EVENT PREVIEW
Pussy Riot Gives
‘Punk Prayer’
Russian protest group
to participate in
lecture series
By GILLIAN JAKAB
Daily Arts Writer
Patriarch Gundyay believes in
Putin / Would be better, the bastard,
if he believed in God! / The Virgin’s
belt won’t replace
political gather-
ings / The eter-
nal Virgin Mary
is with us in our
protests!
These
are
some of the lyr-
ics from Pussy
Riot’s
“Punk
Prayer,”
per-
formed by five
masked
faces
in Cathedral of
Christ the Sav-
ior in Moscow in
March 2012. They criticize, among
other things, the lack of separation
between the Russian Orthodox
Church and Putin’s increasingly
totalitarian
government.
The
Pussy Riot members brought their
message of rights for Russia’s
marginalized — women, LGBTQ,
youth — up from Moscow’s under-
ground scene and into view of the
world. But they did so at a price.
Nadezhda (Nadya) Tolokon-
nikova and Maria (Masha) Alyokh-
ina, two of Pussy Riot’s members,
were among those arrested for the
performance and were sentenced
to two years of prison on charges
of “hooliganism” and disrupting
public order with a religious hate
crime. Amnesty International and
many other human rights organi-
zations decried the prosecution
as suppression of free speech
and politically motivated. The
women’s trial and imprisonment
under harsh conditions gained
international attention and an
outpouring of sympathy from art-
ists around the world.
Vigilance and pressure from
the international community may
have contributed to the Pussy
Riot members’ early release in
December 2013, though some
said it was because the expira-
tion of their terms would have
coincided with the Winter Olym-
pics in Russia. Having endured
the horrors of Russia’s prisons
and legal system, Masha and
Nadya have founded Zona Prava
(Justice Zone), a prisoner’s rights
NGO that offers advocacy and
aid to prisoners, and MediaZona,
a media forum that reports on
issues of prisons and legal sys-
tems worldwide.
The
rockers-turned-revolu-
tionaries are publicizing their
experiences and aims in a world
tour that includes a stop in Ann
Arbor. This Thursday evening in
the Michigan Theater, University
organizations The Penny Stamps
Distinguished Speaker Series and
the Weiser Center for Emerging
Democracies are co-presenting
the Pussy Riot/Zona Prava mem-
bers’ lecture “Punk Prayer.”
In curating the Stamps series,
Chrisstina Hamilton — direc-
tor of visitor’s programs at the
Penny Stamps School of Art and
Design — tries to choose speakers
that reflect the issues of concerns
and interest on campus and in the
classroom. The lineup is created
via nominations from throughout
the University, but the particular
invitation to Pussy Riot and Zona
Prava members Nadezhda Tolo-
konnikova and Maria Alyokhina,
was a whim of Hamilton’s own.
Hamilton was in New York
this past spring when the two
Pussy Riot members gave a pub-
lic interview on Randall’s Island
organized by London’s Frieze
Festival. The interview was con-
ducted in a room that allowed
only 100 seats and left many dis-
gruntled feminist punk enthusi-
asts on the outs.
“When I was there, I said to
the organizers: please put me in
touch with them because I actu-
ally have a 1,700 seat theater,”
Hamilton said. “Obviously they
want to speak to people about
what they’re doing; I can give
them a much more public voice
and venue in order to do that.”
The Michigan Theater is an
icon in a city steeped in the his-
tory of political activism and
influential artist communities.
Though the scale and methods
of protest at the University have
shifted since the 1960s, students
today grapple with issues of iden-
tity through publications such as
The Michigan Daily’s “Michigan
in Color” series and “What the
F,” and voice their passions for
social, economic and political
justice locally and globally. Pussy
Riot’s words, their credibility
rooted in deeds, will find a warm
reception here.
“Russia’s in the news con-
stantly right now,” Hamilton
said. “The fact that these young
women were able to stand up to
Putin, be in prison, and … have
garnered this international atten-
tion, gives them a lot of power.”
Masha and Nadya are harness-
ing this power to shed light on
the oppression of feminist and
LGBTQ* communities in Russia,
the consequences of dissent, and
the brutal Russian penal system.
“A lot of the people who are
going to come obviously know
something of the story of what’s
happened to them up to this
point, but I think it will be very
excited to hear about what their
plans are now that they’ve cap-
tured the world stage, what are
they going to do with it?”
Though they are rock stars on
the metaphorical stage of world
politics and media, they will not
be performing in the musical
sense on the stage of the Michi-
gan Theater. Right before coming
to Ann Arbor, Pussy Riot joined
many punk bands at Riot Fest
Chicago, not on the lineup to play
a concert, but to give a panel dis-
cussion.
“They won’t actually be per-
forming,” Hamilton said. “I asked
them about it when we were dis-
cussing the whole thing and their
response was: they don’t perform
… they’re activists. They would
perform if there were a reason to,
as they have done.”
“I’m looking at it more as
the context of the moment that
they’re performing in, which in
some ways makes it more punk
rock than any punk rock,” she
added.
In the field of performance
studies, some scholars would
disagree with this distinction
and tend to define performance
as a public practice, analyzing
“performances”
spanning
the
spectrum from religious rituals
to Shakespeare on a proscenium
stage. Though Pussy Riot did not
achieve its fame by merit of its
music and performance art, the
group’s genre of conceptual art
amplifies and articulates its polit-
ical message.
In their interview on the Col-
bert Report, Nadya and Masha
say they’ve come to America to
“look at American prisons, to talk
to human rights activists, and
to learn from their experience.”
They explain that it presents a
middle ground between the inhu-
mane prison system in Russia and
the mostly pleasant conditions
of the prisons they visited in the
Netherlands. On campus, Nadya
and Masha will get to learn more
about the American prison sys-
tem when they meet with Lisa
Greco, the Prison Creative Arts
(PCAP) events coordinator and
Washtenaw County Youth Center
Director, as well as Carol Mor-
ris, a local artist who works with
women in prison and youth in
detention and treatment. They
will tour the facility and discuss
the work of Youth Arts Alliance!
and PCAP.
“Performing” or not, the only
way to experience the power of
Pussy Riot is live, and this Thurs-
day’s Penny Stamps lecture is one
of a select few opportunities in
the U.S. to do so.
Pussy
Riot/Zona
Prava:
Punk
Prayer
Thursday Sep.
18, 5:10 p.m.
Michigan Theater
Free
Adele’s ‘25’ touches
on her broken 20’s
By AMELIA ZAK
Daily Arts Writer
Ms. Adele Adkins, four years
ago, would describe herself
as a highly depressed, less
mature, very bitter voracious
smoker who
paired each
passing
day
with
a bottle of
wine.
She
was the life
of the party
who
said
too
much
and cared too little. Her 2011
project, the album 21, reflected
this situational distress. She
was living and learning and
feeling; and with all that, she
produced what will probably be
perpetually recognized as her
best, most important work. 21
reflects just what Springsteen’s
Tunnel of Love, Dylan’s Blood
on the Tracks, The Strokes’ Is
This It, or Fleetwood Mac’s
Rumours did: The indisputable
condition of the creative soul
is that when they are the most
sad, or the most emotionally
distraught, their best work is
set to inevitably emerge. Being
in despair almost always means
you’re the most artistically
motivated.
It’s
in
those
moments of intense emotional
disparity that artists are most
motivated to find the answer
to the question that belies the
human experience: “What is the
point to all this ‘love’ bullshit?”
Adele reconnects with this
unanswerable query, and many
more,
on
her
just-released
album, 25. She’s a mother
now and has happily settled
into
a
stable
relationship
with the father of her child.
Adele doesn’t smoke anymore,
doesn’t drink, spends time with
close friends but, admittedly,
spends most nights at home
with her family. After all the
emotional and lifestyle changes
over the past four years, it’s a
little surprising that all these
acquired experiences wouldn’t
immediately
inspire
and
motivate an album for age 23,
or at the very least for the age
of 24.
But writer’s block plagued
the mind of one of the world’s
favorite red-heads. She held
her experiences in equally high
esteem, surely, but struggled to
connect them to her art form.
Writing sessions with an array
of acclaimed individuals —
Ryan Tedder, Danger Mouse,
Greg Kurstin, Shellback and
many others — were supposed
to help spur her creativity. And
a lot of that didn’t help. More
time was supposed to help, too.
More learning, more yearning
and personal reflection: this
combination should open the
floodgates to Adele’s hidden
world of pain, shouldn’t it?
The
Almighty
Adele
had
to
eventually
reemerge
in
the studio with some new
recollection of a messed up life
and mind. That’s what we have
all pegged her to do, isn’t it?
Ms. Adkins, instead, decided
to give herself the necessary
amount of time, whatever that
would be, before releasing 25.
She waited for what was most
honest, a key ingredient to all
of Adele’s music. This task —
locating the most honest parts
of yourself, or the messages
that most clearly define your
current emotional and mental
landscape — is exceptionally
arduous.
And
when
one
considers how many people
plan to draw relatability and
direction from whatever is
produced, the difficulty of the
task intensifies.
So, as the emotional epi-pen
to millions, what do you do?
Do you give the perpetually
despaired masses what they
crave:
soulful,
gorgeously
produced
pop
music
to
underlie
a
nearly
perfect
voice speaking sonnets of lost
loves, bad decisions and unfair
conditions?
Adele
had
the
formula for what would derive
for her the most success — she
had acquired it with 21. But
she left it back there, with her
frightfully distraught 21-year-
old self and reemerged in the
studio with the wisdom of a
new mother, the depth of a lover
in some comfortable, settled
kind of love, and the child-like,
experimental nature of one still
trying to define their 20s.
The lens from which Adele
envisioned 25 was less jaded and
broken, but far more mature.
In 25, Adele lyrically chastises
herself,
rather
than
some
unnamed man of the past, for
her mistakes and shortcomings
and the people she has hurt.
The album’s opener and first
single, “Hello,” is a direct
indicator of this sentiment: I
royally screwed up a couple of
years ago, and so did you. Let’s
reconnect.
Other tracks, like “River
Lea” or “Million Years Ago”
drip with self-deprecation and
nostalgia. “I know I’m not the
only one who regrets the things
they’ve done,” sings Adele on
“Million Years Ago.” She is
missing her youth, missing her
former self and reexamining
it all from the aged wisdom of
a woman who has trenched
through some thick emotional
shit. Other tracks like “Send My
Love (To Your New Lover)” and
“All I Ask” follow the lyrical
themes found on 21. “If this is
my last night with you, hold me
like I’m more than just a friend
/ give me a memory I can use,”
sings Adele on the piano power
ballad, “All I Ask.” It’s a song
she co-wrote with one of her
favorite
musical
colleagues,
Bruno Mars. The pleading and
nervous expectation of future
sadness leans back into 21 for
just a moment. Because, as Ms.
Adkins reveals, time passes and
hearts mend, but the fear of
future loss remains.
“When We Were Young,”
the fourth track on the album,
was
co-written
by
Tobias
Jesso, Jr., the Piano Man for
the new generation. Beginning
as a slower piano ballad, the
simplistic musicality of the
song holds up against the
consuming
nature
of
both
the song’s nostalgia and the
singer’s emotion. Adele’s fluid
syncopations
with
fellow
artists is obvious on 25, but this
artistic eye for collaboration is
most successful on this fourth
track.
The
most
precious
and
possibly most mature track on
25 opens with the giggles of
her son. “Sweetest Devotion”
begins with the little laughs
and mumbles of a child before
exploding
into
the
layered
explosions of the song. In the
album’s finale, Adele makes
it clear that she has self-
actualized as a mother and
girlfriend. “Sweetest Devotion”
is a postcard to her past and
future self, letting them both
know that at one point, and in
one moment, she did figure it
all out.
The musicality of 25 is less
cacophonous
than
21.
The
growth of Adele’s mind and
heart has bled into her music
as one of greater fluidity and
smooth soul sounds. 25 does,
however, hold variety: working
with Max Martin, Shellback,
Bruno Mars, and Danger Mouse
left the album with a few more
pop beats and a couple more
catchy hooks. Listeners have
lost
the
tantalizing
drums
of “Rolling in the Deep” and
“Set Fire to the Rain,” but
have gained the pop beats and
sweeter versions of Ms. Adkins’
voice on “Water Under the
Bridge” and “Send My Love (To
Your New Lover).”
25 is a rightful follow-up
to
the
Billboard-shattering
success that was 21. The tear
ducts of the listener are less
empty and emotional staminas
will feel less ravaged upon
each listen, but Adele hasn’t
rescinded her honesty. We have
observed her potential. Adele
has taken us to the peak of the
mountain of despair. We’re back
with her now, in the year 2015,
piecing together what we have
learned. Take another four or
five years now, Adele, and send
us a soul-pop postcard when
you get to the next mountain.
We’ll be waiting here, ever so
patiently, to hear about what
you have found there.
B
25
Adele
Columbia Records
ALBUM REVIEW
COLUMBIA
Staring lustfully at you seniors. You don’t have to deal with finals again.
ARTS
over the
YEARS
In the early hours of
DECEMBER 13, Beyonce’s
eponymous fifth album
appeared on iTunes with
zero press. The visual album,
consisting of 14 songs and 17
music videos, debuted at No.
1 on the Billboard charts with
only three days of sales.
SEPTEMBER 18: Two members of the
Russian punk protest group Pussy Riot
discussed LGBTQ rights, freedom of
speech and their thoughts on Vladimir
Putin to the Michigan Theater, which
was filled to capacity.
NOVEMBER 7: “Interstellar” brings
Christopher Nolan’s pretentious but
beautiful vision to screens nationwide.
APRIL 23: After 11 seasons, Derek Shepard,
portrayed by Patrick Dempsey, dies on “Grey’s
Anatomy.”
NOVEMBER 20: Adele released her album,
25. In its first week, it sold 3.6 million copies, the
highest such number in 16 years.
DECEMBER 18: “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”
storms into theaters, earning critical acclaim and
becoming the highest grossing film domestically.
MARCH 19: Jim Harbaugh made his
musical theater debut in a cameo role in a
student-run production of “Big Fish.”
APRIL 7: “American Idol” aired its final
episode. The finale brought back many
of the stars it developed, including Kelly
Clarkson and Carrie Underwood.
2013
2014
2015
2016
THANKS
FOR
EVERY-
THING
DAILY
ARTS
SENIORS!
You’ll be missed!
6 — Saturday, April 30, 2016
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com