theb
-side
U The Michigan Daily I michigandaily.com I Thursday, January 27, 2011
L)E' 231K3 X f
weekend
essentials
Jan. 27 to 30
ON STAGE
Want to enjoy Lon-
don's exciting theater
scene without buying
an airplane ticket? This
Sunday at 2 p.m., UMS
will continue its series
of National Theatre
Live performances with
an HD broadcast of the
Grammy- and Tony-
nominated musical
"FELA!" at the Michi-
gan Theater. "FELA!"
portrays the life of
Fela Kuti, a Nigerian
activist and composer.
Tickets from $12.
.,
° ---
,.
How one professor
is helping students
dig deeper into the
art of nonfiction
TELEVISION
The 17th Annual Screen
Actors Guild Awards
will be broadcast Sun-
day night on TBS. The
nominations could be
guessed by anyone
who's seen an awards
show, but that doesn't
make them any less
compelling. The SAG
- aWards us crpro=
vide sound pre-Oscar
predictions, but most
importantly, SAG hon-
ors ensembles, which
aren't acknowledged in
any other awards show.
By Jennifer Xu, Senior Arts Editor
blue walls of Prof. John fiction gets neatly subdivided into its
au's office are covered with faces. own genres of mystery, romance, hor-
-laid on every spare space of the ror, classics.
pirouetting from the ceilings IntheHopwoodRoom,asmallwood-
stic pinwheels, they'rethe smil- paneled space in Angell Hall where
as of students fromlong pastand literary awards totaling $120,000 are
:-day - students in graduation doled out every year, the lonely little
i party clothes, sitting, standing stack of "Nonfiction" submissions is
ith stories to tell of their time as towered over by each of the "Fiction:
ergraduate in Rubadeau's class. Short Story" and "Poetry" piles. Since
ase him - it reminds me of one the Hopwood Awards' inception in
se crime dramas, except in a 1931, submissions to the "Nonfiction"
way, of course," said LSA senior category have consistently taken last
Hllebasko, who took Rubadeau's place - their number reaching a mere
popular class, Advanced Essay average of 40 per semester. At times,
g, last semester. the category receives so few submis-
ideau, a tall, Santa Claus-beard- sions that the judges can fail to award
n in jeans and glasses, strides a recipient for that year altogether,
s office and takes a seat. He pulls according to Hopwood Assistant
upperware container to reveal a Director Andrea Beauchamp.
>f celery and yogurt. Surround- Why do people shy away from for-
11 the glossy photographs of his mally revealing their interior lives to
sdents, he looks as if he belongs. the public sphere? Though we live in a
natedly gesticulating to each of culture where the reality show is king
ndreds of pictures on his walls, and confessional Tweets and Facebook
au connects the stories writ- statuses get updated at the punch of
:he individuals behind the smil- a button, the popularity of the per-
ages - the worries and doubts sonal memoir has somehow fallen by
reast reduction patient, a gay the wayside for University students so
:'s first sexual experience in used to informal methods of communi-
a boy's complicated relation- cation and soul-sharing.
ith his brother, a student's sim- But nonfiction possesses an element
ection about co-ed dorms at the that fiction only provides a pale imita-
sity. tion of: authenticity. Rubadeau said
ubadeau's class, each of these that a personal essay gives the writing
able personal stories has been more authority.
i second life, indelibly crystal- "Oftentimes, reality is so much more
n the page. Each story, when interesting, so much more captivating,
lone, forms an isolated tale, like so much more edifying than fictional
iquely individual features on stories are," he said.
ce. When gathered together like But the fear of writing such a piece
angling from the ceilings and perhaps derives from a hesitance to
ed on the walls, the students look at an individual life through the
eir stories make up something lens ofa bystander.
communicating themes of love, "The biggest problem people have is
I loss to the world beyond. that they realize, 'Oh my god, I'm writ-
is the power of a personal ing about real people - they might read
And this is the story of a class this,' " said Prof. Eileen Pollack, direc-
kes it all happen. cor of the MFA in Creative Writing Pro-
gram. "There's a certain shyness about
LITE, THEREFORE I AM what you're revealing or not revealing
about yourself. People are very, very
age when students take refuge squeamish about writing about other
fantasy lives of shiny vampires people."
edish girls with dragon tattoos, A personal memoir is as much a
f - or the ego, as Freud would release and an adventure for the author
an start to feel a little neglected. as it is for the person reading it, and
clearly manifested in the places the self that takes center stage in such
frequent: In some libraries, the a work is a self that is often laid barer
ion section is relegated to the and more candidly than it ever has
the dusty tomes, an amalgam of been before. To get to this point, it
gues, biographies and memoirs takes confidence. It takes honesty.
haphazardly together, while See ESSAY, Page 4B
I want them to fall in love with
the language and the etymology
of words, make them aware that
the things I'm trying to teach
can't be put to memory.
-Prof. John Rubadeau "
FILM
Those recently admit-
ted to Michigan under-
stand the academic
stress that high school-
ers face. This Saturday
at 2 p.m., the Michigan
Theater is hosting a
free screening of the
Korean comedy "Our
School ET.," which
follows a physical
education teacher at a
private school in Seoul
who reinvents his class
in the face of pres-
sure to scrap gym for
more English courses.
CONCERT
Do you like listening to
rap, but sans all those
distracting beats and
silly synthesizers?
Well, you're in luck,
because this Sunday
at the Blind Pig, local
artists will combine to
form Folk the Police,
During this special
performance, each of
the artists will perform
two hip-hop songs in
a folk style (think Ben
Folds's "Bitches Ain't
Shit"). Doors open
at 8 p.m., and tick-
ets start from $10.
PHOTOS BY SALAM RIDA
DESIGN BY JOEY STEINBERGER AND HELEN LIEBLICH