The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
6 — Wednesday, March 10, 2021 

When asked about the future of 

the newly-formed Michigan Music 
Business Club, Business junior 
Jonathan Hayman, co-founder 
and president of the club, did not 
shy from divulging all that the club 
has accomplished in its two years 
of existence. 

“This semester, we will have 

had (executives from) Amazon 
Music and Spotify, two of the 
most popular digital streaming 
platforms, speak for our club on 
behalf of the school,” Hayman 
said. “There’s not been any club in 
school history that has had that. 
There’s not been any club in school 
history that has had the president 
of the largest festival company 
(Gary Gersh) in the world speak 
(on their behalf).”

Combining the passion of a 

music fan with the unrelenting 
drive of a Ross major, the MMBC 
is here to dominate. From the 
Ross School of Business to the 
School of Art & Design to LSA, 
the membership pool is filled with 
music industry hopefuls, united in 
their drive to break into the music 
scene, as talent managers, artists, 
marketing 
executives, 
concert 

planners — you name it. 

Thanks to the diverse crew 

of members (carefully curated 
by Hayman and Business junior 
Cassie Alexe, fellow co-founder), 
the 
MMBC 
has 
a 
massive 

network that has allowed them 
to plan events with some of the 
most powerful executives in the 
industry. 
Hayman 
and 
Alexe 

began developing the group in the 
summer of 2019, when the two 
were both just rising sophomores 
at the University. At that point, 
Hayman had already gathered a 
remarkably 
impressive 
resume 

in 
the 
music 
industry 
with 

experience planning concerts and 
marketing music for some of the 
hottest acts in hip hop. 

The idea for MMBC came 

to Hayman after the success of 
rapper Safari’s “Late Night Lover,” 
a song he had helped advertise. 
He realized he had nobody on 
campus to share this moment of 
accomplishment with. Hearing 
that Alexe had also been looking to 
enter the music industry, the two 
built an organization that seeks 
to make up for the lack of a music 

business major on campus. 

“We just want to excite people 

and make them want to come to 
our events,” Alexe explained. “We 
think the best way to do that is to 
have these exciting people with 
super cool experiences come in 
and tell us what it was like working 
with Kanye. Tell us what it was 
like driving to Colorado to sit at a 
Nirvana concert and listen to them 
for the first time before signing 
them. These are such cool stories 
and it’s so intimate that everyone 
gets a lot out of it.” 

Indeed, it’s hard not to be 

impressed by the list of people 
the club has managed to secure: 
the former marketing director 
of Kanye West’s Yeezy apparel, 
a head executive from Coachella 
Music 
and 
Arts 
Festival, 

managers of artists like Nirvana, 
Soundgarden, Foo Fighters and 
The Chainsmokers. And these are 
just to name a few. 

With the availability of Zoom 

and the increased normalcy of 
over-the-computer meetings, the 
pandemic has only made it easier 
for the MMBC to bring in notable 
speakers — though, they explain, 
they had been hosting some 
meetings over FaceTime even 
before COVID-19 had reached 
campus. This, along with an 
impressive social media rollout, 
has allowed the infant group to 
continue expanding even in the 
midst of a global crisis. 

“We expect to have even greater 

turnouts for our future events 
once things are back in person,” 
Hayman said. “The club is just 
exponentially growing and we 
expect MMBC to grow into the 
biggest club that Michigan has 
ever seen.” If that sounds like a 
bold proclamation, that’s because 
it is. 

If asked why they built the 

club, Hayman and Alexe will 
tell you how important it is to 
have a passion for music and to 
build a community for those with 
like-minded goals. While this 
is undoubtedly true, make no 
mistake — the MMBC is a well-
oiled machine and their ambitions 
are trekking toward something 
bigger than a passion project. Few 
things are out of reach for these 
aspiring professionals, and if you 
are looking to one day score a job in 
the music industry, the Michigan 
Music Business Club is the place 
to be.

Traveling and living out of a 

converted Sprinter van last August, 
Art & Design senior Grace Coudal 
discovered the beauty and vastness 
of the American Southwest. With her 
friend and Art & Design class of 2020 
graduate Dante Tsuzuki, Coudal drove 
through 
Colorado, 
Utah, 
Arizona 

and New Mexico to photograph the 
sweeping landscape. 

Thousands of miles away from 

Coudal’s native Chicago, this coveted 
region of American terrain inspired 
Coudal’s 
debut 
photography 
book 

Intimately South, Intimately West, 
which 
was 
ethically 
printed 
in 

Minneapolis and released Feb. 11.

Coudal believes that embracing a 

nomadic lifestyle during the pandemic 
led her toward a deeper intimacy with 
the landscape where she traveled 

and the people she met. In a virtual 
interview with The Daily, Coudal she 
described a particular night at a Utah 
campsite. 

“The whole sky was black except 

for this sunset that was happening 
all across this mountainscape. I’ve 
literally never seen colors like that 
in my life,” she said. “When I started 
crying, I didn’t know why. It was like I 
was seeing heaven.” 

Funded by the Kelly McKinnell 

Memorial 
Scholarship 
grant 
from 

the School of Art & Design, Coudal 
launched her vision of a travel photo 
project into action. The dynamics 
of intimacy have always enamored 
Coudal. 

“Intimacy is just being blown away, 

and entranced by land that I have 
never seen. Feelings that have emerged 
that I couldn’t really even anticipate,” 
she said.

Coudal only brought 10 rolls of 35 

mm film for the month-long trip. 

“It was a very active choice to do film 

photography. I did not want to at all do 
digital. I did not want to be able to see 
the photos that I was taking. I wanted 
there to be an element of surprise,” 
Coudal said. 

Only after returning from her trip 

and scanning the film did she see the 
photos she took. 

“Photos serve as artifacts. With a 

digital photo, you can take as many 

photos as you want just to get your 
‘perfect’ shot,” Coudal said. “And 
I kind of liked that that was not an 
option.” 

Through the spontaneity granted 

through film photography and journal 
entries, her book revels in the joy of 
the unknown and unplanned, all while 
capturing an otherworldly landscape. 

Photos featuring nudity in nature, 

like people bathing in a creek, are 
included in her book as well — 
physical intimacy is a common thread 
throughout her other photography, 
as seen through Coudal’s personal 
projects like “Lusting Longer.”

Coudal speaks on the self-portrait 

series as growing out of a transformative 
time in her life when she was navigating 
her own identity as a queer femme. 
“Lusting Longer” subverts the common 
fairytale trope of a girl venturing into the 
woods; Coudal re-imagines the tale by 
reclaiming her identity through fashion 
and photography. Hauling photography 
equipment and various outfits to Nichols 
Arboretum in the early morning, Coudal 
photographed herself. 

“I was trying to reclaim myself, 

sensuality, desires and lust that I’ve 
been feeling toward people,” Coudal 
said. “It was a really meaningful project 
at that time, and I was happy with how 
it turned out.” 

Though 
she 
has 
been 
creating 

and selling zines — self-published 
work curated by images and text — 
since childhood, Coudal gravitated 
toward photography as a medium. 
The vulnerability one could capture 
through a lens enamored her. 

“You could display, entice people and 

provoke people very quickly, which I 

really liked … Trying to progress the 
world into the way that we (Coudal and 
her friends) wanted it. We wanted it to 
move it. Photography was an accessible 
way to do that,” she said. 

The 
pairing 
of 
intimacy 
and 

photography 
stems 
from 
Coudal’s 

interest in how her sexuality intersects 
with the art she creates. Informed by 
her minor in LGBTQ and Sexuality 
Studies, her senior thesis project is on 
the future of queer femme intimacy. 
Coudal said that if she wasn’t a 
photographer, she’d be a sexologist. 
The intersection of these interests led 
her to conceptualize and launch her 
startup STAA, a brand focused on sex 
education and empowerment. 

Growing up as a queer teen, Coudal 

didn’t see her sexuality reflected in sex 
education class. So, STAA was born. 
“I wanted to make a company that 
was unapologetic about talking about 
sexuality, sex, intimacy and identities,” 
she said. 

Coudal found that much of LGBTQ+ 

and studies on sexuality can be dense 
and academically challenging to read. 
In an effort to promote more accessible 
content, Coudal hopes to inform other 
young people about sex through art, 
particularly her photography. 

“It makes life confusing when you 

aren’t taught those things, or you just 
don’t feel validated or seen if you are 
like a part of those communities. … And 
so I’m trying to translate that into a 

universal language of art,” she said. 

Coudal contextualized her mission: 

“Literally less than seven percent of 
LGBTQ+ individuals were ever taught 
an inclusive sexual education in the 

United States, which is awful,” she 
said. “The brand is basically just trying 
to open these conversations, empower 
people about their own desires and their 
own intimacy.”

Coudal also hopes to add a podcast to 

STAA where she can interview guests 
about sex, desire and LGBTQ+ topics. 
By broaching especially sensitive topics 
that can be really difficult and sensitive, 
such as sexual and gender identity and 
sexual intimacy, Coudal finds that 
having her photography online helps 
others feel validated and seen. 

“There are so many things that are 

perfectly normal and amazing that 
people need to feel validated about and 
need to feel empowered about,” Coudal 
said. “They shouldn’t just feel validated 
— they should be celebrated for being 
themselves.” 

 Artist Profile: Grace Coudal captures intimacy through a camera lens 

The Michigan Music Business 

Club is here to dominate

NINA MOLINA
Daily Arts Writer

BEN SERVETAH

Daily Arts Writer

All photos courtesy of Grace Coudal

puzzle by sudokusnydictation.com

By Roland Huget
©2021 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
03/10/21

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

03/10/21

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Release Date: Wednesday, March 10, 2021

ACROSS

1 Is sporting
6 Bobby who lost to 

Billie Jean King in 
tennis’ “Battle of 
the Sexes”

11 Place to unwind
14 Grenoble’s river
15 Sign up, in 

Sussex

16 Reliever’s asset
17 “ABC” group, with 

“The”

19 USN clerk
20 Hot state
21 Heat unit
22 Ruhr Valley city
24 Art class subject
26 Part-plant 

DC Comics 
superhero

28 Compulsive thief, 

for short

30 Thoughts spoken 

onstage

31 Prefix with 

comic

32 “Not for me”
35 Left on a liner
36 Pioneer’s wagon 

with an upward-
curved floor

39 Popular side
42 Sore
43 Makeshift knives
47 More minute
49 Without a musical 

key

50 Weight loss 

guru

54 New Haven Ivy
55 Stream of insults, 

say

56 “It’s __ to you”
58 Given a meal
59 Printemps 

month

60 Skirt, as an 

issue ... or a hint 
to the puzzle’s 
circles

63 Outer: Prefix
64 Slices in a pie, 

often

65 Gold unit
66 Blue shade
67 Designer 

fragrance

68 Prepared for a 

TV interview

DOWN

1 Mischief
2 Ordinarily
3 Any of 11 1860s 

states

4 Sitcom planet
5 Outdoor home
6 Agree to more 

issues

7 Start to structure
8 Big name in fairy 

tales

9 Federal URL 

ending

10 Makes things 

slippery, in a way

11 Closes the 

marital deal

12 Peacock, e.g.
13 Surrounded by
18 Extremely
23 Shout from the 

main mast

25 Momentous 

victories

27 Part of UTEP
29 Excessively
32 Bench press 

target, for short

33 Bat wood
34 Metaphor for a 

mess

37 “Breaking Bad” 

agent

38 Prime meridian 

std.

39 Place near the 

Pennsylvania 
Railroad

40 Relax
41 Retirement 

income source

44 Down
45 Chemical 

bonding number

46 Tobogganed
48 Ophthalmologist, 

for short

49 Lago filler
51 Wound up 

costing

52 Highway through 

Whitehorse

53 __-France
57 Senior’s 

highlight

61 Comic strip cry
62 Non opposite

SUDOKU


“Is Saint Patricks 
day the best 
holiday of the 
year?”

“Is that even a 
question?”

03/03/21

WHISPER

