The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
6 — Wednesday, February 24, 2021 

Last week, the Zell Visiting Writers 

Series, sponsored by the Helen Zell 
Writers’ Program, featured Marcelo 
Hernandez Castillo, a renowned poet 
and graduate of the University of 
Michigan who recently published his 
first memoir “Children of the Land.” 
During the event, which took place 
over Zoom, Castillo shared his work, 
talked about his career and answered 
questions for the public in an hour and 
a half long talk with faculty, staff and 
community members.

The meeting opened with a 

heartfelt introduction from Castillo’s 
editor, Sofia Groopman, who told 
us how the two had met. When 
she first read his poetry, she felt 
the fundamental trust that exists 
between a writer and their editor — an 
unnamable reliance as mysterious as 
it is strong; she knew she had to work 
with him.

Castillo possesses many laureates: 

He is a graduate of the University’s 
Master of Fine Arts program and 
is the first undocumented student 
to have done so. He is the founder 
of Undocupoets, a group of poets 
who support and advocate for other 
undocumented poets, and a published 
author. His award-winning poetry 
was also recently adapted into an 
opera and now most recently, his 
memoir was published. This latest 
work, which has been nominated 
for multiple awards and praised 
heavily, tells his story of being an 
undocumented immigrant crossing 
the border to becoming a celebrated 
modern poet.

Following his introduction, Castillo 

took some time to read a few excerpts 
from his work. Even though he sat 
alone in his room, his enthusiasm 
and charisma could be felt from miles 
away. Every pause in his reading, 
every extra emphasis in his voice, all 
served to illustrate the complex and 

vibrant picture that was his poetry. 
He began with the titular poem from 
his first book, “Cenzóntle.”

An emotional piece, it can only be 

summarized by a quote: 

“Because the bird flew before there 

was a word for flight years from now 
there will be a name for what you and 
I are doing.”

These were the opening lines to the 

poem — each line that followed grew 
more ethereal, packed with yearning, 
loss and emotions too complicated 
to name. Although the audience 
could not be viewed from Zoom’s 
speaker setup, it was clear they were 
enraptured (I know I was). Sometimes 
while watching a performer you can 
see their passion for their work in 
every move they make, and you know 
that this is what they were meant 
to do — this is how it felt listening to 
Castillo.

He then read an excerpt from his 

memoir: a chapter detailing what it 
was like to send his mother back to 
Mexico as she self-deported. Taking 
place 12 years after his father was also 
deported, Castillo and his siblings had 
to experience the pain and sorrow 
again, but this time in the new, 
bitter context of knowing they were 
sending their mother to be alone with 
her abusive husband and they may 
never be together as a family again. 
Beautifully written, it was clear from 
every twist and quiver of the words 
that this heart-wrenching story was 
written by a poet. 

Following his readings, Castillo 

entered a Q&A session with Nadia 
Mota, a current graduate student at 
the University. When asked about his 
graduate experience at the University, 
Castillo reminisced on the invaluable 
community he found in the writer’s 
program and has since returned to his 
alma mater as part of the Zell Visiting 
Writers Program to teach and advise 
current students on their writing.

On Feb. 9, HBO aired a new documentary 

directed by the renowned Sam Pollard, known 
for his work in the 1998 Academy Award-
nominated documentary “4 Little Girls.” The 
documentary, “Black Art: In the Absence of Light,” 
is an enlightening, 90-minute-long experience 
cultivated by the insight of artists ranging from 
Carrie Mae Weems to Kehinde Wiley, alongside 
other notable curators, collectors and scholars. It is 
an analysis of every stepping stone that has helped 
forge the path for Black artists and the emergence 
of Black American art within a predominantly 
white sphere.

The documentary centers its narrative around 

David C. Driskell’s 1976 exhibition “Two Centuries 
of Black American Art” at the Los Angeles County 
Museum of Art, which compiled 200 years of art 
history using 63 carefully chosen artists. The event 
became a social-historical phenomenon by shining 
a light on the legacy of Black American artists. 

The discourse of “Black Art: In the Absence of 

Light” centers around institutions and their role in 
providing a sense of belonging. Museums, through 
their collection and exhibition practices, play a 
crucial part in the representation of the Black 
community, whose talent has long been ignored 
by mainstream American society. Art historian 
Maurice Berger, who gives his insight on the role 
of institutions throughout the film, exposes a 
clear problem of museum curation when he states 

that 85% of artists in the collections of American 
museums are white and that only a shocking 1.2% 
are Black. 

Driskell’s “Two Centuries” paved the way 

for the numerous movements, museums and 
exhibitions that emerged towards the end of the 
20th century, facilitating the introduction of Black 
art in the mainstream fine art sphere. However, it 
has certainly not been a smooth path. 

The film recalls “Harlem on my Mind,” the 

1968 exhibition showcased at the Metropolitan 
Museum of Art, as a hypocritical and wrongful 
display of “Black art.” While the show was centered 
around the African-American community, it 
showcased zero Black artists. This, alongside 
the emerging Civil Rights Movement, became 
an impetus for rethinking who decides which 
stories get told and in what way. In a sense, a lot of 
the reactionary exhibitions that came thereafter 
sought to take viewers out of their comfort zones 
and to challenge the previous conventionality of 
the art. 

This is exemplified in another exhibition the film 

calls attention to: “Black Male: Representations 
of Masculinity in Contemporary American Art” 
at the Whitney Museum of New York in 1994, 
which was curated by Thelma Golden, another 
important figure throughout the documentary. 
“‘Black Male,’” in the words of Kehinde Wiley, the 
artist behind former President Barack Obama’s 
portrait, “looked at the body as a sign of strength. 
It looked at masculinity as a sign of performance. It 
looked at femininity as an invention.”

This exhibition reshaped the meaning of 

Blackness and maleness in visual culture. In the 
documentary, images of the exhibit and cutouts of 
media critiques are shown, allowing the spectator 
to see how something so controversial had 
become liberating and illuminating for many but 
bewildering and perturbing to others. It’s amusing 
to read that what the press had to say echoed the 
exhibition’s original intention: a sort of artistic 
rebellion.

Black art has been there since the foundation 

of this nation: As Theaster Gates, the artist 
who concludes the film, said, “We are part of a 
continued renaissance — it’s been happening.” 
But now it’s time to make Black art part of the 
mainstream and the public eye. To become “great 
makers in the absence of light.”

After dissecting and deconstructing “Black Art: 

In the Absence of Light,” I appreciate the value of 
the whole and the importance of every featured 
voice — many of which I was unfamiliar with and 
others for whom my interest grew stronger. It is 
comforting to see Black art flourish and get its 
rightful recognition.

However, the documentary could be more 

succinct. In and of itself, it is a sort of exhibition. 
It deals with the impact that two generations of 
artists had on today’s artists and it acts as a general 
summary of what an arbitrary selection of Black 
artists have accomplished since. It is an analysis 
of various themes within a culture too frequently 
considered monolithic. 

Fans of HBO’s “Euphoria” may 

already be well-acquainted with the 
meditative rhythms of rising indie 
artist Ai Bendr — her debut single 
“Love Me Low” appeared in the most 
recent episode of the hit television 
show in January. The song now has 
over one million plays on Spotify and 
thousands on YouTube. 

For those who don’t yet know 

about Bendr, though, the introductory 
period happens quite quickly: Her 
soothing music bounces in between 
the walls like the warm hug we’ve all 
so desperately needed since this time 
last year. Give it a minute — maybe 
two — and you’re left with the oddly 
comforting sense that this woman 
must know you personally, for how 
else could a few notes be so exactly 
what you needed to hear?

Despite the intimacy of her sound, 

Bendr remains relatively unknown 
as an artist — but her story is actually 
quite interwoven with Michigan. 
Originally born in Australia, Bendr 
moved to Ann Arbor as a toddler, 
where she spent most of her childhood. 
She then went to boarding school in 
Massachusetts before returning to 
Lady Ann last fall when she started 
as a freshman in the School of Music, 
Theatre & Dance.

Bendr studies performing arts 

technology or, in her words, “basically 
music production.” This semester, 
she’s taking advantage of online 
classes by living in Los Angeles, 
meeting with producers and putting 
the content of her coursework to 
practical use. More recently, she 
signed with Interscope Records — her 
first-ever record label — and now has a 
year of exciting new releases planned 
under their management.

But most of the story behind “Love 

Me Low,” the track featured in HBO’s 
glittered show, starts long before the 
glamour of these dreams became a 
reality. 

“I was peeing when I came up with 

the tune,” Bendr told The Daily from 
her room in Los Angeles. She laughed 
at the memory, which perhaps feels 
quite distant after a year of such 
turbulence. She wrote the song last 
February, in the last weeks that she 
would spend at her boarding school 
before COVID-19 prematurely ended 
her senior year. At the time, she was in 
a relationship and thoroughly in love. 

“I was thinking about graduation 

and having to say goodbye to this 

person that I really loved,” Bendr said. 
“I was sad because I was happy, and 
I knew that in the future I would be 
sad.” 

In this sense, Bendr says, “Love 

Me Low” is essentially just a goodbye 
song. 

“It’s really a combination of this sad 

feeling because you’re letting go of this 
person that makes you so happy,” she 
said. “But you’re also just grateful that 
you were able to have them in the first 
place.” 

The song tells the story of a 

heartbreak that you see coming but do 
not try to stop: a feeling of melancholic 
happiness, of holding on to each 
moment because you know that soon, 
one of them will be the last. 

Bendr took this inspiration with 

her back home to Michigan and 
eventually recorded the single in her 
parents’ boiler room. “It was the best 
place for acoustics,” Bendr said. She 
lined the walls with couch cushions to 
avoid echo — now one million people 
on Spotify have heard the end result. 

Since then, a lot has changed. Press 

attention grew, and record labels came 
knocking. Bendr started making plans 
to move to Los Angeles in January, 
and more projects started falling into 
place. Then, one day last fall, she was 
sitting at her desk doing schoolwork 
when her phone buzzed with a 
notification from her producers. 

“They were like, ‘Hey can you give 

us a second, could you FaceTime us, 
because “Love Me Low” is going 
to be in “Euphoria,”’ ” Bendr said. 
She smiled at the memory of it all 
happening so quickly and simply. 

“I just kind of spammed them, I 

was like ‘wtf wtf — you can’t just say 
that.’ ” 

But it turned out to be just that 

simple: An agent who had appeared 
in Bendr’s Twitter direct messages 
a few months prior had been the 
one to facilitate the deal. A few 
weeks later, Bendr’s song echoed in 
the background of Jules’s (Hunter 
Schafer) bedroom toward the end of 
the second “Euphoria” special episode 
which was released on Jan. 22. 

The 
song’s 
placement 
feels 

especially fitting for Bendr; she still 
remembers watching the first season 
of “Euphoria” with the person who 
eventually inspired the “Love Me 
Low” tune. 

“It is so full circle,” she said. And 

from here she hopes that that circle 
will only grow. 

Ann Arbor’s own Ai Bendr is 

featured on ‘Euphoria’

Marcelo Castillo discusses the 

‘undocupoet’ experience at Helen 

Zell Visiting Writers Series

Pollard shines a light on Black Art in HBO’s Black Art: In the Absence of Light’

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

ZOE PHILLIPS

Managing Arts Editor

HADLEY SAMARCO

Daily Arts Writer

CECILIA DURAN

For The Daily

puzzle by sudokusnydictation.com

By Bryant White
©2021 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
02/24/21

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

02/24/21

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Release Date: Wednesday, February 24, 2021

ACROSS

1 It may break and 

crash

5 It has an eye 

on TV

8 Slightly open

12 Sea that’s a 

victim of irrigation 
projects

13 Water park 

feature

15 Heavyweight 

fight?

16 Capital founded 

by Pizarro

17 They may draft 

briefs

18 Saloon door’s 

lack

19 Civil War topper
20 Tattoo joint?
21 Folklore monster
22 Move furtively
24 “Breaking Bad” 

org.

25 Verne who 

created Nemo

26 Dodger rival of 

shortstop Rizzuto

28 Bucket of bolts
30 “Evita” narrator
32 Gummy bear 

ingredient

34 YouTube clip, for 

short

37 Prefix with call
39 Meek
40 Tubes on the 

table

41 Sonicare rival
43 Get into a stew?
44 One who digs 

hard rock

45 Wedding 

reception hiree

47 Pressing
49 Catch a bug, say
50 Energy unit
51 Loitering ... or 

how 3-, 5-, 7- and 
9-Down might be 
seen?

58 Magic prop
59 Tech company 

that became a 
verb

60 Source
62 Harper’s Bazaar 

designer

63 Absurd
64 Swear to be true
65 Tap serving
66 California’s Point 

__ National 
Seashore

67 Cook Islands 

export

DOWN

1 Constitutional 

events

2 Disney mermaid
3 Blood-drinking 

mammal

4 “Seinfeld” 

regular

5 High light
6 Delta of 

“Designing 
Women”

7 Spelunking sight
8 Try to date
9 Support for 

Tarzan

10 Love, to Luigi
11 Judicial attire
13 One working on 

bks.

14 Linguistic suffix
23 It may be tapped
25 Fifth of 12, 

alphabetically: 
Abbr.

27 Place for 

shooting stars?

29 Free (of)
30 Shoe that’s full of 

holes

31 Dance that may 

involve a chair

33 Reddit Q&A 

session

35 Cal.-to-Fla. 

highway

36 Gossip
38 Poisonous 

flowering shrub

40 Terraced 

structure 
of ancient 
Mesopotamia

42 Naval lockup
44 Surrealist Joan
46 Magical potion
48 Persian king
51 “__ Trigger”: 

Bugs Bunny 
cartoon

52 Stud fee, 

maybe

53 Hawaiian 

goose

54 Anatomy book 

author Henry

55 Five-star
56 Smoked salmon
57 Cuckoo clock 

feature

58 Baseball glove 

part

61 Vegas snake 

eyes

SUDOKU

WHISPER

“Goat cheese 
is lowkey
controversial 
but I dont care 
”

“Nothing he 
does is 
extraordinary.”

02/18/21

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

13 Martin who wrote 

21 Winfrey of HBO’s 

31 1980s-’90s game 

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

