There’s a war
raging
All around us

But we are
Unaware
of it
Immune
to it

Because we don’t even
acknowledge it.

Our privilege
Supersedes
Our ability to fall that
“low”

Our social conventions
Forbid us
To be that
“depressing”

We’re creating a bunch of

“citizens” with tools

to eradicate
these issues
but not armed
with the
sympathy
to do so.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Michigan in Color
Monday, October 29, 2018 — 3A

Blunt tools

OMAR UDDIN

MiC Columnist

There’s a good chance

that you’ve already heard
of the iconic Mickalene
Thomas, but if not, welcome
to an artist who makes
beautifully
exploratory

paintings. She introduces
a complex vision of what
it means to be a woman
and
expands
common

definitions
of
beauty.

[COPY:
the
hyperlinked

is a direct quote from the
article, maybe rephrase or
quote with source?] In many

of her pieces, you can see
her confronting eurocentric
beauty
standards
with

powerful
displays
of

womanhood
that
aren’t

considered conventionally
attractive. She also uses
pop art to exemplify these
explorations of femininity
further, and is most known
for her usage of rhinestones,
glitter and acrylic. You
can
discover
more
of

Mickalene’s artwork on her
website.

Four queer artists of color you need to support

SWATHI KOMARIVELLI

MiC Blogger

How common is it that you go

on a tattoo artist’s Instagram and
absolutely fall in love with the art
they create on bodies? And then
you scroll through more... and start
to doubt whether those tattoos
would ever look good on your skin
tone because they only use white
people as their canvases. Ciara
Havishya is a leftist tattoo artist
based in Toronto and works with
Sticks & Stones Tattoo. They are
dedicated to creating a space for
queer people of color within tattoo

culture, and through their tattoos
you can see the beauty in navigating
those “in-between cultures,” as they
phrase it. Their art is beautiful,
expressive
and
intercultural;
it

speaks for itself. Everyone should
immediately
follow
them
on

Instagram instead of the tattoo
artists who exclusively believe their
canvases can only be people with
skin the color of paper.

Juliana Huxtable wears many

hats: She’s an artist, a DJ, a writer
and a performer. She was born in
Bryan-College Station, Texas, and
was mainly on the internet before
she came to public knowledge.
The most intriguing aspect of her
work is how she draws from her
experience of all her years on the
internet. Generally, having aspects

of that in her artwork makes it
seem less serious or meaningful,
and she challenges this notion
very successfully. You can follow
her on Twitter @julianahuxtable,
on Instagram with the same @
name, and listen to her music on
Soundcloud.

Out of everyone in

this list, Janelle Monáe
is definitely one of the
most popular figures in
the public eye right now.
However, I am including
her on this list because
she has consistently made
incredibly
beautiful

music, and her latest
album, Dirty Computer,
is no exception. Along
with
her
album,

she
also
made
an

“Emotion Picture” that
accompanied the musical
portion of her album. She
has historically shaken
the table with music
that consistently pushes
societal
boundaries,

and she will continue
to do so. Stream Dirty
Computer on Spotify or
Apple Music, and watch
her Emotion Picture.

On feet and on court, sneaker

culture has been intertwined
with the game of basketball
since its very inception. With
a new NBA season underway,
I wanted to take a quick look
at the state of the NBA sneaker
landscape. PJ Tucker seal of
approval pending.

LeBron 15s and 16s
In its 15th iteration, Nike

finally
made
a
shoe
that

matched
and
encapsulated

LeBron’s on-court style of play.
It’s a shoe fit for a gladiator and
a perfect embodiment of the
power and pure locomotive-
ness we’ve seen from LeBron
for the past decade plus. It looks
like armor for your foot — but in
a way that still incorporates and
utilizes fashion and flair. For
this reason, I was skeptical of
the follow-up to LeBron’s best
shoe yet. While I think the
16s are a notch below the
outstanding 15s, they’ve
also similarly captured
the
essence
of

LeBron. The “King
- Court Purple”
colorway
LeBron
rocked
in
his

Staples
Center

debut versus the Rockets is an
absolute banger.

Big Baller Brand announces

the “ZO2.19”

LaVar
and
company

announced
the
release
of

Lakers Point Guard Lonzo Ball’s
second signature shoe with a

promotional video on SLAM
last week. The biggest change
from the original ZO2 and ZO2
remix? A whopping $295 price
drop from $495 to a much more
respectable $200 retail price.
All in all, it’s a win for common
sense. Outrageous price points
don’t
move
mass
product,

and with a lull in LaVar Ball
media chatter/hype and Lonzo
moving to the
Lakers’

bench,
the
Big

Ballers made
the

appropriate

change

with
the

newest ZO2. Even

so, it’s fair to consider

how far the independent

Big Baller Brand can go when it
comes to carving out a name for
itself in the sneaker industry.
With the likes of Nike, Adidas,
Puma and even the perpetually
uncharismatic Under Armour,
the brand built upon the Triple
B’s seems to be more of a quickly
fading fad than a company
constructed
for
longevity.

Here’s to hoping LaMelo fulfills
his destiny of becoming the
greatest basketball player ever
and helps turn around the
fortunes of Big Baller Brand.

Joel
Embiid
signs
with

Under Armour

The
beloved
larger-than-

life Twitter personality turned
NBA all-star center recently
made the switch from Adidas
to Under Armour in a move that
mostly flew under the radar.
If Under Armour was looking
for a spark and injection of
personality, they certainly got it

with the 76ers star and NBA

Live 19 cover athlete. The

elephant (or in this

case,
the
7-foot-

tall Cameroonian)

in the room,

however,
is
the

longstanding

notion
that
big

men can’t sell shoes.

Joel, if properly utilized by

Under Armour, should be able
to buck this trend. He has every
bit of the personality needed
to cultivate sales, and an all-
NBA level of production on the
court to boot. With Steph Curry
working on his sixth shoe under
the Under Armour umbrella,
Embiid has enough charisma
on and off the court to serve as
UA’s second option.

All in all, it’s been a busy few

weeks for the sneaker business
in the opening moments of
the NBA season. We’re still all
waiting on a commemorative
Smush Parker signature line,
though.

EFE EDEVBIE

MiC Blogger

Read more online at

michigandaily.com

Who am I? This is a question

that I have been struggling to
answer for the past two months.
It is so simple, yet so intricate.

It’s like I spent my whole

life working towards one goal:
college. But now that I’m here,
I’m like, “Now what?” You see,
there’s a stigma in the Arab
American
community
that

when you go to college, you have
to have your whole life figured
out and you only have three
options: pre-law, pre-med, or
some kind of an engineer-- the
holy trinity. Funny story, my
first two days here at Michigan,
I was pre-med, but then on
the second day, I came to the
realization that I hated science.
I could do it, I was good at it, but
I couldn’t care less about DNA
or polymers. By my third day, I
had dropped my science course,
taken up a political science
course, and I could not have
been happier.

I was surrounded by people

that cared about social issues
and I finally felt like I was on
the right track. However, the
question still arose whenever
I would talk to my khaltos or
grandma, “What are you going
to be later in life?” I think that’s
what I have come to detest
about my experiences with
Middle Eastern culture-- that I
need to have my life figured out
by the first semester of my first
year in college. It’s hard enough
making
the
transition
and

adjusting to collegiate life, but
then at the mere age of 18, I have
to decide what I’m doing for
the rest of my life. With this in
mind, I spoke with my parents,
hashing out my worries and
pressures. Their replies were
nothing short of comforting
as they told me exactly what I
wanted to hear.

Happy.
That
was
their

answer, one simple word. The
explanation behind “happy”
was as simple as the actual

answer. My parents didn’t go
to college, they came from
another country and made a
life in America from absolutely
nothing. They had no plan
or course of action, they just
knew that they wanted to raise
their future children in a land
that had a safe environment
and stable education system.
By going to college, I had
fulfilled all of their dreams and
wishes. They want me to be

happy because they sacrificed
everything they’d ever known
for their children. If I’m not
happy in the end, then what was
all their sacrificing for? I could
be a doctor or an engineer, but
what kind of a life would it be if
I was not content?

Ultimately,
my
parents

surprised me because compared
to other parents, they were
wholly understanding. So, does
the holy trinity truly matter in
life? No, it doesn’t. Just because
seemingly everyone I know
is out here trying to become a
doctor doesn’t mean that I have
to be as well. I’m breaking the
unspoken Arab rule and going
against the status quo and so
are my parents by not pushing
me to do something they know
I don’t want to do. They let
me know they supported my
decisions and I have never been
happier. So, who am I? I am
Reem and I am a girl still trying
to navigate her way through
her first semester at college and
I am content doing it because
I have some amazing parents
behind me for the journey.

Finding my purpose

REEM ABURUKBA

MiC Columnist

So does the holy

trinity truly
matter? No, it

doesn’t

sometimes i want to step out of

my skin

& sleep forever in that

silver pot

as if i were those

bones you boil each
day

hovering
over

the kitchen stove

cheeks
flushed

with early morning

at least then i’ll

smell like home

instead
of
an

imitation

garnished
with
green

onions & basil

sans tendon
sans tripe

sans heart
a health-conscious broth sitting pretty

on the plastic tabletops of all the

little saigons and lotus cafes
despite being a refugee’s
daughter

i know nothing of
hunger

except when i

am the mouth

into which you

feed your art

to
feed,
of

course, is to give

what cannot be

kept
you tell me to open

the same way you say

that no man

will marry me if i can’t cook &

suddenly i become an empty bowl

waiting to be filled again

Eat your heart out

NBA sneaker review volume I

ELIZABETH LE

MiC Columnist

Ciara Havishya- Sticks and Stones

Mickalene Thomas- “Did I Hear You Say You Love Me?”

Mickalene Thomas- Dirty Computer

Juliana Huxtable- “Nuwabian Princess”

CHRISTINE JEGARL/Daily

ELIZABETH LE/Daily

PHOTO COURTESY OF FOOTLOCKER

Photo courtesy of Mickalene Thomas

Photo courtesy of Sophia Marques

Photo courtesy of Ciara Havishya

Photo courtesy of Rhode Island School of Design

If you’re interested

in speaking at

Open MiC Night, email

michiganincolor@umich.edu