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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