraception — followed by decisions that legalized interracial marriage in 1967 and contraception for unmarried couples in 1972 — the court interpreted deprivations of liberty to include intrusions on privacy.

Roe was the fruit of that tree. So, too, were decisions that legalized same-sex intimacy in 2003 and same-sex marriage in 2015.

Alito, however, says there is no right to privacy and, thus, no right to abortion, because it is not “deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition” and “essential to our Nation’s scheme of ordered liberty.” “An unbroken tradition of prohibiting abortion on pain of criminal punishment persisted from the earliest

days of common law until 1973,” Alito writes — mangling history and relying on a 17th-century rape apologist who hanged “witches.”

The only rights “deeply rooted” in history are those the straight white men who presided over that history recognized. Consequently: e ri t to o e c rr o r sse ti l ee l roote e ri t to sic me ic l roce re e t em s oes off et c i t e itc e l .

(Coincidentally, there were no women among the 55 framers of the Constitution. But there were many men who enslaved other humans, and one guy who died after sticking a whale bone up his penis. True story.)

The rights to same-sex marriage, same-sex intercourse, birth control, and even interracial marriage only emerged in the last 60 years. They’re not, by definition, “deeply rooted.”

They also sprang from the notion that privacy is inseparable from liberty.

Alito separates them.

Since privacy isn’t a right, the government — the always informed and rational members of state legislatures — should make healthcare decisions for you.

If you’d like to see where this is headed, look to Louisiana, where the legislature is considering a bill that will declare a fetus a person from the moment of fertilization — not implantation, just fertilization — and charge women and abortion providers with homicide. No exceptions for rape or incest, or to save the mother’s life. (The law directs law enforcement to ignore any state or federal court that gets in the way.)

That’s not just an abortion ban.

That’s also a ban on plan B and in vitro fertilization, which causes thousands and thousands of fertilized embryos to be discarded each year.

Or look to Missouri, where Republicans are trying to figure out how they can not only ban abortion in their state, but make it illegal to provide abortion services to Missouri residents in other states, too.

If you’re wondering how they’ll track down women who cross state lines, New York Magazine’s Intelligencer has the spine-chilling answer: “Missouri provided a hint when its state health director testified in the fall of 201 that he’d compiled a spreadsheet of Planned Parenthood patients’ last menstrual periods.”

This is post-Roe America. Republican legislatures are going to see how far they can push the envelope, and, until its composition changes, the Supreme Court is going to tell them to keep pushing further. et more t illm

.s

st c .com.

NEWS & VIEWS The Incision

The fall of ‘Roe’

By A bdul El- Sayed

In medical school, I had the opportunity to sit with a young woman who was making a decision about whether or not to complete an abortion. I remember how she wrestled with her competing emotions — frustration at having gotten pregnant, sadness that she couldn’t carry the pregnancy to term, and fear about what her impending choice would mean.

My overwhelming take-home was simple: decisions this complex and final can only be made by the person carrying the pregnancy.

That simple principle — one that’s been enshrined in our federal law for nearly half a century — is what the Supreme Court seems set to violently upend per a leaked draft majority opinion.

And yes, this is violence.

I doubt the justices ever happened upon gas gangrene of the uterus in law school. But it’s one of my most haunting memories from medical school. You see a lot of horrific pictures during your medical education, but gas gangrene stays with you. It’s the result of the introduction of an anaerobic bacterium, usually Clostridium perfringens, into the soft tissue of the uterus. Once inside the tissues, bacteria produce a mixture of gasses that bubble through them, destroying the uterus from the inside out. If untreated, it is deadly.

But even treatment often requires the removal of the decimated organ.

Thankfully, gas gangrene of the uterus has been rare since 1973. Roe v.

Wade virtually eliminated the kinds of unsafe abortions that caused it. But if this opinion drops, gas gangrene of the uterus may no longer be a thing of the past. It looks more likely to be a growing part of our future.

Banning abortion doesn’t end abortion. People who need abortions will get them. They always have. It’s just that those abortions will now come with deadly risk. Banning abortion just makes abortion less safe — it is violent.

Anti-abortion activists claim that forcing women into this risk is justified to save the “life” of an unborn fetus.

But the question of when life starts is technically immeasurable and by no means agreed upon. Rather, the unsaid,

underriding assumption that life begins at conception is imputed from the most extreme interpretation of one faith. It’s an assumption that shares little consensus among other faith traditions. In some Muslim jurisprudence traditions a fetus does not take on the status of a life until 120 days after conception.

At issue isn’t simply when life starts — but whose life takes precedence.

Consider third trimester abortions, the 1% of all abortions which anti-aborition activists raise to illustrate what they see as the inhumanity of abortions.

When you zoom back in and ask why someone might have to undergo a third trimester abortion, it illustrates the inhumanity of denying them that right. These are almost always fetuses that were intended to be carried to term. Would-be parents who would have picked out names, bought cribs and baby blankets in anticipation of a healthy newborn. But because of some catastrophic medical indication that threatens the life of mother or baby, those cribs will go unused. Nobody suffers that worse than the person forced into this decision.

If Roe falls, many of the abortion bans currently on the books in states across the country would make abortion in those circumstances a crime, potentially forcing a mother to risk her life under penalty of the law. Implicit in these bans is that the life of a fetus always trumps the life of a mother, turning her womb into a loaded gun and every sexual encounter into a twisted form of Russian roulette that could kill her under the wrong circumstances.

Yet again, these interpretations borrow from extreme interpretations of a single faith. Rather than bias the life of the fetus over that of the mother, Jewish and Muslim traditions, for example, always give precedence to the life of the mother over the life of the fetus. Draconian abortion bans violate the religious freedoms of adherents of other faiths — let alone those of people who claim no faith at all.

I raise the diversity of faith opinions here to illustrate the extent to which the fall of Roe is about nothing more than attempting to read the religious edicts of one particular faith into the

12 May 11-17, 2022 | metrotimes.com

Minoritarian governance is on the rise — and an impending public health crisis.

law in a secular, pluralistic society. It is, in that way, the ultimate ascent to minoritarian rule, one faith exerting its laws on everyone else.

This is about power — not “life.”

After all, if it were about life, perhaps those who architected the fall of Roe might also have supported the Child Tax Credit, or expanded Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) benefits, or Medicaid.

And it’s not even like Roe forces an abortion on anyone — if having an abortion doesn’t comport with your values, then by all means, you can choose not to get one. It just leaves the door open for people to make their own decisions. This is about taking away the right to those decisions.

The irony, of course, is that rightwing anti-mask activists were screaming “my body, my choice” just months ago in protest of the inconvenience of wearing a mask in public spaces. Now, the same crowd has architected the fall of Roe, forcing women to put their very lives at risk by allowing the government to commandeer their most private spaces of all — their bodies.

And this won’t end at Roe. The invictive Justice Alito scrawled into his opinion tears apart the very foundation of “unenumerated” rights rights that aren’t specifically declared in the Constitution. Alito said “the Constitution makes no reference to abortion and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional

SHUTTERSTOCK

provision.” Well, neither is the right to contraception or the right choose your partner — be they of the same sex or a different race.

A post-Roe America could see GOPled state governments pass anti-miscegenation laws (that outlaw interracial marriage) or laws that curb access to contraception, which could then be deemed constitutional under precedent set by this ruling.

The consequences of this — like all minoritarian policies designed to put the wishes of a single powerful group over the needs of everyone else — fall hardest on the most marginalized. Poor women, Black and brown women, disabled women all of them will suffer worst of all, pushed by this ruling and society into the kinds of procedures that cause gas gangrene.

What next? The ruling looks slated to drop in June. And until then, we must push Congress to act.

Women around the country cannot wait until then. Congress must act to move to codify Roe in federal law.

Indeed, that may require sacrificing the filibuster. But if a reconstruction era parliamentary rule is more important to Democratic senators than the health and human rights of millions of women, then they don’t deserve their offices to begin with.

Originally published May 5 in The Incision. G et more at abdulelsayed. substack.com.

THIS IS

NOT

A DRILL Inside Michigan’s battle to protect the right to abortion: From the governor’s office to the streets, it’s an all-handson-deck moment as the U.S. Supreme Court could soon take reproductive rights back to 1931

By Steve Neavling, Lee DeVito, and Randiah Camille Green

The clock is ticking on five decades of abortion rights in Michigan.

But advocates of reproductive autonomy aren’t going down without a fight.

Michigan is one of 26 states with laws banning abortion that would go back into effect if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision in 1973 that established the right for people to terminate their pregnancy. The case invalidated Michigan’s 1931 ban on abortions.

But now, according to a leaked draft decision from the U.S. Supreme Court published last week, five conservative justices are poised to reverse constitutional protections for abortion, arguing that Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided.

When the final decision is released, Michiganders outraged at the leaked Supreme Court memo take to the streets in downtown Detroit on Saturday.

14 May 11-17, 2022 | metrotimes.com

MARK KLOCKOW

FEATURE

metrotimes.com | May 11-17, 2022

15

which could be in June or July, legal e perts say Michigan’s ban on abortions will go back into effect.

For many advocates and legal observers, the draft decision published by the national politics website Politico last week came as no surprise because Republicans have been successful in shifting the makeup of the Supreme Court to the right.

“I think like everyone who has been on the front lines, or has been an advocate, or who’s been paying attention, we knew that this was a very possible outcome, ov. retchen Whitmer tells Metro Times. t still was devastating.

By anticipating the decision, advocates have gotten in front of the issue and say they are now prepared for a showdown to protect reproductive autonomy.

abortion access.

“If we can get an injunction, it should mean that our providers don’t have to immediately close their doors, and our state won’t immediately erupt into chaos, says Melissa ovach, a policy strategist for the American Civil iberties Union in Michigan. t will give voters an opportunity to vote in November without having a gap in care in Michigan.

The suit says a higher court’s decision “is both urgently needed and long overdue.

Fighting at the ballot box

GOP supports ban

The courts aren’t the only way to overturn the ban. n March, eproductive Freedom for All, a coalition of advocacy organizations, launched a petition drive to amend the state’s constitution to a rm abortion rights.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s draft decision was leaked, about 19,000 new volunteers have signed up to help collect

Another route to protect abortion access is through the state Legislature.

Through the years, Democrats have introduced bills that would repeal the 1931 ban, but the Republican majority has refused to bring the legislation to a vote. n the federal level, the ouse narrowly approved legislation along party

—GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER

Fighting in court n Michigan, advocates of reproductive rights have launched a two-pronged defense of the right to abortion in the courts and at the ballot box.

Whimter and Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in Michigan, each filed separate lawsuits last month that argue abortion is protected under the Michigan constitution’s due process and equal protection clauses.

When filed the lawsuit, a lot of people suggested it was too early, that it wasn’t uite right, Whitmer says.

“Well, this draft opinion tells you it absolutely is not too early.

Calling the moment urgent, Whitmer says overturning Roe “will be a profound setback for women. n Michigan, we will revert to a law that is over 9 years old, she says.

Michigan would go from a pro choice state overnight to having one of the most extreme laws in the country, that doesn’t even have an e ception for rape or incest.

In April, Whitmer used her power as governor to file a lawsuit on behalf of the constitutional rights of Michiganders. Whitmer also invoked a rarely used gubernatorial power called “executive message, which allows her to bring a lawsuit directly to the state Supreme Court, bypassing the lower courts.

Whitmer’s lawsuit was filed in akland County Circuit Court against 13 county prosecutors who have abortion clinics in their jurisdictions. The lawsuit calls on the state Supreme Court to acknowledge that the Michigan constitution affords women reproductive rights and agency over their own bodies. n the Michigan Supreme Court, which has yet to weigh in on the constitutionality of the state’s ban, Democratic-nominated justices hold a 4-3 majority.

signatures for the petition drive, according to Kovach, an organizer. To place the initiative on the November ballot, the group must collect more than 2 , valid signatures by mid-July.

In addition to using volunteers, the coalition is hiring professionals to circulate petitions because obtaining hundreds of thousands of signatures is a tall order.

We need to fire on all cylinders, Kovach said. “We want to ensure that if the Supreme Court goes all the way, that voters are going to have the power to make sure the right to legal abortion remains in Michigan and protected under the Michigan constitution.

Polls have shown that a majority of Michigan voters support abortion rights.

In a Detroit News-WDIV poll of 600 likely voters in January, two-thirds of respondents said they oppose the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, with only 19% saying they support it. ast week, rogress Michigan, a progressive nonprofit, released findings from its poll of 849 voters in April, showing that 7 of respondents strongly or somewhat support the ballot initiative. Only 34% said they were opposed to it.

“No matter how much disinformation Republican lawmakers and antiabortion e tremists spread, Michigan voters stand firmly on the side of reproductive freedom, onnie Scott, e ecutive director of rogress Michigan, said in a statement. “Whatever the courts decide, Michigan can and should remain a place where people are empowered to make their own decisions about their reproductive health.

Abortion access is a crucual part of that, and Michiganders will continue to fight for that fundamental human right.

With public opinion on the side of abortion rights, Whitmer strikes a cautiously optimistic tone.

“The overwhelming majority support women’s reproductive rights, Whitmer says. nd so whether it’s an issue that goes before the public, or it is this compelling legal argument we’re making in front of our Supreme Court, I expect the right outcome to prevail. But ’m not going to make any assumptions.

We’re going to fight.

“For 50 years, this has been the law of Michigan. It has been crucial to women, as we live our lives, to have full agency over our bodies; as we participate in the economy, to be able to make our own health care choices. And for this state to go 90 years backward … [it] will have devastating consequences on women’s lives and on our families’ lives, and on our health care options and on our economy.”

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Still, Whitmer acknowledges the fate of her lawsuit is by no means a foregone conclusion.

There’s no guarantee, she says. But we have a compelling case. For 50 years, this has been the law of Michigan. t has been crucial to women, as we live our lives, to have full agency over our bodies; as we participate in the economy, to be able to make our own health care choices. And for this state to go 90 years backward … [it] will have devastating conse uences on women’s lives and on our families’ lives, and on our health care options and on our economy.

The Planned Parenthood lawsuit makes many of the same arguments.

The big difference is that it’s filed in the Michigan Court of Claims. The lawsuit seeks to declare that the constitution protects reproductive autonomy.

Attorneys in the case plan to ask the court to file an injunction to prevent the ban from going into effect until judges have an opportunity to determine whether the constitution protects

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COURTESY PHOTO

lines to enact abortion rights as law. Although Democrats have a thin majority in the Senate, they have been hindered by centrist Democrats, Republicans, and the filibuster, a procedural rule that requires 60 votes in the 100-member chamber to advance most legislation.

A lot is at stake. If the ban goes into effect, Michigan’s 27 abortion clinics spread across 13 counties would be forced to close.

The U.S. Supreme Cout case could impact 2.2 million Michiganders between the ages of 15 and 49, according to the New York-based Guttmacher Institute, a pro-choice research group.

People have taken to the streets to protest the looming Supreme Court decision. The day after the leak, nearly 2 protesters turned out in Detroit to show their support for reproductive rights. The demonstration was organized by the Reproductive Rights roup of Michigan, a collective of independent metro Detroit activists and civil rights organizations.

The group also has several future protests planned as the decision of whether or not to overturn Roe v.

Wade looms.

Traci o i o, one of the group’s lead organizers, says the public demonstrations are not only about raising awareness but also building community.

“A movement in the streets is more effective than relying on elected o cials, she says. t’s about personally protecting people since we don’t have laws to protect people. This is how we apply pressure and express the indignance and the at out refusal to be made essentially into property.

Beyond marches, the Reproductive ights roup of Michigan is working on finding ways to keep abortion clinics open and potentially providing safe escorts to clinics for abortion seekers.

“If you look at movements in the past, especially groups like the Black Panther Party, they were creating educational programs, newsletters, and community programs, and those are the things we would like to see move forward in the future, i o says.

While Rizzo says she has never personally had an abortion, she tells Metro Times many people close to her have.

“A lot of them simply could not, in this current society, afford to take care of another life, and while it’s hard to hear when people who didn’t have another choice sought abortions, it’s relieving to hear they were able to do so safely. t’s not just used as birth control like a lot of people think, she says. “The idea of losing that freedom of choice and bodily autonomy is really scary for anybody who has a uterus.

Dianne Feeley, another organizer for the Reproductive Rights Group of Michigan, has been on the front lines of activism for women’s rights since the late 1960s, before the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. er first demonstration was a picket line at the California State legislature in 1968. n 1973 when was organi ing at 3 years old, or even back in 1968, did I imagine this is where we would be in 2 22 bsolutely not, she tells Metro Times. But if you look at history, it’s forward and backward. The vindictiveness and stupidity of the arguments may surprise me, but there are six anti-abortionists who are judges on the U.S. Supreme Court. We knew from the questions and discussion from the

that e ual rights and protections aren’t going to be protected anymore outside the cis, white, male, capitalist patriarchy that’s going on.

The best chance Michiganders have to fight against the state’s anti uated abortion ban, according to Freeley, is to get the Reproductive Freedom for All measure on the November ballot.

That’s why she’s out at the astern Market almost every Saturday collecting signatures for the petition. eople are pretty horrified, she says. ’ve been collecting these signatures for a week now and some people, can’t even finish my spiel before they grab the pen and sign … What I like about petitions is they’re self activation. We are not making demands on politicians,

“It’s opening up the way to abolish other rights that we’ve been granted in the constitution such as interracial marriage and gay marriage, and that’s very alarming...

It’s a slippery slope that sets a standard that equal rights and protections aren’t going to be protected anymore.”

— TRACI JO RIZZO hearing in December how hostile the court was, so we weren’t surprised how the draft read when it was leaked. or reeley, the fight around reproductive rights has always been an issue of access, and both she and Rizzo view anti-abortion laws as attacks rooted in racism and classism.

“This is a race struggle and a class struggle, because those who are most severely impacted are the poor and people who are Black and brown, Rizzo says. “Unfortunately, the GOP, Supreme Court, and people making these decisions for the rest of us are very into traditionalism and they have benefited greatly in building this capitalist society by suppressing and oppressing large demographics.

The danger of Roe being overturned is that it opens the doors for other decisions based on the right to liberty under the 14th amendment to come under scrutiny. t’s opening up the way to abolish other rights that we’ve been granted in the constitution such as interracial marriage and gay marriage, and that’s very alarming to me, i o says. t’s a slippery slope that sets a standard

we’re doing it ourselves.

Not enforcing the ban ven if Michigan’s ban goes into effect immediately after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision, not every prosecutor is willing to enforce it. In April, seven county prosecutors in Michigan all emocrats signed a pledge saying they would not pursue charges for violations of the 1931 law, which they called “unconstitutionally and dangerously vague.

We believe those laws are in con ict with the oath we took to support the United States and Michigan Constitutions, and to act in the best interest of the health and safety of our communities, the seven prosecutors’ pril 7 statement said. “We cannot and will not support criminalizing reproductive freedom or creating unsafe, untenable situations for health care providers and those who seek abortions in our communities.

It added, “Instead, we will continue to dedicate our limited resources towards the prosecution of serious crimes and the pursuit of justice for all.

The pledge was signed by Washtenaw

County rosecutor li Savit, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, Oakland County rosecutor aren Mc onald, Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeffrey Getting, Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton, Ingham County Prosecutor Carol Siemon, and Mar uette County rosecutor Matthew Wiese.

The day after the Supreme Court’s draft opinion was leaked, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said she would not prosecute anyone who violates the abortion ban. ’m not going to enforce the law, nor will I defend the law, which I believe is unconstitutional, essel said.

A longtime battle For Whitmer, reproductive rights have long been important. n 2 13, as a state Senate minority leader, Whitmer blasted a proposed rider that would have prohibited insurers from including abortion coverage as a standard feature in health plans sold in Michigan, re uiring women to purchase what critics called a separate rape insurance rider.

In an emotional, unscripted moment on the state Senate oor, Whitmer revealed that she had been raped as a freshman at Michigan State University.

“Throughout my whole life and career in public service, I have been on the frontline to protect and advocate for women’s reproductive health and choices and rights, she tells Metro Times.

Whitmer worries about the ban’s impact on the state. think it’d be devastating for women in our state to have their bodily autonomy ripped away from them, she says. think it would hurt our state’s economy. Right now, we hear lots of businesses who are looking for talent lament the fact that a lot of women left the workforce during the pandemic, what we called the she cession’ because it took such a disproportionate impact on women, and want to get women to a place where they can participate in this economy and in our workforce. ou don’t do it by stripping them of their health care rights and their decisions around their bodies. nd as we try to promote Michigan to the world, it will make our job a lot tougher to draw talented people into Michigan if when you get here, you’re not a full citizen with full rights over your own body. or now, Whitmer says, it’s an all hands-on-deck moment, and the focus must be on protecting reproductive rights. t’s unbelievable that we’re in this moment, and yet, here we are, Whitmer says. So we have to fight. We have no choice.

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WHAT’S GOING ON Select events happening in metro Detroit this week. Submit your events to metrotimes.com/ calendar. Be sure to check venue websites for COV ID- 1 9 policies.

FRI-SUN, MAY 13-15 Motor City Comic Con

Michigan’s longest and largest comic and pop-culture convention is back and bigger than ever. The event, first launched in 1989 and now held across three days at Novi’s Suburban Collection Showplace, features more than 250 comic book creators, writers, and artists, in addition to actors from television and film available for autograph opportunities. At comic cons, though, fans can be the stars, too, and this year features cosplay contests for both kids and adults. Another highlight this year is The Christopher Reeve Legacy Reunion celebrating one of the biggest superheroes of all time, featuring stars from all four Superman films as well as artists and writers from the Superman ’78 DC Comic Series. An exclusive limited-edition variant cover of Superman ’78 No. 1 will also be available to commemorate this year’s Motor City Comic Con. A portion of proceeds from the comic book will benefit the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, which is dedicated to curing spinal cord injury by funding innovative research and improving the quality of life for individuals and families impacted by paralysis. Superman actor Christopher Reeve was paralyzed after a 1995 horse riding accident. —Lee DeVito From noon- 7 p.m. on Friday,1 0 a.m.- 7 p.m. on Saturday, and 1 0 a.m.- 5 p.m. on Sunday at the Suburban Collection Showplace; 4 6 1 0 0 G rand River A ve., N ovi; motorcitycomiccon.com. Tickets start at $ 3 0 for adults and $ 1 0 for children age 6 - 1 2 . A ll children age 1 2 and under get free admission on Sunday.

SAT, MAY 14 X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X

Detroit Opera will pay homage to Detroit Red. The opera house will premiere X : The L ife and Times of Malcolm X on Saturday. The awardwinning opera was written by Anthony Davis, and will be directed by Robert O’hara and conducted by Kazem Abdullah for the Detroit performances.

The timing of the performance falls

Flower Day is back in Detroit’s Eastern Market.

close to the celebration of Malcolm X Day, a holiday, though not yet recognized by the federal government, that falls on the third Friday of May, near Malcolm X’s birthday.

Yuval Sharon, the artistic director for the Detroit Opera, suggested the opera’s revival as he continues to navigate his first season with the opera house. “Since its New York City Opera premiere in 1986, X looked and sounded like no other opera of its time, or any since,” Sharon said in a press release. “The piece was so unconventional that it sat unproduced for decades thirty-five years later, Detroit Opera is leading the charge on what will be the second professional production of the opera, in a way that will prove that Anthony Davis and Thulani Davis were ahead of their time when the piece was premiered.”

Davóne Tines, the Detroit Opera’s artist-in-residence for the 2021-2022 season, will take lead in the production portraying Malcolm X. “This story, as Robert seeks to tell it, asks us ‘How are YOU Malcolm X?’,” Tines said in a press release. “In that frame, this residency with Detroit Opera has been a part of my own meta preparation for the role because I wanted to see how I could, in my own way, be useful to the Detroit community Malcolm X had been a part of.”

In addition to the performances, there will be a series of community events surrounding the premiere of X. On May 12, “X”: A Legacy for the 21st

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Century, a panel discussion , will take place at the Chrysler Black Box Theatre and will feature Roshelle Riley, the city of Detroit’s Director of Arts and Culture, Tamara Payne, author of The Dead are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X, and Illyasah Shabazz, daughter of Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz.

—Alex Was hing ton X : The L ife and Times of Malcolm X premieres at 7 : 3 0 p.m. on May 1 4 at the Detroit Opera, with two additional performances on May 1 9 and May 2 2 ; 52 6 Broadway St., Detroit; 3 1 3 - 2 3 7 - 7 4 6 4 ; detroitopera.org. Tickets start at $ 2 9 .

SUN, MAY 15 Eastern Market Flower Day

May in Detroit means Flower Day at Eastern Market, which has been sorely missed after going on a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19. (The event pivoted to online ordering in 2020, and then came back as a series of scaled-down events dubbed “Flower Season” in 2021.) Now, everyone’s favorite excuse to head to the Russell Street sheds, get some sunshine, and buy flowers is back on Sunday. Whether you’re working on your backyard garden or looking to brighten up a boring apartment, you’ll find all manner of hanging baskets, houseplants, and flats at the market. Of course, you can buy flowers and plants from Eastern Market pretty much any

EVAN GONZALEZ, DETROIT STOCK CITY

weekend, but flower season is in full effect in May. There will also be three Flower Season Tuesday Markets on May 17, 24, and 31. Probably better to check those out if you don’t feel like fighting the Sunday crowd and dealing with hectic parking.

—R and iah C am ille G reen From 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Eastern Market; 2 9 3 4 Russell St., Detroit; easternmarket.org.

STARTS MON, MAY 16 Downtown Street Eats

Food trucks and pop-ups for lunch in downtown Detroit? Yes, please. Detroit’s Cadillac Square and the Woodward Esplanade will host a rotating fleet of 75 food trucks for Downtown Street Eats, Michigan’s largest food truck experience. They’ll be serving tasty eats on weekdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. starting Monday, May 16 and running through Oct. 14. The food trucks will vary each day, and the first week includes Los Dos Amigos, Smoke Ring BBQ, Little Brothers Burgers, Stix & Stone Pizza, House of Mac, and more.

—R and iah C am ille G reen From 1 1 a.m. to 3 p.m. May 1 6 through Oct. 1 4 . Cadillac Sq uare and the Woodward Esplanade are located nex t to Campus Martius; 8 0 0 Woodward A ve, Detroit. Check for weekly lineups at downtowndetroit.org.

MAY 13

RYAN HURD W/COREY KENT

MAY 21

GIRLS GOTTA EAT

MAY 14

TECH N9NE

W/ JOEY COOL, X-RAIDED, MAYDAY!

MAY 20

THE OFFSPRING W/ BLAME MY YOUTH

MAY 26

RAY LAMONTAGNE

JUNE 5

COLIN JOST

W/ SIERRA FERRELL

metrotimes.com | May 11-17, 2022

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MUSIC

Darnell Lindsay Jr., 22, was only 5 years old when his father, the late great Blade Icewood, was killed.

KAHN SANTORI DAVISON

Heir to the throne

How rapper Lil Blade is establishing his own legacy

By Kahn Santori Davison

Darnell Lindsay Jr. is sitting in an unused office at Auto Kingz in Dearborn, talking to a mechanic about modifications he wants to make to a CRT he’s acquiring soon. Dressed in a brown T-shirt and Amiri jeans, he patrols the rest of the showroom like a kid in the ot Wheels aisle of a toy store, making a hard stop at a white Rolls Royce. e gets in the back, inhales the plush interior. Lindsay has a gauntlet full of dreams and aspirations, and this car is likely one of them.

Known as Lil Blade, Lindsay has never been able to dodge the comparisons to his father, the late great Blade Icewood (Darnell Lindsay Sr.). Although the 22-year-old was only 5 when his father was killed, he has his father’s mannerisms, voice, and a uncanny resemblence to him.

“What’s crazy is that I already knew the music,” he says. “I couldn’t even tell you how. There’s a video of me when I was like 4 years old rapping Boy Would

ou’ word for word. I always knew every word to every song.”

Lindsay grew up knowing his father was a local musical legend, but the fan worship, love, and pure excitement he’s shown as his son is something he’s never gotten used to. The name Lil Blade is a moniker that was given to him years before he adopted it.

“At first I hated being called Lil Blade,’” he says. “I was like 12 or 13 and it was the first day of football practice. I guess one of the coaches was a homeboy of my old dude. All I heard was, Lil Blade ’ And people started going crazy.”

Lindsay attended Walled Lake Central igh School, where his popularity steadily grew. e inherited his father’s charisma, as well as a penchant for Cartier glasses and expensive gold chains. e’s quick to point out that he was never an arrogant or obnoxious kid, though, and played basketball and was cool with everybody that was cool with him.

22 May 11-17, 2022 | metrotimes.com

“Tee Grizzley did that song with eezy where he said, Rest in peace to the Great Lakes ruler Darnell Lindsay,’ and people was coming up to me in school like, Tee Grizzley’ just said your name in a song,” he says.

By the time Lindsay was 16, he decided to forfeit his hoop dreams for a career penning bars and punchlines. e had been a hip-hop fan for as long as he could remember, but once he got behind the mic, an addiction sprouted.

“The first time in the studio was 2015,” he says. “I had my homebody Cam Dinero. I started lying to my momma telling her I was going to the gym but I would be going to the studio.”

The more time Lindsay spent in the studio, the more he wanted to be in the studio. The self-fulfillment and solace he discovered was much like a basketball player finding sanctuary in an empty gym.

Lindsay pauses, looking out the win-

dow. “My uncle told me if you wake up in the morning with the same thing on your mind and on your heart everyday, then that’s what you’re supposed to be doing,” he says. is first track was 2015’s “Picture Me Rollin,” in which he lyrically flosses over 2Pac’s instrumental of the same name.

The cover art featured a playful childhood photo of Lindsay and his dad.

In 2017, he followed it up with his first mixtape, P rince of the D. The mixtape was received well, but in hindsight Lindsay can hear his growing pains.

“It wasn’t weak, but I’m grown now,” he says. “As I look back and listen to it, I laugh a little.”

As Lindsay’s 201 senior year was drawing to an end, all he could think about was a career making music.

There would be no college applications, no ACTs, or SATs just countless daydreams about platinum plaques and sold-out shows. e dropped his second mixtape Prince of the D 2 the day he

graduated. This time, the artwork was a cleverly Photoshopped photo of Lindsay sitting next to his dad in a car.

“I had a plan in my head, I was going to just graduate high school and blow up off rap,” he says. “It didn’t really work out like that, but it’s still coming together.”

The mixtape brought Lindsay more followers and fans, but there wasn’t that viral reaction Lindsay was hoping for. e didn’t want a participation trophy or a “pass” because his dad was a legend he wanted his music to resonate and be respected. A year after the release, insecurity and doubt sat in.

“This is the point where life hit me,” he admits. “Like that year after high school I knew I had to figure something out. I went through a slight depression. I had to go see a therapist, I had to climb my way out. I’ve always put a lot of pressure on myself because I just know what I want for myself.”

There were friends insinuating he wasn’t good enough, family suggesting he find a different career path, and his mother was still pushing him to go to college. Lindsay often reminded the people closest to him that he didn’t choose to be an emcee because of his dad, he chose music because it was his passion. The struggle for acceptance of his artistic identity is a battle he had to fight with others as well as within himself.

“I used to really look at myself in the mirror ... I had to roll with the punches,” he says. “I feel like that’s something everybody goes through in life. I was 1 years old, me and my mom had gotten into it. I went to live with my grandma.

My license had got suspended. I wasn’t making no money. I had nothing to do but time to think.”

More music followed. In September 201 he released a remix to his dad’s timeless hit, “Boy Would ou,” that featured hip-hop heavyweights Payroll Giovanni and Peezy. “ Y our bitch told me when I fuck, she want my chain on it/ white diamonds Russian cut, it look like cocaine on it/ It be the lamest niggas talking about they getting paid/ Fucking up they last trying to e o il l e he raps.

“Somebody gave me the idea in a DM,” he says. “I called Payroll and he thought I was playing. Peezy was on deck. Payroll did his verse separate and me and Peezy was in the studio together.” e dropped his third mixtape, A head of My Time, at the top of 2020 and Money Makin Blade several months later. Songs like “Far From a Thug,” “Come this Far,” and “Be With ou” showed growth and progress. “ I got everything she need, so she rather be with me/ She want it in

the car, and I’ma put her on the seat/ ell er ll t e r e et o off of drinks/ G ot the bitches starin’ hard, c se ro e e er iece he raps in the melodic “Be With ou.”

“Ahead if My Time was the first mixtape I made that actually woke people up,” he says. “People started to see it then.”

With streams and his reputation on the rise, other business ventures presented themselves. On an. 2 , he collaborated with yman Cannabis to release a strain in honor of his dad called “Platinum Rose”.

“A mutual friend made the connection,” he says. “I was iffy about it at first but once everything made sense, I met the guys at yman and they were great guys. The relationship and vibe was there.”

Lindsay also has a merchandise line named Icewood Forever, and he relicensed his dad’s Icewood Entertainment imprint. Currently his primary focus is his album P layah Shit. The album features production from producer Gaddy, and Lindsay feels as though this will be his most complete project to date.

“I call it an album because this is the project that’s going to do it for me,” he says. “I put the most effort in it, I took my time and you can hear in the beats and rhymes and the topics I’m talking about.”

Lindsay promises P layah Shit will be more slick than gritty much more Drayton ackson behind the mic than O-Dog. No trap house narratives and tough-talk rhetoric, just good vibes and smooth shit.

“It’s about being cool and laid back,” he says. “Get ya money and mess with the ladies. Everybody ain’t gotta be a goon or a tough guy … That’s the type of guy I am. I love women. I would rather go kick with some ladies than sit up and get high with some dudes all that. If my homeboys having something I don’t want to be there is no ladies ain’t there.”

Ultimately, Lindsay is still the same kid trying to “blow off rap” as he was in high school. But now he’s more patient, more mature, and he sees the long game of it all, willing to commit himself to the process. Success doesn’t have to happen overnight, and everytime he puts pen to paper, he gets closer to his goal.

“I just want to take it as far as I want to take it,” he says. “I know I can. I know it’s there for me, I just gotta go get it.”

Playah Shit ro s ri . il Blade will host a meet and greet from 4 - 7 p.m. on Saturday, May 1 5 at s e er o. o ss e Keego Harbor.

metrotimes.com | May 11-17, 2022

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FOOD The king of kabobs is back

By Tom P erkins

Counterclockwise bottom left to right: Loaded falafel, fooul, shawarma fries, hummus, beef tenderloin bowl, and salad.

For years, to find one of the

best kabobs in town, one needed to hit an unlikely spot the Mobil gas station at the corner of Coolidge and 12 Mile roads. It wasn’t much of a secret that Mr. Kabob chef and manager Kal AlAmara was rolling up gold as local and national media raved about the Lebanese fare, and a carryout crowd packed the small station on weekend nights.

These days, Mr. Kabob is still rolling, but things changed ever so slightly after Al-Amara left in une 2020. For a time, he resigned himself to retirement. As he tells it, opening a restaurant is a young man’s game, and he’s 60 years old. But noted Royal Oak restaurateur Seymour Schwartz, a man who’s known for not taking “no” for an answer, cajoled Al-Amara out of retirement at some point last year.

Schwartz had secured a small carryout kitchen window in the northeast corner of the Royal Oak Farmers’ Market, and the pair first started by selling hummus and garlic sauce during market hours, but that quickly grew into something more.

Folks, he’s back metro Detroit’s

kabob king has restarted his reign in an unassuming carryout window, which is sort of fitting for a guy who built his career selling shawarma out of a gas station. This time, at Kal’s Lunch Bowl, it’s him and wife Ann, who’s also a chef, holding it down. Note that they’re not just open during farmers’ market hours, but from 10a.m.-6 p.m. every day, except Monday.

The hits are all here, including AlAmara’s killer shawarmas that aren’t too greasy but never dry. e explains there’s usually a layer of fat on the spit, but he has a grilling technique down that leaves his 100 percent lean beef in that textural sweet spot. Al-Amara manages to pull it off without sacrificing flavor, which, in the chicken’s case, owes to it being marinated for 24 hours in a mix of garlic sauce, cajun spices, oregano, and more.

A new addition is the beef tenderloin kabob with super tender medallions of filet mignon. I suspected it was marinated in lemon or heavy sumac, but Al-Amara said the acidic note is from lime juice. Regardless, it pops and is rolled in a pita with pickles, garlic

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sauce, onions, and tomatoes.

One can also get the shwaramas and other proteins in a build-your-ownbowl format. I’ve never been too crazy for that approach because I run the risk of screwing it up, and trust Kal to build me an excellent bowl, but I did right this time with chicken shawarma, a flavorful mix of lightly charred grilled veggies doused with an amba sauce sweet and savory mango puree mixed with cayenne, lemon juice, and more.

The house salad with its dried apricots and walnuts stands out.

Arguably my favorite kabob is the sujiq, a small Middle Eastern sausage that’s fiery red and potent from heavy doses of cumin, paprika, and chili powder. The tiny sausages come nestled in the sandwich with lettuce, onions, pickles, and garlic sauce. Fried chicken sandwiches had their moment a couple years ago, and I always found it confounding that Lebanese chicken cream chop pitas weren’t a part of that discussion. Kal’s comes with a thick slather of garlic sauce, lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickles.

The shawarma fries are not the

TOM PERKINS

Kal’s Lunch Bowl 316 E. 11 Mile Rd., Royal Oak (inside the Royal Oak Farmers Market) 248-832-0044 kalslunchbowl.com Handicap accessible 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tues.-Sun. (closed Mon.) $3-$14

crispest taters in town, but that’s OK because they’re soaked to the core with the flavorful fattoush vinaigrette, with heavy sumac adding a lemon-y component and a blanket of salty feta.

The hummus is light and flavorful, and though we didn’t get to try it, the loaded falafel topped with tabbouleh, garlic sauce, and amba puree is on the list for next time around.

If there’s one complaint, it’s that Kal’s isn’t open past 6 p.m., but the kabob king came out of retirement to work over 12 hours almost every day, so we’re cutting the crew a break.

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small, only about 750 square feet or so, and will mostly cater to a to-go crowd.

She says they’re hoping to hire around 10 or 15 workers.

According to a 2011 piece in The New Yorker, aç aí bowls were invented in Brazil and exploded in popularity after taking off in California.

—Lee DeVito

FOOD

Baobab Fare’s Burundi coffee is now available at Detroit’s Rivertown Market

A conveyor belt delivers plates of sushi to customers.

EMILY J. DAVIS FOR KURA SUSHI

Bites

Conveyor belt sushi spot Kura Sushi is opening a second location in Michigan

By L ee DeV ito

Sushi chain Kura Sushi is

planning on opening a second restaurant in Michigan.

The company is known for popularizing the conveyor belt sushi or “sushi train” concept, in which plates of sushi are delivered to customers via conveyor belts. It opened its first Michigan location in Troy in 2021, and the second location is expected to open in Novi this summer.

The company was founded in J apan in 1977 and has expanded across the globe, with more than 500 restaurants worldwide.

Its Troy location was the first conveyor belt sushi spot to open in Michigan since Sushi Nara in Ann Arbor, which has since closed.

The Kura Sushi restaurants use a system utilizing two conveyor belts.

The “Revolving Sushi Bar Belt” carries a rotating selection of sushi plates that customers can grab as they please. They can also order their own plates using a touch-screen tablet, which is delivered to the table via the “Express Belt,” or what the company calls a “sushi highway.” The bill is tallied based on plates.

The company is also known for

partnering with different brands for its “Bikkura Pon Prize System,” in which guests get a prize for every 15 sushi plates ordered. Kura Sushi also has a reward system were customers can earn $ 5 for every $ 50 spent.

According to a press release, “Kurabot” robots will also deliver drinks and condiments to customers’ tables at the Novi location.

O brave new world, that has such sushi in it!

More information is available at kurasushi.com.

Açaí bowl chain Nautical Bowls is heading to metro Detroit

Minnesota-based aç aí bowl chain Nautical Bowls is expanding across the country, with its first Michigan location expected to open in Royal Oak next month.

Katie Fisch, who owns the Michigan franchise with her husband, Dan, says the first Michigan store will be located in the Woodward Corners shopping center at 30955 Woodward Ave., Suite 425, Royal Oak. According to the company’s web-

26 May 11-17, 2022 | metrotimes.com

site, the other Michigan stores will be located in Ann Arbor and Novi, though addresses have not yet been provided.

Fisch describes the bowls as a healthy “superfood,” and says that despite the chilled, sorbet-like consistency and sweet flavors, a a bowls are more like meal replacements than desserts.

“It’s not like ice cream,” she says.

The company sells 10 signature bowls, with the option to build your own using a range of bases, including different fruit blends, and toppings, which include fresh fruit, nuts, and granola.

The bowls run from $ 9-$ 15 and are organic, gluten-free, and dairy-free.

Fisch says she and her husband learned about the company when he lived in Minnesota. “ e was one of their first customers at their first location,” she says. “We moved back to Michigan, and we just kept going back to see family and we just loved going there. As soon as they started franchising we knew we had to jump on board.”

According to the company’s website, it has 72 locations across the country.

Fisch says the Royal Oak store will be

Baobab Fare in Detroit’s New Center neighborhood quickly became a favorite in the local restaurant scene after opening in 2021. Now the popular restaurant’s coffee is available at Rivertown Market, which is owned by Meijer.

The East African restaurant’s Burundi coffee is grown and harvested near the Matongo village in Burundi.

It hit the shelves at Rivertown Market, which is known for selling products from Michigan-grown brands.

While Baobab Fare’s signature dish is Nyumbani, beef slow-simmered in tomato sauce with plantains and rice, its coffee also has a distinctly rich flavor.

The small-format Meijer is Baobab Fare’s first large vendor and the familyowned restaurant plans to get more products in other large retailers in the future.

Meijer has invited local businesses to showcase their products at its Lift Local Supplier event. Eligible businesses can apply by May 20.

—R and iah C am ille G reen

Detroit’s Astro Coffee and Ochre Bakery are closing for good

The folks behind Detroit’s popular Astro Coffee and Ochre Bakery spots have apparently called it quits, according to a message posted to the Instagram accounts of both businesses last week.

“We have come to the end of this journey,” the post reads. “It’s hard to really know what to say in these moments, but we are forever grateful for all of the love and support we have been shown over the last 11 years of having a business in this city.”

The post added that the last day of service at both businesses will be Sunday, May 15.

The businesses are owned by J essica Hicks and Daisuke Hughes. Astro Coffee opened in Corktown in 2011, while Ochre Bakery opened in the Core City neighborhood in 2019. In 2020, Astro closed its Corktown location and relocated to its Roastery next-door to Ochre Bakery.

Metro Times called the numbers listed for both businesses, but nobody answered.

—Lee DeVito

metrotimes.com | May 11-17, 2022

27

WEED One-Hitters

Cannabis license approved for Michigan’s Hoxeyville Music Festival

By L ee DeV ito

Northern Michigan’s long-running Hox eyville Music

Festival says for the first time, it will have an official cannabis partner this year.

The Americana and roots music festival, held on 150 acres of farmland near the Manistee N ational Forest in Wellston, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this August.

Festival operator oxeyville Enterprises says it has worked out a deal with Dunegrass Co. to offer on-site cannabis sales, and partnered with cannabis event organizer and cultivator Tom Beller of Real Leaf Solutions to offer on-site consumption.

Fittingly, the license approval was granted on Wellston Township’s board meeting on April 20. oxeyville Enterprises says Dunegrass Co. will serve as the festival’s cannabis partner in 2022 and 2023.

“We are very excited to provide this option for our attendees, and look forward to growing both this experience within the event as well as our partnership with Dunegrass,” oxeyville Productions’ ake Robinson said in a statement.

“Dunegrass is beyond excited to work on the first music festival turned cannabis event in the state,” Dunegrass COO Eric Piedmonte said in a statement. “Until now all the on-site cannabis events have been cannabis first, entertainment second. We are flipping the model on its head by partnering with a long running festival like oxey adding to it.”

“This event is going to set the new standard for cannabis events,” said Beller, who also has the state’s first licensed cannabis event organizer.

Slated for Aug. 1 -21, oxeyville features two stages with national and local acts. The festival has a capacity of 4,000.

This year’s lineup includes Trampled

by Turtles, Railroad Earth, the Infamous Stringdusters, and other acts. The full lineup is available at hoxeyville. com.

In Lansing, a 420 Music Festival featuring a lineup of mostly hip-hop acts

was held last month. In metro Detroit, a planned “Spark in the Park” event in azel Park was voted down by city council due to parking concerns, with a lineup that was to mix rock, funk, and hip-hop.

In Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, cannabis chain the Fire Station is planning a “Camp Cannabis” event in Marquette for Oct. 7- . While a lineup has not yet been announced, it says it is looking to book national and local acts.

Former Detroit Lions open flagship dispensary

Primitiv, the cannabis brand founded by former Detroit Lions players Calvin ohnson and Rob Sims, has announced the opening of its flagship dispensary in Niles, Michigan.

Located at 12 6 S. 11th St., Primitiv will not only sell its own cannabis products, but will also carry other Michigan-based cannabis brands as well, such as yman Cannabis, Pleasantrees, and White Boy Rick’s The th.

“This is a project of passion that we have been cultivating for the past several years and we couldn’t be more excited to see it become a reality,” said Sims in a press release. “We’ve made Michigan our home and have been blessed by the support we have received from our community and feel this is a great way to further plant roots and give back to the communities that have embraced us.”

The dispensary also carries branded merchandise, which Primitiv is currently developing custom merchandise like jerseys, footballs, trading cards, and helmets to be sold later this year.

The dispensary is licensed for adultuse, so anyone age 21 or older with a valid ID can enter.

The former players began Primitiv after both used marijuana-based medicine as an alternative to opioid-based prescriptions while playing football.

Post-retirement, the players began to explore the cannabis industry for its healing properties, and work to destigmatize cannabis as it relates to athletes.

“We’ve seen so many of our brothers

28 May 11-17, 2022 | metrotimes.com

The Americana and roots music fest is celebrating its 20th anniversary.

from around the league turn to other forms of pain relief just to get through the game, day, or season,” ohnson said in a press release. “We believe in the holistic properties of cannabis as an all-natural, plant-based option not just for athletes but for anyone looking for physical or mental relief. We’ve just scratched the surface in our innovation process and are looking forward to more news to share later this year.”

Primitiv is open from 10 a.m.- p.m Tuesday-Sunday.

—Alex Was hing ton

Detroit man made $2,000 a day from marijuana vending machine featured in TikTok video

Marcus Cornwell wasn’t selling pop or snacks from the vending machine outside his home on Detroit’s west side.

According to federal authorities, Cornwell said he’d been making 2,000 a day for the past five years selling marijuana from the vending machine attached to the side of his house at Mettetal Street and Fenkell Avenue.

Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) executed a search warrant at Cornwell’s home on March 16 and found 1 guns, dozens of rounds of ammunition, several pounds of marijuana, and more than 12,700 in cash, according to a criminal complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.

Cornwell said the machine was his primary source of income and that an

COURTESY PHOTO

employee lived with him, according to the A TF. e also dubbed himself a gun collector and said that “he is aware he is not allowed to possess firearms.” e told agents that most of the guns were purchased “from individuals off the street.”

At least two of the guns had been previously reported stolen.

Cornwell was charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm, which carries a maximum penalty of up to 10 years in prison.

The ATF was tipped off on an. 7, a day after a popular TikTok video of the machine was posted.

The tipster alleged Cornwell was selling marijuana out of the vending machine and also sold drugs and guns to minors.

ATF agents said they bought a total of .4 grams of pot from the machine on two separate occasions in February and March.

Cornwell has an extensive rap sheet. e’s been convicted of six felonies between 1 7 and 2011, including armed robbery, identity theft, and multiple gun charges, according to the ATF. “Cornwell was sentenced to more than one year in prison for each of these prior convictions,” the complaint states.

During an April 2 court hearing, Cornwell was released from jail on a 10,000 unsecured bond. The conditions of his release include not operating a vending machine.

A preliminary examination in the case is scheduled for May 1 .

—S tev e N eav ling

CULTURE The multiverse of badness

By G eorge Elkind

To declare a movie better than

expected makes for both a real sensation and a vague statement all at once.

Positioning the work against others like it or even the last thing you’ve watched is easy to do, and natural — but not nearly so helpful as to position it against the work that it could, in its best or most engaging form, be.

The trouble is that those limiting factors — contributors’ creative capacities, sure, but especially the industrial and market realities, many resulting from executives’ craven decisions, from which works arise — constrain the sphere of possibility for what a work could actually be. In the case of the last decade or so of Disney-Marvel movies dominating cinema-going (and I won’t pretend to having caught them all), that sphere’s shrunken greatly. In the process, it’s moved into a state that feels starkly at odds with all the genre’s rhetorical appeals, even more the case recently with its meta-aware suggestions of infinite narrative possibility.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness roots both its action and its appeals to the audience in the already welltrodden possibilities suggested by its title. Outlining a range of parallel realities in which different outcomes (seemingly all resulting from decisions by Marvel’s major players) can be realized at once, the film pits its characters against the weight of their own decisions and their consequences. This familiar pseudoscience gets mangled a bit further through the involvement of magic-wielding lead Dr. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), his compatriot in sorcery Wong (Benedict Wong), and the flatly realized dimension-hopping teenager America Chavez (X ochitl Gomez), who’s able to move between the film’s dimensions.

Rounding out the cast is Wanda Maximoff, aka the Scarlet Witch (played with a bit of heat here by E izabeth Olsen), who’s been exploring the darker potentialities of wielding magic in the narrative time since she appeared in the Disney+ series WandaV ision.

So between the magic, dimensionhopping, and the involvement of lively

genre stylist and metro Detroit native Sam Raimi (known best for his Evil Dead films, the early-aughts Spider- Man trilogy, and 2009’s unforgiving Drag Me to Hell), there are plenty of suggestions of “possibility” here. But there’s a low, domed ceiling stretching over it, too: the entanglement of the film’s action across nearly 30 movies (and now television shows, too) known as the Marvel Cinematic U niverse. E mbroiled by decree in the continuation of an endless saga, Raimi can only hope to breathe so much into this much of a confined space.

But after some opening action and exposition — a few introductions, some airless check-in scenes with old cast members, and an effects-laden battle sequence with a monstrous octopus — Raimi does in fact manage to give it something. After about a half-hour or so, thanks to the material’s adjacency to the gothic, he’s able to steer the film back to a space he’s more at home in: one with broad horror overtones and an affection for earnestly pastiched (but largely unironic) kitsch. Less like a horror movie than a horror comic at its best parts, there are portions of Strange’s running time where it appears to have the freedom to go to the places its director would actually like.

I’ll shield myself from accusations of spoiling here by pointing out that the film’s key characters appear in multiple iterations with varying aims, a recursive movement that demonstrates both the extent of and limits on the film’s world.

Meeting altered versions of oneself and one’s peers is a trope that spans works likes those of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, David Lynch, The L egend of Z elda, and G umby: The Movie, but here it’s used to decent effect. By introducing (in one reality) a rampaging version of the Scarlet Witch, Raimi presses an uninvited sense of genuine intensity — if one that only flickers upon the material. When the occultist version of the character limps with a deranged fervor through underground tunnels or crawls (via some spell) out of mirrors and reflective pools, her fingertips are blackened by ash and what looks to be blood remains

30 May 11-17, 2022 | metrotimes.com

Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez, Benedict Wong as Wong, and Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange.

stubbornly smeared across half her face.

Olsen has a time with this, employing a crackling, shifting emotional range and a kind of brittle agility that’s been wrongly credited to her performances in this endless series before. Somewhat shockingly, this version of her’s permitted to come across as an actual, credible threat. But Cumberbatch, sapped of wit or eccentricity, lacks the emotional bandwidth to match her here, and it’s fair to say that as a performer Olsen steals whatever the film has to offer and makes it hers.

Raimi likewise offers a number of narrative swerves and aesthetic flourishes (Marvel movies are notorious for their confinement to mid-tones, with every frame appearing as a sea of gray), twisting Strange’s manor (in one dimension) into a pictorial more than an architectural space. Jump-scares and surprising starts drive the film’s circuitous action, which plods most under the weight of Michael Waldron’s dutifully delivered, largely expository dialogue. But for more than a single stretch, a seemingly ambivalent Raimi pulls something engaging from the material — aided, too, by Danny E lfman’s jumpy score.

But for every surprise on offer here, there’s some element that narratively pumps the brakes, forcing a drag on the material. A string of numbing cameos (featuring a crew of lame characters known as the Illuminati), a puzzling over by the cast of some alternate timeline and its implications, and a sluggish romantic plot — all the things that tie Strange to other movies — weaken the integrity and expression it might have within itself. With a framework that

JAY MAIDMENT/MARVEL STUDIOS

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Rated: PG-13 Run-time: 126 minutes would be both simple and expansive, inviting aesthetic experimentation if it were simply allowed the space, this latest Doctor Strange film feels burdened by a range of debts to franchise maintenance that no self-respecting movie should have to pay.

But that’s how it always is with these dumb things, which makes their odes to imagination ring all the more hollow.

The multiverse setup has the effect of sapping the film (and series) of stakes, allowing for endless retooling beneath a thin veneer of narrative consequence.

Anything onscreen (and any character, too) can be executed with ease, given how easily such an action can be undone. For longtime comics readers, this dynamic presents a familiar sort of bore, one that might enable something good to hit presses now and then. But what’s enabled here — when compared to anything outside this Disney-Marvel space, at least — isn’t much, even if it’s about as good as they’re likely to make a project in this tired genre now. But honestly, if we’re celebrating without qualification the fact that a movie has real shadows — flickers of style, and patchy expressions of voice within it — that’s a form not just of letting the wrong guys win, but of telling on oneself.

Wed 5/11

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metrotimes.com | May 11-17, 2022

31

Savage Love

CULTURE Q: I’m a straight guy, married to a

straight woman for 1 5 years. Several years back, I opened up to my wife about my fantasies of her sleeping with other men. I was nervous about bringing it up.

Her views on sex had always been traditional, and she had always ex pressed a very strict idea of monogamy and commitment. So, I was extremely relieved when her reaction was intrigue rather than disgust. She was curious about it and wondered if I really wanted it to happen or if it was j ust something I wanted to keep in our rotation of dirty talk. Fastforward to this week, and my wife tells me she is interested in ex ploring this. ( N ote to other guys who want this from their wives: be respectful, don’t pressure, and give her time to think about it. Y our patience might be rewarded!) Here is the problem: We both have careers that could be complicated or damaged by the stigma around “ cheating.” I know about all the apps out there, but we live in a large city, and there is a non- z ero chance that we might run into someone on the apps we are connected to professionally or socially. A re any of the apps out there geared toward folks who want to go about this carefully? Is it possible to minimiz e the risk of professional or social embarrassment here, or is this j ust something we must accept to pursue this lifestyle?

—H ook ing U p , S eek ing H elp

A: There are lots of dating apps for

people and/ or couples looking for casual sex and/ or kinky sex (Feeld, 3Somer, # Open, et al), and lots of people — single and partnered — looking for casual and/ or kinky sex on regular dating apps (Tinder, OK Cupid, Christian Mingle, et al.). But hookup/ threesome/ swinger apps, while perceived as sleazier, are a safer bet for a couple like you and your wife.

While there’s no way to eliminate your risk of being recognized on an app, H U SH , anyone who spots you on Feeld looking for extracurricular dick was on Feeld looking for and or offering up a little extracurricular dick of their own.

The threat of mutually assured destruction — if they gossip about you, you’ll gossip about them — is usually enough to restrain bad actors, as is the threat of the obvious follow-up question. (“Wait, why are you on Feeld?”) And most people on hookup apps aren’t bad actors, H U SH , but fundamentally decent people like you and your wife, i.e., singles and couples looking for a little fun, not for an opportunity to hurt anyone. A friend or a relative or a coworker who spots your wife in a bar with a

strange man — or in the lobby of a hotel or on her way into your apartment — is likelier to cause you headaches than one of your fellow perverts online.

To minimize your risk of being spotted and outed on the apps, H U SH , don’t post face pics and only share them after you’ve established — to the best of your ability — the person you’re talking to isn’t a bot, a pic collector, or an extortionist. Again, there’s no way to fully eliminate the risk, but at a certain point you have to trust your gut and take a risk. You also have the option of creating a profile in a city you visit regularly but don’t live in, H U SH . After you’ve found and vetted a few good candidates, get yourself some airline tickets and a hotel room and have those drinks in a bar that a colleague, a fan, or your father-in-law is unlikely to walk into.

Q: There’s a story making the rounds

on Reddit about people getting those metallic “ bej eweled butt plugs” all the way into their asses and needing pretty intense intervention to get them out, ranging from partners pulling them out it t eir ers t e i o double penetration) to actual surgery in a hospital ( only fun for a very select few) . The blame, apparently, is the fact that the base of these toys is rarely wider than the widest party of the head, which is pretty damning, and that lubed metal is slipperier than lubed silicone. So here are the operative q uestions: A re metallic bej eweled butt plugs safe or not so much? A re silicone bej eweled butt plugs any safer? A re there any safe bej eweled butt plug options out there? The world isn’t going to stop being obsessed with sparkly butt toys any time soon, so we’re oi to ee to to o it s el .

—I ns ertion T oy E x trac tion M es s y S itu ation

A: I’ve seen those jeweled butt plugs

in shops and in photos online — they’re usually made from stainless steel and have glass “gems” mounted at the end of an alarmingly narrow base — but I’ve never actually seen one in person. Or in a person, at least not in person. But knowing what I do about butts (and how they relax after some play), and knowing what I do about plugs (a flared base is your first line of defense against a trip to the E R), I would’ve worried too much about losing one to use one. As for safe bejeweled butt plug options, ITEMS, you’re going to want a flared base and a jewel that’s at least the size of Cullinan I Diamond, the fist-sized rock on the Q ueen of E ngland’s royal scepter, which come to think of it…

32 May 11-17, 2022 | metrotimes.com

By Dan Savage

JOE NEWTON

Q: A

s you’ve surely heard, the conservative Supreme Court maj ority plans to overturn Roe v. Wade. While my wife and I were lamenting the state of this fucking country, she mentioned that nobody ever hears men talking about the abortions that kept their lives on track — even though that’s obviously a very common thing that happens. How many guys shat their pants after a condom failed during sex with a woman they weren’t that into? How many prominent men knocked up their mistresses or assistants or babysitters? How many Republican boys have pressed a wad of their parents’ money into a girl’s hand because having a baby would ruin his future? These men need to speak up.

I’m not ex pecting actual Republicans to do so, but perhaps there are men out there who are willing to speak up and admit what we all know: Men benefit from abortion while bearing none of the shame associated with it. It’s time we heard from them. I’m sorry I don’t have a catchy name for this or a cute si off. m so tire t e orl is falling apart.

—M en S hou ld S p eak U p Ab ou t Ab ortion

A: Now for some real worries.

We are weeks away from American women being stripped of a fundamental constitutional and human right.

And we face the prospect of an out-ofcontrol and illegimate Supreme Court stripping us of a host of other rights: the right to contraception, the right to same-sex marriage, the right to interracial marriage, even the right to have sex for pleasure — you know, the sex most people have most of the time. (In L awrence v. Tex as (2003), the Supreme Court struck down sodomy laws that criminalized not just consensual gay sex, but consensual sex between men and women that wasn’t open to conception as well.)

While it should be enough to hear from women who’ve benefited from safe and legal abortion — and it should be enough to know that women die from unsafe and illegal abortions, and enough

to know that banning abortions doesn’t stop women from getting abortions — I happen to agree that cis men who support abortion rights and have benefited from them need to speak the fuck up about reproductive freedom.

“There are millions of men whose lives would have been worse without abortion,” the writer Jill Filipovic wrote on Twitter last week. “Men who wouldn’t have found their big loves, wouldn’t have their kids, wouldn’t have been as successful, wouldn’t have taken big risks” if they had become fathers before they were ready. To those men, to all men, Filipovic says, “This is your fight, too. Get in it.”

And gay men? The exact same arguments being used right now to strip women of the right to decide when and whether they want to bear a child — abortion isn’t within the “history and traditions” of the U nited States, abortion isn’t a right enumerated in the Constitution, abortion is a moral question — can and will be used to strip us of the right to have sex and the right to marry. Republican assholes are passing laws in red states right fucking now that force women to give birth to their rapists’ babies against their will. Don’t for a second think these same assholes won’t pass laws forcibly ending your gay marriage or throwing your gay ass in jail for getting your gay ass fucked. This is our fight, too, faggots.

Q: Is there a website where we can

le ll o t o to t e ortio pills you’ve mentioned on the podcast?

—M ak e I t S top

A: E

verything you need to know about abortion pills — how they work and where to get them — can be found at plancpills.org. And anyone using those pills at home needs to read Dr. en Gunter’s essay “ our Medical Team Cannot Tell If You H ad a SelfAdministered Abortion” at vajenda. substack.com. And everyone should read Jill Filipovic’s advice on what we can do right now to fight back (“Get To Work, Get Informed, Get Brave”) at jill. substack.com. And if you can afford to donate to the National Network of Abortion Funds, now would be a great time to do so. They’re at abortionfunds. org. And finally don’t vote Republican, don’t fuck Republicans.

A sk: q uestions@savagelove.net.

L isten to Dan on the Savage L ovecast.

Follow Dan on Twitter @FakeDanSavage. Columns, podcasts, books, merch and more at savage.love.

metrotimes.com | May 11-17, 2022

33

CULTURE

Free Will Astrology

By Rob Brez sny

ARIES: March 21 – April 19 “Choose the least important day in your life,” wrote Aries author Thornton Wilder. “It will be important enough.” I recommend that you make those your words to live by in the next two weeks. Why? Because I suspect there will be no tremendously exciting experiences coming your way. The daily rhythm is likely to be routine and modest. You may even be tempted to feel a bit bored.

And yet, if you dare to move your attention just below the surface of life, you will tune into subtle glories that are percolating. You will become aware of quietly wondrous developments unfolding just out of sight and behind the scenes. Be alert for them.

They will provide fertile clues about the sweet victories that will be available in the months ahead.

TAURUS: April 20 – May 20 “E very successful person I know starts before they feel ready,” declared life coach Marie Forleo. Author Ivan Turgenev wrote, “If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything, is ready, we shall never begin.” H ere’s what edu-

tarian author Willa Cather. I’m happy to report that in recent months, you Sagittarians have been becoming more and more natural. You have sought experiences that enhance your authenticity and spontaneity. K eep up the good work! The coming weeks should bring influences and adventures that will dramatically deepen your capacity to be untamed, soulful, and intensely yourself.

cator Supriya Mehra says: “There’s never a perfect moment to start, and the more we see the beauty in ‹ starting small,’ the more we empower ourselves to get started at all.” I hope that in providing you with these observations, Taurus, I have convinced you to dive in now. H ere’s one more quote, from businesswoman Betsy Rowbottom: “There’s never a perfect moment to take a big risk.”

GEMINI: May 21 – June 20 Poet Ranata Suzuki writes, “There comes a point where you no longer care if there’s a light at the end of the tunnel or not. You’re just sick of the tunnel.” That’s good advice for you right now, Gemini. The trick that’s most likely to get you out of the tunnel is to acknowledge that you are sick of the damn tunnel. Announce to the universe that you have gleaned the essential teachings the ride through the tunnel has provided you.

You no longer need its characterbuilding benefits because you have harvested them all. Please say this a thousand times sometime soon: “I am ready for the wide-open spaces.”

CANCER: June 21 – July 22 In the coming weeks, your imagination will receive visions of the next chapter of your life story.

These images and stories might confuse you if you think they are illuminating the present moment.

So please keep in mind that they are prophecies of what’s ahead. They are premonitions and preparations for the interesting work you will be given during the second half of 2022. If you regard them as guiding clues from your eternal soul, they will nourish the inner transformations necessary for you to welcome your destiny when it arrives. Now study this inspirational quote from poet Rainer Maria Rilke: “The future glides into us, so as to remake itself within us, long before it occurs.”

LEO: July 23 – August 22 “Remember that you will never reach a higher standard than you yourself set,” wrote author E llen G. White. That’s true! And that’s why it’s so crucial that you formulate the highest standards you can imagine — maybe even higher than you can imagine. Now is a favorable phase for you to reach higher and think bigger. I invite you to visualize the best version of the dream you are working on — the most excellent, beautiful, and inspiring form it could take. And then push on further to envision even more spectacular results. Dare to be greedy and outrageous.

34 May 11-17, 2022 | metrotimes.com

JAMES NOELLERT

VIRGO: August 23 – Sept. 22 Before V irgo-born Leslie Jones achieved fame as a comedian and actor, she worked day jobs at U nited Parcel Service and Roscoe’s H ouse of Chicken and Wa es. er shot at major appreciation didn’t arrive until the TV show Saturday N ight L ive hired her to be a regular cast member in 2014, when she was 47 years old. H ere’s how she describes the years before that: “E verybody was telling me to get a real job. E verybody was asking me, What are you doing? You’re ruining your life. You’re embarrassing your family.”

Luckily, Jones didn’t heed the bad advice. “You can’t listen to that,” she says now. “You have to listen to yourself.”

Now I’m suggesting that you embrace the Leslie Jones approach, V irgo.

LIBRA: Sept. 23 – Oct. 22 “A person must dream a long time in order to act with grandeur, and dreaming is nursed in darkness.”

Author Jean Genet wrote that, and now I’m offering you his words as the seed of your horoscope. If you’ve been attuned to cosmic rhythms, you have been doing what Genet described and will continue to do it for at least another ten days. If you have not yet begun such work, please do so now.

Your success during the rest of 2022 will thrive to the degree that you spend time dreaming big in the darkness now.

SCORPIO: Oct. 23 – Nov. 21 “Cursed are those who feel floods but who can only express a few drops.” So says an internet proverb.

Luckily, this principle won’t apply to you in the coming weeks. I expect you will be inundated with cascades of deep feelings, but you will also be able to articulate those feelings. So you won’t be cursed at all. In fact, I suspect you will be blessed. The cascades may indeed become rowdy at times. But I expect you will flourish amidst the lush tumult.

SAGITTARIUS: Nov. 22 – Dec. 21 “It takes a great deal of experience to become natural,” wrote Sagit-

CAPRICORN: Dec. 22 – Jan. 19 “I intend to live forever,” proclaims 66-year-old comedian Steven Wright, who then adds, “So far, so good.” I offer you his cheerful outlook in the hope that it might inspire you to dream and scheme about your own longevity. Now is a great time to fantasize about what you would love to accomplish if you are provided with 90 or more years of life to create yourself. In other words, I’m asking you to expand your imagination about your long-term goals. H ave fun envisioning skills you’d like to develop and qualities you hope to ripen if you are given all the time you would like to have.

(P.S.: Thinking like this could magically enhance your life expectancy.)

AQUARIUS: Jan. 20 – Feb. 18 “Stop insisting on clearing your head,” advised author Charles Bukowski. “Clear your fucking heart instead.” That will be a superb meditation for you to experiment with in the coming weeks. Please understand that I hope you will also clear your head. That’s a worthy goal. But your prime aim should be to clear your heart. What would that mean? Purge all apologies and shame from your longings. Cleanse your tenderness of energy that’s inclined to withhold or resist. Free your receptivity to be innocent and curious.

PISCES: Feb.19 – March 20 “The winner will be the one who knows how to pick the right fights,” wrote author Jane Ciabattari. H eed her advice, please, Pisces. You will soon be offered chances to deal with several interesting struggles that are worthy of your beautiful intelligence. At least one will technically be a “conflict,” but even that will also be a fruitful opportunity. If you hope to derive the greatest potential benefit, you must be selective about which ones you choose to engage. I recommend you give your focus to no more than two.

T his w eek ’ s hom ew ork : Is there somewhere in your life where you try to ex ert too much control — and should loosen your grip?

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metrotimes.com | May 11-17, 2022

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