The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Thursday, January 17, 2013 - 3B Your iPhone can't make you lose weight MARLENE LACASSE/Daily High-school students involved in Read Beard Press participate in all aspects of the publishing process, such as poem selection and editing. RED BEARD PRESS From Page 1B Despite their young age, these individuals know what they're doing. The outpouring of support is a testament to the fact that Red Beard is not just a fun club for teens that like books, but also is a S well-run and respected business. "It's a business; it's a profes- sional thing," Geva said. "It's not just a bunch of high-schoolers sit- ting around." Giving voice to the youth Currently, the press is self- sufficient. Red Beard prints and sells just enough books to guar- antee that the next project can go to print. Admittedly, with all the good that they have done in the community, it seems like an expansion would be a chance to expand influence rather than a way to make money. "I'd like to grow a little bit beyond that. We'd like to try and get a distribution deal so we can get our books around the country a little more. We want to create a new curriculum for teachers and schools so they can use our books more in class," Kass said. But Red Beard isn't just about getting books published or being a business - they have also under- taken a mission to reinvigorate youth in Ann Arbor and else-' where. "It's about giving a voice to youth, but we also didn't want to be the 'voice of youth.' We just wanted to have good poems," Chamness said. The press focuses on poet- ry and writing that they think should be heard. And thanks to the efforts of these teens, it finally has the chance to be. "We want to create this new canon of poems and writers that people don't necessarily think of as the great writers of our time. We want to give them the stage," Kass said. "This is poetry that probably speaks to (you) a little more about contemporary issues. We like to have work that's really examining what it means to be alive and tobe a young person right now ... (with) all of the different influences swirling around you." Kass said. Anyone wanting to see this type of poetry in action need not wait long - Red Beard Press is having a release party on Jan. 18 for its newest book, "Electric Bite Women," which is the work of University students Haley Patail and Carlina Duan, who is a Daily Arts Editor. Although some poems do end up having a message, there is a deeper level of meaning that these poets manage to tap into. The act of writing is a very personal thing, and even poems that don't have an explicit direction can still be interesting and relevant to a teen- ager's life. "I do use writing as a space for exercising a lot of voice and power and working through ideas and that can be explicitly political ... all of these things that are rel- evant to me and my community," Chamness said. "I didn't necessarily have (a message), and I didn't want it tobe easily coherent in that way, but in some ways having all of these dif- ferent things in it was something that felt important." Chamness added. Since kids todaymight not have ample opportunities to explore the more experimental side of lit- erature and poetry and since the most exposure that many kidswill have to poetry will be in the class- room (and even that is waning), it is becoming even more important for them to be able to experience different types of writing as an art form. Reigniting a passion for words "In the context of the way public-school education has been going these days, creativity and imagination has been eliminat- ed from the curriculum," Kass said. "It's crucial that there's an opportunity for young people to be in the community and working on developing their voices ... All those kind of questions that don't get asked in class are the kind of questions that we ask students to pursue." Red Beard Press has certainly injected much-needed artistic vigor into the youth of Ann Arbor. There has been an outpouring of support as the press has sold out of every book that has been pub- lished so far. Even more impor- tantly, the young people attending the book releases and poetry events put on by Neutral Zone are able to discover for themselves what poetry is really all about, or rather what poetry canbe about. "There were kids coming up and saying, 'This is really cool, I didn't know that you could write poetry like that; I didn't know you were allowed to do that, " Geva said. "We're letting kids hear that there are a lot of different ways to be a poet." Le explained her growth as a writer in a way that may remind. many people of their own expe- riences of growing up and find- ing a sense of self - certainly something that teens and other young people in the community might be going through them- selves. "I think that for me, it's my way of modeling back to the community, that people should take themselves seriously," Le said. "You may not think your voice is important, but it prob- ably is. It took a long time I think to take myself seriously." "I already felt so strongly that the work of the youth here and elsewhere was incredible and worthy of notice," Chamness said. "There's this idea that it's kind of less important or less likely to be good or undeveloped. The fact that there's consistently good work coming out of young people - and coming out of young people in this community - is something that I feel like is worth celebrating." hile browsing the "New and Note- worthy" section of the ever-growing Apple App Store, inevitably downloading four or five programs to use and then lose within a week, I chuckled at the headliner, bright and bold, front and center: CARLY "New Year, KEYES New You: Apps to Start Off the Year Right." There are two things infinite- ly wrong here. First, just because we desire to remedy our lifestyle on Jan. 2 (let's be honest, most people are still recovering on Jan. 1 from what I'll call "poor nutritional choices"), it doesn't guarantee long-term success. If we really want to improve our health, whether it's cleaning up our diet or ramping up the exer- cise, we don't have to wait for an arbitrary, socially stereotyped date on a calendar. The best time to make a change in our life is right now. A moment of weak- ness when that carb craving hits doesn't mean we have to wait until the start of 2014 to get back on course. Second, apart from the obvi- ous psychological trap door of the New Year'sresolution, the notion that Apple applications can help us better achieve our health and fitness goals is ludicrous. But it's just another prod- uct intelligently marketed and attractively advertised that Americans flock to this time of year in hopes that objects will change our behavior. As an aggregate, our country is.currently spending millions of dollars on gym memberships, diet plans, workout equipment, etc. But after we go out and buy snazzy new running shoes, we still have to strap them on and use them. After we make that novel trip to the grocery store to fill our cart with the healthy stuff we never eat, there's still a chance those veggies will rot in the fridge because, let's face it, it's hard to dodge the allur- ing aroma of Blimpy Burger and . Cottage Inn (there's a reason why Jimmy John's offers "free smells"). ButI clicked anyway, curious about these "life-altering" digi- tal tools. The most ridiculously overpriced and overcomplicated application offered is an activ- ity tracker called rubiTrack3 ($39.99). For 40 bucks, you'd think the damn thing would burn caloriesfor you. Instead, I use free websites like mapmy- run.com to measure how far I'm running outdoors, and when I'm at the gym, every workout machine practically smacks me in the face with more big, red, glowing statistics than I ever care to know: As for keeping track, just spend a couple bucks on a notebook. Remember those? The kind with paper? There's something special about writing my goals and results by hand. It inspires me to to jot down thoughts about my progress and the challenges I face. If there's anythingI've learned, it's that thoughts become things, and mental fitness is just as impor- tant, if not more so, than physi- cal perseverance. Now, I'm not saying health and fitness apps aren't useful. But they won't transform your health for you; there certainly isn't an app for that. I remember vividly my own transformation process - when I sincerely com- mitted to improving my health and fitness, and the only way Apple contributed wasby fueling my workouts with some upbeat tunes. There is no app that can replace real exercise. But if you really think that your iPhone will make an ideal accountabilitybuddy, any Nike+ app provides a simple, user- friendly method for tracking exercise, and My Fitness Pal is an accurate tool for monitoring caloric intake and expenditure. Plus, they're free- But again, these little buttons still won't jump out of the touch screen and drag us to the gym or force broccoli down our throats. If we really want to change our health and fitness habits, it takes urgency and actionbeyond a quick tap and drag. And if you're looking for an "apple" you can rely on to make a difference, it's the one on your plate. Keyes likes the way you work it. To hit her up, e-mail cekmusic@umich.edu. Red Beard Press students preppre for the release ofone of their upcoming publications. LSA sophomore Supreet Grewal reads in the open mic portion of the grand slam. POETRY SLAM From Page 2B While the artform has a rich history and is nationally recog- nized and supported, it's never- theless held in low opinion by a lot of people. Undouhtedly, this has played a role in the lack of partici- pation at U-M Poetry. "There are a lot of misconcep- tions about what spoken word and slam poetry is," said LSA sopho- more Supreet Grewal. "A lot of people think it's just very angry and not something that's relatable on a mass scale." Grewal is a member of U-M Poetry, and has helped Pan in the revitalization effort. Having also joined last year, her experiences with the group were also on the shaky side. Pan had a particularly personal interaction with the bad reputa- tion slam poetry has garnered. At one of the events hosted by U-M Poetry, a performance showcase at U-Mix Late Night, Pan gave a per- formance and then opened up the forum to discussion. "What ended up happening is, this one girl in particular, I'm not going to go into details ... but she ended up just saying that slam/spo- ken word is shit poetry," Pan said. "While that is her opinion and (she is) entitled to that, I think that is a very close-minded thing to say." Pan's first encounter with the medium was a transformative experience. Originally, he was pri- marily interested in short fiction. That is, until he went to a slam his sophomore year. "I went to a poetry event and I was blown away at how moving it was for me," Pan said. "The per- former that was there, his name was Jon Sands, and he was so ani- mated and so lively that he cap- tured everyone's attention. ... His performance was reallyrealto me, and I think I wanted to do some- thing like that." Over the past summer, Pan and Grewal worked with faculty in the CCI for guidance and ideas, which they then implemented last 'semester. Their efforts paid off. The attendance numbers rise with each event. "We really got this off the ground," Pan said. "It's great to see something so alive again." Some of the changes they've made involve a greater push in advertising, as well as a turn to more local tastes in the guest poets featured after the slam. "Last semester, all ofour (guest) poets were either in the Master of Fine Arts program or from the Ann Arbor area," Pan said. "They studied under Jeff Kass in high school and whatever college they may have gone to, Ann Arbor was where they were from, so that was pretty cool that we got a lot of local talent. That was reallybig.". At Saturday's performance, Pan brought in his good friend Mike Rosen from New York to emcee the event. Rosen attended the Uni- versity his freshman year, where he was first introduced to slam at a U-Club Poetry event. "I did not actually participate, but I do very distinctly remem- ber coming to this very room and watching my first poetry slam," Rosen said. Rosen would go on to start the slam poetry program at Wesleyan University, and has been hosting slams on the college circuit ever since. His experience was notice- able. His energy was palpable, and with his confidence, humor and charm, Rosen shaped the audi- ence into an energetic slam crowd, which was fitting, since a big theme of the night was first- times with the slam scene. Among the members of U-M Poetry, you could hear the audience's surprise at all the new faces coming in. "I want people who are in my shoes to be able to find the water instead of aimlessly searching around like I did until my sopho- more year, when I could have started my freshman year," Pan said. The efforts to bring in these new faces has led to a commu- nity outreach beyond the Uni- versity, where there is a thriving' slam scene channeled from the high schools such as Pioneer and Huron, and The Neutral Zone, a teen center on East Washington. Pan has even gone so far as to give a guest lecture at his old high school in Troy, Mich., encourag- ing the kids to explore forms of poetic expression other than the typical authors and styles listed in curriculums. He would later see some of these students at U-M Poetry events. - The revitalization efforts haven't stopped at the success in attendance, though. Pan, Grewal and others at U-M Poetry want to start offering workshops and other events that create a comfort- able space for those who might otherwise pass up on the poetic endeavor. "The future is more workshops. It is not worrying about budget. It's not worrying about atten- dance. It's not worrying about these things; (it's) about having everything clear and laid out and focusing on how we getbetter and where does the fun come in." MARLENE LACASSE/La Since the club's revitalization, attendance numbers at U-M Poetry slam events and competitions have steadily increased.