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

