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Monday, December 11, 2017 — 3A
MAX KUANG/Daily
Modati screenprinter Sarms Jabra helps Ann Arbor resident Asa Price make a screen print at the Tiny Expo at the
Ann Arbor District Library Saturday.
TINY TOTS
stereotypical notion of an
enslaved Black man working
on a cotton plantation and
instead offered a picture of
society in which the main
focus was the slavery of
Native
American
women
during the fur trade.
“Slavery
and
enslaved
people
both
Native
and
African
American
were
essential to the development
of the city of Detroit,” she
said. “They demonstrate the
reach, depth and adaptability
of
the
American
slave
trade, such as in the case of
making Native women most
vulnerable to enslavement.
The
ideas
about
inferior
people were prepositioned by
the ideas of slaves being used
as a ‘resource.’”
In
researching
for
the
story Miles analyzed records
from slaveholders such as
John Askin and personalized
stories of enslaved women
such as Elizabeth “Lisette”
Denison
Forth,
who
was
enslaved in Detroit in the
early 1800s and later became
a successful businesswoman.
According
to
Miles,
personal
accounts
from
these women are essentially
untraceable, which made her
work more difficult.
“Sources do not describe
indigenous women with any
specificity, their name is only
sometimes
included,
their
nation of origin occasionally,
but they lack the narrative,
let alone the accounts of their
inner life,” she said.
Rackham
student
Nina
Jackson
Levin
said
she
believes
this
story
is
essential to understanding
the beginnings of the racial
atmosphere of Detroit.
“By bringing Black and
Native
histories
together
in a historical context and
applying
that
lens
very
proactively to Detroit, I think
does something new, at the
same time to something that
is not at all a new story,” she
said. “She bridges so many
narratives in order to make
them one cohesive story.”
Miles stressed these racial
inequalities
introduced
above
are
still
prevalent
today –– his is especially true
within the city of Detroit
today.
“Native people and Black
people did not give in or back
down,” Miles said. “People
have done and will still do
terrible things in the name of
progress. However, we are the
beneficiaries of the abuses and
also the inheritors of sets of
ideas and modes of action that
help us to reveal and rewrite
those wrongs.”
Rackham student Jallicia
Jolly
said
she
found
the
talk relevant to the current
political climate.
“This
subject
is
critical
for
not
just
knowledge
production but to showcase
how
we
are
humanizing
people in our everyday lives
beyond academia,” Jolly said.
“Conversations like these have
to absolutely center around the
lives of marginalized voices in
this way. It is not just relevant
in history and contemporary
history, but also in our national
and political landscape. It
really shows how power is
not just embodied, but how it
is told in history, and how it
shapes policy.”
Rackham student Aunrika
Tucker-Shabazz expressed a
similar sentiment.
“Conversations
like
this
really throws the wrench in
the discussion of power when
we ask the question of who
is winning at the expense of
others, and this book really
challenges this idea through
its use of narratives, and
through its focus on history,”
Tucker-Shabazz said. “The
question of ‘at whose expense’
and ‘at whose pocket’ allows
a much more nuanced and
robust critique of things that
we categorically define as
inequality and poverty.”
BOOK
From Page 1A
has been a controversial issue
since first approved in August
2015. City Council recently
unveiled the city’s 2018 plan
which increases the number
of targeted deer from 100 to
250.
Lorraine Shapiro, president
of the Ann Arbor Non-Lethal
Deer Management told The
Daily in July that she believes
sterilization is a more humane
approach
to
population
control.
“I feel it is inhumane to kill
animals who are completely
innocent,”
Shapiro
said.
“They’re being punished for
living, basically. This past
winter, we were able to have
the city agree to a plan where
they would do culling and
deer sterilization.”
Municipal
Retirement:
State Reps. James Lower,
R-Cedar
Lake,
and
Tom
Albert, R-Lowell, are working
with the governor’s office to
create legislation which would
change municipal retirement.
The
new
plan
would
address
pension
and
healthcare
liabilities.
The
Responsible
Retirement
Reform for Local Government
Task Force reported that up
to $7.46 billion in unfunded
pension
liabilities
and
$10.13 billion in unfunded
healthcare liabilities exist in
local
governmental
budgets.
House
Republican
spokesman
Gideon
D’Assandro
told
MLive
the plan has been under
development for some time
but is finally nearly finished.
“They’ve all been talking
about a consensus plan for
months and this is the time
when
they’re
starting
to
get close to an agreement,”
D’Assandro said.
Last December, a push for
similar legislation was made
but faced strong opposition
from
various
municipal
workers such as firefighters
and
police.
Following
protests, Gov. Rick Snyder
formed the task force in order
to gather further information
on the issue.
WRAP-UP
From Page 1A
pay tribute to the original art
deco design and the modern
technology that goes into the
reproduction of the movies.”
The $8.5 million project
to
restore
the
75-year-
old venue began after the
Michigan Theater Foundation
purchased the State Theatre in
2014. Prior to the renovation,
the venue had narrow seating
and curved screens in two
auditoriums,
the
result
of
partitioning
a
single,
larger screen. It also lacked
accommodations for people
with disabilities.
“It was uncomfortable. You
kind of sat sideways to the
screen,” Collins said. “We got
a lot of complaints. The people
in
wheelchairs,
you
just
couldn’t service them. Only
the most able bodied were able
to go to the movies.”
Despite
“unforeseen
circumstances” that delayed
the ribbon cutting ceremony,
the
State
Theatre
was
still able to open members
of
the
Michigan
Theater
Foundation Friday and the
general
public
Saturday,
according to Diana York, who
oversees marketing for the
restoration campaign. York
said the ribbon ceremony
will be rescheduled, most
likely to celebrate the 75th
anniversary of the cinema.
At its construction, the
State Theatre was the “only
theatre
actually
designed
for the sole use of showing
motion
picture,”
according
to a 1942 Daily article. It
stands just down the street
from the Michigan Theater,
which opened in 1928 to
show silent films. C. Howard
Crane, a prolific architect who
designed numerous theaters
around the country including
the Fox Theatre and the
Fillmore, both in Detroit, also
designed the State Theatre.
Henry Aldridge, a former
professor of film at Eastern
Michigan
University
and
volunteer organist for the
Michigan Theater, said the
State was bigger than the
Michigan
Theater
by
200
seats when it first opened.
“It was considered very
modern at the time when it
opened,” Aldridge said. “It
was fully air conditioned,
which was very unusual in the
1940’s. It had seats that popped
up when you got up. You didn’t
have to flip your seat up, they
came up by themselves — little
things like that.”
Aldridge
formed
the
Michigan
Theater
Foundation in the 1970s to
stop plans to turn the venue
into a food court. For more
than a decade, the Michigan
Theater has overseen the
film scheduling at the State
Theatre. Aldridge said the
four new screens in the
State Theatre, in addition to
the three in the Michigan,
provide great opportunities
for dynamic programming.
“There are not many cities
that have two historic theaters
within a half a block of each
other, both of which are
going to be fully operational,”
Aldridge said. “What makes
the State special is that it’s
been saved, or at least a part
of it has, and that it will be
a state-of-the-art screening
facility for the University
community, for the citizens of
Ann Arbor and the region.”
With its four screens, the
State now offers 360 seats in
total.
Shows
on
Friday
were
cancelled temporarily in one
auditorium due to projection
issues.
The
problem
was
resolved shortly thereafter,
allowing
for
the
rest
of
the
weekend’s
scheduled
programming to resume.
LSA senior Andrea Sahouri
saw the “The Disaster Artist”
starring James Franco at the
State Theatre Saturday night.
“I thought the theater was
amazing,” Sahouri said. “I like
how they kept it looking how it
did before. They didn’t change
too much, which keeps its
character. They didn’t change
it visually too much. I can’t
imagine the work that was put
into it, but it’s really great.”
In addition to new releases
like “Lady Bird,” starring
Saoirse Ronan, the opening
weekend
movie
lineup
included “The Big Lebowski”
and
“The
Rocky
Horror
Picture Show.”
LSA
sophomore
Phoenix
Vavzincak played Janet in
the shadow cast of the “The
Rocky Horror Picture Show”
at the Michigan Theater in
late October. She said the
State Theatre’s screening of
the 1975 cult classic is better
suited to “die-hards” rather
than casual viewers.
“I
think
the
difference
between the State and the
Michigan Theater is when
you go to the State Theatre
to see something like ‘Rocky
Horror,’ then you get the real
die-hards, you get the feeling
of what Rocky Horror was
originally about,” she said.
“It’s a small scale, and you get
to watch the movie and relate
to it. At the Michigan Theater,
I feel like that’s when it can
become the big event that it is
when we did the shadow cast
and everyone came.”
Vavzincak said she’d prefer
to continue putting on the
shadow cast at the Michigan
Theater, where the Halloween
showing of “Rocky Horror”
sold
out
the
1,700
seat
auditorium.
“You couldn’t expect to
be doing that type of a show
when they play it at the State
Theatre, because the State
Theatre is a more personal
feel and I think the Michigan
Theater makes more of a
spectacle with it,” Vavzincak
said.
Collins,
an
Ann
Arbor
resident, remembers going to
“Fantasia” and “Jaws” as a kid
at the State Theatre, he said
movies play a key role in the
way people tell stories.
“I don’t know whether it’s
because it resonates with that
primordial sense of sitting
around a campfire, hearing a
shaman tell a great tribal story
about your culture, about your
time, about life’s transitions
and that kind of thing that
goes back to prehistory, or
because with a movie, it’s
brilliant storytellers telling a
story with flickering light,” he
said.
Regardless of why people go
to the movies, Collins said, he
is optimistic about the future
of the theaters like the State
and Michigan.
“Even though people can
watch movies at home, they
still like to get out in a crowd
and do it,” he said. “That’s why
movies aren’t going away. It’s a
legacy art form that resonates
deeply with the human psyche.
That’s why we invested all of
this time, money, energy and
enthusiasm in preserving a
movie exhibition piece.”
THEATRE
From Page 1A
Washtenaw County. This means
our audience is split between
Ann Arborites and U-M students.
With the data from a several-year
readership survey and our new
analytics team, we are seeking
to engage our audience in more
ways than ever before. We found
community members are more
likely to pick up a physical copy
of the paper than students, who
read our stories on the mobile site
or social media pages; this affects
what we decide to put on the front
page. The physical paper tends to
have stories on 1A that pertain to
administration or the city, whereas
the homepage of the website will
often feature stories related to
student life.
We are very interested in how
readers engage with Daily content.
The Daily recently launched the
second beta version of our content
app and will have it up on the
App Store in coming weeks. This
semester we also launched two
new podcasts. We’re focused on
increasing engagement on social
media by looking at our post
analytics and making headlines
SEO- and social media-optimized,
as well as putting a greater focus on
bolstering our video team.
Our greatest successes, though,
have been in evergreen content
such as the campus map and LSA
Grade Guide. In the making of the
grade guide, we submitted FOIAs
for class grade distributions so
students registering can see the
ranges of grades for classes. Despite
being published over a year ago, the
grade guideis consistently one of
our most-read pieces. Currently, we
are working on increasing the data
and making grade guides for other
colleges within the University of
Michigan.
As media is changing, we
are working to be a resource for
students and are thinking critically
about how to distribute our content
and engage with our audience in
new ways. It’s been a challenge
rife with trial and error, but it’s a
welcome one.
Mike Allen, co-founder and
executive editor, Axios
Thank you to Emma and her
colleagues at The Michigan Daily
for welcoming Axios to campus
for our Smarter Faster Revolution
event this Wednesday at Ross
School of Business, from 1 to 2 p.m.
(sharp – we know you finals to study
for). RSVP here.
I’ll lead a trio of rapid-fire
conversations with three top CEOs:
Postmates’ Bastian Lehmann on
“The Era of the Entrepreneur,”
Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase
& Co. on “Defining the Future of
Work” and TaskRabbit’s Stacy
Brown-Philpot
on
“Tech-Tonic
Changes at Work.”
Why it matters: We’re building
Axios to make people smarter,
faster with news and information
they can trust on the topics that will
shape the world that Emma and her
fellow Wolverines will run.
Axios is Greek for “worthy,” and
the Smarter Faster Revolution is
aimed at helping college students
–
our
future
bosses!
–
share
worthy information
on business, tech, media trends,
politics, the future of work, the
world, science and more.
My favorite word in Emma’s
article is “data.” I love that you’re
trying to understand your readers,
which will allow you to serve them
better. When we wrote the Axios
Manifesto, our first principle was:
“Reader first!” We’re obsessed
with reaching the most demanding
news consumers with our efficient
“smart brevity” format. We tell you
“What’s new” and “Why it matters,”
and skip all the white noise we’re so
used to seeing in the media.
Another reason I loved your
piece was your evident enthusiasm
for serving the whole campus
community. I had a blast on my
college paper – The Ring-tum Phi,
at Washington and Lee University
in Virginia – and it gave me the
bug for the fun life I have lived
since then. Along with the honor
of interviewing the world’s leaders
and pioneers, I was scolded by a
nun for opening my laptop in the
Vatican, and was yelled at by my
more senior colleagues when I got
in the wrong van when babysitting
a dinner run by President Bill
Clinton.
The findings by Emma and The
Daily about the campus audience
are very resonant with our theory
of the case: The way for a news
organization to win today is to be
where the audience is, whether
they want to watch, listen or read.
The old days of getting automatic
eyeballs – when people picked up
the paper out of habit, or turned
on the tube at a specific time – are
gone. Now, we’re in minute-by-
minute war for attention.
AXIOS
From Page 1A
The question of ‘at
whose expense’
and ‘at whose
pocket’ allows
a much more
nuanced and
robust critique
of things that
we categorically
define as
inequality and
poverty
It’s a legacy
art form that
resonates
deeply with
the human
psyche