events. He specifically mentioned some organizing of the movement to stop a pro- posed visit last semester by white suprema- cist Richard Spencer — referred to online as #StopSpencer — was done on the same couches on which we were sitting during our conversation. “How can we best have this be a space where people who care about chang- ing the world for the better know that they have a home here?” Lukens asked. “On the one hand, there are these big expectations that come from (the history) but, on the other hand, there’s also this allowance for whatever you come up with which might be completely wild and out of left field and that’s totally fine, let’s do it.” Lee faced similar challenges when he became the concert coordina- tor for Canterbury. Nowadays, Lee is constantly commuting between his final year of classes at the Music School, facilitating concerts at Can- terbury and playing with various jazz combos in Detroit. According to Lee, the position is typically passed through the Jazz Department. Before accepting the job, Lee was told by the previous coordinator he would make “X amount of money for six concerts a semes- ter,” but was quickly informed “every con- cert coordinator ever has put on at least 30 concerts a semester.” Knowing he wasn’t going to get paid for the amount of work he put into the job, Lee still accepted the responsibility of cultivating the music scene at Canterbury. When he stepped into his role, he hit the ground running, acknowledging the musical legacy of the coffee shop and, perhaps more fitting for Lee’s musical palette, Rush’s Jazz Mass. However, he said the pressure to live up to the past pushed him too far his first year out. “My first year as concert coordinator, I booked way too many things, it was like four nights a week of music which is just crazy and I was freaking out because I couldn’t practice, I couldn’t study, I couldn’t do any- thing and I was just here,” Lee said. “I slept on that couch so many nights … My second year … I wasn’t going to make those efforts anymore because I don’t need to do that but that resulted in (me seeing) the musical com- munity shrink a bit … This year is my final year as concert coordinator and the year is just beginning but I feel like I’ve got it down.” Like many who have come through Canterbury’s doors, Lee was not raised in an Episcopal household. With “an atheist Berkeley hippy father and … a Shinto Bud- dhist (mother) from Japan,” Lee under- stands the skepticism from touring bands who don’t know how, as Lukens described it, “fluid” a space like Canterbury can be. “I’ll get emails and calls from people like, ‘OK we don’t know if we want to play a church’ or whatever,” Lee said. “Canterbury House is the first religious space that I’ve ever felt comfortable in … I think getting that question like, ‘What is Canterbury House,’” I still use (former Chaplain Reid Hamilton’s) answer all the time: It’s the home of left- wingy causes.” Lukens acknowledged this disconnect between social activism and religion that’s commonly expected to exist today. While Lukens said, “Christianity has such a repu- tation … for not creating welcoming spaces,” Lee said Lukens’s being in the position of Chaplain as a gay man and the activism and music that has always inhabited the walls of Canterbury no matter where in Ann Arbor they resided should speak to the one-of-a- kind magic of Canterbury House. “It’s common knowledge that this place is on the right side of history,” Lee said. A fter taking out my earbuds and reveling in the recording samples of Mitchell, Odetta and the oth- ers found by the Michigan History Project, I couldn’t help but think about those annoying YouTube comments made by middle school- ers on Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix lyric videos. “I was born in the wrong generation lol XD,” the children would whine. I am not proud to say I was one of those middle schoolers. Now, it’s endearing to say you listened to classic rock and folk with your parents growing up. You already have the musical palate of an indie movie. Back then, you were obnoxious and pompous if you wanted to kick Ke$ha to the curb instead of Mick Jagger. One time, I almost blew a gasket because my friend said Bastille was better than The Doors. I refused to embrace any music from the past decade. Much to Middle School Matt’s delight, these tapes give us a gateway into the musical incubator Ann Arbor was during this influ- ential time in music history. But if I could tell Middle School Matt anything, it would be to get your head out of your ass and look around at the local creatives taking what was being made at Canterbury in the ’60s and building upon it. The same goes for political organiz- ing. Innovation is the key to discovery. How would singers like Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and Dave Van Ronk have come to be if they hadn’t taken the Harry Smith Anthology of American Folk Music, learned what they could and move forward? Canterbury House has been an institu- tion in Ann Arbor for more than a century now. As long as people like Middle School Matt embrace what it has to offer, it should be around for another century and maybe more. Wednesday, October 17, 2018// The Statement 7C Alec Cohen/Daily Hannah McPhillimy performs at the Canterbury House Thursday, October 4. Alec Cohen/Daily Chaplin Matthew Lukens with the Canterbury House dog, Bear. “But if I could tell Middle School Matt anything, it would be to get your head out of your ass and look around at the local creatives taking what was being made at Canterbury in the ’60s and building upon it.”