The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Wednesday, November 14, 2018 — 5A

EVENT PREVIEW

From 
the 
moment 
Carlie 
Hanson walked into the golden-
yellow-painted 
dressing 
room 
in the rear of Detroit’s historic 
Fox Theater, any trace of tension 
vanished. She greeted me with 
a smile and open hug. She’s as 
relatable as can be: going off about 
astrology (she’s the most Taurus 
person you’ll ever meet), stanning 
Harry Styles, wondering what the 
hell Justin Bieber is doing, eating 
her feelings and figuring it all out 
as she goes.
At 18, she sits opposite me on the 
millennial / Gen-Z cultural border: 
loving Soundcloud artists, growing 
up on Usher’s Confessions and 
Justin Timberlake’s FutureSex/
LoveSounds and rebuking any 
labels, especially in terms of 
genre and sexuality. Hanson, who 
recently took a turn with Billboard 
Pride’s Instagram account, will be 
dropping an EP early next year and 
has begun infusing her traditional 
pop sound with rock-inspired 
guitars, undoubtedly primed by the 
Metallica and Five Finger Death 
Punch her mother played growing 
up in Wisconsin.
“I want to tell you all about (the 
EP) but I can’t. It talks about a long-
distance relationship I have with a 
girl. I’m still figuring it out myself. 
I don’t even know how to label my 
sexuality and I don’t know where I 
am. So, I don’t know how much I’ll 
put into my music but I don’t want 
to not talk about it,” she said during 
our conversation.
Hanson 
reminisces 
about 
her home life, grapples with her 
new life — in the studio, in L.A. 
and on the road — and does so 
with an infectious confidence, 
only revealing the magnitude of 
her achievements through the 
bewildered excitement in her voice. 
Her performance at The Fox last 
month was her first joining Troye 

Sivan on The Bloom Tour, fresh 
off a summer of making music in 
L.A., visiting friends in Wisconsin 
and playing a handful of festivals 
to get her feet wet. (By showtime, 
it’s clear she has already found her 
sea legs).
“Festivals aren’t my favorite 
right now because not a lot of 
people know me, so I’m definitely 
more for the sweaty venues and 
intimacy,” she said, sitting with her 
leg up on a fold-out chair opposite 
of my couch. “(The Fox is) so big I’m 
going to freak out. The ceiling and 
everything? Oh my god. Have you 
seen the Beyoncé and Jay-Z video? 
The one they shot in the … Louvre? 
Yes! It looks like that.”
She’s not wrong. As most of her 
friends from Wisconsin are about 
to end their first semester of college, 
Carlie has just ended the Bloom 
Tour. Hosting the back-to-back-
to-back queer, blonde ambition of 
Hanson, Kim Petras and Sivan, 
the historic Fox Theater’s intricate 
architecture 
reads 
as 
equally 
revolutionary and religious.
The singer’s synth-pop package 
is especially “of the moment.” She 
knows you think she looks like 
Billie Eilish. She knows you might 
even think she is Billie Eilish whose 
EP release party she attended last 
year. 
“I take that as a fucking 
compliment, she’s a badass … like 
damn, I’ll take it!” she said.
This year, she found herself on 
Taylor Swift’s personal playlist and 
moving to Los Angeles.
“I hated (L.A.) at first — well, not 
hated it — but (my apartment) was 
so bare and I don’t know how to 
build anything or make furniture, 
but (my best friend) Dale helped me 
build everything, and I love it now. 
It’s cozy,” she said of her studio.
She lights candles beneath 
Nirvana, “Call Me By Your Name” 
and Mac Miller posters. But despite 
the beach sunsets back-dropping 
her writing sessions, Hanson finds 
herself at a loss on how to make 

friends as an 18-year-old in the 
city without a fake ID, hoping to 
eventually get rich and move all of 
her friends out.
“Yeah, I definitely (feel lonely 
sometimes). It’s hard because I’ve 
lived with my family my whole life. 
Now I turn 18, and I’m all on my 
own. It’s such a weird transition,” 
Hanson said. “I have two sisters at 
home, older and younger and I have 
an older brother. He lives in Texas. 
Anyway but, it sucks being without 
them. My friends and I used to go 
hiking in the bluffs, I miss doing 
that. And I fucking miss driving. I 
miss my Toyota.”
Before picking up on the Bloom 
tour, Hanson opened for Jeremy 
Zucker on a club tour, making a 
stop at Ann Arbor’s own Blind Pig 
in September.
“I remember getting to the 
dressing room. I’m a huge Nirvana 
fan, and I was like I wonder if Kurt 
or someone signed the wall and I 
saw his name with the year ’91 and 
I went on YouTube and saw the 
video,” she said before clapping in 
a moment of clarity: “That was the 
concert where I had the moment! 
I came off stage and was like ‘holy 
fuck this is really what I’m doing?’ 
It happens really randomly and I 
think tonight it’s going to hit me 
too. I know Troye fans are just die-
hards,” she said. “I think tonight I’ll 
definitely feel that way.”
As we wrap up, she hugged me 
again, thanked me and with sincere 
excitement said: “That was so fun! 
It’s going to be a fun fucking show.”
She wasn’t wrong. Hanson’s 
strongest 
asset 
remains 
her 
personability, which exudes from 
her music and stage presence.
“I’m super excited to go back to 
(my apartment) and sleep after this 
tour,” she said, on the first night of 
the tour, but surprisingly has not 
been able to sleep since getting back 
(per her Instagram).
Carlie Hanson’s new single, 
“Toxins” is out now, and her EP is 
expected in early 2019.

Carlie Hanson is the most 
Taurus person you’ll meet

CHRISTIAN KENNEDY
Daily Arts Writer

CARLIE HANSON

Ah, November. Many think 
of the first magical snowfall 
of the season with light traces 
of 
footprints 
crisscrossing 
through the frosted grass. 
Others may be reminded of 
the lengthy American holiday 
season and dash off to buy 
Christmas gifts for loved ones. 
More broody types may reflect 
only on the oncoming cold 
and how ill-prepared they are 
to receive its wrath. For me, 
November is all of these things 
plus one more: November is 
the month when the art scene 
in Ann Arbor explodes. 
If you’ve been toying with 
the idea of seeing a University 
production, now is the time 
to finally commit, pull on 
your snow boots and trudge 
over to the theater. Trust me, 
it’s a wonderful change from 
pulling on your beer-stained, 
lost-cause white sneakers and 
trekking over to a frat house. 
If dance is the art form that 
makes your heart sing, consider 
the School of Music, Theatre & 
Dance’s “hand&hand” senior 
BFA showcase. Senior BFA 
students 
Alyssa 
Gorman, 
Annelise Senkowski, Kandis 
DeAnne 
Terry 
and 
Amy 
Wensley will each showcase 
a group and solo work this 
weekend at the Betty Pease 
Studio Theater. Each piece 
highlights an aspect of their 
personal experience, either at 
the University or throughout 
their personal lives. 
Annelise Senkowski
Senkowski’s 
solo 
work 
focuses on the hiraeth, a 
Welsh word best translated 
to “a nostalgia for something 
that never was.” Senkowski’s 
theme draws heavily from 
her childhood, having left her 
home at the age of 14 to pursue 
professional Classical ballet 
training 
at 
the 
University 
of North Carolina School of 
the Arts. Now a senior at the 
University, 
Senkowski 
still 
feels like the “home” she’s 
nostalgic for isn’t a location in 
the world. 
“When I go home, it doesn’t 
feel like the place where I 
should relax, rest and sink my 
feet into the ground. I dream 
of that feeling of settlement 
that comes when your plane 
lands and you’re home, but 
I don’t really have that,” 
Senkowski said. 
But she’s not regretful. 

“I want the audience to 
acknowledge that there’s a 
hole in everyone,” Senkowski 
said. 
Any type of longing naturally 
leads to a feeling of isolation, 
and Senkowski has chosen to 
link her solo work with her 
group work on the isolation 
of women, specifically within 
relationships. She pressed the 
importance of women lifting 
each other up to combat this 
isolation. 

“We’ve always fought to 
have a place at the table, but 
we’ve got to get rid of the 
notion that there’s only one 
place for women. We can all 
have a seat at the table, we 
just need to help each other,” 
Senkowski said. 
Kandis DeAnne Terry 
Terry’s work is focused on 
the importance of healing, and 
her vehicle to do so is color. 
She embraces color therapy as 
a way to accept the energies of 
others while being cognizant 
of how our individual energies 
enhance the bigger picture. 
“Our (energies), just like 
our bodies, are made up of 
many parts and colors, seven 
to be exact. Violet, Indigo, 
Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, 
& Red,” Terry said in an email 
interview with The Daily. 
Terry sees each of these 
colors as associated with a 
particular 
chakra. 
Violet, 
for example, is the chakra 
associated with naturalistic 
instincts. The green chakra 
fuels 
one’s 
connection 
with 
others. 
Terry 
sees 
these 
chakras, 
and 
their 
corresponding 
colors, 
as 
integral 
to 
understanding 
herself. 
“I have found that each of 
my energy chakras matter. 
Each is unique and have their 
own function and key to 
healing. Although one chakra 
may be stronger or channeled 

more often than the other, 
does not mean the rest are 
not just as useful or needed,” 
Terry wrote. 
Alyssa Gorman 
Gorman puts her finger 
on the moment every college 
student can relate to — the 
feeling 
of 
being 
torn 
in 
different directions, crushed 
by expectations from every 
facet of life. 
“As I am graduating in one 
month, I have found myself 
constantly looking for the 
next thing (job, opportunity, 
audition, etc.) instead of living 
in 
the 
moment,” 
Gorman 
wrote in an email interview 
with The Daily. 
Like many others, Gorman 
has found her community to be 
an incredible support system 
to find her inner peace in the 
face of this chaos. 
“To have a group of people 
to cheer you on and build up 
through the highs and the 
lows is so important to your 
physical, mental, and spiritual 
well-being,” Gorman wrote. 
Gorman 
will 
use 
contemporary jazz to bring her 
experiences to light on stage. 
Amy Wensley 
Projecting your energy on 
the outside world can be just 
as important as focusing on 
yourself, especially with the 
rampant effects of climate 
change 
already 
seen 
and 
those to come. Wensley uses 
movement to highlight the 
importance of caring for the 
world that we inhabit. 
“In 
regards 
to 
the 
environment, in some ways, 
we’re improving, and in some 
ways, we’re lacking,” Wensley 
wrote in an email interview 
with The Daily. 
Wensley’s 
group 
work 
focuses 
on 
the 
theme 
of 
migration, 
specifically 
of 
ethnic 
groups 
around 
the 
world. Her ideas stem from 
migrations in her own family. 
“My theme of ‘migration’ 
stemmed from research about 
my 
multicultural 
heritage: 
my 
96-year-old 
grandpa’s 
challenges in the 1930s-50s 
with 
his 
Native 
American 
roots, my late grandfather who 
immigrated from Malta in the 
1950s, and my first-generation 
American mother growing up 
in 
metro-Detroit,” 
Wensley 
wrote. 
All 
choreographers 
will 
present 
their 
works 
from 
Thurs. Nov. 15 to Sat. Nov. 
17 at the Betty Pease Studio 
Theater. 

LeBron James takes his 
talents to the small screen

HBO

This year, LeBron James 
opened a public elementary 
school in his native Akron, 
traded 
barbs 
with 
the 
president of the United States, 
did voiceover work for the 
animated film “Smallfoot” (he 
was not Meechee), endorsed 

Texas Senate candidate Beto 
O’Rourke, wore a fabulous 
Thom Browne short suit, did a 
shot of tequila with no hands on 
“The Ellen Show” (for charity) 
and had producing credits on 
no fewer than five television 
shows and sold another four to 
networks. Oh, and in his free 
time, he played some basketball.
The King is now as exciting 
to watch off the court as he is to 

watch on it. Whatever led James 
to join the Lakers this summer 
— the renown of the franchise, 
Magic Johnson’s persistence, a 
championship-hungry 
young 
core — the move to Los Angeles 
positions him to be a player in 
the entertainment industry, in 
the off-season and in eventual 
retirement. And James has, 
via his production company, 
SpringHill 
Entertainment, 

MAITREYI ANANTHARAMAN
Daily Arts Writer

“hand&hand” 
Presented by 
SMTD

Thurs. Nov 15, Fri. 
Nov. 16 & Sat. Nov. 
17 @ 8 p.m.

Betty Pease Dance 
Studio

$7 General 
Admission

BFA senior choreography 
on display in ‘hand&hand’

TRINA PAL
Daily Arts Writer

quietly become something of a 
Hollywood powerhouse, telling 
stories that are poignant and 
revelatory.
SpringHill’s 
TV 
projects 
are scattered across networks, 
mostly docuseries with some 
scripted programming in the 
works. Though James himself 
appears only in two, every show 
feels tied to him in some way. 
Collectively, they tell a kind of 
extratextual story of an athlete 
at the culmination of his own 
political 
awakening, 
deeply 
curious about the institutions 
and forces that have made his 
life what it is.
Showtime’s 
“Shut 
Up 
and 
Dribble,” 
a 
three-part 
docuseries airing this month, 
is an attempt to place James’s 
activism 
in 
a 
historical 
tradition. A sweeping history 
of political activism in the 
NBA, 
the 
program’s 
title 
is a cheeky jab at the Fox 
News 
anchorwoman 
Laura 
Ingraham, 
who 
made 
the 
remark in February after James 
criticized Donald Trump in 
an ESPN interview. “Shut Up 
and Dribble” is also a rebuke 
to anyone who would neglect 
the fraught racial and power 
dynamics tied up in basketball 
by calling it “just a game.”
“In America, Black athletes 
were 
supposed 
to 
be 
the 
workers, 
not 
the 
owners,” 
narrates sportswriter Jemele 
Hill in the first episode’s 
opening minutes. “They were 
supposed to be the talent and 

never 
the 
power 
brokers.” 
It’s a reminder of how radical 
James’s TV empire is — it 
marks his ability to bridge that 
gap, to take ownership of his 
future at a time when the NBA’s 
stars are beginning to wield 
unprecedented power.
Any discussion of LeBron 
James 
will 
be 
met 
with 
inevitable 
comparisons 
to 
Michael Jordan, who parlayed 
his 
NBA 
success 
into 
his 
own commercial empire and 
whose number James wears 
in homage. But James has 
taken 
care 
to 
distinguish 
himself 
from 
Jordan. 
The 
second episode of “Shut Up 
and Dribble” critiques Jordan’s 
silence on social issues. When 
declining to endorse the Black 
Harvey Gantt in his Senate 
race against the openly racist 
Jesse 
Helms, 
Jordan 
said, 
famously — if apocryphally — 
that “Republicans buy sneakers 
too.” Jordan’s story is told 
alongside those of forgotten 
athletes who gambled their 
careers 
on 
their 
political 
convictions and lost. “Maybe 
the best way to stay popular is 
to remain a mystery,” says Hill.
James 
doesn’t 
buy 
that. 
“The Shop,” a freewheeling 
barbershop-set group talk show 
on HBO, is proof of his belief 
that celebrity obliges him to be 
outspoken. With fellow NBA 
and WNBA players, comedians 
and rappers, he probes issues 
of race, fatherhood and fame. 
Is it 100 percent authentic? 

Probably not — it’s TV, after 
all. But it feels like earnest 
conversation amid the joking 
there are a few moments of 
real insight. Jordan is invoked 
here too: In one episode, Eagles 
defensive end Michael Bennett 
recalls “looking for Michael 
Jordan to say something, and 
he never did.”
The shows James doesn’t 
make 
appearances 
in 
are 
equally bold and compelling. 
“Warriors of Liberty City” 
on Starz follows a Miami 
neighborhood where a career 
in the NFL is seen as the only 
way out. “Student Athlete” on 
HBO is a critical look at the 
maze of NCAA rules. And the 
scripted shows in production 
will venture outside the world 
of sports — Netflix is making a 
SpringHill series about Madam 
CJ Walker, America’s first 
Black female millionaire, with 
Octavia Spencer (“The Help”) 
set to star.
Who better to make TV than 
someone 
who 
has 
publicly 
grappled with spending the 
majority of his life in the 
spotlight in front of a camera? 
In a sense, James is the 
rare child star who endured 
the 
lifetime 
of 
attention 
uncorrupted by fame. He has 
emerged from it all with a rare, 
keen understanding of what it 
means to be a public figure in 
2018. And in television, he may 
have finally found a meaningful 
vehicle to make sense of his 
strange world.

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