2020-02-07

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

Friday, February 7, 2020

Ann Arbor, Michigan

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‘You will see you don’t belong ’ Formerly incarcerated students, community members find difficulties navigating University environment JENNA SITEMAN Daily Staff Reporter

Cozine Welch holds multiple positions at the University of Michigan, including managing editor of The Michigan Review of Prisoner Creative Writing, co-instructor of the Prison Creative Arts Project, researcher for the Carceral State Project and producer of the “While We Were Away” podcast, among others. Welch is not a student at the University but hopes to enroll in an MBA program in the fall.

In addition to occupying these roles, Welch was formerly incarcerated for 20 years in the state of Michigan and since then has worked to publicize and fight the injustices within the carceral system in this country.

Welch spends most of his day on the University campus, but is unable to find housing nearby due to the high cost of living in Ann Arbor, as well as the discrimination that those with a felony record face in renting a home.

Welch said that after almost three years of working in Ann Arbor he is still living at friends’ homes. He said the process of divulging prior incarceration records to landlords, through checking a crimi-

nal history box, feels personally demoralizing.

“I still can’t find housing,” Welch said. “I’m really still staying here off the kindness of a friend. I’m trying to find housing, and maybe now I will since I’m doing this campaign (fighting against ‘the box’ on housing and employment applications) but that’s the reality of Ann Arbor. (The issue) is the price point and the fact that you have a felony.”

This also occurs with applications to the University of Michigan’s undergraduate and graduate programs: students must disclose if they were formerly convicted of a felony.

The University does not admit students on parole, which often lasts three years, and requires appli-

cants to check a box if they have a felony. This topic is currently being reviewed in many states as part of a larger debate over voting rights.

Welch said he feels unwanted on the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor campus.

“If you come to Ann Arbor, you’re Black before you even get to whether or not you actually have a felony, right?” Welch said. “And if you walk down the street in Ann Arbor, you will see you don’t belong, because you don’t see anybody that looks like you. The only time you see

somebody else that looks like you is in the reflection or a storefront.

It’s based largely on the University because they’re like, ‘Well, that’s what Flint and Dearborn campuses are for.’”

Welch pointed out the disparities between the Flint and Dearborn campuses in comparison to the Ann Arbor campus, specifically noting the diversity of Flint and Dearborn classes. “(Those campuses are) underserved, under-staffed, undereverything satellite campus,” Welch said. “I’ve guest lectured at Dearborn a couple of times and when you go to Dearborn, you’re like, ‘Oh, this is what collegiate life should look like; my class looks really diverse.’”

School of Social Work alum Yusef Shakur is an activist, author and formerly incarcerated person.

He said he hopes the future may be different for other formerly incarcerated people looking to become involved in academia in Ann Arbor.

Shakur said after talking with Lynn Videka, Social Work School dean, in the spring of 2019, the School of Social Work will no longer place a box asking about previous felony convictions of applications .

The move follows pressure from the undergraduate campus organization “UMich Behind Bars.”

“We benefited from an undergrad organization,” Shakur said. “Once it happened with the underSee INCARCERATED, Page 3

Design by Erin Ruark

Lawsuit says Fairfield Inn ignored signs of trafficking

Woman takes legal action against Ann Arbor hotel for neglecting abuse DOMONICK SOKOTOFF For The Daily

A woman who reports she was held in captivity and abused at two southeast Michigan hotels filed a lawsuit that contends Marriott International, Inc. and the InterContinental Hotels Group are liable for failing to notice she was being trafficked at their properties.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in December, provides details of how the victim, identified as H.G. due to the sensitive nature of the case, withstood repeated abuse at the hotels over the span of several years.

The case is one of 26 similar lawsuits filed across the country against 15 major hotel brands. Attorneys filed a movement to consolidate the cases under a single federal judge, but it was denied Feb. 5 by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation.

Court filings claim H.G. was first trafficked in 2003 when she was a 17-year-old

Lecturer Columbia professors address sexual examines assault prevention in college setting misogny Jennifer Hirsch, Shamus Khan discuss new book ‘Sexual Citizens’ in gaming TECHNOLOGY

Penny Stamps Speaker Series brings activist, artist Angela Washko to Michigan Theater

living in Detroit, not under the custody of her parents.

The lawsuit states H.G.’s traffickers would frequently kidnap her and hold her captive for days at a time at the Ann Arbor Fairfield Inn or the downtown Detroit Holiday Inn Express and Suites. These hotels are franchises operated under the Marriott and IHG brands, respectively.

“H.G’s trafficker specifically chose the hotels in Detroit and Ann Arbor because they had a reputation for commercial sex and illegal activity,” the complaint states.

While at the hotels, H.G. was allegedly verbally, physically and sexually abused by the traffickers and buyers. If she did not sexually service enough buyers to meet daily quotas, a trafficker would beat her, the complaint says.

The lawsuit details instances at the Detroit hotel in which hotel staff did not attend to H.G.’s screams and in which See TRAFFICKING, Page 3

CAMPUS LIFE

Cultural lounges in dorms to be redone Plan includes updates to spaces in South Quad, Helen Newberry and East Quad by 2021

ISABELLA PREISSLE

IULIA DOBRIN

Daily Staff Reporter

Angela Washko, an artist, writer and activist, began her lecture speaking about her project targeting hate speech in public video games — specifically World of Warcraft — at a crowded Michigan Theater.

“I thought that I could use my background in performance art, grassroots activism and collective organizing to directly talk to players about why the community had become so homophobic, misogynistic, and racist in its public communication channels, at least on all the servers that I’ve played on,” Washko said.

As part of the Penny Stamps Speaker Series, Washko spoke to Art & Design students and community members Thursday evening about her various art pieces targeting misogyny and promoting inclusivity in niche online spaces.

Hate speech is especially prevalent on online games with users targeting certain players once they realize the See GAMING, Page 3

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ALICE LIU/Daily Columbia University professor Jennifer Hirsch speaks about campus sexual assault at a talk and panel about her and Shamus Kahn’s new book, “Sexual Citizens,” at Rackham Amphitheater Thursday afternoon..

MEGHANA LODHAVIA For The Daily

Students, faculty and community members filled Rackam Amphitheaterto hear Jennifer Hirsch, professor of sociomedical sciences at Columbia University and Shamus Khan, chair of sociolog y at Columbia speak about the prominence of sexual assault on college campuses.

Education graduate student Kamaria Porter spoke alongside epidemiologist and 2018 gubernatorial candidate Abdul El-Sayed on a panel addressing campus sexual assault.

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Hirsch and Khan discussed their research regarding sexual assault and their book, “Sexual Citizens: A Landmark Study of Sex, Power, and Assault on Campus,” which was published in January.

Allison Alexy, assistant professor of women’s studies and modern Japanese culture at the University, described her experience working with survivors of sexual assault.

“Sexual assault is something that looms large in our society,” Alexy said.

“Students regularly share their experiences with me. Sometimes because they are looking for formal

or informal support, sometimes because they need my help specifically, sometimes because they are ref lecting on how their experiences with sexual assault — or university responses to it — have shaped their lives and their world views.”

Before discussing her research in sexual assault, Hirsch spoke directly to her audience and reassured them that they have her support.

“To the survivors in the room,” she said. “We see you.”

Hirsch continued by sharing a story of a freshman girl at Columbia who was

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sexually assaulted at the beginning of her college career. Hirsch said that, as most survivors do, the girl partially blamed herself for the events that took place.

She added young people should know that it is their right to set boundaries, a message that resounded with the audience.

Hirsch also said, though this example she used exemplified toxic masculinity, there are many other types of assault that can take place.

“Sexual Citizens outlines how to prevent campus sexual assault,” Hirsch said.

As part of University of Michigan Housing’s new commitment to redesign and update all 18 of the multicultural lounges on campus, Abeng Lounge in East Quad Residence Hall, Audre Lorde Lounge in Helen Newberry Residence Hall and Yuri Kochiyama Lounge in South Quad Residence Hall are set to be renovated this summer. The project, which launched in 2015 based on student feedback, is set to be completed in 2021, in time for the 50th anniversary of the Multicultural Lounge program.

According to Amanda McLittle, director of diversity and inclusion, the renovation plan includes a redesign of the walls, furniture and technology of each space as well as structural improvements.

These changes come at no additional cost to students or University Housing.

“One thing we’ve learned, if you want a space to look and work great not just for this generation of students

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Roger Ouellette, communications director for the Sanders campaign in Iowa, speaks at the Iowa caucus ERIN WHITE Managing Editor

Law firm called ‘hate group’ by SPLC wins round in lawsuit against MI American Freedom Law Center claims Dana Nessel violated constitutional speech rights ANGELINA LITTLE Daily Staff Reporter

The American Freedom Law Center, a conservative public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, won a round in court on Jan. 15 when motions to dismiss the group’s lawsuit were denied.

The group is suing Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and Agustin Arbulu, former director of the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, on the grounds of a constitutional rights violation.

The lawsuit began last February when Nessel and Arbulu issued a press release in response to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s annual Hate Group Map identifying active hate groups across the country; the report listed 31 hate groups in Michigan, a 6.5-percent increase as compared to the previous year. The report identifies the Ann Arbor-based AFLC as an anti-Muslim hate group. In response, Nessel and Abulu announced the establishment of a hate crimes unit in the attorney general’s office as well as a database to document incidents of hate and bias.

On March 8, Nessel released an additional press release officially establishing the new hate crimes unit and reaffirming her commitment to protecting all organizations’ rights to freedom of speech. Nessel also said it was her responsibility to take action against possible hate crimes stemming from offensive or bigoted language.

“When a criminal offense is committed against a person or property and it is motivated by an offender’s bias against

a particular group, then my office will act,” Nessel said.

The complaint contends that the AFLC is being unfairly targeted by this policy directive based on political views and has suffered injury to its reputation. The group claims the policy directive put forth by Nessel and Arbulu infringes on their right to free speech, protected by the First Amendment, and their rights to expressive association and equal protection of the law, both protected by the 14th Amendment.

Nessel and Arbulu filed separate motions to dismiss, however, District Judge Paul Maloney denied these motions, meaning the lawsuit will move on to the discovery phase.

“Defendants’ general disagreement with the scope and nature of their new initiative does not undermine the effect that the announcement of the new policy on AFLC’s reputation and activities, as established by the affidavit submitted by AFLC,” Maloney wrote in the opinion. “And, assuming the allegations in the complaint to be true, AFLC has pled sufficient facts to state claims under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.”

The SPLC is an Alabamabased, nonprofit legal advocacy organization focusing on civil rights. The group’s oft-cited Intelligence Report identify and track hate groups across the nation, however, the group has faced recent criticism questioning the SPLC’s definitions of hate and extremism and defending some of the groups and individuals targeted by hate group reports.

The SPLC declined to comment at the time of this story, however, the group has published multiple articles regarding the AFLC’s anti-Muslim stance.

The Intelligence Report defines “anti-Muslim” hate groups as those which “exhibit extreme hostility toward Muslims … and attribute to (Islam’s) followers an inherent set of negative traits.” In a profile on David Yerushalmi, co-founder and senior counsel of the AFLC, the SPLC outlines Yerushalmi’s history of antiMuslim activism.

In an article titled “Is the War Against Terror Rational?”, Yerushalmi condemns Islam.

“We must be prepared to fight a full-scale war against all nations and people who advocate, accommodate, or acquiesce to the Islamic world view,” Yerushalmi wrote.

“We will never defeat ‘radical Islam’ without defeating Islam itself because they are one and the same.”

The SPLC cites the AFLC’s amicus curiae brief from February 2018 supporting President Trump’s “extreme vetting” travel policy as further evidence of antiMuslim hate. The analysis of the brief draws attention to misinformation put forth about Sharia, Islamic law.

“Its religiously-laden terms such as ‘Islamic radicalism’ and ‘sharia supremacism’ does little to mask the brief’s anti-Muslim agenda,” the SPLC writes. “It also makes the fundamental mistake of equating sharia with ideological extremism, when in fact it is merely a set of guiding principles to living a moral life set out in the Qur’an and is akin to how

halacha is practiced among many religiously-observant Jews.”

The SPLC further denounces the AFLC’s American Laws for American Courts initiative, a legislative model for bills prohibiting foreign laws in American courts, focused specifically on Sharia “law.” The SPLC points out that Sharia is not actually law and that such a protection is already guaranteed by the Constitution.

They sayconclude that the ALAC initiative is an attempt to promote unfounded fear, linking anti-Muslim legislative rhetoric to increasing hate crimes against American Muslims.

“Driven by hate groups, the ALAC initiative has created unfounded fear, and has sought to demonize Islam and American Muslims across the nation through legislation and rhetoric,” the SPLC writes.

Robert Muise, AFLC co-founder and senior counsel, said he felt confident about the case’s outcome following this victory.

“In light of the judge’s ruling on that motion to dismiss, I’m quite confident that we’re going to ultimately prevail,” Muise said. “And our ultimate goal is to protect the rights to freedom of speech and right to expressive association, and to prevent government officials from weaponizing their offices for political purposes.”

Law School student Kevin Deutsch said he wasn’t surprised the motions to dismiss were denied.

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INCARCERATED From Page 1 grads, it was really up to every independent school to make their own decision … I did some research and put together some information, and when we had the meeting with the dean, we presented this and the dean okayed the new policy to ‘ban the box,’ as some people call it.”

Welch was involved with UMich Behind Bars and has touched on their work at Regents meetings, including the February 2019 meeting.

Since Welch mostly works with people who are interested in fighting the stigma surrounding incarceration and improving conditions for those who are currently incarcerated, he said he doesn’t feel racially discriminated against on a daily basis but is still affected by “smaller” aspects of discrimination.

“It’s strange, right?”

Welch said. “Because for me, my background and my story is so

TRAFFICKING From Page 1 H.G. approached the front desk staff bleeding, received no help and was taken back upstairs by her trafficker. Further, the plaintiff argues that, in addition to the “constant stream of male visitors to her room,” there were clear indications crimes had occurred.

According to Tiffany Ellis, an associate attorney for Weitz & Luxenberg representing H.G., hotels profit from traffickers and are therefore not motivated to ensure employees are reporting trafficking.

“All of these (signs) add up over time in a hotel … If the cleaning staff sees some of these things and the front desk staff doesn’t, they should know who to tell about it,” Ellis said. “There should be a common point of contact

SPLC From Page 2 “The standard for surviving a motion to dismiss is incredibly low,” Deutsch said. “To beat a motion to dismiss, a plaintiff basically just needs to have stated in their initial complaint the elements of each legal claim and facts backing them up. The facts

LOUNGES From Page 1 but decades down the line, it’s wise to save and plan ahead, which is what we now do,” McLittle said. “It’s part and parcel of caring for these spaces.”

One of the lounges set to be renovated this summer is Abeng Lounge, located in East Quad. It is named after the abeng musical instrument of the Akan people of Ghana, and it was created in 1971, making it the first multicultural lounge on campus. Besides the redesign, the lounge will move from the basement to the first f loor, where it will be taking the place of the Madrigal Lounge.

As current co-chairs of East Quad’s multicultural council, LSA freshmen Gabriella Dias and Janna Girotto are in Abeng Lounge often, both for council meetings and socializing.

They said they hope the lounge’s relocation will bring more attention to the space. However, with the increased foot traffic, they said they had some worries the meaning of the space would be lost.

“It’s not just a lounge area, it’s an area that is commemorating important history,” Dias said. “It’s meant to be the multicultural area, not just a place where there are couches.”

In an effort to maintain the space’s historical significance, Girotto

much of my work that I don’t necessarily every day face the kind of prejudices that I know other people have. I have a friend who is also a (formerly incarcerated person) and works at a technology firm and his experience has been so different from (mine) on the micro level. Macro, we’ve kind of had the same experience, but on a micro level, day to day interactions, at the workplace, his has been completely different from mine.”

LSA senior Hannah Agnew, president of the student executive committee for PCAP, said she feels strongly about finding ways to eliminate the discrimination and social stigma surrounding those who return after being incarcerated.

Agnew also spoke on the value of making Ann Arbor an inviting place for those of various backgrounds. During her time as a sociology major with a crime and justice minor, she said she has seen powerful insights directly from those who come from that back-

ground, rather than just reading about it.

“I think it’s really important to elevate the voices of folks

nobody better to learn from.”

Welch said he worries about his future career at the University as the school hesitates to

who’ve experienced (incarceration) and know what the system is like,” Agnew said. “And in my personal experience, it is so important to have folks on campus that have been previously incarcerated because there’s

hire those previously convicted of a felony. He pointed to the story of his friend Asia Johnson, who was not hired despite being highly qualified for a job. The position entailed sharing her own story of incarceration

and a common reporting period. There should also be auditing procedures that go into place to ensure that these policies are being followed. I think that at the root of it, this is about greed and turning a blind eye to things that they should have stopped.”

Law School student Ashleigh Pelto, fellow at the Human Trafficking Institute, told The Daily she believes this lawsuit will pressure the hotel industry to begin making more drastic policy changes.

“I think that the discovery that (hotel brands) could be held responsible for trafficking that’s going on in their own hotels is probably the biggest thing towards prevention,” Pelto said.

“Because, if it’s going to be something where they could lose money or even be held criminally responsible, I think that’s going to be the biggest

incentive and push for them to start figuring out how to stop it from happening.”

Pelto said it is easy to forget trafficking is local and that training should not be limited to the hospitality industry.

“I think a lot of times there’s a perception that trafficking is something that happens overseas or only in major cities or at major sporting events like the Super Bowl … but it’s something that’s happening every day, and it’s going on in Ann Arbor,” Pelto said. “And so … learning to recognize those signs is something that anyone can learn how to do.”

Portfolio Hotels and Resorts, the operator of the Ann Arbor Fairfield Inn franchise, provided The Daily with a statement condemning human trafficking and establishing that the company took over management of the hotel in 2013 after the alleged

events occurred.

“We take human trafficking with the utmost seriousness and are committed to the training and engagement of our hotel teams … All Fairfield Inn Ann Arbor employees have successfully completed the required Marriott training on preventing human trafficking,” the statement reads.

In an email to The Daily, IHG spokesperson Jacob Hawkins wrote that he is not able to comment on pending litigation, but that IHG is committed to combatting human trafficking in their properties.

“We condemn human trafficking in all forms and are committed to working with hotel owners to fight human trafficking across our industry and in local communities,” Hawkins wrote. “As part of this, we provide mandatory human trafficking prevention training for all IHG-

don’t even need to turn out to be true.”

Deutsch explained the discovery will be a long, expensive and resourceintensive process that could last several months. He said he anticipates the defendants will then move to summary judgment.

“On summary judgment, the judge is asked to decide the case without a trial if he feels that there are no facts in legitimate

dispute,” Deutsch said. “This will be tougher for the AFLC to overcome, because at that point, the AFLC will need to have a case backed by evidence that a jury could plausibly believe.”

Muise denies allegations of criminal activity. He said the AFLC’s reputation as well as financial contributions have suffered as a result of being designated a hate group by the SPLC, and expressed frustration with government

officials legitimizing the report.

“We’ve been fighting the credibility of this … spending a lot of time and resources to launch press releases, to get in the media, to counter the media’s reliance on the Southern Poverty Law Center, because it does harm us,” Muise said. “And now all of a sudden you have the Michigan attorney general, the state’s top law enforcement office, saying, ‘Oh no, this is a legitimate

suggested that they place a plaque in the lounge’s original spot in the basement after they complete the renovation, similar to the current plaque in the lounge that defines abeng and talks about the heritage represented in the space.

“It will be nice to move us into a more modernized space but still keeping that history, and also moving us somewhere more accessible,” Girotto said. “I am definitely on board with that.”

LSA junior Mya Gibson is the Diversity Peer Educator for South Quad, where the Yuri Kochiyama Lounge is housed on the first f loor.

Due to its proximity to the front doors of South Quad and the dining hall, it is more used than the Abeng Lounge is in East Quad. Gibson said she believes the renovations will be more focused on aesthetic changes rather than functionality. “(Yuri Kochiyama) is an incredible woman,” Gibson said. “She’s done a lot of work for Asian Americans, so there’s a lot of information that you can read on that. I hope they’re able to push that more because currently, it’s kind of put in the background.

You don’t really notice it unless you’re looking for it, whereas other lounges such as the Afro American (Lounge) in the basement of South Quad, they have a lot of paintings and murals to celebrate and to discuss Afro American history, so I

think that would be cool to see.”

In previous years, some of the multicultural lounges, such as the Afro American Lounge, have only been open to residents who completed an orientation about the lounge’s history and rules.

Engineering sophomore Thomas Oscar, vice president of Residence Halls Association Executive, hoped the renovations would continue to bring safe spaces that are inclusive to all students. He added that opening up the spaces to all students makes them more accessible.

“If they don’t have knowledge of the room and its history, being in the room can allow them to get that knowledge,” Oscar said.

“The fact that attention is being brought to them through renovations will allow people to come and learn about the purpose of those rooms and what they originally stood for.”

While the RHA has not yet been requested to give input on the spaces, Oscar said they would be open and willing to give their feedback.

“We find this to be an important moment of the University and the Housing’s history,” Oscar said. “I just hope that there can be a merger of functionality and usability while maintaining the history.”

Friday, February 7, 2020 — 3 and working with students to further the de-stigmatization of incarceration.

Johnson attended the University before she was convicted. She wasn’t able to speak to The Daily in time for publication, but she is continuing to pursue a career in reform and works as a bail disruptor for The Bail Project.

In an email to The Daily, University spokesperson Rick Fitzgerald said the University does not turn away students due solely to their previous conduct, but that it is taken into account.

“The University does not reject an applicant for admission solely because they answered ‘yes’ to a conduct question, nor does it determine applicant eligibility based on past conduct history,” Fitzgerald said. “Conduct is only reviewed after an applicant is determined to be admissible to the university based on a holistic review process.”

Welch is involved in multiple communities working to sup-

port those in Ann Arbor who have been previously incarcerated. A previously incarcerated person is still a person, Welch said.

“This favorite quote of mine, ‘Education is the only thing given that cannot be taken,’” Welch said. “Oftentimes, we assume that just means like collegiate education and things like that, but really, any type of learning or growing. Spaces that (cultivate learning and growing) have to be created more in Ann Arbor because what I found from my own personal experience is that once someone learns who I am, is that I’m just a person, too.”

He said it is important to focus on the humanity of those affected by incarceration while highlighting their struggles.

I get sad, and you’d be surprised at the things that we have in common, but once you know that, ‘Oh my God, here’s this person that grew up completely different from me, but we have these things in common because we’re both people,’” Welch said.

ASSAULT From Page 1 “Our focus is on the social roots of sexual assault.”

Hirsch and Khan said their study aims to make sexual assault a less common feature of college life.

Khan discussed ways to reduce campus sexual assault: starting sexual education from a young age and acknowledging gender dynamics so that people will know what to expect as they mature and contacting policymakers and demanding comprehensive sexual education.

“Those silences around sex are the kinds of things we want to focus on,” Khan said. “Refusing sex can be awkward, but it’s a teachable skill.”

Khan shared a story about another Columbia student who said that “having unwanted sex felt easier than having a difficult conversation.” He explained

only 5 percent of sexual assault cases on campuses are reported, which is likely because most victims are assaulted by people they know.

Throughout the event, students were visibly nodding their heads in agreement as the speakers described their efforts.

Students were also able to text questions to the panel so the speakers could elaborate on ideas during the event.

El-Sayed spoke on the panel and said he grew up in a culture where sex was considered “fundamentally taboo.”

“I have a 2-year-old daughter … and I think a lot about the world she’s going to grow up in,” El-Sayed said.

“I’m walking into parenting without being parented (on this issue).”

Khan concluded the event with a positive outlook on the issue at hand.

“We wanted to give you a sense of empathy and hope,” he said.

list.’ It’s just raised this to another level ... it’s given the state’s endorsement to it, it has dedicated state’s resources to it — this is horrific.”

Nessel and Arbulu’s press release defines a “hate and bias incident” as one which “an action does not rise to the level of a crime or a civil infraction,” including actions protected by the First Amendment. According to the press release, the database

initiative is intended to educate the community about such incidents and combat them.

Muise believes this initiative infringes on constitutional rights.

“No attorney general should weaponize their office to go after political opponents and even threaten to go after political opponents, because it obviously has a chilling effect on the right to freedom of speech,” Muise said.

market as successful in on their websites, online modules, books and lectures.

The Game: The Game is based on Washko’s research in the community, which she called misogynistic alt-right or the Manosphere. In The Game: The Game, players have to interact with “pickup artists” who aim to seduce the player, blurring the lines of consent and manipulating women into sleeping with them.

Washko was able to get an online Skype interview with “pickup artist” Guru Roosh V, a notorious figure in the Manosphere, as part of her research, but she said she had to act submissive and ditzy and cater to what Roosh wanted to talk about to keep the interview running smoothly.

“If you don’t feel like a creep you’re not pushing hard enough,” Washko read from one of Roosh’s books. “You must always be making the first move. You must always be pushing. If you’re scared that she’s going to think you’re a creep, that means you’re on the right path.”

Following her vocal criticism of Roosh, his online community began harassing Washko on social media platforms, though direct messages, in comments in new stories and across the internet. Washko noted the difference in reactions between the World of Warcraft community and the Manosphere was related to her personal position within the communities.

“In WoW, I was recognizable as a long term, a high-level member of the community with high-level gear only obtained through years of commitment to the game,” Washko said. “Clearly a participant in that space and not outside. By virtue of just being myself, a woman, a selfidentified feminist, a person with a

job, I would always be an outsider in the manosphere.”

Washko played videos from the creators as part of the lecture.

Art & Design senior Elizabeth Doyle commented on the impact of those videos.

“I found a lot of it difficult to watch and disturbing,” Doyle said.

“A lot of the men she was focusing on in the beginning were really, really disturbing and hard to watch.”

While the content of The Game: The Game is in some cases disturbing, Washko said she didn’t create it to unsettle players.

Instead, she said she wanted to create a platform where players can better understand what it feels like to be a target of these target techniques.

Washko also commented on the personal impact of delving into the Manosphere and this online community and spoke about how her current project is almost a polar opposite of what she has worked on in the past.

Washko finished the lecture with a bold outlook at what she wants to do with her art.

“I have had a commitment to examining the cultural byproducts of media and entertainment, not only in an effort to rethink them and create hopefully future cultural objects that are more inclusive in a wide range of ways that we choose as humans to perform and present, live and love,” Washko said. “And I hope to continue to tell what I think is complex, underrepresented and unconventional stories about the media that we consume from unusual perspectives using a wide range of forms and distribution strategies.”

If you come to Ann Arbor, you’re Black before you even get to whether or not you actually have a felony, right?And if you walk down the street in Ann Arbor, you will see you don’t belong, because you don’t see anybody that looks like you. The only time you see somebody else that looks like you is in the reflection or a storefront.

GAMING From Page 1 player is a woman, a person of color or part of the LGBTQ+ community. Christian Sandvig, a faculty member in the School of Information, spoke about this commonality in his introduction of Washko.

“All you have to do is turn on the audio and wait,” Sandvig said.

“I know that there are gamers in the audience and I think you know what happens next. I mean it’s reliable, it only takes a couple of minutes before you hear something horrific. It is disturbing, offensive, it could be racist, it could be sexist, homophobic, Islamaphobic. It really thinks of something that bothers you and It’s likely to come up if you wait long enough.”

To combat the prevalence of hate speech, Washko would host public meetings in populous towns within World of Warcraft.

Her project gained large scale attention in World of Warcraft and an intentional inclusive in-game guild was created as a part of these discussions. Washko’s work was displayed in galleries though large-scale projections of these conversations, as well as in writing.

While this wasn’t the first time Washko promoted feminism in her pieces, this project became a baseline for future works.

The second project Washko spoke about was an online video game titled The Game: The Game.

A play on words of the book “The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists” by Neil Strauss, The Game: The Game players navigate the world of “Pickup Artist Gurus,” featuring real-life gurus, who approach players using the tactics the gurus

Opinion

4 — Friday, February 7, 2020

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

DECRIMINALIZE NATURE ANN ARBOR | OP-ED

Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890.

Stanford Lipsey Student Publications Building 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com

ELIZABETH LAWRENCE Editor in Chief

ERIN WHITE

EMILY CONSIDINE AND MILES STEPHENSON

Managing Editor

Editorial Page Editors

EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS Alanna Berger Zack Blumberg Brittany Bowman Emily Considine Cheryn Hong

Krystal Hur Ethan Kessler Mary Rolfes Michael Russo

Timothy Spurlin Miles Stephenson Joel Weiner Erin White Lola Yang

Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of The Daily’s Editorial Board.

All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.

FROM THE DAILY

Don’t panic over coronavirus outbreak

A

s of Thursday morning, the New York Times reported that there are 12 cases of the coronavirus in the United States, including six cases in California and two in Chicago. The announcement came after the first confirmed U.S. case arose in Washington State over two weeks ago. While the illness has barely made its way to the U.S., the lack of understanding surrounding the Wuhan coronavirus’s contagion and cure has placed the issue at the forefront of American consciousness. This attention, compounded with a 24-hour news cycle, has captured the West’s attention for days on end. While media coverage can often over-dramatize public health crises like this one, The Michigan Daily Editorial Board believes this attention remains especially imperative given China’s opaque nature in discussing the thousands of cases within their country.

A report from the Washington Post recently said the Chinese government has quarantined over 35 million people. The same article referenced several public health experts worried that these drastic measures will serve to undercut the trust between the Chinese population and its public health officials, a move that could prevent those infected from receiving the correct education and treatment. While the American media may be overreacting to the few confirmed cases within U.S. borders, their overcoverage may prove important in accumulating the most accurate information possible if the Chinese government continues to operate with a lack of transparency.

While accurate coverage is important, University of Michigan students and the Ann Arbor community alike should keep in mind the warnings of public health officials to avoid any apocalyptic predictions and hysteria, as “Americans should not worry for their own safety.”

In typical fashion, social media has had a significant response, with a plethora of memes about the virus populating Facebook and Twitter feeds. While humor can be a coping mechanism, this memetic social media reaction could contribute to misinformation and undue panic. More locally, the University has responded to the outbreak in an official capacity, issuing a travel restriction on the entire country of China and cautioning U-M affiliates to avoid all non-essential travel to the area. While these diligent responses are meant to protect the U-M community, it is important to maintain the line between “urging vigilance without inciting panic.” As a diverse and global institution, we must avoid any rhetoric or practices that forcefully divide Asian-American students or any other members of the U-M community. While the disease

may not seem like an immediate threat to the U.S., we should keep in mind the many real lives being impacted by the outbreak, making an effort to be attentive to our community rather than alienating.

This certainly is not the first time we have seen such widespread hysteria over a novel disease. In 2003, Severe Acute Respiratory System (SARS), another member of the coronavirus family, caused similar panic when 29 of the 8,098 reported cases occurred in the U.S. — yet none of these patients died. Similarly, panics over Bird flu, Ebola virus and Zika virus have all garnered significant media coverage and societal alarm. In each

The common flu kills an average of 35,000 people each year. instance, reported cases in the U.S. composed a small minority of worldwide infections and deaths. The coverage of Wuhan coronavirus seems to be following this trend. It seems panic is often generated over the most new and noteworthy diseases — not necessarily the most dangerous ones.

On the other hand, the common flu kills an average of 35,000 people each year, hospitalizing about 200,000.

In 2018, the flu took its highest toll in 40 years, causing 80,000 American deaths.

These numbers serve as a reminder that we should always be diligent about protecting our health against both newsworthy and seemingly mundane illnesses.

The defenses are relatively simple:

disinfect porous surfaces, avoid touching your face and wash your hands frequently.

Additionally, everyone who is able should be proactive in receiving the flu vaccine every year. U-M offers flu shots at walk-in clinics for students, faculty and staff throughout the fall and early winter, or through appointment at UHS. Finally, it’s important to keep in mind that the greatest threats to human health in America are much less newsworthy than the Wuhan coronavirus or other infectious diseases.

Chronic illnesses have a significant impact in the U.S., with heart disease and cancer being the leading causes of death by a significant margin.

Unfortunately, the defenses to these health issues aren’t as simple as good hygiene. A more structural reform will be necessary to tackle these causes of death, one involving health policy, nutrition, insurance markets and more.

Every time a hot-button disease makes headlines, it’s important to keep in mind the less glamorous reality of health in the U.S., and what we should be doing to improve it.

Regardless of novelt y, ever yone should always take public health seriously.

Good hyg iene, proper handwashing and updated f lu shots may feel like small acts on the individual level, but when taken in context of a larger population, these simple habits are exceptionally powerf ul in keeping ever yone healthy — especially those with preexisting conditions that place them at higher risk for health complications due to illness. We as the Michigan Daily Editorial Board urge the U-M communit y to stay informed for updates on the coronavirus and use the illness as an opportunit y to check in with our reg ular public health habits.

KAAVYA RAMACHANDHRAN | CONTACT CARTOONIST AT KAAVYAR@UMICH.EDU

R

Ann Arbor, destigmatize psychedelics

ecently, MLive published a brief article covering Decriminalize Nature Ann Arbor (DNA2) and our movement to destigmatize and decriminalize an array of psychedelic plants and fungi which have been shown, by a quickly accumulating mass of clinical and scientific evidence, to be invaluable tools in a variety of therapeutic settings. Not coincidentally, many of these same plants and fungi are considered sacred by indigenous cultures across the world, and play key roles in their spiritual and ceremonial life.

The impetus for this MLive article was the recent release of our resolution to the City Council of Ann Arbor. It is a carefully worded and thoroughly researched proposal for legislation which will end the harmful, unnecessary prohibition of these uniquely beneficial substances, known collectively as “entheogens.”

The article attempts to gauge the initial responses of a handful of councilmembers to this proposed legislation. The results are disappointing.

The MLive piece includes a statement from Councilmember Jane Lumm, I-Ward 2, who dismisses the Decriminalize Nature movement as “folks who want to bring back the good-old hippie days,” before making a reference to Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit,” for some reason.

Lumm’s statement is reductive and in bad faith. Apparently, she didn’t actually read our resolution, and she chose to completely ignore the resolution’s 60-plus medical, scientific and scholarly citations which support our position.

Instead she chose to recite lyrics from a worn-out staple of classic rock radio. With all due respect to Councilmember Lumm, she seems to be the one looking backward, perhaps to a sterile, idealized 1950s that never existed in the first place. DNA2 has its eye on the future. We are not looking backward, to the “good-old hippie days” of the 1960s. We are looking ahead to the 2020s, the decade when psychedelic medicine and entheogenic spirituality go mainstream.

Another councilmember interviewed by MLive is Jack Eaton, D-Ward 4, who seems more sympathetic to our cause, but who still resorts to unjustified alarmism and a misleading conception of the 60s and its legacy. “I’m aware of a lot of the research that’s been done, but I don’t have a really good grasp of how we could deregulate this and not end up right back in the late 60s,” Eaton said. If we understand Councilmember Eaton correctly, “the late 60s” is meant as shorthand for the

excesses and public health issues that did, admittedly, appear during the hippie-era drug culture. But this picture ignores the “harm reduction” practices and policies that have emerged in the decades since, as a counter to these risks.

Harm reduction is an emphasis for DNA2 and its members, as it is for most currently active psychedelic groups and organizations including Michigan DanceSafe and the Michigan Psychedelic Society.

This picture also sidesteps the growing realization that most of the potential for harm with entheogens — or any controlled substances, for that matter — stems from the fact that they are illegal.

Prohibition does little to deter drug use; it simply drives it into the shadows and thus increases the potential for misuse and abuse.

Deregulation is the first step toward a healthier relationship with these substances. It will allow everyone to use entheogens openly and safely, with education and clarity.

In the MLive article, Eaton goes on to say, “I think that it really has to start with the federal government taking it off from the Schedule I list of drugs.” This insistence that entheogens must be removed from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act before they can be made available for medical, spiritual and recreational use is a tactic of delay and deflection. After all, marijuana is still classified by the federal government as a Schedule I drug, and yet here we are: Michigan residents are free to enjoy the medical and psychological benefits of legal cannabis, and the world is still turning.

To return briefly to the topic of the 60s and its legacy, it’s worth noting that both Lumm and Eaton ignore the positive aspects of that legacy. They give us a caricature of hippie hedonism, while omitting the crucial influence of hippie counterculture on the progressive politics and social justice movements of our own era. Perhaps the most enduring legacy of 60s counterculture was its central role in the emerging environmental movement.

There’s a recurring, undeniable relationship between psychedelic experience and environmental awareness, between entheogens and the realization of a fundamental continuity between humanity and nature, as well as the recognition that the complexity of the natural world is fragile and cannot be taken for granted. During this most uncertain of times, when every day confronts us with the signs of impending global environmental catastrophe, such environmental

awareness is a moral imperative and a necessity for our survival as a species. To deny our citizens access to entheogenic substances which facilitate such awareness is an unethical act, one which subsequent generations will not judge kindly.

Again, we’re not here to litigate (and re-litigate, over and over again) the legacy of the 60s. We’re not here to talk about the past.

That’s a distraction. We’re here to discuss our shared present and our potential for a brighter future. The decriminalization of entheogenic plants and fungi is a matter of utmost, existential urgency, and should be a priority for the Ann Arbor City Council.

It’s absurd that obviously destructive drugs such as alcohol and tobacco remain legal, while these natural substances with relatively little destructive potential are illegal. The 2017 Global Drug Survey concluded that the psilocybin in “magic mushrooms” is the safest, least toxic recreational drug currently in use.

Some members of City Council may continue to resist and delay, but our momentum will carry decriminalization forward. The clinical and scientific evidence for the many benefits of entheogens is weighty and ever-accumulating, and this is being recognized by cities and states across the country. In May 2019, the citizens of Denver, Colo., voted to decriminalize magic mushrooms. In June 2019, the City Council of Oakland, Calif., voted, unanimously, in favor of the decriminalization of entheogenic plants and fungi. In October, Chicago’s Committee on Health and Human Relations voted unanimously in favor of a similar resolution, which is now pending before its City Council.

Last week, the Santa Cruz, Calif., City Council followed suit, also by unanimous vote. And on Feb. 6, the District of Columbia took its first steps toward making decriminalization a ballot measure in November.

Ann Arbor has a history and a reputation as one of the most forward-thinking cities in the Midwest, if not the country.

Will its current leadership honor that reputation, or tarnish it by attempting to delay the inevitable? The members of Decriminalize Nature Ann Arbor are looking toward a brighter, healthier, saner future, and we urge City Council to join us in doing the same.

Decriminalize Nature Ann Arbor can be reached at decrimnaturea2@gmail.com.

EASHETA SHAH | COLUMN

M

My culture is not your Whole Foods

y parents are immigrants, so in our household, food is the center of everything. That means you don’t refuse food even if you just ate. While I’m not the biggest foodie, my parents would take food preparation very seriously, so I grew to love cooking over the years. I was never a natural, but my mom insisted that I learn all the traditional family recipes. What I once thought of as a tedious chore became the foundation for an appreciation of my culture and the art of food preparation. Grocery shopping is the most important task for the Shah family’s process.

It includes two kinds of trips: the routine run to our local grocery store with my mom, or a more special trip to my city’s farmer’s market with my grandpa. While the former is a speedy encounter, Saturday farmer’s markets were a religious experience. My grandpa would say hello to his favorite local business owners, and we’d pick out beautiful, fresh produce. Hours later, we’d head home, content with our selection.

The occasional trip to Whole Foods, however, was a completely different experience. While I reluctantly forgive the overpriced produce, I can’t help but scoff at the shelves stacked with lentil soup that pale in comparison to my mom’s recipe. Here, my grandpa would have no one to talk to. Instead, I see a man debating between the freerange and grass-fed chicken eggs. I see a kid pick up a box of 100 percent fruit strips with no added flavors or sugars. Although I support the raw foods lifestyle, I always thought some of it was a little extreme. But who am I to comment on another individual’s

grocery shopping predilections? And by any means, I had some intense restocking to accomplish according to my highly organized list.

A part of me recognized the facade of Whole Foods, but it was one of those things I seemed to be better off unbothered with. But when I had finished reading the section of Michael Pollan’s “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” on Big Organic for my Food, Energy, and Environmental Justice class last semester, my shy animosity toward Whole Foods escalated. I take pride in my culture, so when I see a brand that has industrialization embedded into its production narrative try and preach authenticity, I get a little defensive — to that and seeing jars of my grandmother’s cure-all “Golden Milk” instant mix placed methodically in the front of the bulk spices aisle. I mean, come on, get your own god damn culture.

It’s understood that as globalization continues, cultural diffusion is inevitable — it’s encouraged even. And what is the American Dream if not an expansion of ideas and ways of life? However, for America and its premature industrialization of food, ahead lies a consequently unpromising road to culture and the craft of food preparation.

Time and time again, these attempts to reconcile the mass production of processed food acquiesce at the hand of convenience. In that respect, countries of lower socioeconomic status seem to be at an advantage because their circumstances led them to care about how food was made available. And that

care continually nurtured their culture. It’s what makes food preparation such a big deal in many countries, and it’s why culture cannot simply be bought in a can of ultra-pasteurized goat milk.

Don’t get me wrong — I’m a big fan of organic, and I think the campaign for it is a noble one.

Big Organic is a term coined for the progressive movement in agriculture and food production promoting organic and sustainable farming over existing industrial practices. This is good. Organic is good, and consumers should support brands that practice sustainable farming methods.

Especially if it means endorsing local stories over the narrative of capitalism. But when businesses like Whole Foods want and expect their organic suppliers to operate at a larger scale, Pollan poses the overarching question best: “Is industrial organic ultimately a contradiction in terms?” Short answer: It is. Whole Foods strives to emphasize their “commitment to the local farmer” but unless their “local farmer” is a large scale organic farm in California, this is nothing but false advertising.

A large portion of Whole Foods’s shelf space is accorded to big brands, wiping away all the underdogs, if they haven’t already been absorbed into the larger ones.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com Easheta Shah can be reached at shaheash@umich.edu.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Arts

Friday, February 7, 2020 — 5

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Pre-caucus Iowa: Bon Iver, Bernie and lots of beanies MAYA GOLDMAN For The Daily

I had no idea of what to expect out of the Iowa Caucus Concert featuring Bon Iver, but when Senator Bernie Sanders announces he’s holding a concert to rally supporters and by circumstance you’re already going to be in the correct state, you find a way to get to that concert.

I woke up in Ann Arbor at 5 a.m. that morning and drove all the way to Iowa with another Michigan Daily journalist and a photographer to report on the pre-caucus activities in the state. By the time we arrived at the concert venue — Horizons Event Center in Clive, Iowa — at 4 p.m. on Friday, we’d already interviewed several Iowans about their feelings on the caucus, trailed around a group of University of Michigan students canvassing for Senator Elizabeth Warren and eaten lunch at the World’s Largest Truck Stop. That’s all to say: We’d been busy.

Since this wasn’t just any concert — this was a Bernie Sanders Caucus Concert — there was an hour of Iowan folk bands to open the show, 2 hours of energetic political speeches from Sanders’ political surrogates (the senator himself was stuck in D.C. for the impeachment trials) and then about 45 minutes of Justin Vernon closing out the show with a solo acoustic set. I wasn’t used to this Iowa reporting schedule of 18-hour days, so by the time Justin Vernon took the stage at 9 p.m., I was pretty damn exhausted.

Still, I left the press area — buzzing with professional journalists all very excited to be at this rather unusual event — and planted myself squarely in the middle of the crowd for Vernon’s set. About 2,000 people had turned out to support Bernie and see Bon Iver, and as far as I could tell, it wasn’t much different from the crowd at a packed university co-op party.

I’d never seen more rolledup beanies, circular glasses frames or Doc Martens in one space before. People of all ages had come out to see the show (there were multiple babies in

attendance!), but the majority of attendees looked between the ages of 18 and 30, which checks out, considering Sanders’ appeal to young voters. The crowd was energized by the call, and screamed when Vernon took the stage, just as they had during the rallying cries of the political figures who’d spoken earlier in the evening. The couple next to me looked so thrilled by the combination of Bernie and Bon Iver that I thought they might jump each other right there in the middle of the Horizons Event Center.

The feeling in the event center shifted suddenly, though. Vernon, who hails from Wisconsin, opened his set with a cover of Bob Dylan’s “With God on Your Side.” When he

When Senator Bernie Sanders announces he’s holding a concert to rally supporters and by circumstance you’re already going to be in the correct state, you find a way to get to that concert

croned “the country I come from is called the Midwest,” the audience cheered, but far more softly than they had earlier. A man to my right wearing a cow print baseball cap and sporting a thick mustache (no beard) swayed from side to side. I felt whiplashed; the softness of Vernon provided a stark contrast to the angry radical energy that had precipitated the room just before he took the stage.

The tonal shift left me feeling confused and even more exhausted. My back hurt from standing for so long in bad shoes. Plus I wanted to see how professional political journalists were treating this caucus concert.

Out of respect for the Midwestern energy in the room, I “excused me”-d and “pardon me”-d back to the press area. But when I got back there, the tables were almost entirely empty.

Gone were all the laptops, voice recorders and cameras.

Everyone seemed to have gone home to their companyexpensed motels. I thought back to the buzz I’d felt emanating off the other reporters in the press area before diving into the crowd of Bernie supporters and Bon Iver fans. Had it just been an excitement to leave the event?

I felt betrayed, in a way. A free Bon Iver concert that you get paid to go to! Sure, for an arts and culture journalist, no big deal. But for a political reporter? That doesn’t happen every day! Covering 2020 is a serious job, but I felt like no one should be above having a little fun at a free concert.

Disappointed, I didn’t want to go back into the crowd, but I couldn’t see Vernon from the press tables, so I walked up the stairs to the small press balcony.

The balcony also had a view of the stage, but an even better view of the press area below, and as I counted the number of journalists who’d stuck around on my fingers, I noticed someone I hadn’t seen before: One lone journalist sat asleep in her chair at a press table, head down on the cold plastic.

As I looked at this sleeping comrade, I realized the heaviness of my own exhaustion. Sure, I loved Bon Iver as much as the next guy. But I’d been working for 15 hours at that point. The newsworthy part of this event had come and gone. I didn’t need to be there, and frankly, I wanted to be asleep, too. I decided to cut the other journalists — who’d probably been working 18-hour days in Iowa for weeks now — some slack. We were all tired.

We could pay to see Bon Iver another time. Let’s all go back to our motel rooms and go to sleep.

NETFLIX

The ‘Next in Fashion’ is entertaining but tone-deaf BRENDON CHO For The Daily

CW: Anti-Blackness, fetishization, body shaming, economic privilege Competitive reality TV truly benefits from the weekly release format of cable and channel television. You have a week to ruminate on the show after watching an hour of action and drama that falls upon your favorite contestant. The week-long break in between each airing gives the viewer a chance to debrief, discuss and process the episode before repeating the cycle with the next week’s episode. By the next episode’s release, you may not care about the rote, repetitive nature of the competition and its dramatic editing. While watching competitive reality TV you may wonder if Netflix’s bingeworthy episodes provide a better alternative.

Netflix’s “Next in Fashion” is the streaming giant’s latest foray into the realm of fashion and competitive reality TV. Similar to “Project Runway,” “Next in Fashion” tries to find a fresh and talented designer who will be awarded a $250,000 investment toward their own brand, as well as an opportunity to sell their designs through online retailer Net-a-Porter. All designers, unlike competitors from shows such as “Master Chef,” are professionals within the fashion design trade; most have their own brands, while some have even ghost-designed under celebrity brands. “Next in Fashion” pits the contestants, initially paired in teams of two, to create stunning looks that will be judged on a catwalk. Contestants that do not meet the judges’ approval are sent home.

Tan France and Alexa Chung, the hosts of “Next in Fashion,” provide tongue-in-cheek humor that provides levity to the otherwise tense and often chaotic environment within each episode.

Assisting France and Chung are industry heavyweights who judge each contestant’s submission.

While entertaining, “Next in Fashion” reveals a fair number of problematic behavior mostly through the critiques from guest judges and the hosts.

The show’s attempts to find the most forward-thinking designers come across as elitist and economically privileged. In an episode where the challenge was to create suits, France and guest judge Jason Bolden disregarded outfits that looked “cheap” and “not expensive.” These criticisms

“Next in Fashion” Series Premiere Netflix

ironically came after Tan France’s “Fashion Tip” segment in which he advised contestants to opt for a cheap, yet tailored suit compared to an expensive one.

“Next in Fashion” rears its most problematic side during the critiquing segments of its two Black contestants, Kianga ‘KiKi’ Milele and Farai Simoyi-Agdebe. In the aforementioned suit challenge, the judges criticized Kiki and Farai’s practical interpretation of a woman’s power suit. In the

subsequent episode, despite Kiki’s prodigious expertise within streetwear, the hosts and judges— save for guest judge Kerby JeanRaymond — heavily criticized the “unfinished” look of their outfit, an intentional design decision by Kiki.

It is only Kerby’s stalwart refusal to disqualify Kiki and Farai that saves the duo from being disqualified.

For a moment, you hold out hoping that “Next in Fashion” breaks the appropriation and commodification of Black culture and design by established, predominantly white, clothing labels and designers. And for that moment, it does pass; Kiki and Farai are not disqualified from the round.

Yet, Kiki and Farai are disqualified in the next round, which involves lingerie. Tan France and Victoria’s Secret model Adriana Lima’s criticisms of Kiki and Farai’s design revolve around a supposed lack of breast support and a lack of “perky breasts.”

Though Kiki and Farai’s lingerie design revolved around women’s comfort and also showed detailed construction of a breast support system, Kiki and Farai are disqualified nonetheless. Those who do not prescribe to the white heteronormative standards of beauty, including Kiki and Farai, are sent out of the competition.

Equally puzzling are the host and guest judges’ fascination with the two East Asian contestants: Angel Chen and Minju Kim. While the two contestants receive praise from Tan France and Alexa Chung, you wonder if it stems from an extant fetishization of East Asian culture from a Western perspective rather than a genuine applause towards the design process of both Angel and Minju.

Read more online at

michigandaily.com

Learning to live with pain: Napolitano’s ‘Dear Edward’ LILLY PEARCE For The Daily

Warning: “Dear Edward” is not meant for the fainthearted or anyone with a fear of flying. “Dear Edward” by Ann Napolitano is the story of a young boy, Edward, who is the sole survivor of a plane crash that took the lives of his family and the other 186 passengers.

The book shifts from Edward’s present-day perspective to those of eight other distinct characters on the flight, tracking their experiences from boarding the plane to the final moments preluding its fatal crash.

The intensive buildup leaves the reader craving to read more, and the dramatic irony of the plane’s inevitable crash steadily heightens as you delve deep into the minds of the passengers: their problems, struggles, regrets — all

of which seem minuscule under the weight of death waiting to take them all. All but Edward.

Several issues are brought to light through these characters: abusive relationships, sexuality struggles and identity crises.

“Dear Edward” is not a fairytale; just like the unpredictability of life, the plane crash is not something for which the characters are prepared. They are not actors who know how the scene ends, characters experiencing a flashback or omniscient narrators of their experiences. Having the story told as a novel makes it more engaging, more real and more devastating to witness the evolution of each character’s priorities and dispositions before they collectively sink into their imminent deaths.

The increasingly chaotic setting on the plane contrasts from that of the solemn and quiet

perspective of Edward. While Edward’s chapters focus on him as an individual, the chapters occurring on the plane switch frequently and rapidly between the specified eight characters onboard. Accustomed to the isolation of characters usually exhibited in YA novels, I initially found the constant shifting difficult to follow. Nevertheless, because each character is so unique (an injured soldier, a dying Wall-Street sensation and a free-spirited woman amongst the eight), a sort of rhythm is established within the perspective shifts and it becomes easier to decipher who is who, solely based on the voice Napolitano uses for the eight characters.

While the plane chapters were always gripping and suspenseful, leaving the reader waiting for the realization of the unavoidable terror, they were

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often very similar. The shift between the characters aided the range of these chapters, but often it felt repetitive with each character retelling their increasingly apathetic thoughts.

The anticipation of the crash initiated at the beginning preemptively made these sections seem tedious and dull until the height of the conflict arose.

Until the real drama finally makes its appearance, Edward’s chapters maintain the reader’s interest. When first introduced, Edward is Eddie: the innocent 12-year old boy preparing for his

family’s move to Los Angeles.

Soon, though, he becomes Edward, the boy that readers are desperate to protect. He is physically weak, emotionally destroyed and achingly lonely.

Time passes slowly for him; he does not overcome his trauma quickly — or even at all — by the time the novel ends.

Napolitano shows that healing is not something that happens overnight. The false expectation can complicate dealing with trauma in one’s own life, but Edward’s story is reassuring in that his problems are not miraculously solved.

“Dear Edward” Ann Napolitano Dial Press Jan. 6, 2020

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Arts

6 — Friday, February 7, 2020

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

ENTERTAINMENT COLUMN

SUNDANCE FILM REVIEW

Sundance 2020: ‘Minari’ is brilliant The 2019 Oscars: I’m not watching TRINAL PAL

Daily Arts Writer

The opening scene of “Minari” is simple yet telling. The Yi family drives their moving truck through rural Arkansas, hesitant disgust on the mother’s face, eager expectation on her husband’s.

They stop in the middle of a grassy enclosure and the camera pans to what the family sees — a mobile home, covered in drab gray and brown paint. The children run out, exclaiming, “Look! Our house has wheels!”

What better symbol of false hope, the American Dream thrown into disarray, than a shabbily painted mobile home in the middle of nowhere?

As the children frantically jump into the house to start exploring, their mother hides her face with her hands, wisps of her black hair barely concealing the tears in her eyes. This wasn’t what she was promised. Dull resignation settling over her face, she clumsily climbs inside.

“Minari” — directed by Lee Isaac Chung (“Munyurangabo”) — follows the Yi family,

Korean immigrants who move from California executed to perfection. Dark, somber scenes to Arkansas for hopes of better pay for their are complemented (often times immediately) by profession, chicken sexing (sorting female heartwarming family shots, so much so that I felt I was living right alongside the chicks from male chicks for Yi’s, watching everything play out egg production). Jacob (Steven Yeun, “Burning”) dreams of in real time. I walked out of the “Minari” starting a farm, and convinces theater knowing that “Minari” would make it big, and it did, his wife Monica (Han Yeri, Dir. Lee Isaac winning the arguable top accolade “Worst Woman”) to come along, Chung disguising his grand schemes of Sundance, the U.S. Dramatic under the pretense of a “garden.” grand jury prize and the Audience Sundance 2020 Award. A24 plans to release the Their children, David (Alan S. film in theaters later this year, Kim in his debut film) and Anne (Noel Cho in her debut film) are where I’m confident it will win enthusiastic about moving, but over the hearts of many. bored out of their minds when they finally reach After a whole weekend of watching Sundance Arkansas. Monica’s mother Soonja (Yuh Jung films, the animated performances of the cast of Youn, “Woman of Fire”) moves from South Korea “Minari” set it apart from its competitors. Kim to stay with them, and the tale of the chaotic and may be one of the most talented child actors I’ve hilarious Yi family kicks off. seen.

“Minari” may have a conventional plot — Read more online at immigrant stories of chasing the American michigandaily.com dream are plentiful in film — but this one is

‘Telsa’ is postmodern boredom DYLAN YONO Daily Arts Writer

It was a full house at the screening of “Tesla” I attended in Salt Lake City. Sundance attendees filled up a magnificent theatre with a capacity of well over a thousand. I wasn’t closely following which films were the ones to look out for at Sundance 2020, so I had no idea it would draw such a huge audience. Bystanders clamored outside the theatre for someone to give up their tickets. But the excitement didn’t surprise me.

Everyone loves an underdog story, and festival goers were appropriately amped to see a biopic on the internet’s darling martyr of scientific history.

I’m not sure what I expected from a biopic about Nikola Tesla, but the movie turned my undefined expectation on its head. It is a wholly weird, fourth-wall-breaking work of avant-garde artistry. The film is narrated by J.P. Morgan’s daughter Anne (Eve Hewson, “Robin Hood”), who sets the scenes with a MacBook and a projector.

Nikola Tesla (Ethan Hawke, “The Kid”) and experiments in Colorado. But, all of this layered Thomas Edison (Kyle MacLachlan, “The House with artistic surrealism makes the whole thing with a Clock in Its Walls”) have a historically difficult to follow. It grasps at so many threads of inaccurate ice cream fight. Ethan Tesla’s life, but fails to get anything Hawke sings a karaoke rendition meaningful across about the man himself. of Tears For Fears’s 1985 hit The film acknowledges its “Everybody Wants To Rule The “Tesla” lack of historical accuracy about World,” all while in-character as Dir. Michael Edison and Tesla’s relationship — Tesla. I shit you not.

Almereyda Anne Morgan chimes in with a While “Tesla” is sometimes “it didn’t really happen like that” hilarious — even if its intent is Sundance 2020 after the aforementioned ice sometimes ambiguous — it’s cream fight — but it’s still overly mostly terrible. It is a genuinely boring film through and through, misleading. Especially in what all my research indicates is a largely trading the constraints of logical speculative construction of Tesla’s narrative for Aesthetic™. Much of the film focuses on a rivalry between Edison relationship with Anne Morgan and infatuation and Tesla that more accurately existed between with French actress Sarah Bernhardt. The film Edison and Westinghouse. There’s a lot of history does give a truthful depiction of Tesla’s insanity tied to the late-19th-century war of the currents toward the end of his life... depicted in the film, including Westinghouse Read more online at powering a world’s fair in Chicago, New York’s michigandaily.com first electric chair execution and Tesla’s neurotic

IAN HARRIS

Daily Entertainment Columnist

This Sunday will be the first time I haven’t watched the Academy Awards ceremony live since I was a little kid.

Growing up as a film lover and now pursuing film as my major, the Oscars have always been required reading in order to understand and partake in the discourse surrounding media this time of year. This weekend is also regionals for the Michigan Mock Trial team, of which I am a member. Consequently, I will be driving home from Northwestern University when the Oscars air. I’ll have to check Twitter or something to find out the results. The Oscars used to be like the Super Bowl for film majors; I assume for many they still are. But this year when I realized the Oscars were the same weekend as regionals, I barely shrugged my shoulders.

Much has been said about how out of touch the Oscars are with the general public, how uniform both the films and people nominated are and how much they fail to represent the growing diversity in the film industry and in the world at large. I agree with all of these criticisms and don’t believe I could add anything in these pages on that front that hasn’t been said by others in a better and more compelling way.

But I will say that I don’t think the Oscars really provide much compelling drama anymore.

That is to say, they’re super boring, both as an event and as a subject for discussion. The age of the “movie star” is more or less over. Are there any actors or actresses today who can guarantee a film will not flop simply because they are in it?

I honestly do not think so. The rivalries and personalities that used to capture the attention of the nation just no longer interest

me. Turns out a lot of the people promoting these things were ReallyBadPeopleTM. Which movie should win Best Picture? What do I care?

I haven’t liked a Best Picture winner in years. The best movie I saw was certainly Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women,” but I honestly haven’t seen many of the other nominees. There was much ado about “Joker” back in October, but the movie never interested me from the start and post-controversy it interested me even less. I liked “Parasite” a lot but still thought “Little Women” was something I’m more likely to revisit in the future. Either way, what does it matter what I, or anyone else really thinks? Did “The Shape of Water” win last year, or two years ago? I can hardly recall what happened in it. All the Oscars’prestige pictures — the World War psychological dramas and intimate character studies — have blended together.

They’ve become as banal to me as the endless stream of superhero films that permeate cinemas.

And no, I don’t think they should nominate more blockbusters just to get more people to watch.

“Avengers: Endgame” is no more deserving of Best Picture than an Egg McMuffin is deserving of a best breakfast sandwich award.

It’s good for what it is for sure — maybe the best version of what it can be — but it’s still covered in grease and you’re pretty sure it’s not good for you.

For a while now people have been talking about how TV has begun to outdo film as the preeminent visual entertainment medium and it’s pretty hard to disagree with that when you look at the state of both industries. The Oscars sadly are another example of a problem that has become systemic.

Read more online at

michigandaily.com

COMMUNITY CULTURE NOTEBOOK

SUDOKU

WHISPER puzzle by sudokusnydictation.com

Introducing the

WHISPER “60 characters.

Bare your soul.

Get featured in the Daily!”

Release Date: Friday, February 7, 2020

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

2 Turner on a ACROSS turntable 1 Component of an 3 Times, at times Olympic bronze 4 Spirited toon? medal 5 Actress Hatcher 5 Off-road vehicle 6 “Top Chef” set maker? piece 10 Peddle 7 Building project 14 Brand in a studio, for cranes? maybe 8 Get down to 15 Chooser’s choice earth?

16 Onetime capital 9 First pro team to of the Mughal play on artificial Empire turf 17 Seats facing the 10 Samurai ritual altar 11 Lab gelatins 18 Alley button 19 Genesis problem 12 Pen 13 GOOD Music 20 Soiree for record label woodchip founder manufacturers?

21 Cholesterol 23 Energized letters 25 Inspection 26 Soiree for certain 22 Presume 23 Common 99-cent divers? purchase 30 Govt. stipend 31 Angel dust letters 24 Hajji’s destination 32 Neural transmitter 27 Potter’s creation 28 Plot lines 34 Powerful 2017 29 Imitates hurricane derisively 37 Soiree for 33 “American Gods” spreadsheet author Gaiman creators?

35 Traveler’s 41 Solo number overnight spot 42 Gear for Lindsey 36 Seasoning seed Vonn 43 Service reward 45 PETA concern 47 Soiree for fake coin makers?

50 Need for big dos 54 Spherical extremities 55 Soiree for army enlistees?

59 Green hue 60 Louvre Pyramid architect 61 Chatroom spammers 64 Manipulates 65 Really funny ones 66 Citycircumventing road 67 Hot message 68 American in Paris, perhaps 69 One of 11 for Julia LouisDreyfus DOWN 1 12345, for Schenectady, NY

38 Buoyant protection 39 Actress Dern of “Twin Peaks” 40 Sch. with a Harrisburg campus 44 NBA stat 46 Hang up the spikes 48 2.3, perhaps: Abbr.

49 Slight character flaw

50 2.3, roughly 51 Come up 52 Big name in stopwatches 53 Compilation album add-on 56 Per item 57 Spanakopita cheese 58 Solidarity symbol 62 First of a generic trio 63 Expert on bugs?

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

By Andrew Linzer ©2020 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

WHISPER “I be farting on people’s desks.”

02/07/20

02/07/20

A 24-step guide to breaking up STEPHANIE GURALNICK Daily Arts Writer

Each month, we invite Community Culture writers to respond to a themed prompt in a creative writing notebook. This month, February, is the month of love! But searching for valentines is SO last year… this month’s theme is breakups, bad dates and broken hearts. — Zoe Phillips, Senior Arts Editor Realize. Something has shifted.

Tectonic plates in your heart grind against each other ever so slowly until, one day, you notice a crack where there wasn’t one before.

The landscape has shifted.

Ignore the fuck out of it. The shift is almost imperceptible, so if you don’t focus too hard on it, perhaps it’s not there. It was probably just some stray hair caught in your glasses. God knows you never clean them enough. You stay quiet, you keep your eyes wide and unfocused.

Realize again. Before it was a shift in tectonic plates, it was massive ancient rock sitting far below the crust of the earth. Now, it’s closer to the surface. Now, it’s a rumbling that’s rattling your teacups in their saucers, toppling over your cup of pencils and the papers on your desk, waking you from a sleep you weren’t even unconscious for anyway. You have to get up.

Seek council. There is a moment of suspense before you hit the call button below your roommate’s contact info. Your finger lingers over the blue-green glow of your cell phone screen as you realize that words have far more power than they should.

Once you confide in someone, you bring the problem into an unignorable existence. Abstract fears are now spun into audible words, braided with tears and “I don’t know’s.” You now have

a witness. The landscape has changed.

Avoid him.

Become incredibly productive.

Fling yourself towards distractions because the road ahead of you is thick with fog and it’s safer to stay with what you know.

Realize again. Fog doesn’t clear without the scalding heat of the sun to cut through it. Neither will this. You have to do it.

Plan it. Now this part makes you feel the dirtiest. You decide on a walk because that’s what they do in movies and you don’t want to ruin anywhere for him. You do it at night so there’s even less of a chance he’ll attach this memory to a specific spot.

Oh God, there’s gonna be a memory.

Answer the door when he rings.

Walk.

Walk.

Chuckle half heartedly as he tells you a funny story from his day.

Walk.

Stop walking. … ...

It’s hard. Your words have blown away and faded back into abstract concepts and you’re just starting to formulate them again until you look up and—oh my god his eyes, he knows he knows, he’s known this whole walk (how long has he known and hurt for this, you don’t want to know) and his eyes are the last silent plea before you move into the world of words.

He asks you to please, please stop what he knows is coming.

You speak.

He speaks.

You leave.

He stays.

You know his eyes are blue, but you’re already forgetting if they’re more blue or blue-green.

The landscape has shifted.

Sports

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Friday, February 7, 2020 — 7

Plays with Pearson: Breaking down Lockwood’s winner against Ohio State TIEN LE

Daily Sports Writer

The Michigan Daily sat down with Michigan coach Mel Pearson on Thursday and pulled out a hockey whiteboard.

Pearson drew up the intricacies of a play from last weekend’s matchup against then-No. 11 Ohio State that led to a Will Lockwood goal.

He broke down where players went with the puck, what they were thinking with the play they made and how it all went down — with the X’s and O’s on a whiteboard.

The Daily deciphered the board and pieced together a series of drawings that represent what Pearson had to show.

Here’s what he drew up. *** Friday, the Buckeyes tied the game with a power play goal midway through the second period. Momentum flipped then and Ohio State started pressing heavily against a stout Michigan defense. With four minutes left in the game, Lockwood took the puck off a rebound and scored a thrilling game-winning goal.

The Wolverines went on to win the game, 3-2, due to the hustling efforts of Lockwood.

The Michigan Daily: Can you break down (senior forward Will Lockwood)’s game winner Friday?

Mel Pearson: Yes, Slaker shot it, so Will came in and came across like this. Slaker came in from behind him so he dropped the puck, and Slaker came in and basically took the shot.

Pearson: Will continued on this way, and the rebound came out to him. He took the one shot and followed it in. Puck came

here, he actually took a second shot, and it came here.

Pearson: So Will’s coming here, and he comes in and cuts across. This is his sort of path that he took, and yes Slaker just came in here and took the shot.

And then actually (Slaker) goes to the net, but Will stayed with the puck.

Pearson: That’s the biggest thing. After the shot was taken, he got the rebound.

You teach guys to go to the net, and then the second one came to him.

He’s fortunate it came here and then he’s so quick. He’s got such good speed and quick hands.

When the goalie made the save, he was here, and Will just beat him back to the post.

Pearson: They had a defenseman here but the defenseman for some reason — this is how Ohio State and other teams play. They sort of hold in front. (The opposing player) didn’t go down to meet him here, and that gave Will actually, Will’s probably a few feet behind the goal line when he stuffed the puck in. So, this defenseman was taught not to go back down and get him, just sort of hold the post like this.

Pearson: Slaker’s coming in like this. Oh, yeah. Again, Will just comes in like this. He leaves the puck for Slaker coming down here. Slaker takes the wide shot, gets a rebound. It’s actually a good shot. Will, one rebound, continues on, second rebound, and then picks it up and jam it here. Then Slaker goes to the net here. Will’s so quick like I said, he just put in.

TMD: Could he have made the open pass to Slaker at the net?

Pearson: He could have, but I think you sometimes make a

He leaves the pick for Slaker coming down here.

ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily

Michigan coach Mel Pearson sat down with The Daily to break down senior forward Will Lockwood’s game-winning goal against Ohio State on Friday.

decision, you don’t even look.

Especially when he first got out here, I think his whole intention was to beat the goalie to the far post. A lot of times you can when that goalie has come out to play this shot and it comes right back, he’s so quick.

If you’re fast like Will and quick, you can get around to that far post before the goalie can physically move there. That’s what happened on that play. And good goal scorers do that. You know, you see some

Will has that, he likes to go to the net. He’s aggressive.

MSU rivalry changing under Howard JACOB KOPNICK Daily Sports Editor

The Big Ten’s best rivalry returns on Saturday.

Over the previous decade, no two teams have flexed more dominance over the conference than Michigan and Michigan State. No team is more emphatically circled on the schedule for the Wolverines.

No regular season game carries more meaning. No holds are barred.

Heading into the first iteration of this showdown on Jan. 5, there were a thousand question marks regarding the arrival of new coach Juwan Howard.

What was the rivalry going to look like under new leadership?

How was Howard going to embrace the moment? Would he maintain composure or succumb to the grandness of the moment and the narrative written by two juggernaut programs up to that point?

In that early-January game, Howard answered many of the lingering questions … by receiving his first technical foul of the season.

After the referees missed a potential foul call on senior center Austin Davis following a drive to the hoop, Howard was livid at the lack of response from the officials. He stepped

on the court, and the ref made a “T” with his hands, signaling a marked departure from the days of rivalry past.

In the previous Michigan era, former coach John Beilein was a resolute, composed figure on the sideline. The epitome of his program’s values.

On the other end of the sideline, Michigan State employed a more emotional firebrand to run its ship. Tom Izzo — the famed high-level game manager — argued and screamed at every available opportunity. In their demeanor, the two couldn’t be more different.

But Howard’s temperament on the sidelines is a marked departure from his predecessor.

“If there’s one thing I’m glad about Juwan, to be very blunt and honest with you, is John was so buttoned up that I look like a fool all the time,” Izzo said after his program’s win against the Wolverines. “And now both of us look like fools, it makes it an equal opportunity deal.”

Added Howard: “I’m going to back up my team for all 40 minutes of the ball game. That possession, I had seen enough.

I saw a lot of contact. … But

unfortunately it wasn’t called, so I got a little beside myself.

I’m an emotional guy, and I’m going to always fight for my players.’

Howard provided a glimpse — however small — into the new era of the rivalry. The technical, along with the new direction Howard is taking Michigan men’s basketball, are laying the foundation for a new, epic chapter in the showdown.

Playing with a newfound passion and emotion on the sidelines is one thing, but picking the players to help you write the narrative is arguably the more important element.

Under Beilein, the Spartans held the clear recruiting advantage year in and year out. When one top10 recruiting class fled to the NBA or graduated, another one quickly took its place.

Beilein famously only sought the players that fit his system, often leading to less-than-elite groups of athletes.

But his ability to make more with less made the rivalry that much more exciting.

With Howard quickly amassing one of the Wolverines’ most highly-ranked recruiting classes in the last two decades, things are going to look a lot different when Michigan and Michigan State suit up in the future.

Poised and methodical versus athletic and emotional. It’s an oversimplification, sure, but an apt characterization of the two eras in Michigan basketball is beginning to form. And through the transition of these eras — one man and one program is here to stay.

“Juwan’s done a good job, done a great job there,” Izzo said after his first win against Howard. “So he will do a good job, but we’re not going anywhere. We’re not going anywhere.”

I’m going to back up my team for all 40 minutes.

MILES MACKLIN/Daily

Juwan Howard is often more animated on the sideline than John Beilein was.

guys get in there, come way out here like this and look for the pass. They don’t have the aggressive move to the net and Will has that, he likes to go to the net. He’s aggressive and he was rewarded for that on that play.

TMD: You talked about positioning of that defenseman, do you teach that differently?

Pearson: We do. We do so we would, a lot of times, if there’s a defenseman over here with Will, we tell them to go with

him. The other guy holds. Some teams will actually go with them, and then when they get to a certain point, if they don’t have contact, they just let him go. This guy will try and pick him up. But the Buckeyes don’t normally do that, they’re just sort of playing off the post. Will didn’t come out far enough for this guy to challenge him, so his feet are behind the goal, his (stick) tip just wraps it around. But we teach a different (style). We’ll tell this guy to go

after him and this guy just hold him for them. Look for anybody here. Sometimes like I said, if this guy’s too far ahead of him, then he’ll switch off, he’ll just come to the front of the net and let this D go. But you never want to leave this area here. You never want to leave that area. That’s a dangerous scoring position.

Ohio State did that. They didn’t leave that area. Will just happened to be so quick that he beat him around the net.

Will (was) so quick that he beat him around the net.

‘M’ hopes to find identity early JARED GREENSPAN Daily Sports Writer

Carol Hutchins leaned forward in her seat, pausing before answering a question posed by one of the reporters clustered around her. The room’s attention rested on Michigan’s softball coach. Yet the words that hung on the wall behind her, displayed in white lettering and accentuated by a faded blue background, became hard to ignore.

The Team, The Team, The Team.

Bo Schembechler’s famed phrase has grown synonymous with all facets of Michigan athletics, softball included.

For Hutchins, it’s a rallying cry that merits echoing.

Hutchins believes her team has the individual talent to be a top-16 seed come May. But reaching such a point requires more than individual success.

With the 2020 season finally here, Hutchins is about to find out how quickly the group learns how to play together.

“I like our group a lot,” Hutchins said. “And now we gotta learn how to go into battle together. And everybody needs to contribute. Contributions, some of them are pitching, some of them are getting key hits in big situations and sometimes it’s just as simple as being the one in the dugout who helps keep everybody up.”

The softball season, in a sense, is a battle. It’s grueling.

It’s lengthy. And it requires more than pure talent to succeed. A team has to have a collective will to win and its hearts invested, a mantra Hutchins has attempted to instill within her players.

“We’re trying to get our kids to understand that we need to be risk takers, and just go for things and not to be tentative,” Hutchins said. “We practice more aggressive things, aggressive style baserunning and we’re gonna have to be that team that just gets out there and gets after it. We have to figure out a way to do it all

ALEC COHEN/Daily

The Michigan softball team opens its season Friday against Georgia State.

together, be together. That’s gonna be us.”

This playing style will be first put to the test on Friday, when the Wolverines kick off their five game seasonopening weekend in Tampa Bay at the USF-Wilson Demarini Tournament. Friday’s slate provides an opportunity for Michigan to shake off some expected rust — Georgia State and Illinois State, its two opponents, finished with a combined record of 26-79 a year ago.

For the Wolverines, shaking off the rust quickly is key to avoiding a repeat of the doldrums of last February, when a f lat start dipped the program to a low point not seen since 2001, the team leaving its first two tournaments under .500.

The rest of the weekend schedule provides an uptick in competition. A game against No. 7 Florida, a perennial softball powerhouse coming off a College World Series appearance, looms on Saturday.

While the Gators lost their top pitcher, Kelly Barnhil, and hitter, Amanda Lorenz, in the offseason, they still pose a formidable challenge.

So does host South Florida, a team that made it to the Tallahassee Regional in the NCAA Tournament a year ago.

An early Sunday face-off with Fresno State, a middle-ofthe-pack group that returns a steady nucleus of players, caps off the weekend.

“It’s going to be a learning curve,” Hutchins said of the early-season gameplay.

“And I don’t know how this year’s gonna go, but I know one thing. As we evolve, as a coaching staff, we’re gonna assess every week what we can do to help (the players) achieve their goals.”

As for the players, at last Tuesday’s media day, they wore faces tired of the offseason and itching to return to competitive softball.

Internally, it seems as if the page has long been f lipped from 2019 to 2020. Now, with the season on the doorstep, this year’s book can finally begin to be written.

What identity will this year’s Michigan team write?

Is it a cohesive, aggressive unit like Hutchins envisions, one that embodies Schembechler’s words? Or is it something different, requiring perhaps a steeper learning curve than anticipated?

The five-game slate this weekend won’t provide a definite answer — Hutchins admitted that could take until next month. But it will reveal at least a glimpse of clarity.

Now we gotta learn how to go into battle together.

Sports

8 — Friday, February 7, 2020

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

THAT’LL PUR-DO IT

MICHIGAN ESCAPES PURDUE, 66-63, TO CLIMB ABOVE .500 IN BIG TEN PLAY

Dominick Sotokoff / Daily Design by Jack Silberman

‘M’ survives after nearly blowing lead BRENDAN ROOSE Daily Sports Writer

Seventeen seconds.

Michigan’s ahead by three.

Purdue has the ball and one last chance to force overtime.

Eight seconds.

Boilermakers’ guard Dominique Oden catches a pass and drives along the baseline.

Three seconds. Oden pops up and turns to the wing, looking to pass it out.

A whistle. The referee points to the baseline. Oden stepped out of bounds. It looks like the Wolverines (15-7 overall, 6-5 Big Ten) have escaped with the win.

But it wasn’t over yet. The inbound pass went through sophomore forward Naz Hillmon’s legs and out of bounds. After a review, the refs determined that Hillmon had never touched the ball.

The Boilermakers (15-9, 6-6) had one last shot at it.

After the inbound, the Purdue player heaved up a three-quarter-court shot. It fell short. Michigan survived, 66-63.

Even before Thursday’s game started, Michigan knew it wouldn’t be an easy night.

Sophomore guard Danielle Rauch — who had been filling in for injured senior forward Kayla Robbins — was out with a hand injury. This meant freshman guard Maddie Nolan, who averaged just 8.8 minutes per game entering

Thursday’s contest, would be making her first career start.

Though Nolan didn’t contribute much on the offensive end, she did help her team on the glass, securing six rebounds on the night. She also added a surprising four blocks, two of which came in the first six minutes.

“I just try to take care of the ball, just bring energy to the f loor,” Nolan said. “Obviously, you guys have seen (Rauch) just does a great job of getting everyone hyped. She brings the team together. She celebrates everyone no matter what, so I just tried to imitate that.”

Offensively, the Wolverines hit their stride early. With the Boilermakers crashing the paint to defend sophomore forward Naz Hillmon, the 3-point shot was open for junior forward Hailey Brown, who went 3-of4 from deep in the first half.

Senior guard Akienreh Johnson followed suit, sinking a pair of threes en route to a 12-point first half.

“Everybody that watches film on us — everyone in the country — knows that we rely on paint touches,” Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico said. “ ... (But) when you can have people knock down the outside shot, it gives Naz at least a little bit more space to be successful.”

That high-low attack unleashed Hillmon, who, after being held to just eight points in the first half, doubled that output in a third quarter where her teammates struggled to

hit shots. With the defense focusing on closing out on threes, she had just enough breathing room to carry the Wolverines into the fourth quarter with a six-point lead.

The separation turned out to be crucial, as Michigan’s shooting went cold in the fourth. Going nearly five minutes without a field goal, the Wolverines saw their lead — which had been as high as 14 — dwindle down to one point with under four minutes remaining.

Barnes Arico called timeout and drew up a play to free up Brown on the perimeter. Brown drained the three.

“I thought the shots (Brown) made in the first half were incredible,” Barnes Arico said.

“I thought she was open a lot more than we found her in the first half because I thought her girl was doubling on Naz, and we knew late that her girl was doubling on Naz, so we wanted to put her in some screening action, and if we didn’t have Naz we were gonna have her wide open coming off of a down screen.”

That shot — along with a layup from Hillmon in the final minute — ultimately sealed the win. The game was ugly, and if Rauch’s injury turns out to be long term, life won’t get any easier for Michigan moving forward.

But considering the circumstances entering today, the team will take a win however it can.

Nolan’s defense stands out in start KENT SCHWARTZ Daily Sports Writer

Maddie Nolan stood on the court, lined up just outside the center circle. For the first time in the freshman’s career, she waited for the tip-off from the f loor.

Her first start wasn’t an expected, predetermined ordeal — she was told earlier Thursday.

On Wednesday, sophomore guard Danielle Rauch injured her hand in practice, two weeks after the starting position fell in her lap when senior Kayla Robbins tore her ACL. With just seven players available against the team right above it in the standings, Michigan — with the help of Nolan — held its own Thursday on the way to a 66-63 victory over Purdue.

Nolan started the year on the bench, seeing minutes late in games when the margin of victory for the Wolverines was insurmountable. Against lesser opponents, she wasn’t f lashy. Nolan made the plays she needed to and did what she was told. In close games, she didn’t play.

“Nolan had a tremendous high school career and then she suffered a significant injury, and coming back from that injury she wasn’t even sure what she was going to be able to do,” Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico said. “When she got to Michigan this fall, we weren’t sure what her

basketball career was going to look like, and she’s really done a tremendous job.”

But as the season progressed, her work ethic in practice earned her more and more minutes. In the last couple of games, Nolan has been one of the first players off the bench.

Then, on Thursday, she played 28 minutes.

Locking down the defensive end, Nolan refused to let the

I needed to get defensive stops and that was my mindset.

Boilermakers get hot, even as they targeted her. Just over a minute in the game, she chased down a shooter at the 3-point line and smacked away the ball.

A couple minutes later, Purdue looked to score a quick bucket after a defensive rebound left most of the Wolverines behind the play.

Senior guard Akienreh Johnson and Nolan stood alone against two Boilermakers and, upon Johnson’s direction, Nolan took on the driving Karissa McLaughlin. The normally easy layup barely made it above McLaughlin’s head before it was swatted away.

These two early plays set the tone for the 5-foot-9 Nolan, who finished the game with a team high of four blocks. She even rejected a shot from the 6-foot-4 Fatou Diagne.

“In high school, you obviously play against a lot of smaller kids so I could block some of them, but not here,” Nolan said. “I don’t think I’ve had four blocks in the whole of practice. … I think I just knew I needed to get defensive stops and that was my mindset.”

Nolan also pulled her weight on the glass, striking like a snake when the ball fell from the rims. Whether she was at the 3-point arc defending the shot, or bodying up a player on the post, she found the ball.

“We need five people to crash the defensive boards, we need people to crash the offensive boards,” Nolan said.

“I know I’m not necessarily the biggest scorer, but I’m trying to help the team in other ways, like rebounding was what I came in focused on.”

Nolan ended the game with two points, six rebounds and four blocks. She wasn’t f lashy and didn’t make much of an offensive impact. But she found ways to contribute when a team suffering from injuries needed her.

As the clock ticked down, and Purdue worked its way into the game, Barnes Arico trusted Nolan. Her fight and her grit were exactly what Michigan needed to find a way out of the game with a win.