The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com News 2 — Wednesday, March 30, 2022 Art & Afrofuturism panel explores the work of late author Octavia Butler PHOTO ADMINISTRATION GENEVIEVE GRUENLER Daily Staff Reporter ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily An Ann Arbor resident wheels his display of two different worlds through campus during the Climate Strike Friday afternoon. The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is publishing weekly on Wednesdays for the Winter 2022 semester by students at the University of Michigan. One copy is available free of charge to all readers. Additional copies may be picked up at the Daily’s office for $2. If you would like a current copy of the paper mailed to you, please visit store. pub.umich.edu/michigan-daily-buy-this-edition to place your order. 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The panel was a part of the University’s Octavia Butler Week programming in honor of African American author Octavia Butler who received a MacArthur Genius Grant in 1995. Four panelists were featured and the panel was moderated by Christopher Audain, managing director of the U-M Arts Initiative. The panel discussed the intersection of art and Afrofuturism in light of the upcoming U-M theatrical adaptation of Octavia Butler’s post- apocalyptic novel Parable of the Sower. Naomi André, professor of Afroamerican and American studies and women’s and gender studies, began the panel discussion by talking about the function of art in an Afrofuture. Andre said Afrofuturism is a space of possibility and art can help realize that possibility. “Metaphorically art can be a spaceship,” Andre said. “The destination of the spaceship is that space of possibility … a place where Black people are treated as fully human. A place where Black folks do not need handouts or special treatments. It is a space where all people are part of the same whole where the smartest and the best people come from all racial backgrounds and ethnic backgrounds. Art can help us think of these places, envision these landscapes.” Tananarive Due, a lecturer in the department of African American studies at the University of California at Los Angeles, spoke about her work with horror. As a genre, Due said, horror can be a form of escapism for members of the Black community because the danger portrayed is not real, unlike the ever-present threat posed by white supremacy. Due then spoke about her mother’s experience as an activist in the 1960s. She said that her parents were living proof that change was possible through action and that through activism, change was already happening. “I’m often struck by the irony of how that social agitation in the 1960s was in sort of a futuristic vacuum,” Due said. “Because you’re fighting for a future you do not know how to even anticipate, and in fact, some of the things that those activists in the 60s would have considered futurism were already happening, but just outside of their knowledge, which is one of the things about Afrofuturism that is so exciting. It’s not only the arts, but it’s the activism.” Susana M. Morris, an associate professor and scholar of Black feminism, Black digital media and Afrofuturism at Georgia Institute of Technology, then spoke about the power she felt when she first met Octavia Butler. “The idea that the only constant (in the world) is change and that we humans, even working class Black girls with big ideas have the power to truly shape our world for the better or worse, was thrilling,” Morris said. Morris then spoke about the idea of a “positive obsession,” something that Butler described herself as having. “(Butler) called her deep unmitigated desire to create art and share her work a positive obsession,” Morris said. “Butler said her positive obsession became a higher calling and wished everyone to have a positive obsession. John Jennings, professor of media and cultural studies at the University of California at Riverside, also spoke at the panel about the rise of Afrofuturism and his work translating Octavia Butler’s novels into graphic novels. “I can’t relate how difficult it was to work with but also the amount of pressure it was … thinking about this from a kind of vantage point of us collaborating with Octavia Butler and trying to figure out how to translate her words into a graphic novel,” Jennings said. In the question and answer portion of the event, Rackham student Symone Campbell asked the panelists for recommendations of texts or films for Black students who want to learn more about Afrofuturism. “Start with the dark matter series,” Jennings said. “These are collections of speculative fiction by and about people of color. They are a really good subsection of work in various genres.” Morris added that Afrofuturism is closely tied to the idea of Black joy, which celebrates the accomplishments and experiences of the Black community, despite centuries of discrimmination and trauma. “Afrofuturism as a cultural movement is fundamentally Black joy centered, because to posit a future where Black folk are centered, not marginalized, where we are absolutely necessary for the continuance of human society is a hopeful project, is a project that is joyful,” Morris said. In her final remarks, Due said that younger people have a different perspective and that the younger generation has the ability to question aspects of the world that older generations have settled into. “There’s a part of us that has settled for what reality is and the way the younger generation has not, they look out and say why,” Due said. “So let’s … have the imagination at least to listen to someone who’s trying to picture and point a path toward a different way.” Daily Staff Reporter Genevieve Gruenler can be reached at gruenler@ umich.edu. Read more at MichiganDaily.com Jonathan Vaughn working with private investigator on allegations the University sanctioned Anderson study on athletes ANNA FIFELSKI Daily Staff Reporter California-based company GET BIT to handle the case pro-bono Jonathan Vaughn shared a press release on March 11 announcing he hired a private investigation company based in southern California, GET BIT, to investigate allegations that the University of Michigan “sanctioned” a study by Dr. Robert Anderson that researched the sperm of “elite athletes.” The press release alleges Anderson forced athletes to provide sperm samples and illegally sold the sperm to unknowing parties. According to GET BIT, the Private Investigator company is handling the case pro-bono. In May 2021, WilmerHale, an independent law firm hired by the University to investigate allegations of sexual assault against Anderson, found that hundreds of the allegations are credible. The report also stated that several University officials were aware of Anderson’s misconduct. University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald wrote in an email to The Michigan Daily that WilmerHale didn’t find evidence of the new allegations against Anderson. “While the WilmerHale report contains references to Anderson’s interest in male reproductive health, including the collection of semen samples, the investigative team found no evidence of the activities alleged in the press release you cite,” Fitzgerald wrote. Fitzgerald added that the University provided many documents and pieces of evidence to the WilmerHale investigation, but he did not directly respond to inquiries about the University participation in the GET BIT investigation. “It’s also worth noting that the university provided WilmerHale with unfettered access to more than 200 individuals, 2 million documents from the Bentley Historical Library, 125 boxes of paper personnel files and tens of thousands of other documents.” According to Luis Bolaños, founder of GET BIT Investigations and the private investigator for Vaughn’s case, the “Hail to the Victims” investigation is considered a criminal investigation. Bolaños said he reached out to Vaughn about conducting an investigation when he saw a headline about Anderson and was reminded of a 2020 lawsuit in California that was filed against a late sheriff who was found to have been involved in one of the largest child molestation and sexual assault cases. “I had no idea what was happening in Michigan,” Bolaños said. “I’ve never heard of Jon. I had no idea who he was. I had no idea of Dr. Anderson and the allegations against him. But between (Anderson and Duffy), there are thousands and thousands of victims, so that’s why I first heard about it and (what) made me want to reach out to (Vaughn) and talk to him a little more.” Vaughn said he decided to work with GET BIT because he and other survivors are still looking for answers. “There were two times specifically I remember offhanded comments where Dr. Robert Anderson said (he was) trying to figure out how to create the perfect Black athlete,” Vaughn said. Vaughn said he began his personal investigation into his and other allegations against Anderson in 2020 after hearing similar stories from other survivors. “This is something that I have been investigating since early into the mediation process, (which) dates back to probably September or October of 2020,” Vaughn said. “It was just very clear to me and to several of us survivors that there was an issue with the location of not only our medical reports, but we got several stories that they were destroyed or they kept them for 10 years and then destroyed (them) or they don’t exist.” Bolaños said GET BIT and Vaughn are working with Promoting Awareness | Victim Empowerment (PAVE) to schedule virtual and in-person press conferences surrounding this issue. PAVE founder Angela Rose told The Daily she was inspired to start this organization after she was abducted and assaulted by a repeat sex offender when she was 17. Rose said PAVE is working on setting up a half-day virtual summit dedicated to supporting male survivors. “People knew that these things were happening (and) I don’t know if they just don’t know what to say, or do, or if their moral compass is broken or who knows what the reason, but there are a lot of men in a lot of pain right now and so I feel like it’s our job to try and do something proactive,” Rose said.