On Saturday, Jan. 27, student 
organization EnspiRED hosted 
their 12th annual charity fashion 
show, entitled “RAW,” at the 
Alfred A. Taubman Biomedical 
Research Building.
“Every year, the show is formed 
after some good theme that’s 
based upon social experience,” 
said Travis Jones, an LSA senior 
and model in the show. “This 
year’s theme is RAW, and I feel 
like that’s a big social experience 
that a lot of people can relate to.”
Spoiler alert: He was right.
From my vantage point, the 
first three of the show’s six 
“chapters” featured some distinct 
form 
of 
social 
commentary. 
Chapter one brought attendees 
a 
critique 
of 
consumerism, 
featuring traditional hallmarks 
of luxury — think fur, gemstones 
and shopping bags from high-
end stores — interspersed with 
more forward-thinking pieces, 
like Nicopanda x Urban Outfitters 
puffer pieces and the ubiquitous 
Kurt Cobain sunglasses. Chapter 
two gave us an assessment of “eat, 
sleep, work” capitalist culture, 
complete with zombie-walking 
models clad in workwear with 
slight eccentricities (a blazer with 
no shirt beneath, a trench coat belt 
around the head) and set to the 
soundtrack of Kendrick Lamar’s 
“LUST.” Chapter three subverted 
prescribed gender norms, sending 
the girls out in leather, buckles 
and lace-up boots, while the 
boys worked the runway in sheer 
fabrics, tight pants and one very 
niche shag coat reminiscent of Big 
Bird.
Cut to intermission. Show 
staff brought out free pizzas for 
the audience, and I felt like I was 
on Oprah. Soon enough, it was 
time for the classic intermission 
runway walk challenge — an 
oldie, but a goodie. Two little girls 
rocked it together, and the entire 
audience melted, still munching 
on their Domino’s.
After a few PSAs from some 
impeccably 
dressed 
students 
with walkie-talkies, it was time 

for Chapters four through six. 
Chapter four presented us with 
all things satin, velvet, iridescent 
and glittery, accented with PVC 
purses and jackets. One orange 
spaghetti-strapped dress seemed 
to glow beneath a set of ultraviolet 
spotlights.
At this point, I thought I’d seen 
the sexiest of it; there had already 
been plenty of shirtless boys and 
a handful of girls wearing only 
leotards. Then, RAW brought 
us Chapter five, coming in hot 
and heavy and ready to prove me 
wrong.
The chapter opened with a 
seamless routine by two pole 
dancers dressed in silver and 
white. Accompanied by a soft, 
throbbing melody, the women 
continued even as models walked 
the runway, dressed appropriately 
for the sensual mood set by the 
gravity-defying 
performance. 
They sported a variety of lacey, 
undone numbers, as though they 
just rolled out of bed, but Tyra 
Banks asked them to “make it 
fashion.” We transitioned to a few 
girls in lingerie, with some boys 
wearing satin robes over jeans. As 
is the norm at an EnspiRED event, 
the audience ate everything up. 
Shouts of liberation and pride 
rang through the space as the 
dancers contorted themselves in 
tandem (“Yes, ladies!”), as models 
openly loved every square inch 
of themselves (“That’s right! 
Do you!”). Chapter five served 
as a reminder of how beautiful 
sexuality can be when we decide 
to see it as an asset, rather than a 
flaw. It was a celebration of every 
beating heart in the room, not 
only the models and staff.
Chapter six took a turn back 
to the streamlined, though not 
accompanied 
by 
an 
explicit 
theme. Earthy colors in trendy 
silhouettes dominated, with the 
exception of one pair of thigh 
high, crystal-studded boots, à 
la Saint Laurent spring summer 
2018. From six, we moved onto the 
highlight of the night: EnspiRED’s 
community involvement segment.
This year’s show raised over 
$900 (and counting) for Ozone 
House, explained Asia Green, an 
LSA sophomore and EnspiRED’s 

community 
service 
chair. 
According to a representative, 
Ozone has been serving the 
Washtenaw community for over 
50 
years 
through 
providing 
intervention 
and 
prevention 
services to at-risk, and often 
homeless, youth.
“EnspiRED is more than just 
fashion. It’s community,” she said 
before introducing the performers 
of SpeakOut, a branch of Ozone 
House comprised of formerly 
homeless youth who tell their 
stories to other communities.
SpeakOut 
performed 
one 
poem, “School,” and a short 
excerpt from an original play 
called “Foster Care.” Both left 
the once lively audience without 
words.
Reinforcing their emphasis on 
community, 
RAW 
culminated 
with a final model walk, or what 
EnspiRED dubbed, “the Red 
Scene.” All participating models 
returned to the runway wearing 
red, white and black, clearly 
having loosened up since their 
last jaunts onstage. Some danced, 
some sang along to the show’s 
blaring soundtrack, while others 
maintained their high-fashion 
alter egos to the bitter end. The 
Red Scene was followed by a 
similar victory lap by EnspiRED’s 
executive board to seal everything 
off. The personality that emerged 
from each left the crowd smiling 
and laughing and dancing in, and 
out of, their seats.
“I feel like we have a very 
diverse group of of people,” said 
Valencia Jackson, an EnspiRED 
model and LSA junior. “I mean, 
you talk to people from EnspiRED, 
and they’re in everything from 
engineering to dance and music 
and everything. As far as the 
scale of EnspiRED, we do a lot 
of charity, a lot of philanthropy 
and our productions are the 
best (laughs). I think that’s what 
separates us.”
EnspiRED’s 
12th 
annual 
show conveyed honest truths of 
the human experience through 
fashion, while still maintaining 
a central focus of community-
building and giving. To be equal 
parts critical and loving — that’s 
what it means to be RAW.

EnspiRED sexy and ‘RAW’

STYLE REVIEW

TESS GARCIA
Daily Style Editor

Renowned cardiologist, clinical 
professor and bestselling author 
Dr. Joel Kahn spoke at Literati on 
Thursday to promote his new book, 
“The Plant-Based Solution.” In his 
book, Kahn explores the benefits 
of following a vegan diet through 
scientific research. Kahn proposes 
a compelling argument for plant-
based nutrition, both for general 
health and the prevention and 
reversal of chronic illnesses.
“The 
Plant-Based 
Solution” 
draws from Kahn’s many years of 
medical and personal experience to 
encourage readers to use veganism 
to take control of their own health. 
Kahn himself has been following a 
plant-based diet since he was 18.
“I walked into the East Quad 
dormitory in Ann Arbor in 1977 
to start the Inteflex combined 
premed-medical program,” Kahn 
wrote in an email interview with 
The Daily. “I was observing Kosher 
dietary rules and the salad bar was 
the obvious option. Soon after, 
a few places like the salad bar at 
Pretzel Bell on Liberty, the market 
at Kerrytown, and ... Zingermans 
indicated to me I could do this all 
the time ... The last time I had a 
hamburger and such was in 1977. I 
started to learn about nutrition in 
medical school (just a bit but enough 
for me to pursue studies on my own) 
and I became a student of the health, 
environmental and compassionate 
foundations for a vegan diet.”
Though there is often suspicion 
surrounding plant-based diets, by 
both the medical community and 
the general public, Kahn explains 
that veganism is the most health-
conscious diet an individual could 
follow.
“There is never enough nutrition 
science as it is very hard to organize 

and fund long term studies where 
group A eats one way and group 
B eats another,” he wrote. “So 
you have to take clues from five 
areas of science: basic research, 
studies of long lived populations, 
epidemiology, randomized trials 
and the study of complex systems. 
Most fad diets have at best one of 
these pillars. Take the ketogenic 
diet — the rage right now. It has at 
best a few epidemiological studies 
but none of the others. A diet of 
nearly or completely plant foods has 
the strongest support based on all of 
these pillars.”
In addition to health benefits, 
the vegan diet is beneficial in the 
context of the environment, due 
to America’s often inhumane and 
environmentally 
detrimental 
farming practices.
“Initially (my influence to go 
vegan) was ‘survival’ and then 
health,” Kahn wrote. “A book in 
the 1980s appeared, ‘A Diet for A 
New America,’ by John Robbins 
which indicated to me for the first 
time that a bigger picture of ethical 
and 
environmental 
concerns 
were favored by my diet, and I 
incorporated those reasons to stay 
on target.”
Kahn also dispelled arguments 
about the accessibility of veganism, 
for it is broadly considered expensive 
and inconvenient: “Veganism is the 
hottest food trend internationally 
and it will be sustained,” he wrote. 
“The tipping point has occurred. 
It may need to be negotiated 
during travel, and I often eat only 
side dishes at restaurants like a 
steakhouse. A website called www.
happycow.net 
lists 
restaurants 
anywhere in the world to help out. 
If budget is an issue then beans 
— dried or canned — rice or other 
grains like buckwheat, frozen or 
fresh produce, herbs and spices 
and a few sauces can make infinite 
number of combinations.”

“The native diet of remote 
areas in Asia, Africa and South 
America are largely whole food 
complex-carbohydrate 
menus 
from the garden and market, and 
we need to go back to those roots,” 
he continued. “A friend of mine in 
Detroit is a nursing educator and 
travels to Indian reservations in 
the Southwest to retrain Native 
Americans in the foods their 
ancestors ate and get them off of 
government subsidized disease-
causing foods. We all need to shun 
some of the convenience foods that 
have destroyed our health.”
Even from my perspective as 
a vegan, Kahn’s conversation at 
Literati was illuminating. Though 
I find myself answering questions 
(often rather defensively) about my 
diet, I’ve never answered them in 
the context of a medical perspective. 
I often fall back on my undying love 
for animals and mission of single 
handedly saving the environment 
to explain my personal decisions 
— which usually results in both me 
and my meat-eating opponent either 
laughing or falling into an awkward 
post-argument silence.
Kahn, 
however, 
provides 
concrete medical evidence for 
the benefits veganism in both his 
speech and writing — evidence that 
can enlighten carnivores and that 
can save vegans in any argument.
Through his work, Kahn allows 
space for readers and listeners to 
consider what they are putting 
into their bodies and why. He 
dispels 
common 
assumptions 
around veganism, such as suspicion 
around 
nutrition, 
executability 
and accessibility, and forms his 
argument in an unbiased, fact-
based way. His speaking and 
writing is accessible to vegans, the 
vegan-curious and the die-hard 
carnivores interested in learning 
about veganism from a medical 
standpoint.

A doctor’s call for veganism

COMMUNITY CULTURE REVIEW

JENNA BARLAGE
Daily Arts Writer

HBO’s “Divorce” examines the 
messy and exhausting process of 
ending a marriage, with a specific 
brand of comedic neuroses. Sarah 
Jessica Parker (“All Roads Lead 
to Rome”) and Thomas Haden 
Church 
(“Cardboard 
Boxer”) 
co-star as Frances and Robert, a 
couple whose slow drift apart from 
one another leads to an aggressive 
and hostile feud, playing out with 
upper-middle 
class 
suburban 
flare. But what would otherwise 
be 
a 
contrived 
narrative 
of 
divorce is elevated with sharp 
writing and well-timed comedic 
performances. While Parker is 
refreshingly better than her usual 
melodramatic self, Church carries 
the show, being both sincere, 
comedically 
vindictive 
and 
a 
nimble wordsmith.
“Divorce” 
is 
preoccupied 
with the process of separation — 
the lengthy back and forth that 
involves spouses, children and 
friends. Season one showed that 
this awkward and unique process 
is rich in comedic material and 
psychological explorations into 
what it looks like when a 10-year 
marriage quickly crumbles. With 
honesty and sentimentality, the 

season showed that Frances and 
Robert could still have moments 
of sweetness among moments 
of chaos and acid. It was an 
entertaining, funny and candid 
portrayal of a broken marriage that 
doesn’t break cleanly.

Unfortunately, season two is 
a shadow of its former self. The 
change became evident in the first 
episode, when Robert shaved his 
notorious mustache and effectively 
transformed from the sharp lead to 
a sort of melted, pathetic skin sack. 
Parker also lost her momentum, 
fading back into the breathy 
theatrical act that works in “Sex 
and the City” and nowhere else.
With season two, it feels like 
the show doesn’t really know what 
to do with itself. After Robert and 
Frances finally sign their divorce 
papers in the first episode, the 
season drags on aimlessly, flitting 
between their different flings and 
job endeavors without the spice 
and fire of the first season. The 

auxiliary characters are also more 
annoying. Molly Shannon (“Will 
and Grace”) plays Frances’s best 
friend with a tired performativity 
that completely undercuts her 
skills as a comedian and a nuanced 
actor. Tracey Letts (“Lady Bird”), 
another Hollywood genius, is 
reduced to a man with anger issues 
and a random obsession with 
gourmet cooking. Even the kids 
are obnoxious, picking fights and 
whining for the sole purpose of 
adding noise to a scene.
“Divorce” started out strong 
as a show about middle-age 
problems 
with 
a 
universally 
resonant brand of comedy and 
intelligence. 
With 
its 
second 
season, the show completely loses 
its footing, fumbling between 
problems that aren’t problems, 
overdramatized characters and 
situations and an overall sense of 
pathetic sadness that comes with 
people who have separated but 
can’t quite seem to get over each 
other. It lacks the vitriolic bouts of 
anger, the calculated “fuck you”s, 
and the acute hilarity of it all. The 
thing is, Frances and Robert seem 
fine being divorced, but season 
two is washed-out and stringy, 
struggling to make an amicable 
post-divorce relationship dramatic 
and interesting, and failing to do 
so. 

‘Divorce’ season two is a 
shadow of its former self

TV REVIEW

SYDNEY COHEN
Daily Arts Writer

“Divorce”

Season 2 Premiere

Sundays at 10 p.m.

HBO

DARBY STIPE / DAILY 

AAREN BAKER / DAILY 

6A— Monday, January 29, 2018
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com