The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
the b-side
Thursday, October 22, 2015 — 3B
Seven Mile Music
in ‘The Key of B’
‘U’ students
document music
education in Detroit
By AMELIA ZAK
Daily Music Editor
Just off I-96, bordered by Ever-
green, Telegraph and Puritan Road
in the northwestern portion of the
city of Detroit is a four-square-
mile quadrant named Brightmoor.
Aesthetics reveal the sad reality
that exists within this four-mile
neighborhood: Tattered buildings,
buckling roofs, abandoned homes,
ill-kept parks and shattered win-
dows all add to Brightmoor’s air of
ominous emptiness. The murder
rate in Brightmoor is 800 percent
higher than the national average.
The heavy crime rates led Bright-
moor’s population to decrease by
35.3 percent from 2000 to 2010
alone. Three Brightmoor schools
were closed between 2005 and
2012 as a result of budget cuts,
lack of funding and debt, affecting
about 900 students.
The statistics associated with
Brightmoor are bad — if not the
worst — in terms of the area’s high
murder and low graduation rates.
Economically, Brightmoor holds
no sustainable markets. Socially,
the neighborhood of Brightmoor
is ruled by the powers of drugs
and gangs. The Wikipedia page
on Brightmoor is dire, the media
coverage on Brightmoor holds a
general attitude of concern and
the oral, statewide reputation of
the neighborhood remains as the
worst part of town in one of our
country’s most frightful cities.
And yet, despite the seemingly
unalterable fate of Brightmoor,
strands of hope have started to
weave into the community. Com-
munity centers, churches and
schools have begun to team up in
within and outside of the neigh-
borhood. After-school programs,
creative expression workshops
and church functions have become
heavily implemented to provide
outlets to the violent forces that
rule the surrounding neighbor-
hood. A butterfly garden has been
placed in what was once the most
dangerous intersection in Bright-
moor. A local church started pro-
viding contraceptives and meals
to male streetwalkers in attempts
to weaken the economic and
social grip that prostitution has
on the community. The Bright-
moor community, and many more
like it within the city of Detroit,
is searching for outlets. They are
calling out for any new channel of
hope that will redirect or deter the
negative influencers of the com-
munity. Many are uniting under
the hope that human goodness can
cure a situation most dire.
Current SMTD Senior Sam
Saunders offered up such a chan-
nel to Detroit communities in the
fall of 2013. It was then that Saun-
ders established a student-run
organization, Seven Mile Music,
which would work to provide free
music lessons to inner-city youths
in Detroit. Collecting teachers and
their instruments from within the
School of Music, Theatre & Dance,
Saunders and his organization
arranges weekly trips to several
community centers throughout
the city — including Brightmoor —
to teach basic instrumentation to
anyone interested.
In
the
larger
historical,
economic and social framework
of struggling communities like
Brightmoor and Woodbridge,
the Seven Mile Music program
can appear hopeful but small.
And yet, when standing in
comparison to the disparaged
and
damaged
communities,
the
organization
shines
effervescently.
Last semester, when searching
for a possible topic of exploration
for
their
documentary
class,
three students in the University’s
Department of Screen Arts and
Cultures
noticed
the
beauty
lying within Saunders’s musical
mission. After participating in
the Seven Mile Music program
as a cello teacher, Jayden Hua,
an Australian exchange student,
introduced the topic of Seven Mile
Music to his class with his two
other group-mates, current LSA
seniors Alexander Holmes and
Maggie Marshall, as a possible
avenue for a documentary.
After gaining approval from
the professor and class, the three-
some set to work in document-
ing the Saunders organization
and its respective influence on
the community. Hua, according
to Holmes, held a vision and was
“interested in filming shit for a
reason.” Holmes acted as the local
that guided the documentarians
through a neighborhood he had
lived on the periphery of for most
of his life. Having grown up prac-
ticing and performing with cathe-
dral choirs across Detroit, Holmes
held an individual intimacy with
the musicality associated with the
Seven Mile Music project. And as
a Grosse Pointe native, Holmes
was able to introduce Hua to the
crucial difference between Brigh-
COURTESY OF ALEXANDER HOLMES
“The Key of B” documents the work of Seven Mile Music, which provides free music lessons to youth in Detroit.
THE “HOTLINE BLING” MUSIC VIDEO REVIEW
Drake hasn’t been this close
to a number one record since
2009’s “Best I
Ever Had”, and
he’s hell-bent
on making
“Hotline Bling”
his first. The
desperation has
culminated in
his most shame-
lessly com-
mercial video to
date, strategically released as the
song peaks at number two. Ever
since ©Drizzy Drake signed a $20
million deal with Apple Music
and released a coveted sneaker
with Mr. Jumpman, it seems
everything he touches turns into
an extension of an endorsement
deal (word to Midas).
The Jordan brand logo is liter-
ally the centerpiece of the open-
ing shot, and the whole video
feels like one of those old iPod
commercials where the black sil-
houettes dance in front of mono-
chromatic backdrops. In fact, I
wouldn’t be surprised if Apple
managed most of the creative
direction of the video. There’s
something vaguely Jonathan Ive-
esque about the curved corners
of the rectangular panels and the
not-so-subtle color palette.
The new OVO Fall/Winter col-
lection dropped less than a week
ago, and damn near every single
piece is showcased in the less
than 5-minute video. Hilariously,
the only out-of-season OVO item
that makes an appearance is also
the only one that hasn’t sold out
on the online store – the cringe-
worthy “Woes” hat.
Perhaps I’m being too criti-
cal. I mean, the song itself is
fantastic; “Hotline Bling” was
nothing short of an anthem last
summer. Full credit to Drake
for cashing out on his public
image without allowing it to
dilute his music. However, that
doesn’t change the fact that for
all of Drake’s uncomfortable
dancing, he still isn’t the focal
point of his own video.
- SHAYAN SHAFII
OVO SOUND
C
Hotline
Bling
Drake
OVO Sound
ton and Brightmoor, and helped to
explain to the others what the cul-
ture of this particularly ravaged
portion of Detroit would entail.
With Holmes and Marshall’s tech-
nical skills, and Hua’s passion to
find the story, the group set to
work in capturing the Seven Mile
Music mission.
The
rendered
documentary,
titled “The Key of B,” holds a depth
of discovery. Although a majority
of the documentary is spent relay-
ing the efforts and effects of Saun-
ders and his University-associated
organization in Detroit communi-
ties, the short film quietly incorpo-
rates the spirit and heart already
lying within the communities that
Seven Mile Music touches. The
incorporation of the perspectives
and personal experiences of com-
munity leaders within Brightmoor
and Woodbridge added immensely
to the legitimacy, honesty and
power of “The Key of B.”
Pastor Semmeal Thomas, Sr.
at City Covenant Church is an
irreplaceable leader of the Bright-
moor community. Holmes can-
didly describes him as the “glue to
the society that holds the existing
Brightmoor together.” As Thomas
describes the necessity of creativ-
ity and imagination for societal
reconstruction, the documentary
pans in from a colorful mural,
bursting dynamically from a for-
gotten concrete wall. Then, as
Thomas’s wise narration contin-
ues, the camera fades back into
a smiling child, guitar in hand,
plucking curiously at the strings.
And then echoing voices of church
singers creep into sound, rever-
berating from the cathedral walls
from which they emerge. The
documentary reveals that which
was not aesthetically or objectively
obvious: There is hope here; there
is beauty here.
“The Key of B” did phe-
nomenally well and received
numerous accolades from the
Department of Screen Arts and
Cultures. The hard work and
achievement that culminated in
the documentary’s submission
and nomination as a finalist in
a local film competition, Film
Challenge Detroit. The win-
ners of this festival are to be
announced this week and will
subsequently earn a trip to the
upcoming Sundance Film Festi-
val. Similarly, Hua, upon return-
ing to Australia, began entering
the documentary in local com-
petitions and festivals.
Winning at Film Challenge
Detroit or garnering a follow-
ing in the Australian film circuit
would be great personal successes
for these early filmmakers. But,
more importantly, the success of
this documentary would repre-
sent a small success for the suf-
fering communities of Detroit like
Brightmoor. The success of this
short film implies an increased
scope of exposure to the social
ills of Detroit. Brightmoor, and
other communities like it, would
be more likely to receive recogni-
tion and support in their efforts
of resurgence. A strong distribu-
tion of this short film could accrue
more awareness for any peripheral
forces that wish to help. They will
effectively become more aware
of what the community needs:
The struggling pockets of Detroit
do not crave financial and social
reconstructions alone. They thirst
for creative outlets. They covet
avenues of innovation, explora-
tion and imagination. They desire
those effective distractions. The
artistic and imaginative forces
within a society can become
ignored during times of impover-
ishment and infrastructure col-
lapse, yet they are the saving grace
to so many. “The Key of B” recog-
nizes this divide and, through this
short film, attempts to bridge the
gap that misunderstanding creates
between creativity and poverty.
YOU USED
TO CALL
ME ON MY
_______
A. ADELE
PHONE
B. BURNER
PHONE
C. CELL PHONE
D. SWELL
PHONE
E. JITTERBUG
TELL US
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TRUTH
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