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Vol. 38 | Issue 16 | Jan. 17-23, 2018
News & Views News....................................... 8 Politics & Prejudices............ 16 Stir It Up............................... 18
What’s Going On................ 20 Feature Saladin Ahmed talks new comic..................................... 24 Abbott excerpt..................... 26
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metrotimes.com
| January 24-30, 2018
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NEWS & VIEWS
COURTESY PHOTO
Serving time
We spoke with Michigan inmates about rotten food, maggots, and more prison kitchen problems By Tom Perkins
Maggots, rotten food,
unsanitary kitchens, staff shortages, calorie shortages, sick inmates, angry inmates, drug-dealing kitchen employees, employees having sex with inmates, quarantines — these are the issues that documents show and inmates say are taking place in Michigan’s prison kitchens in 2018, which sounds just like what we heard about them in 2015. That and other issues led the Michigan Department of Corrections to end its food service contract with institutional food giant Aramark nearly three years ago. But inmates tell Metro Times that the same issues persist with the new food provider, Tampa-based Trinity Services. We spoke earlier this month with several inmates at the G. Robert Cotton Correctional Facility in Jackson, who allege that the kitchen is highly unsanitary, Trinity regularly serves rotten or undercooked food, and inmates aren’t provided with enough calories. That’s in line with what we reported in February 2016, as well as The Detroit Free Press’ recent stories about officials discovering maggots in the prison’s kitchen on three separate occasions.
The Free Press also reports that the MDOC hit Trinity with $2 million in fines for unauthorized meal substitutions, delays serving meals, inadequate staffing levels, and sanitation violations, among other issues. Four years of problems suggest that it doesn’t matter which private company cooks inmates’ food because it’s the prison privatization model that is fundamentally flawed. “The emphasis is not on safety or security. It’s not on adequate, nutritious meals. It’s on how to make a profit for the company,” Alex Friedmann, associate director of the Human Rights Defense Center and managing editor of Prison Legal News, tells Metro Times. An unsanitary kitchen Among those we spoke with is Lamont Heard, who converted to Islam while incarcerated and successfully sued the MDOC in federal court several years ago for failing to provide Muslim inmates with enough calories during the holy month of Ramadan. He says one of the overarching issues is sanitation, and alleges that Trinity employees prepare food without gloves, and the food service line is regularly
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crusted in old food and juice. Samuel Thomas, who is a food representative for the prison population at Cotton, says he’s concerned that garbage bins used to defrost chicken are also used to hold potatoes and other vegetables. He adds that it’s difficult to clean the kitchen because inmates aren’t provided with the proper equipment, and mop water and rags aren’t regularly changed. Thomas also alleges that a roughly 200-person unit was recently quarantined with a flu virus, but Trinity didn’t switch to disposable styrofoam trays as is protocol. He says food or juice that was already served to inmates is sometimes grabbed off trays by a Trinity staff member and returned to the line. And he alleges leftover potatoes and vegetables are stored in coolers for up to four days, then mixed in with fresh batches. “If a real inspector came through here, they’d shut this kitchen down,” Thomas tells Metro Times. “I’m not just concerned about my health and safety — we’ve got a lot of officers who treat us with respect who eat over here. I’m concerned about everyone … because
Trinity’s staff ain’t helping us straighten this out.” Food quality is also a concern, and Heard says that Trinity regularly serves rotten food, especially fruit. “That’s one of the healthiest things you can get but it’s always rotten,” he tells us. Beyond that, Heard says potatoes are regularly spoiled and not cooked because the kitchen’s ovens are broken. That lines up with the account of a former Trinity employee who says he quit because he was asked to serve rotten, moldy potatoes. Even when the food isn’t rotten, portions are so small that Thomas suspects that inmates don’t receive the 2,600 calories state law mandates. Similarly, Trinity serves food that’s of such low quality that it’s often inedible, Heard says. “They serve mystery meat and people don’t eat it,” he tells us. “But when a person goes hungry … the only thing it does is make them angry.” And for those prisoners who don’t eat meat because of dietary restrictions or religious beliefs, Trinity sometimes provides soy alternatives, but it’s rarely cooked properly — again, Heard stresses that the ovens, toasters, and other pieces of equipment are regularly broken. Still, MDOC spokesperson Chris Gautz says there are no sanitation issues. “Our contract monitoring unit is there each month, and the monitor — who looks at a wide range of food safety, sanitation, and food storage issues — has not found anything to substantiate the anonymous claims you have been told,” he says. (None of our claims come from anonymous sources.) It’s also worth noting that these sort of issues aren’t isolated. According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Southern Center for Human Rights considered suing Trinity for allegedly starving Georgia’s Calhoun County Jail inmates. Those who contacted the center reported eating toothpaste to stave off hunger. A flawed model Heard says the problems are made worse in Cotton because of how the kitchen is managed. Trinity verifies that it provides a meal by scanning each inmate’s identification bracelet. Once that’s scanned, inmates can’t receive replacement food. Heard says inmates sometimes grab a tray that has food that is undercooked, too small of a portion, or food that is otherwise inedible. If the issue is pointed out to Trinity staff, then the inmate doesn’t get a new tray — they simply lose out on that food. In that situation, Trinity employ-
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ees instruct prisoners to speak with a supervisor — but there is no supervisor regularly watching the chow line, Heard tells us. That means inmates have to file a grievance, but two weeks can pass before there’s even any kind of meeting. When it does happen, the supervisor tells inmates that there’s no proof of the problem, so there’s no corrective measure, Heard says. At this point, lunchtime begins to feel Kafkaesque. “It ain’t gonna matter to Trinity because they getting paid because they scanned my ID,” Heard says. In an October story, The Free Press noted that Trinity recently purchased the company that sells packaged food and snacks to Michigan’s inmates. The state also changed the way it pays Trinity — instead of paying the company for each meal served, it’s paid based on the prison population’s size. Under this arrangement, Trinity makes more money if it sells the prepackaged foods, so there appears to be a financial incentive to serve lousy meals. Put each of the issues together — the alleged rotten food, unsanitary conditions, small portions, undercooked and inedible food, maggots, dirt, the lack of oversight, and management — and a picture of an inhumane mess hall emerges. Those we spoke with say some of the prison officers are sympathetic, but there’s little that they can do. Officers don’t have authority over (and can’t issue orders to) Trinity workers, Thomas and Heard say. “Officers can’t get involved. It’s not in their job description because food service is privatized,” Thomas says. “Officers have no say so over what’s going on with the food, but you have a lot of them that try to help us the best they can.” Heard adds, “Even the warden doesn’t have power. The only thing he can do is make a complaint.” However, MDOC’s Gautz says that officers “do intervene if there are issues with the food and they can order Trinity staff to take food off the line or to prepare something else if it is called for.” Regardless, the issues lie with private food service employees. Trinity pays its workers far less than what the state paid its employees when it ran the mess halls, and it appears that Trinity gets what it pays for. “Every month they hire new people in or some people quit when they come to work,” Heard tells us. “The workers that they hire — Trinity — they don’t really know what’s going on inside a prison, and they don’t care how the food is served because they are only there for a paycheck.”
And that goes back to the idea that the private companies are there to serve their shareholders and not the state, inmates, or taxpayers. There are only a few ways to cut costs, such as hiring people who are less qualified, hiring at lower wages, skimping on food, and using lower quality food. But is it worth the headache? Friedmann notes that those savings are offset by the cost of dealing with disturbances — a riot at Kinross cost taxpayers nearly $900,000, The Free Press reports — and longterm health effects are going to eventually be paid for by the MDOC and taxpayers. “All for-profit companies that provide
correctional services ... they have a fiduciary duty to put their profits first,” Friedmann says. “Food service, medical care, transportation service, mental health care, phone services, money transfer services — the incentive is to generate profit, is to make money .... and when that’s your main incentive, it skews your priorities in how you provide services in prison.” “Trinity’s business model is not based on providing adequate or sufficient food for prisoners — it’s based on providing a profit for the company.” What’s a hungry inmate to do in this situation? There’s usually no quick fix. Dan Manville, an attorney who repre-
sented Heard in his lawsuit and is also the director of the Michigan State University’s Civil Rights Clinic, previously told me that there has to be a change at the top of the state government before there’s a philosophical change in the MDOC. “Internally it’s hard to do much because the state will take such harsh actions,” Manville says. “The only other thing they could do is bring it to the media and legislature’s attention, and hope they step up and do something.” letters@metrotimes.com @metrotimes
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ON SALE FRIDAY
HAIM - MAY 8
TECH N9NE - JUNE 3 JUST ANNOUNCED
2 NIGHTS WITH MODEST MOUSE - MAY 2 & MAY 3 (ON SALE - 2/2)
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on sale friday:
coming soon concert calendar: 1/24 - Fetty Wap
limited tickets available
1/25 - Glorious Sons @ the Shelter limited tickets available
1/26 - Candlebox w/ the Lows limited tickets available
2/7 - Avatar w/ the Brains, Hellzapoppin
mar. 27 creed bratton st. andrew’s from ‘the office’
mar. 31 sleep st. andrew’s
2/9 - The Dangerous Summer
@ the Shelter w/ Microwave, The Band Camino
2/11 - Big Wreck w/ Attica Riots, Core Effect 2/12 - dave east @ the shelter w/ d. jones, piff jones
2/13 - Devvon Terrell @ the Shelter w/ Kayla Brianna, kid quill
2/15 - Here Come the Mummies 2/15 - Set It Off @ the Shelter w/ The Gospel Youth
apr. 28 king krule st. andrew’s
july 29 ben harper st. andrew’s & charlie musselwhite
2/17 - COIN w/ The Aces 2/18 - Gin Blossoms
New Miserable Experience 25 Year Anniversary Tour
2/20 - New Politics w/ DREAMERS, The Wrecks
coming soon:
2/21 - Architects
w/ Stick To Your Guns, Counterparts
2/22 - frisky whisky
whiskey, burlesque, craft beer, live art & more!
2/24 - Lettuce & Galactic 2/25 - Missio w/ Welshly Arms @ the Shelter limited tickets available
2/28 - Watain
feb. 2
st. andrew’s
boombox
feb. 9
starset
st. andrew’s w/ grabbitz, year of the locust
3/1 - jordan rakei @ the shelter 3/3 - somo w/ caye
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| January 24-30, 2018
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NEWS & VIEWS
The Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol submits 365,000 petition signatures in support of marijuana legalization to the state Board of Canvassers on Nov 20, 2017.
COURTESY PHOTO
Reefer madness
The man behind a campaign to derail marijuana legalization in Michigan makes his case By Violet Ikonomova
By many indications, this
could be the year Michigan voters legalize recreational marijuana. A ballot effort spearheaded by the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, or CRMLA, has the backing of the national organization responsible for a number of successful legalization initiatives throughout the country, and the coalition has shown it’s capable of raising plenty of money. Things appear to be running right on schedule; last year, CRMLA easily passed the threshold of petition signatures needed to get the issue before voters. As those signatures are being verified, public perception of marijuana is on an upswing, with support for marijuana legalization creeping up toward the 60 percent mark, according to polls conducted over the past couple of years. But as the CRMLA sails toward its goal to end marijuana prohibition, it’s
being met with some headwinds. Two ballot committees have formed to balk the legalization effort: Healthy and Productive Michigan and the Committee to Keep Pot Out of Neighborhoods and Schools. The former group registered just days after CRMLA’s backers submitted 365,000 petition signatures to the state’s Board of Canvassers. Though there’s little information as yet available on who exactly is behind the anti-pot crusades, marijuana foes traditionally include religious groups, law enforcement, and business entities that don’t want to see their profit margins shaved if weed is made readily available. One of the primary opponents of last year’s recreational legalization initiative in Arizona, for example, was a pharmaceutical company whose product line includes fentanyl and a form of synthetic marijuana. It was the only state to ever
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see a legalization effort defeated last year. Nine states plus the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for recreational use. The committees opposing legalization here in Michigan have yet to raise a significant amount of money. The Committee to Keep Pot Out of Neighborhoods and Schools has received $5,000 from the Michigan Responsibility Council, and Healthy and Productive Michigan has not yet received any donations, according to campaign finance reports reviewed Jan 19. But the latter organization will be one to watch. Its president, Grand Rapidsbased political consultant Scott Greenlee, a former aide and campaign worker for anti-pot Attorney General Bill Schuette, has run a number of successful political campaigns throughout the state and has expressed hopes of raising more than $1 million to keep
marijuana illegal. If the group is successful in meeting that goal, Michiganders can expect to see a significant amount of antimarijuana messaging in the months to come. In Arizona, where marijuana legalization was narrowly defeated, the opposition mounted a campaign aiming to convince voters that traffic fatalities and teen marijuana use would rise if pot were legal, pointing to Colorado as an example. But in the great tradition of political campaigns, the claims involved a little bit of gymnastics — deft maneuvering intended to dodge the vault of truth. A closer inspection of the claims levied by the anti-weed campaign backed by big pharma showed them to be misleading or outright inaccurate. Multiple studies have shown that teen marijuana use has not increased in Colorado, and there is nothing linking a recent in-
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NEWS & VIEWS
(starting with your assertion that) Legalized recreational marijuana will lead to increased availability for minors. Studies on recreational use in Washington and Colorado, both by the Drug Policy Alliance and rightleaning CATO Institute, have shown that teen marijuana use has been largely unchanged in those places. (In fact, as of December, a federal survey found marijuana use among adolescents in Colorado had dropped to its lowest level in nearly a decade).
Greenlee:
I’ve seen studies … that actually say the opposite of that. [Greenlee was unable to supply those studies in the four days that followed our interview and missed our deadline. We were able to find one thing that might suggest a possible increase in teen use. A study by an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado found that, between 2005 and 2015, the number of annual E.R. visits by people aged 13 to 21 with a cannabis related diagnostic code or who tested positive for marijuana more than quadrupled, from 146 in 2005 to 639 in 2014. But a number of things may have changed within a decade, including the strength of urine screens. The study also included people between the ages of 18 to 21, who are not minors.]
MT:
Scott Greenlee, president of Healthy and Productive Michigan, a committee opposed to the legalization of recreational marijuana. HEADSHOT VIA TWITTER, @SCOTTGREENLEE
crease in traffic fatalities in the state to marijuana use — one possible explanation is that the state’s population has grown. So we wondered, what sort of spin can Michigan voters expect? In an effort to dispel and add context to the reefer madness that may be in store over the coming months, we interviewed Greenlee on why he thinks marijuana should remain illegal in the state, and have included any evidence that may run contrary to his claims.
Metro Times: What, in your
view, are some of the pitfalls of legalizing marijuana for recreational use?
Scott Greenlee: There’s a
number of them. First of all, legalized recreational marijuana is something that will likely lead to increased availability for minors. It will definitely attract people from [other] states — as Colorado has proven — that are looking
to get marijuana and take it back to their states where it might not be legal. I don’t think that’s the type of tourists we want to attract. There are [also] serious economic challenges for organizations and businesses who will require drug testing whether marijuana is legal recreationally or not, and in a state that has somewhere between 3.6 and 4 percent unemployment, it’s going to put a burden on our businesses. For example … no transportation company wants bus drivers that are using marijuana. And when you consider that marijuana stays in your system for up to 30 days, it can cause a real strain on companies looking to hire people. Certainly marijuana impairs people and that can cause law enforcement challenges, it can cause driving-whileimpaired challenges, it can cause people not to exercise their best judgment.
MT:
Ok, let’s take those one by one,
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As far as the idea that marijuana legalization will attract non-law abiding citizens who may bring marijuana back to their states, Colorado has made quite a bit of money off of marijuana tourism and taxation of the product. Why should we worry if people might bring marijuana back to their states illegally? If part of your concern about legalization is that it will strain Michigan’s economy [because of the debunked notion that unemployment might go up], wouldn’t it follow that you would appreciate the [revenues that would be brought via marijuana tourism and taxation]?
Greenlee:
I think the opposite is likely to occur in regard to the tax-revenue discussion. I think most of the tax numbers that are quoted are gross, not net numbers. I’m old enough to remember in Michigan where we legalized the lottery, because we didn’t have that for years and other states did and look at all this money [that was going into those states]. And one of the great arguments was once we legalize the lottery and sell lottery tickets all over Michigan, our schools will never be underfunded again and this is going to be a huge windfall. But years later,
as I take a look at financial reports from Michigan’s public schools, I see that they’re in as dire straits as they’ve ever been before. So while there could be some tax revenue brought in, and we don’t know how much it would be, it’s all speculative. Certainly there are costs of enforcement and there are questions as to where that money may actually wind up. I don’t buy the tax argument and many of the people I talk to don’t either. [Note how here Greenlee attempts to shift the burden of proof from what has happened and is backed by evidence elsewhere to others, using only his own personal doubts and that of other, unnamed sources.]
MT:
You’re omitting a lot of other factors in that debate about the Michigan Lottery being a silver bullet for the school system. We’ve had all sorts of other things happen since that that have harmed Michigan schools, the proliferation of charter schools, for example — so that doesn’t sound like a really great comparison. Regarding the cost of enforcement: States like Washington and Colorado have seen a huge decline in marijuana arrests. In our case, marijuana arrests make up about 10 percent of arrests here in the state. So it follows that law enforcement agencies would actually be saving quite a bit of money and resources — possibly a tenth of their financial resources — by not going after marijuana arrests.
Greenlee:
When folks get into an arrest situation that is typically, absolutely the vast majority of time, someone who has either been dealing or who has committed other crimes and this is piling on top of those particular crimes. For example, if somebody has an illegal weapon, let’s say they’ve got a gun that they picked up on the black market and they’re pulled over and the officer notices the gun and asks about a permit and the person says no, well then they’re arrested and their car is searched for probable cause and in that search they might find marijuana, and they may have an additional possession charge added to the current charge but it wasn’t the marijuana that caused them to be pulled over or to be arrested, it was something that was found in the normal process of a search with probable cause. If an individual were on a street having one marijuana cigarette, those folks are just not arrested. It’s a violation just as someone is going 50 miles an hour in a 40-mile-an-hour zone. The individual is given a ticket,
or a warning, in many cases. It is a nice narrative for people who want to see recreational marijuana approved, they talk about bogged down court systems and costs and, you know, “My goodness our prisons are going to be overflowing if we don’t do this,” and yet it’s just not the case.
MT:
That’s not true that it’s treated like a speeding ticket — marijuana possession in most parts of the state is a misdemeanor (punishable by a maximum sentence of 1 year in prison and a maximum fine of $2,000), speeding is a civil infraction. Where did you get the information of how officers are making most of their marijuana arrests? Because I’ve never heard that, and Michigan State Police arrest data is not delineated like that.
Greenlee: If you talk to law enforcement, the Prosecuting Attorneys Association, you’ll find that that’s the case. [Greenlee was unable to provide any data to support his claim. We called the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office of Michigan and were told by a spokeswoman: “It’s really difficult for me to speculate on what our officers are doing in the field.” It is true that only a small portion of Michigan’s prison inmates are behind bars for weed crimes, but marijuana still makes up nearly 10 percent of the state’s arrests each year.] MT:
Regarding the driving. I’ve seen data that there’s been little to no impact on traffic fatalities in Colorado and Washington. This is a report that looked at traffic fatalities for the full year after legalization, and more recent data from the CATO Institute says traffic fatalities have been generally unchanged.
Greenlee: I think it’s common sense, and in talking to law enforcement that any time anyone is on any substance … it will cut into reaction time and will definitely cause a person to not be as observant and not react as quickly. When you team that with the fact that driving while utilizing marijuana is not legal … those rules are there for a reason. Now, if they found a sample size that says in this particular time period, compared to a previous time period, there was no increase in fatalities, that may be the case. I mean, if we look at shots of data snapshots in history, we can almost always compare a current time to a previous time and manipulate the data to say
whatever we want, but the bottom line is there’s a reason driving jobs, and companies that have people operating heavy machinery, do not allow this type of thing and drug test for it and don’t hire people who can’t pass a drug test, and that’s because when you are operating any kind of motor vehicle there is an inherent increased danger when you use it. [It’s nearly impossible to get a clear picture of how many people are driving while stoned, because a urine screen tests for marijuana in the system for up to 30 days. Proponents of legalization have expressed the need for a better test. The Highway Loss Data Institute has determined that the number of vehicle collisions reported to insurance companies in Colorado, Oregon, and Washington are 3 percent higher than what would have been expected if those states had not made it legal to buy pot. The study does not say if the increase in collisions in the three states were directly caused by drivers who were under the influence of marijuana, and it also did not look at highway fatality rates in the states that legalized marijuana. It came to that determination by comparing collision claim rates before and after legalization with the collision claim rates of comparable states where pot is still illegal.]
MT:
Back to the workforce argu-
ment.
Greenlee: People who are not able to pass a drug test [aren’t able to get certain] jobs. And when you legalize marijuana, making it OK for people to go out and get it, it means there’s a lot more access … and when more people start using it, more people start failing drug tests … and that’s going to create a real workforce challenge. MT:
So people will essentially have to exercise some personal responsibility, much like I did this morning when I opted not to get drunk before coming to work.
Greenlee: Hey, you and I are two of the responsible types. I decided not to get drunk today either. [Colorado has the second-lowest unemployment rate in the country. Unemployment ticked up a tenth of a percent last year, but for reasons having nothing to do with failed drug tests.] news@metrotimes.com @violetikon
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metrotimes.com metrotimes.com | | January 24-30, 2018
15
NEWS & VIEWS Politics & Prejudices
Why Michigan State is a mess By Jack Lessenberry You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately... depart, I say; and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go! — Oliver Cromwell
No, no, old Ollie didn’t have anything to do with Michigan State University; the place wasn’t founded till a couple centuries after he used those words to tell off the English Parliament. But they apply perfectly to Lou Anna K. Simon, Michigan State’s embattled president, who, as I write, is still trying to cling to her job. I hope that by the time you read this, she is gone. Her baffling refusal to leave makes a mockery of the claim that she cares deeply about Michigan State University. There’s no way the place can start to clean house, smash whatever institutional flaws permitted what happened, and rebuild a system and culture of trust while she’s there. For MSU is still stuck in the worst crisis it’s known since a bunch of farm boys chopped down trees and built themselves classrooms and a campus back before the Civil War. Today, it has been exposed as the scene of what is probably the worst collegiate sexual abuse scandal ever. For 20 years, Larry Nassar, the women’s gymnastics team doctor, cruelly abused girls and women on his examining table. When they complained, they were ignored. According to an investigation by The Detroit News, at least 14 officials had heard something over the years, one of whom was Lou Anna K. Simon. Nobody did anything until one courageous woman finally got the nerve to file a police report and a Title IX complaint in 2016 and gave an interview to the Indianapolis Star. That blew the scandal into public view. Even then, Lou Anna K. Simon did not move to get out in front of it. Nobody was fired. The school seemed to be hoping it would blow over and go away. In an astonishingly clumsy move, MSU finally hired Patrick Fitzgerald, the once-tough federal prosecutor, to do
what was billed as an investigation, but which quickly proved an attempted whitewash. Nothing worked. Woman after woman came forward. Finally, The Lansing State Journal called on Simon to resign. So did Speaker of the Michigan House Tom Leonard, a Republican, and Gretchen Whitmer, the leading Democratic candidate for governor. In an appallingly tone-deaf move, the MSU State Board of Trustees, a body long subservient to the athletic department, defiantly voted last month to not only tough it out with Simon, but to offer her a fat, $150,000 raise, which she at least declined. But then something happened that brought home to the entire state what was going on. After Nassar pled guilty to multiple counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, Ingham County Circuit Judge Rosemarie Aquilina invited every one of his victims to confront the molester in court. They indeed told him off. But many of them told off Michigan State University and Lou Anna Simon for not protecting them. They called Simon and the trustees cowards for not being there. “Come hell or high water, we will find a way to take every last one of you down that could have stopped this monster,” Amy Labadie, a former gymnast and victim, promised. Day after day, the testimony went on. When Simon, after an avalanche of negative publicity, did pay a brief visit
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to the courtroom, she was not well received. When a reporter asked about what she had known in 2014, she said “I was told a sports medicine doctor was under investigation… I did not receive a copy of the report. That’s the truth.” When an emergency meeting of the trustees was called after that, everyone expected she was gone. But instead, she emerged, job intact and sent out an email saying a review by Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette’s highly politicized office was needed. I was on the list of recipients and my jaw literally dropped when I read on and discovered Lou Anna K. Simon arguing that the victims should not be allowed to sue for damages. But though she wants to deny them any compensation for having their innocence destroyed, this is “in no way a reflection of our view of the survivors, for whom we have the utmost respect.” No, I don’t know what planet she’s from. But the riddle of Lou Anna K. Simon may in fact be quite simple. In contrast to any other university president I’ve known, she’s never worked anywhere else. Now 70, Simon arrived in East Lansing as a newly minted graduate student in 1970. Instead of going into teaching and research, she started climbing the administrative ladder. Eventually, and remarkably, she became MSU’s president. You have to wonder if — after all these years, Lou Anna K. Simon is even able to separate her own identity from that of the school she’s served nearly half a century. This scandal gets odder all the time.
Speaking of resigning… Few noticed, but earlier this month, Republicans in the Michigan Legislature showed their contempt for Gov. Rick Snyder in shocking fashion. They voted almost unanimously to override his vetoes on two bills in a single day. The bills weren’t especially important; they gave some sales tax relief to people who trade their old car for a new one. What was important was the symbolism. They indicated they had little respect for and no fear whatsoever of the governor, who will be sent packing next New Year’s Day, never to be seen in politics again. You are likely to see a lot more of this over the next 11 months, and are
certain to see something else: top aides and cabinet members bailing out. Al Pscholka, the former legislator turned budget director, quit after less than a year. More are sure to follow. People need longer-lasting jobs. But there is a way Snyder could regain relevance and recapture the imagination, even make himself a hero in some circles: He should resign tomorrow morning. Here’s why Snyder should want to do this: He doesn’t need the paycheck. He has come to the end of his effectiveness. What he doesn’t want is Bill Schuette as the GOP nominee for governor. Schuette has been openly disrespecting Snyder for a long time, going out of his way in 2015, for example, to oppose a road tax ballot proposal the governor favored, but which went down in flames. Snyder would clearly prefer to be succeeded by Brian Calley, his lieutenant governor. But that’s a long shot, given that Schuette is far better known and has boatloads of money and endorsements, even from the tweeter in chief, who spelled his name wrong. But if Snyder quit, Calley would suddenly become governor, and would have the option of trying to win two full terms. Suddenly, it would be a new ball game. Schuette might still be able to beat Calley in the August primary. But beating any incumbent is harder than taking on a challenger. Calley, who has gotten little press attention the past seven years, would suddenly be The Man, and would probably get some sort of press honeymoon. There is an uncanny precedent here: Forty-nine years ago, a gray-haired old governor, George W. Romney, resigned in January and turned the job over to his young lieutenant governor, who many in both parties regarded as an easy pushover. The guy who inherited the job, one William Milliken, ended up serving longer than any governor in state history. By resigning now, Snyder could give both Schuette and the Democrats fits. But a move like that would require imagination and daring and the ability to see that politics was about more than yourself. Uh, never mind…
letters@metrotimes.com @metrotimes
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metrotimes.com
| January 24-30, 2018
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NEWS & VIEWS Stir It Up
Mulenga and the meteor by Larry Gabriel
I had to do a double take as I was standing out on Vernor Avenue near Clark Park. There was Mulenga Harangua walking along as big as day. He wasn’t wearing a disguise or doing one of his usual look-over-there antics. “Hey, Mulenga,” I hollered to him. “What are you doing in my old stomping grounds?” I had grown up not far from there. “But even more to the point, what are you doing out here in the open, right here in the middle of the day for anyone to see? Aren’t you worried you’ll be seen by the agents you say are always after you?” Mulenga turned to me with a big smile. “Government shutdown baby,” he said. “All the agents are off duty right now. They’re back home having a few beers and laying bets on the Super Bowl.” “You know it’s only the federal government that’s shut down, don’t you?” I pointed out. “The state, the county, and the city are still hard at work.” “I know,” Mulenga said, casting a wary eye across the park. “But I figure with the feds out of the way that just lowers the risk factors all around. I can handle the local authorities. I’ve been at this a long time. Those feds can look at you from those satellites in outer space.” “So what are you up to?” I asked. “I’ve been thinking about that Jorge Garcia the feds just deported,” he said. “There’s no reason that should have happened. I saw a clip of his family on a news show. His son could only sit there and cry when they asked him questions. I saw that even his dog knows something is up.” “That is a true injustice,” I agreed. “This guy has been here for decades and he is a contributing member of society.” “I’m not talking about the justice part,” Mulenga asserted. “I mean if I had got to him first he could be living incognito and underground like me. I could have showed him how to do it. I’m here in Mexicantown to spread the word on how to go underground. I figure there are probably a lot more people around here who have to
watch out for ICE. You see, Garcia’s problem is he tried to play the game by the establishment rules — going up in their offices and filling out forms, giving them his address. He showed them right where to come and get him. They come to get me, I’m not there.” “You know the Garcia family lives in Lincoln Park, not in Detroit, don’t you?” I asked.
corral me, I just bead up and appear somewhere else. You can’t even find me unless I let you.” “That true,” I mused. “Of course it’s true,” Mulenga said. “Here’s another thing. I didn’t come out in the open just because the feds are on shutdown.” “What else?” Mulenga got a mysterious look in his eye. “I’ve seen a sign from the heavens.” “Mulenga, that was just a meteor that blew up over Hamburg,” I said. “But it was a sign, too,” Mulenga insisted. “It turned the night into day. That’s a sign.” “Oh it’s a sign all right,” I said. “It’s a sign that whoever finds those space rocks will get $300 or more per gram for it.”
‘The day after the meteor exploded, Amazon announced they had eliminated Detroit as a location for its new headquarters.’ “Well yeah, but I can’t go out there,” Mulenga said. “I never leave Detroit. Well, I’ve been to Highland Park several times and even Hamtramck, but mostly I don’t leave Detroit.” “How well-traveled you are,” I said. “You can mock me if you want, but I’m still here,” Mulenga said. “They just might deport you for being a terrorist,” I opined. “And what about that play you wrote mocking Trump. They will come after you.” “But they won’t find me,” Mulenga bragged. “I’m like mercury. You try to
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“They pay that much for those rocks?” Mulenga was incredulous. “That’s more than cocaine. Maybe I should start searching for those.” “You’d have to leave Detroit to do that.” “Oh,” said Mulenga, a bit taken aback. “Well, it was still an omen.” “Of what?” “Well, the day after the meteor exploded, Amazon announced they had eliminated Detroit as a location for its new headquarters,” Mulenga said. “Just because one came after the other doesn’t mean one caused the
other,” I said. “You know that.” “I know a lot of things,” Mulenga said, somewhat ominously. “And I know that when the night turns to day it’s a cosmic sign of things to come.” “One of Amazon’s reasons for not coming to Detroit is our lack of dependable public transportation,” I said. “Don’t they know we got the QLine?” Mulenga said. “It stretches from Jefferson to Grand Boulevard, moving the money back and forth along 3.3 miles of Woodward.” “When I hear about great transportation hooking things up for the Fitzgerald Community is when I’ll believe the development has some chance of success,” I said. “You can’t leave things out on an island with no connection to anything else. What’s your meteor got to say about that?” “Something cosmic is going to happen,” Mulenga persisted. “It’s all connected: First Garcia is deported; then the meteor; then Amazon denied us. Do you think they’re trying to send us a message? Maybe I should go back to wearing a tinfoil hat with an antenna on it.” “Well, I have to admit that Cindy Garcia getting invited to the State of the Union Address by Rep. Debbie Dingell is something out of the ordinary, and the outpouring of support for Jorge is out of this world. But I wouldn’t connect it to a comet or the Amazon stuff.” “That’s because you got no vision, man,” Mulenga complained. “Well, maybe I have a blind spot,” I said. “But you know what would be cosmic? You getting grabbed because you’re out here in the open.” “But they gotta find me first,” Mulenga said. Or at least I think he said it, because he seemed to disappear into thin air. letters@metrotimes.com @metrotimes
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metrotimes.com
| January 24-30, 2018
19
UP FRONT What’s Going On
A week’s worth of things to do and places to do them by MT staff
Don Cheadle in Miles Ahead.
WEDNESDAY, 1/24 Kitty @ El Club
COURTESY OF SONY CLASSICS
THURSDAY, 1/25 “What Color Do You Want to Start With?”
THURSDAY, 1/25 Shwayze @ Magic Bag
@ Playground Detroit
MUSIC: It’s 2018 — long gone are the days of sending a CD to a record label in a manila envelope. For Florida rapper Kitty, it started with a poem about an ex-boyfriend posted on Tumblr in 2010 (Kitty was still in high school at the time). Soon after, Kitty dropped The Lizzie McGuire Experience, a compilation of songs ripped from her blog made available exclusively on Bandcamp. It wasn’t until her single, “Okay Cupid” that she reached viral status (even landing herself on a Rolling Stone best-of list). Since then, she’s teamed up with rapper Riff Raff and covered an unlikely Andrew Bird song that furthered her viral reach.
Doors open at 8 p.m.; 4114 W. Vernor Hwy., Detroit; 313-2797382; elclubdetroit.com; Tickets are $5-$8.
ART: Playground Detroit is kicking off 2018 with a uniquely therapeutic and inspiring collection. "What Color Do You Want to Start With?” will feature the work of artists with developmental disabilities. The exhibit, composed of 100 works by 70 artists, focuses on the culture, architecture, and iconography of the city of Detroit. In conjunction with the nonprofit organization, Services To Enhance Potential (STEP), Playground Detroit sourced its artists from STEP’s Art in the Market program, which was created to provide adults with developmental disabilities with opportunities to improve their communication skills, productive work skills, and ultimately a chance to be seen.
Opening runs from at 6 p.m.-9 p.m.; 2845 Gratiot Ave., Detroit; 313-649-7741; playgrounddetroit. com; Exhibition is free and will be on view through Feb. 1.
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MUSIC: If you’re still successfully using 2008’s hit “Buzzin” as a low-key summertime hookup jam, you’re not alone. In fact, rapper and MTV reality show star Shwayze is still leaning hard on his “Corona and Lime” sunny vibes — going as far as to dub himself the King of Summer in 2015. The 32-yearold California smooth talker is best known for his chill house-party aesthetic and for teaming up with producer Cisco Adler.
Doors open at 8 p.m.; 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; 248-544-1991; themagicbag.com; Tickets are $17.
THURSDAY, 1/25 Miles Ahead: A Tribute to Miles Davis & Quincy Troupe @ the Wright Museum
MUSIC + FILM: Perhaps the most revered name in jazz, Miles Davis forever changed the way we experience music because for Davis, it was an experience. The Charles H. Wright Museum continues their Liberation Film Series with a screening of Miles Ahead — a 2015 music film directed by Don Cheadle who also stars in the film alongside Emayatzy Corinealdi and Ewan McGregor. In addition to the screening, Davis will be celebrated with performances by Rayse Biggs and Dwight Adams, followed by a conversation with Quincy Troupe and Dr. Melba Boyd of Wayne State University.
Event starts at 6 p.m.; 315 E. Warren Ave., Detroit; 313-494-5800; thewright.org; Event is free.
FRIDAY, 1/26 AND
Jason Isbel, Ann Arbor Folk Festival.
FRIDAY, 1/26
COURTESY PHOTO
FRI, 1/26-SUN, 1/28
SATURDAY, 1/27
SATURDAY, 1/27
Happy Endings
Meridian Winter Blast
Breaking Borders Sci-Fi
Ann Arbor Folk Festival
@ Loving Touch
@ Campus Martius
@ Tangent Gallery
@ Hill Auditorium
MUSIC: DJs Mike Trombley, Slofu, and Udenjoe's monthly dance party continues with a special "Panic on the Streets of Ferndale" edition, which promises all the best mopey (yet still highly danceable) cuts by Morrissey and the Smiths. Of course, expect plenty of other New Wave, classic alternative, Bitpop, shoegaze and more, like Depeche Mode, New Order, the Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Chameleons, House of Love, Field Mice, the Pastels, the Vaselines, the Raincoats, Belle & Sebastian, the Housemartins, Primal Scream... well, you get the point!
FUN: It’s hard to believe anyone would want to willingly go outside in a Michigan winter, but we make an exception for Winter Blast. Originally brought to life to coincide with Superbowl XL in 2005, the annual indoor and outdoor event is fun for the whole family. From ice skating, live music, s’mores, and a giant winter slide to excite your inner child (or actual child… or children). This year, there’s a biplane over Campus Martius for those feeling up for adventure, and for all the real masochists out there, take a plunge into a freezing pool of water to benefit the Special Olympics of Michigan.
ART: Have you ever dared to cross the line between space and time? How about the line between science and fiction? Does this sound at all crazy to you? Good. Tangent Gallery is breaking borders with their unique showcase. Check out the epic suspension battle from Urban Rituals Piercing and Suspension or take in a burlesque performance by starwoman extraordinaire Sophia Stardust. If anti-gravity is your thing, Damian Lucius Black will deliver. Also on deck, a live monster makeup demo, creative creature fashion show, live music, a silent disco, and an intergalactic art display — a feast for all of your eyes, ears, tentacles, and respective antennae.
MUSIC: Celebrating its 41st year, the Ann Arbor Folk Festival invites guests to “find their folk.” In support of the Ark (Ann Arbor’s nonprofit folk and roots music venue — featuring live shows 300 nights of the year), U-M’s Hill Auditorium will host the two-night fundraising concert. The lineup consists of some of the most prolific names in folk music. Jason Isbel and the 400 Unit and Lori McKenna take the lead on Friday’s lineup, and John Prime and the incomparable Aimee Mann take the reins on night two — with a slew of eclectic, reverent artists in between.
Starts at 10 a.m.; 22634 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; thelovingtouchferndale.com; Cover is free before 11 p.m., $3 afterward.
Event runs Friday from 4 p.m.-11 p.m., Saturday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m., and Sunday, 11 a.m.-8 p.m.; Campus Martius Park, Detroit; winterblast. com; Admission is $3 (or a donation of three canned goods), North American International Auto Show visitors get free same-day admission.
Performances begin at 7 p.m.; 715 E. Milwaukee Ave., Detroit; 313-873-2955; tangentgallery.com; Tickets are $5.
Performances begin at 6:30 p.m.; 825 N. University Ave., Ann Arbor; 734-764-8350; theark.org; Tickets are $42.50-$60 for one night and $75-$110 for the two-night series.
metrotimes.com
| January 24-30, 2018
21
UP FRONT
Kitty performs Wednesday Jan. 24 at El Club.
MUSIC Wednesday 1/24
Dee-1. 7 p.m.; The Pike Room, 1 S. Saginaw St., Pontiac; $13. Fetty Wap. 7 p.m.; Saint Andrew’s Hall, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $35. Kitty. 8 p.m.; El Club; 4114 W. Vernor Hwy., Detroit; 313-279-7382; elclubdetroit.com; Tickets are $5-$8.
COURTESY PHOTO
Friday 1/26 41st Ann Arbor Folk Festival. 6:30 p.m.; Hill Auditorium, 825 N. University Ave., Ann Arbor; $42.50$200. Black Shampoo. 8 p.m.; Kelly’s Bar, 2403 Holbrook Ave., Hamtramck; $5. Candlebox. 7 p.m.; Saint Andrew's Hall, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $29.50.
Thursday 1/25
Cupcakke. 9 p.m.; Necto, 516. E. Liberty St., Ann Arbor; 734-994-5436; $5-$10.
Clear Soul Forces. 8 p.m.; El Club, 4114 W. Vernor Hwy., Detroit; $7-$10.
Detroit Blues Review. 8 p.m.; Otus Supply, 345 E. Nine Mile Rd., Ferndale; $15-$20.
Saajtak. 8 p.m.; Trixie’s Bar, 2656 Carpenter Ave., Hamtramck; no cover.
Easy Action. 8 p.m.; El Club, 4114 W. Vernor Hwy., Detroit; $5-$10.
X_X. 10 p.m.; Outer Limits Lounge, 5507 Caniff St., Detroit; $10.
Don "Doop" Dupree. 5:30-7:30 p.m. p.m.; PJ’s Lager House, 1254 Michigan Ave., Detroit; no cover.
Brother Son. 9 p.m.; The Blind Pig, 208 S. First St., Ann Arbor; $7-$10.
J.Phlip. 9 p.m.; Necto, 516. E. Liberty St., Ann Arbor; 734-994-5436; $20. Shwayze. 8 p.m.; Magic Bag; 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $17.
The Hodgetwins. 8 p.m.; The Crofoot, 1 S. Saginaw St., Pontiac; $32.50-$38.
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Jacob Sartorious. 6:30 p.m.; The Fillmore, 2115 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $29.50-$85.
Mozart Birthday Bash. 8 p.m.; Michigan Theater, 603 E. Liberty St., Ann Arbor; $35-$70.
Lex The Hex Master. 6 p.m.; The Crofoot Pike Room, 1 S. Saginaw St., Pontiac; $8-$15.
The Macpodz. 9 p.m.; The Blind Pig, 208 S. First St., Ann Arbor; $10-$13.
Nickie P. 9 p.m.; The Blind Pig, 208 S. First St., Ann Arbor; $10-$13. Atliens. 9:30 p.m.; Elektricity, 15 S. Saginaw St., Pontiac;. $15. Stacey Pullen. 9 p.m.; TV Lounge, 2548 Grand River Ave., Detroit; $10.
Saturday 1/27
White Bee. 8:30 p.m.; Trixie’s, 2656 Carpenter Ave., Hamtramck; $7. Destructo. 9:30 p.m.; Elektricity, 15 S. Saginaw St., Pontiac;. $15.
Sunday Jan 28
DigiTour: Arctic Lights. 3 p.m.; El Club, 4114 W. Vernor Hwy., Detroit; $25-27.
41st Ann Arbor Folk Festival. 6:30 p.m.; Hill Auditorium, 825 N. University Ave., Ann Arbor; $42.50$200.
Mod Son. 6 p.m.; The Shelter, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $18.
Chase Rice. 7 p.m.; The Fillmore, 2115 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $30-$60.
Tiny Moving Parts. 6:30 p.m.; The Loving Touch, 22634 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $13.
G Jones. 9 p.m.; Majestic Theatre, 4140 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $20-$35. Goldzilla & Eddie Logix. 8 p.m.; PJ’s Lager House, 1254 Michigan Ave., Detroit; $5.
San Fermin. 8 p.m.; The Blind Pig, 208 S. First St., Ann Arbor; $15-18.
calendar@metrotimes.com @metrotimes
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metrotimes.com
| January 24-30, 2018
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FEATURE
Detective Elena Abbott, the star of a new set-in-Detroit comic series.
Supernatural woman
A first look at Abbott, Saladin Ahmed’s new comic book set in 1970s Detroit By Lee DeVito
As an author, metro Detroit native Saladin Ahmed has explored many fantastic settings. His debut novel, 2012’s Hugo Award-nominated Throne of the Crescent Moon, takes place in a fantasy world that owes more to Middle Eastern lore than the Medieval Europe typical of the genre. And last year’s Black Bolt, his debut Marvel comic series, dusted off an obscure Fantastic Four character and locked him up in a high-security space prison in a medita-
tion on the prison pipeline. But for his latest comic, Abbott — released Wednesday by indie publisher Boom! Studios — Ahmed has set his sights on a setting that is much closer to home: 1970s Detroit. The series marks Ahmed’s first creator-owned comic book — meaning it features all-new characters and stories, as opposed to established heroes. In this case, the titular character is Elena Abbott, a cigarette-smoking, ascot-
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wearing reporter trying to uncover the dark forces behind a string of mysterious murders. “It’s my tribute to a familiar sort of figure in TV and comics and movies of the paranormal investigator,” Ahmed says. “It’s this character who finds some occult secrets behind the everyday life that others don’t get a glimpse of.” (Think of shows like The X-Files, Twin Peaks, or, going back to the 1970s, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, which
Ahmed says was a particular influence on Abbott.) “It’s just this type that people are interested in, this dogged investigator,” Ahmed says. “For me, I wanted to tell a story with that sort of protagonist — but maybe not the type that always seems to be at the center of those stories.” In Abbott’s case, that means “a main character who is woman, who is black, who is bisexual,” Ahmed says. “She’s all of those things in an era where there’s a lot of hostility, particularly in the workplace, toward people who are not straight white guys.” Given the ingredients, it might be easy to assume Abbott is a campy blaxploitation sendup. It is not. Ahmed sets the story in 1972, against a grim backdrop of post-1967 racial paranoia. It begins with Abbott investigating a gruesome crime scene involving a decapitated police horse, initially believed to be perpetrated by Black Panther “negro agitators.” “I’ll tell ya, kid, I hope it wasn’t negroes — it’s gonna mean hell for you people if it was,” one character tells Abbott. “It’s going to mean hell for us either way,” Abbott replies. “This sort of thing always does.” Ahmed, an Arab-American who grew up in Dearborn, admits he is writing about this world from a bit of a distance. He was born in 1975 — too young to have a real firsthand knowledge of the era. “But I was raised in a very political family, in very close proximity both culturally and physically to Detroit proper,” Ahmed says. He says his father (Ismael Ahmed, founder of the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services as well as the Concert of Colors), had friends who were Black Panthers. “I saw a lot of that kind of activism around me, growing up,” he says. Ahmed says he conceived of and pitched the story during the past year, while Detroit was re-examining the 50th anniversary of the 1967 rebellion, though he says it wasn’t necessarily inspired by the milestone. “With any writing project, I guess the thing is there are always these pieces that are floating around in the back of your head,” he says. “You never know what they’re actually going to get attached to. So there are probably pieces of this that go back many years.” The years immediately following the events of 1967, Ahmed says, have long been framed as a period of decline. Abbott offers a more nuanced look. “I think what that misses is the fact that there was really a renaissance — a hard renaissance, an uphill renaissance — for black culture and black people in
Saladin Ahmed.
Detroit at that time,” he says. “So Abbott the book is sort of situated there, looking at this as a really complicated moment — maybe more complicated than it’s been given due.” There are other reasons Ahmed says that steered him toward a period story, citing the popularity of “lovingly rendered recent historical nostalgia” as seen in hits like Stranger Things. Plus, “from a storytelling standpoint, it’s really fun when your characters don’t have cell phones, or the internet,” Ahmed says. Setting the story in the ’70s also offers Ahmed the chance to explore contemporary issues through parallels to our time. “There are all sorts of little echoes that maybe work better when we’re thinking about the past rather than trying to set something right now,” Ahmed says — like a parallel between President Richard Nixon and Donald Trump, or the persisting theme of “two Detroits: one white, one black,” as Abbott muses. Ahmed admits writing a character that is different from his own identity has its own set of challenges. But it’s a challenge that he felt is better than the alternative — of casting the same kinds of characters in the same kinds of roles. “No one ever asks, ‘Why is this cop a white guy?’” he says. “No one asks, ‘Did that just come with the story organically, or did you do that on purpose?’ I think the answer in both cases is a mix. We have these characters that just come to us, but all of our political and cultural baggage is going to always come into it.” For Ahmed, he says researching his character involved lots of reading and talking to women for their perspectives. “You do your due diligence, but ultimately I’m sort of resigned to the fact that I’ll get lots of stuff wrong,” he concedes. “Inevitably that’s going to
mean me writing something that isn’t true to somebody else’s experience. But for me, all I can do is honorably make the attempt, listen when I get it wrong, and just keep trying to push these stories out there, both in my own work and in other creators’ out there.” Abbott is slated for at least a fiveissue run, with new issues coming out each month (available locally at shops like Vault of Midnight, Green Brain Comics, and Detroit Comics). “There’s the possibility that it could return for later ‘seasons,’ as it were,” Ahmed says. “But there’s a lot of other plates in the air right now.” Those other plates include a contribution to Star Wars: Canto Bight, a collection of short stories set in the casino city featured in The Last Jedi, which was published last month. Then there’s Exiles, another Marvel series due in April that Ahmed describes as “a really wacky mix-up of a book” featuring existing characters from various universes (including Valkyrie from the latest Thor film, and, for shits and giggles, a cartoonish, baby version of the beloved X-Men tough guy Wolverine). He also says he is “perpetually working” on a second Crescent Throne book, and that he’s working on various other “secret” projects. But no matter what comes next, readers can expect Ahmed to continue to push the limits of the types of characters and the types of stories he tells. “I’m definitely consciously invested in having characters of color in comics,” he says. Ahmed will do a book-signing for Abbott from 1-4 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 27 at Vault of Midnight, 1226 Library St., Detroit; 313-481-2165; vaultofmidnight.com. letters@metrotimes.com @metrotimes
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FOOD This Pakistani restaurant is literally a hole in the wall — and it’s awesome By Tom Perkins
Yes, Karahi Korner is a hole
in the wall. Pretty much literally so. There’s a hole in a wall in the back of a small, basic Indian and Pakistani grocery store at 12 Mile and Middlebelt. It’s essentially a carryout window, so when you want your fragrant Pakistani cuisine from Karahi Korner, you walk through the store, approach the window in the back wall, place your order, pay, take your food, then leave. It’s’ semi-unconventional, but it doesn’t matter because the food is awesome. Some of the best in metro Detroit. And it’s one of your rare — if not your only — chance to try this type of Pakistani cuisine in metro Detroit. These are intensely bright, aromaticpumped South Asian dishes in which the Pakistani chefs orchestrate spices, heat, and acid in ways that you might have never encountered, and it’s nearly intoxicating. But there’s more that you need to know before going. A taste of that harmony requires some work. It might take two tries before you get what you came for. And you’ll have to put a little faith in the chefs. It took me several phone calls over a three-week period and two trips from Hamtramck to Farmington Hills before figuring out exactly how Karahi Korner rolls. That’s partly because the guy who answered the phone does not speak English. That type of thing is generally a good sign if you’re looking for authentic cuisine of a different country, but it presents a language barrier. Among those questions I couldn’t initially figure out: Why are there 15 things on Karahi Korner’s menu, but only a couple that are ever available at a time? When is the restaurant open? Why is there rarely any food during the lunch hour? I nearly gave up altogether after — for a second time — I traveled to Farmington Hills around noon only to find that food wouldn’t be ready for a couple hours. But as I left the grocery store, I asked the store’s cashier when I should arrive. He explained what’s up. The owners shop for their ingredients every morning, make enough food from scratch for the day, then start again the next
Yep, literally a hole in the wall.
morning. There’s not much sitting around in the kitchen overnight. They arrive in the morning, on their schedule, and start cooking. What happens if you show up at noon? No biryani for you. What happens if you show up at 2 p.m.? It might be ready. As for the menu, Karahi regularly offers three items, including chicken biryani and chicken karahi, everyday. Usually there’s beef or chicken kebabs, but only if the owners go to the butcher that morning. According to the store clerk — who is not affiliated with the restaurant beyond working under the same roof — Karahi does huge catering gigs on weekends, so sometimes they’re too busy to sell food through the window. But sometimes they are able to share that food with the public. So, in short, here’s what you can generally count on: chicken karahi and biryani everyday, starting sometime between noon-ish and 2 p.m., and kebabs after 4 p.m. It’s worth going for dinner and ordering all three for about $30. The dishes are unique, though all of Karahi’s meat is slow-cooked and super tender, and many of the same spices and aromatics drive each.
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TOM PERKINS
In the chicken karahi, nubs of meat that falls from small bones arrives in a wet, deep rust-colored mix of ginger, coriander, cumin seed, garlic, onion, tomatoes, cilantro, some variety of chili pepper, and oil. It’s an incredibly rich and fragrant mix accented with the crunch of fresh ginger. Again, the balance and interplay of the aromatics, spices, and mellow heat is something for a southeast Michigan palette to behold. The same principles apply in the kebabs, which are super flavorful sticks of ground meat that’s slightly charred on its ends and speckled with bits of herbs, garlic, and onion. Similarly, you’ll find the coriander and cumin in the soft, moist sausage, along with the ever-present mellow heat. A hint of sweetness seamlessly plays into each bite, which could be the work of some variety of amchur — dried mango powder that’s common in this region. The meat should be dipped in a yogurt raita sauce that holds mint, cilantro, and cumin seed. The wave of mellow cumin rolls through your mouth as more of a sensation than a flavor. Karahi Korner also makes beef kebabs, but they weren’t available on my trips. Finally, there’s there biryani, a bas-
Karahi Korner 27616 Middlebelt Rd., Farmington Hills 248-535-9445 Hours vary (call ahead) Around $10 per meal
mati rice dish that comes stocked with nubby pieces of tender chicken. Again, you’re going to find the cumin and coriander and chili peppers and aromatics at work, but there’s also a heavy presence of cloves, cardamom, and lots of whole peppercorns. I found myself seriously mad that there wasn’t another bite when I finished my plate. A lot of restaurants in metro Detroit advertise as Indian and Pakistani, but Karahi is clearly something different. For one thing, India and Pakistan are huge places with localized cooking that differs depending on which corners of the countries you’re in. (That’s like moving to Karachi and opening an “American-Mexican” restaurant.) And though you’re more than likely only going to get to try three dishes, it’s an intense experience. eat@metrotimes.com @metrotimes
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FOOD
Las Vegas from an event at Sundance.
Metro Times: Why did you
decide you wanted to open a restaurant in Detroit?
Shawn McClain: Detroit is
PHOTOS COURTESY OF MCCLAIN CAMAROTA HOSPITALITY
On top of the game
James Beard award-winning chef Shawn McClain on why he’s opening a Detroit restaurant By Tom Perkins
Chef Shawn McClain an-
nounced on Sunday he’ll be taking over the former Coach Insignia space on the 71st and 72nd floors atop the GMRenCen in downtown Detroit. While the revival of one of Detroit’s best spaces is great news, it’s especially exciting that Detroit is gaining a chef of McClain’s caliber. Among many other awards and accolades, he won the 2006 James Beard award for Best Chef in the Midwest. The Rattlesnake Club’s Jimmy Schmidt was the last Detroit chef to win a James Beard award when he took the honor for Best Chef in the
Midwest in 1993. More recently, Ann Arbor’s Zingerman’s Roadhouse’s chef Alex Young won Best Chef in the Great Lakes in 2011. McClain tells us he operated three restaurants at the time of the award, though it was largely for his work at Spring, a “seafood-dominant, progressive menu” that fused an Asian aesthetic with a classical approach. He now owns a number of awardwinning restaurants in Las Vegas under an umbrella company called McClain Camarota Hospitality. We caught up with him on Sunday as he returned to
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home and has been for seven years. I met my wife Holly in Chicago, it’s been 20-plus years there, and we decided we wanted to raise our kids here, so we came back. I’ve always had an eye on doing a project here, and had some stuff going in Vegas, but two years ago I really just started to concentrate and look. Serendipitously, a lot of great things are happening with food in Detroit, and that’s really fortunate for me. But, you know, I selfishly want something at home and to really put a stake in the ground where I want to raise my family. I want to be tied in and be a part of a great food and beverage industry.
MT: What made you want to take on
the challenge of opening a restaurant at the top of the RenCen?
McClain: It’s a challenge creatively, for sure, but I think it’s got a ton of things going for it. Not only is it an iconic location and destination that really all Detroiters know ... but in the same breath I realize it is a destination and journey to go there. So I want to turn inside out the “top of the tower” experience, which is a great view and that’s it. It’s a one trick pony. We want to redefine that and program it so it’s welcoming to a wide range of guests for something that’s a little more casual to something that’s a little more refined through multiple programs in the space. We welcome everybody and we want
to give them a lot of reasons to come back on a regular basis. We want it to be about all occasions, and not just special occasions.
MT: So you’ll have a couple different concepts in the two floors?
McClain: You know, it’s still forth-
coming, but as you inferred from that, it’s a fair statement to say that there are going to be multiple ways to experience things up there, but how they’re truly defined — we’re finalizing those details. It will have one broad overarching name and encompass everything on floors 71 and 72, but we anticipate some set brands falling under that headline. Just in terms of philosophy, we look at each menu development about how it will interact with the space and community, and we’ve always been seasonally driven, ingredient-driven, whether we’ve done casual or fine dining. So I really look forward to reaching out to the Michigan food community because there are a lot of great resources and farms from mid-Michigan that I used when I was in Chicago.
MT: Do you have any favorite chefs or restaurants in Detroit?
McClain: I’d hate to call anyone
by name because it’s just so exciting right now and I think so many people here are raising the bar. I get to travel quite a bit and when I tell people about Detroit — its story really resonates with people, and people are excited about the food and beverage community in Detroit, which is pretty cool. eat@metrotimes.com @metrotimes
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FOOD Turning a blind eye
How a family tradition of bootlegging led to one of Michigan’s finest vodkas By Mickey Lyons
Joe Lupo’s family legacy in-
cludes FBI wiretapping, cash squirreled away in attic walls, and a city-wide hooch distribution empire. His only choice, as he sees it, is to carry on that legacy — albeit entirely legally these days. Lupo’s Blind Pig Distilling Co. in Clinton Township started operations last October. But the history behind Lupo’s vodka goes a lot further back. Lupo’s great-grandfather emigrated to Detroit in 1910 from Sicily and settled on the east side. The eldest Lupo’s exact occupation is somewhat obscure during the heydey of Prohibition in Detroit. His great-grandson does know, however, that by the 1940s his grandfather, Joseph Lupo, was cooking up and bottling up to 200 gallons of vodka every week from his home on Balfour. “Pops,” as the youngest Lupo calls him, employed at least three other men to distribute the moonshine to blind pigs throughout the city of Detroit in the ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s. Pops was pretty tight-lipped about exactly where he sent the booze he cooked up in the two stills he kept in his basement on the east side, Lupo says, but by the 1950s it became an open secret that the Lupo brothers were the go-to suppliers of cheap and palatable vodka for the hundreds of illegal and after-hours bars in the city. The operation ran smoothly enough for years, until a Detroit police officer — frustrated at his inability to get charges to stick to the Lupo boys — brought in the FBI. Finally, the law caught up with “Pops” Lupo. After his phone was allegedly tapped, a dozen police cars and federal enforcement officers showed up at the house. “My grandfather never let my grandmother live it down that she let the police in,” Lupo tells us. They found a 35-gallon still, full of vodka, and an empty 25-gallon still. Officers seized just about every liquid asset Lupo had, both alcoholic and financial varieties — including a brand new Buick — but couldn’t find any cash. “They asked him, ‘Where’s all the money?’” Lupo says. “But he said, ‘What money? I got five kids!’” The cash, it turned out, was stashed
Blind Pig Distilling Co.’s wares.
in an asbestos blanket in the attic’s insulated walls. Pops had been tipped off that the feds were coming and made some last-minute plans. That money saw his family through the eight or nine months that Lupo served in prison on an initial three-year sentence. But Pops wasn’t the only Lupo serving time. “They made a joke that they’d have to install a revolving door in the jail for the Lupo boys,” Lupo says. “As soon as one got out, another one came in.” Pops continued bottling and distributing even after he was released, but by the late 1960s, pressure from law enforcement and the increasingly dangerous nature of the business caught up with him. He hung up his distilling apron and bought a restaurant. Years later, his grandson, also Joe, was stuck in an unsatisfying corporate job in Orange County, California. One afternoon, daydreaming at his desk, he ended up checking out a Craigslist post about a handmade still available about an hour away. The next thing he knew, Lupo was the proud owner of a cobbled-together monstrosity made from materials from Home Depot. It worked, though, and that was all it took for Lupo to get the family feeling back. “I called my dad and said, ‘You still
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COURTESY PHOTO
have Pops’s recipe, right?” Lupo says. He did. For a couple of years Lupo distilled from the old family recipe for friends and relatives, and had a tough time keeping up with demand. When he found himself laid off, he took a big gamble. He cashed out his retirement fund and moved his wife and kids back to where it all began — Michigan. Lupo’s Blind Pig Distilling Co. currently produces small batches of vodka to meet pre-ordered demand as he works on plans for a tasting room. Using winter wheat rather than the more popularly touted potato to craft the spirits, Blind Pig’s vodka has a strong bite and a distinctive early punch that levels out after a bit, especially when mixed. “It’s definitely unique,” Lupo says. “It’s got a lot of character.” His current still is equally unusual. The base is custom-built stainless steel from a Knoxville company. The top column is also custom made of copper, but by a Kentucky manufacturer that specializes in making bourbon stills. “I wanted to get as close as I could to my grandfather’s archaic equipment,” he laughs. However odd it looks, the Frankenstein’s monster of a machine still does its job. Lupo mashes, ferments, distills, proofs, and bottles the
vodka in the same building. A single production run takes a couple of weeks and produces fewer than a hundred bottles. Lupo sees plenty of opportunity in the thriving distilling scene in Detroit. “There’s an incredible history in the city of Detroit and a great craft scene now,” he says. “But there’s definitely room for more. All of the distillers in the area are doing great things.” For now, Lupo has decided to leave the whiskey production to others and focus on more products that reflect his Sicilian heritage. Next up, he’s working on a line of Amaretto and Limoncello, a gap he sees in the market right now. What matters to him most, he says, is staying true to family tradition and honoring his grandfather’s complex history. “It became a personal mission,” Lupo says. “This was something my grandfather was doing illegally, and I decided to take the Lupo family legitimate again.” Blind Pig vodka is available from its distillery, 33980 Groesbeck Hwy., Clinton Township; 714-350-4802. eat@metrotimes.com @metrotimes
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MUSIC
Luciano: [Laughs] It really does. I’m going to listen to that on repeat after this. MT: There’s a diary-level of transparency with yours songwriting. Like on the song, “Sixteen,” where you sing about having dated a boy named Alex and the weirdness with having to moan your own name in the back of a truck during sex. Is there any territory that’s off limits to you lyrically? Luciano: I think there are some
Alex Luciano, left, and Noah Bowman of Diet Cig.
SHERVIN LAINEZ
Need a light?
Alex Luciano of Diet Cig talks growing up, bath time, and Guy Fieri By Jerilyn Jordan
Don’t tell Alex Luciano to calm down. And honestly, why would you? If given the chance, the uncompromisingly blunt and bubbly singer of indie band Diet Cig will gush about the time she waited two hours to meet Guy Fieri and will divulge in existential wisdom you might not expect from a 22-year-old. “I use my phone until it dies/ just like my plants, can’t keep anything alive,” she sings on “Barf Day” on Diet Cig’s 2017 debut Swear I’m Good at This. Forming the punk duo just sort of happened, she says. Luciano interrupted drummer Noah Bowman during a set at a house party in 2014 because she needed a lighter. That’s not why they named the band Diet Cig though, and that doesn’t really matter. When it comes to the ferocity of Luciano’s confessionary, stylistic approach to punk, it’s not about answers — it’s all about Miley Cyrus? Metro Times: Much of your music explores the many versions of yourself, a documentation of growing up. What do you consider the best version of yourself? Alex Luciano: My star sign is
Leo and I think when I am feeling the best version of myself is when my most Leo characteristics come out, when I’m
super excited and bubbly and chatty. Most of the time that’s who I am. Every so often I get worn down and I’m just pushing through. I think my best version of myself is my most energetic, excited self.
MT: Being on tour can be pretty
grueling, even for a punk band. Do you implement any sort of self-care routine to stay sane?
Luciano: A huge part of self-care
for me is having alone time outside of those situations. I’m an extremely social person, I love hanging out and chit-chatting, but I feel like I also need that time away. On tour especially I love taking baths. Every hotel we stay, I take a bath almost every night. That’s the one time on tour I can truly be alone. People come up to us after the show and they’re like, “Oh hey, you’re on tour, you want to come out, come to this bar with us and we’ll all do karaoke, we’ll get lit, come on, what’s your rock star lifestyle, are you guys going to do a bunch of drugs and drink a bunch and get lit?” And I’m like, no. Literally I can’t wait to get back to wherever we’re staying and take a bath and talk to nobody and maybe play some cards. If I’m feeling crazy, have a beer. You have to take care of yourself.
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MT: I would assume the Diet Cig audience is relatively young. Is that true?
Luciano: I think the majority of
our fans are teens or 20-somethings but we have a surprising amount of outliers. We have this really odd group of military dudes that love our band. We played in Alaska recently and there’s like a military fort nearby and they were going for it. It was so bizarre. Sometimes we get older middle-aged men who just love us. Like, I’m so thankful that you like our music, I’m just surprised that our music is relatable for you. A lot of our music is about growing up and figuring yourself out and fighting with self doubt, but it makes me realize that maybe that never really goes away. Maybe it’s not something exclusive to age. You know, just because you’re an adult doesn’t mean you have it figured out, but that’s OK. The end goal is not figuring it out. You have this, you collect each thing, and the growing never stops. We’re always going to be learning. Not to put so much pressure on figuring it out or having a plan, it’s like you know I will figure it out, it’s not about the end goal. It’s about the journey, as Miley Cyrus’ “The Climb” would say.
MT: Let’s be honest — everything boils down to “The Climb.”
friendships and relationships that were upsetting, and I’m still unpacking with myself, that I would like to write a song about eventually. Right now, I’m not ready for it. I don’t think there’s any material that is off-limits, though. It’s a matter of being ready to unpack it publicly. I’ve run into situations where I’ve made people uncomfortable through how honest our music is. The obvious being the first time my mom heard “Sixteen” live. Or the person I wrote the song about. It can be uncomfortable.
MT: You had mentioned in a previ-
ous interview that your little sister is a source of inspiration. As a big sister, and a young lady yourself, do you feel any sort of responsibility to inspire youth, given your unique position?
Luciano: My sister is super inspir-
ing because she is the most confident, really loves herself. And she’s like a weird kid. She has the qualities that are not textbook cool kid, but she is so confident and loves herself and embraces herself regardless of what anyone says. I try and channel that energy into everything I do and try to put it out into the world. I hope it can inspire other young girls or non-cis men to live their life exactly how they want to. At the same time a lot of our music is grappling with self-doubt and I think it’s important to show that you’re not less than whole if you’re feeling selfdoubt. I hate when people say you can’t love anyone else until you love yourself. That’s bullshit. I hate that. You’re just as valid and important and special if you don’t love yourself completely.
MT: It’s “The Climb.” Luciano: Oh my god, it is! Diet Cig will perform on Wednesday, Jan. 31 at Marble Bar; 1501 Holden St., Detroit; 313-338-3674; Doors at 8 p.m.; Tickets are $12. jerilyn@metrotimes.com @metrotimes
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39 39
MUSIC Overlords of dark-pop Sleigh Bells to perform their unapologetically dark record, Kid Kruschev, at El Club By Sara Barron
After 10 years of collabora-
tion, Alexis Krauss and Derek Miller of Sleigh Bells are still pushing themselves to create incendiary pop music that challenges the way people view the genre. The duo’s latest album, Kid Kruschev, is its most politically, emotionally, and sonically forward record to date, and finds Krauss (songwriter and lead vocalist) finding the truest version of herself, musically and otherwise. Although Krauss has been singing and playing music most of her life, it wasn’t until her serendipitous encounter with Miller in 2008 that she found her artistic identity. At the time, she was working as an elementary school teacher in the Bronx, fitting in music whenever she had the chance. Meanwhile, Miller had recently relocated from Florida to New York and was working at a Brooklyn restaurant where he and Krauss first crossed paths. The two got to talking and Miller explained he was looking for a female vocalist to sing on his latest project. One thing led to another, and a few days later the two of them were sitting in a park, listening to Miller’s rough mixes and agreeing to work together. As Krauss puts it, “that’s the real story... shit like this actually happens sometimes.” The new partnership allowed Krauss to expand her creative horizons. “A whole new world kind of blows open when you find a collaborator that challenges you and likes your ideas and you feel safe and comfortable working with,” says Krauss. “I’d never had that before.” Krauss says, at first, she felt more like a session singer than a collaborator when working with Miller.
Derek Miller, left, and Alexis Krauss of Sleigh Bells.
But the more the two worked together, the more they began to push each other artistically. Krauss says the duo has shared more of the songwriting load with each new album. “Derek is incredible at producing and making beats and writing, and he has his world that he’s comfortable in, and I love melody and harmony and producing and arranging vocals,” she says. “So, we’ve sort of found our spaces and have a really comfortable creative process we like to engage in.” Yet again in unison, both artists tested their creative boundaries to new limits on Kid Kruschev. “A big part of my progression has been pushing myself to use my voice in different ways,” says Krauss. She notes that Kid
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Kruschev track “Rainmaker” has a lot of different vocal approaches, “but there’s definitely a desperation and cry and unhinged quality about the delivery there that I really like.” Miller, however, shows his growth through his self-reflective vulnerable lyricism. “A lot of his lyric-writing is very therapeutic for him,” explains Krauss. “He’s gotten more comfortable being honest about hardship — struggles with addiction and with thoughts that can be disturbing.” One of the most moving manifestations of dealing with these emotions is found in “And Saints,” the album’s closing track, where Krauss cries Miller’s lyrics, “I swear I’m a shell of a man,” over low, glaring synths.
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Krauss admits that these darker themes don’t always make for the carefree listening associated with pop music, and she’s OK with that. “At the heart of Sleigh Bells, we’re a pop band and we want to try and create memorable pop songs,” says Krauss. “But we also aren’t afraid to do things that are left of center and things that people may find polarizing or abrasive or confusing.” Sleigh Bells will play El Club on Tuesday, Jan. 30; Doors at 8 p.m.; 4114 W. Vernor Hwy., Detroit; 313-279-7382; elclubdetroit.com; Tickets are $25-$30. letters@metrotimes.com @metrotimes
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thursday 1/25
the myways & fangs n twang friday 1/26
Detroit Blues Revue w/ thornetta Davis, Brett Lucas, & moRe saturday 1/27
the insiDeRs
tom petty tribute friday 2/2
eliza neals & the naRcotics saturday 2/3
the LiL smokies tuesday 2/6 no cover
singers in the RounD
thursday 2/8
john hoLk & the sequins
wsg RoLlie tussing friday 2/9
the mighty funhouse
wednesday 2/14
the DustBowl RevivaL friday 2/16
uV hippo
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metrotimes.com
| January 24-30, 2018
43
FILM
Rosamund Pike and Tanaya Beatty in Hostiles.
American soul By MaryAnn Johanson
You know what the real white
man’s burden is? Living with the guilt of the colonialism, oppression, and genocide you are party to. I mean, look at North America. Sure, there are millions of Native people dead and ancient cultures destroyed, but who has to live with that? All the good soldiers who were just following orders, that’s who. No one talks about that, do they? Won’t someone think of the white man? Scott Cooper is thinking of the white man in Hostiles, his revisionist Western that revises the genre right back into the white man’s perspective, where it belongs. Oh, there will be lessons to be learned by the white man, lessons about how being a racist murderer weighs down on a white man, about how giving in to feels about the “things” he’s “done” will be difficult and painful. And really, isn’t the biggest crime in all this how the white man is forced to suppress his emotions and his humanity, how he suffers while making others suffer? US Army Capt. Joseph J. Blocker (Christian Bale) is a “good soldier” who
has made a career of fighting “wretched savages,” but now, even at the end of his army days, he is not satisfied that he has done enough. “There ain’t enough punishment for his kind,” Blocker believes of Cheyenne Chief Yellow Hawk (Wes Studi), who has been held prisoner — along with his family, including a young grandson — for seven years at an army compound in New Mexico. The year is 1892, the frontier is closing, and attitudes toward the Indian back east are softening. The order comes from Washington: Yellow Hawk, who has got cancer, and his family are to be escorted back to “sacred Cheyenne territory” in Montana, where he can die in peace. As a one-last-mission before his retirement, Blocker is assigned the task. This is an indignity that Blocker would rather not have to endure, but his pension is at stake, so off they go. Now, I know it sounds like Hostiles is a bit SJW-ish, in suggesting that the white man isn’t in fact as happy as a june bug to be slaughtering people for not being white. And maybe it is, a bit. But I’d hate for you to think that
44 January 24-30, 2018 | metrotimes.com
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the film does anything too radical, like present Yellow Hawk and his family as complicated human beings or anything. The Native Americans here are strictly one-dimensional, which is all Blocker’s redemption requires:They just need to meet the abuse he doles out on their journey with quiet dignity, all the better to start thawing his cold, cold heart a little. So obviously they don’t need much in the way of dialogue or character development. They just need to be the noble savages. But then we also have some marauding Comanches, who are even less than one-dimensional, and who certainly aren’t noble: They’re faceless boogeymen who swoop in and kill. They did that to Mrs. Rosalie Quaid (Rosamund Pike), a nice white lady the travelers encounter who is the only survivor of a Comanche attack on her family. The Comanche are still out there, and still dangerous, but can Yellow Hawk and his son, Black Hawk (Adam Beach), convince Blocker that they must team up to defeat them? An alliance with savages is too much for Blocker to contemplate... but lo! The Cheyenne, who are literally in white man’s chains, still have the kindness to honor the white lady’s grief, which is loud and heartrending. If the savages can be gentle with a white lady — just like Blocker
Hostiles Rated R Runtime: 134 minutes is! — maybe they’re not so bad after all? Still, there is a long way to go for Blocker. On one side, he has his master sergeant (Rory Cochrane), who has “the melancholy” over “our treatment of the Natives,” and on the other, an unrepentent soldier (Ben Foster), whom the party is transporting to his hanging for heinous crimes that are unspecified but apparently indistinguishable to the “things” they all “did” to the Native peoples. Is there a middle ground for Blocker, one that lets him retain his manly stoicism while also grudgingly conceding that perhaps savages are people too? “The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted.” D.H. Lawrence wrote that in 1923, and Cooper uses the quote to open his film. But ha on Lawrence! Here’s Blocker’s soul starting to melt way back in 1892. Granted, the American soul has barely budged since. But it’s only been 126 years. Give it time.
letters@metrotimes.com @metrotimes
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CULTURE
Tiya Miles.
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Turning history topsy-turvy
Tiya Miles to discuss Detroit’s slaveholding days at the Detroit Public Library By Michael Jackman
In metro Detroit, we’re used
to thinking of slavery as something that took place far away among the plantations of the antebellum South. After all, Detroit was the last stop on the Underground Railroad, a magnet of the Great Migration, and eventually the sophisticated Motown of the civil rights era. But it wasn’t always that way, as one of the last year’s most notable Detroit history books makes plain. That book is called The Dawn of Detroit, and it’s by University of Michigan history professor Tiya Miles. It offers a look at Detroit’s early years, roughly 1760 to 1815, a time when not everybody was free, and when Native Americans, Africans, and indentured servants were considered the property of some of Detroit’s first families. We spoke with Miles in anticipation of her appearance this Saturday at the Detroit Public Library’s Main Branch in Detroit.
Metro Times: How did you get interested in that subject? Did you discover it or set out looking for it?
Tiya Miles: I teach a seminar in
our Afro-American and African Studies Department on slavery and representations of slavery in contemporary America, and I always try to incorporate some kind of field trip. Around 2009, we took an Underground Railroad tour of Southeastern Michigan organized by the African American Cultural and Historical Museum of Washtenaw County. For me, it was an introduction to the rich local history from this time period. I was learning all kinds of new things right alongside the students, and I decided to follow up on Laura Smith Haviland, who was an abolitionist who lived in what’s now Adrian. But as I was doing that research, I learned from reading her own memoir that there may be more
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to Michigan history than I’d realized. Basically, she was very proud of being a Michigander, and she talked about these “laws of Michigan” that were in favor of black freedom, and so I started to try to look into these laws that she was referring to. When I went down that path, it was like a rabbit hole, and it led me to look more closely at the Northwest Ordinance, and to the realization that while the ordinance officially and formally seemed to ban slavery in the Northwest Territory, it actually allowed for slavery in various guises. Once I knew that, I felt like I couldn’t stop researching that because I’m from Ohio, and I’ve lived in Michigan for 15 years now, and I’m somebody who has always had an identity connected to the Midwest as a free place, the Northwest Territory as a free place. So when I learned this, I was surprised that I didn’t already know
it and I was disappointed about it. I was frustrated that there wasn’t more discussion about it.
MT: Your book challenges many
myths in ways you might not at first realize. For instance, it shatters the myth that we didn’t have black people until the Great Migration, with Henry Ford as a sort of Moses figure.
Miles: One of the problems with
that story is that it really places African-Americans on the latter half of a historical timeline in Detroit. It suggests that black people came here in the early to mid-20th century, and that’s just not accurate, and it displaces a long African-American history in Detroit. It displaces what I think are some of the foundations of African-American resistance and political consciousness in Detroit. But I think that if we have a narrative that
positions a white male entrepreneur as kind of an economic savior and black people as a population that came to a place in droves to take advantage of that opportunity, then we actually aren’t able to see African-Americans as saviors of their own lives and their own communities.
MT: Of course, you could have just written a story about black history, but chose to include stories of native peoples. Why was that important to you?
Miles: When I first started do-
ing this research, I thought the book would be focused on the 19th century, but the more I started reading I was going to have to go back. And so it kept pushing me backward and backward until I found myself in the 1700s. It became very clear then that the largest population of enslaved people in Detroit were Native Americans, and they were Native American women. Learning that changed the story I was expecting to write. It’s impossible to talk about slavery in Detroit without centering on Native American history. And the other piece to that is that enslaved people, when they did attempt to run away, they did so in multiple directions. They had a better chance of not being caught if they ran through Native territory, because the European and Euro-American owners and masters were really afraid of going into Native space.
MT: How did slaves arrive in the region?
Miles: There are different directions by which African-Americans were brought into Detroit. The earliest black people there — and this is all very hard to know because the records just don’t tell us anything clearly about it, but the earliest black people there were probably coming from cities in New France like Montreal because some of the earliest Detroiters were coming from these places. And they held slaves. And then when the British came in, many of them were coming from the Northeast and New York, and they brought enslaved people with them from that region, and then the British also entered into sales agreements brokered in New York to buy more African-Americans who were then sent to Detroit. But they were rare. As they were small in number, they were hard to get. The population was not as large as Native American populations were. But it was during the Revolutionary War period that the most number of black people were captured and
brought into slavery in Detroit. So, right when the United States was fighting for its freedom, black people had their freedom taken from them in Detroit.
MT: This is tough stuff. It goes right
against a lot of the soothing myths of the Midwest. You mentioned your own dismay at finding this history that has sort of fallen through the cracks. How do you deal with finding yourself in this position of sharing painful history, given all the raw emotions it can provoke?
Miles: I did have a concern with this project and that was that, even though I knew that I wanted to try to find stories of resistance, slavery is not a pretty topic, and I worry that people, particularly people in Detroit, might feel that I was just trying to throw out some more dirty laundry about Detroit, and that worried me. And I was only able to feel more reassured about that as I worked with students. A lot of our students here are from the Detroit area, and I’ve never encountered students who expressed the feeling of dread or shame or embarrassment hearing that, in a collective sense, we as people of color might have enslaved ancestors in Detroit. Their response was one of indignance and anger that they were never told or taught this. And they also seized on the idea that people who were enslaved in Detroit, they were able to make a way out of no way, that they were able to persevere despite the most extreme circumstances we can imagine, and for them it was a source of pride and strength. And when I saw how the students were reacting, I was really heartened, because that’s how I feel about it too. And so far people who’ve written to me who are from Detroit have echoed those same sentiments, and I really believe and I’m really grateful that people who have been reading the material kind of feel and understand where the work is coming from. We can’t just turn a blind eye to these events. We can’t pretend that we all just got along. Clearly that is not the case. And people have lost their lives because of our inability to recognize and respect one another as human beings. So we need to know about it. Miles will give a talk about The Dawn of Detroit from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 27 at the Detroit Public Library Main Branch, 5201 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-481-1300. jackman@metrotimes.com @ michaeljackman
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| January 17-23, 2018
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CULTURE Savage Love
Mother love by Dan Savage
Q:
My father left my mother abruptly when I was 14 years old, and he hasn’t contacted either of us since. It was a crushing blow for her, and she retreated from the world. She was never bitter about it, but it was devastating. She lost the love of her life for no apparent reason and was left completely alone, except for me. We have both done our best to forget about him. We were extremely close for the next four years and actually slept in the same bed every night. Eventually, we began doing something that most people would consider evil but neither of us has ever regretted. It was just something that happened. And it wasn’t something that just happened once — it went on for two years and ended only when I left to go to university. I haven’t thought about this for years, and it is something my mother and I have never discussed. She has since remarried and seems perfectly fine. But even today, we sometimes send each other friendly messages that are vaguely suggestive. The problem is I mentioned it to my wife recently and she went ballistic. She called me and my mother sick and moved into another bedroom and refuses to have sex with me. I wish I had never mentioned it, but it was part of a truth-or-dare ses-
sion we were having. This has been the situation for the last three months. I have finally lost my patience and I am thinking of leaving. I have never cheated on my wife or hurt her, either physically or emotionally, and I have supported her financially while she studies at university. I have mentioned going to a counselor, but she refuses and claims that she is married to a monster and that no woman would want me. We don’t have any children — so if I were to leave, I wouldn’t be disrupting an innocent’s life. Do you have any advice? — Truthful Revelation Unmakes Two Happy Spouses
A:
I’m not a professional counselor, TRUTHS, but I’m gonna climb out on a limb and say that a game of truth or dare isn’t the right time to reveal an incestuous sexual relationship with a parent. Dr. Hani Miletski and Dr. Joe Kort, on the other hand, are professionals: Dr. Miletski is a psychotherapist and a sex therapist, and Dr. Kort is a sex and relationship therapist. Both are certified by the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists, and both are authors — Dr. Miletski literally wrote the book on the subject of mother-son incest: MotherSon Incest: The Unthinkable Broken Taboo Persists. “There’s no wonder his wife is so upset,” said Dr. Miletski. “Sexual relations between mother and son are considered the most taboo form of incest.”
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Dr. Miletski told me it isn’t uncommon for a woman who has been abandoned by her husband to turn to an adolescent son for emotional comfort. “These women are often very insecure and needy,” said Dr. Miletski. “Unbeknownst to the son — and sometimes to the mother — the son begins to feel responsible for his mother’s well-being and emotional support. The son becomes ‘parentified’ and is treated by his mother as a substitute husband. Occasionally, this close relationship between a mother and her son evolves into a sexual relationship, and the substitute husband becomes her lover as well. The situation described in this letter sounds exactly like that. And while I’m glad this man believes he has not been affected by this boundary violation, [the fact that he and his mother are] sending suggestive messages to each other may suggest otherwise.” Dr. Miletski prefers not to use terms like “abuse” or “trauma” unless the person involved uses those terms themselves — which you didn’t, TRUTHS, but I’m going to go ahead and use them. Here goes: You say you have no regrets, and you don’t mention feeling traumatized by the experience, but the absence of trauma doesn’t confer some sort of retroactive, after-the-fact immunity on your mother. She is responsible for her actions — actions that were abusive and highly likely to leave you traumatized. “In the mental-health field, we have a growing body of work showing that not everyone who is abused is necessarily traumatized,” said Dr. Kort. “I have seen countless men who have been sexually abused by their mothers who do not label it as abuse because they were not traumatized. But his mother seduced him, dismissing the sexual and emotional needs of a teenage boy. There is no other way to describe this other than abuse, however consensual he may have perceived it to be at the time.” But that was then, TRUTHS. What do you do about your situation now? “Unfortunately, I don’t think his wife will ever be able to put this revelation behind her,” said Dr. Miletski. “I think his best bet is to leave her, move on, and seek therapy. A therapist will help him deal with the emotional upset of the breakup with his wife, as well as process what happened with his mother.” Dr. Kort sees some hope — albeit slim — for your marriage. “To gain empathy and compassion from his wife, TRUTHS should be willing to listen to her concerns, fear, and anger,” said Dr. Kort. “He also needs to invite her to have compassion and empathy for the vulnerable position he was in — but he cannot do that until
he has some compassion for himself. Untreated, the abuse he suffered from his mother, as well as the loss and grief over his father, could be troubling to his wife and their relationship. Perhaps if he ever has children, the reality of the abuse will hit him. Parents don’t have children to turn them into lovers.” And, once again, people probably shouldn’t reveal incestuous relationships to their current partner during a game of truth or dare. You can find Dr. Miletski’s books and learn more about her work at DrMiletski.com. You can find Dr. Kort’s books and learn more about his work at JoeKort.com and on Twitter @drjoekort.
Q:
I’m writing you to ask about a friend of mine. He’s a gifted artist who hasn’t truly dedicated himself to his art. It’s as if he’s afraid of success. He’s also a so-called “womanizer,” and every time he meets an interesting woman who’s into him, he inevitably fucks it up. For this reason and some others (that I won’t mention), I believe he’s a repressed homosexual. Let’s just assume that he is. Every time we talk, maybe once or twice a year, he recounts his latest fuckups with women (and everything else). During the last call, I was very close to asking him if he was sure about his sexual orientation. I believe that what makes him unable to face this aspect of his life is interfering with everything else, too. I would like to be able to talk openly about it with him without hurting him. Do you have any tips? — Artist Failing At Relationships
A:
Sometimes a cigar isn’t just a cigar — but an unsuccessful heterosexual is almost always just that. Unless the details you didn’t share include, say, a massive collection of gay porn or messy closet-case classics like drunken lunges at male friends or running for Congress on a “family values” platform, your friend will have to remain in the hetero column for now. That said, if you believe a solid gay ass pounding would jar loose the professional and romantic success that has thus far eluded your friend, go ahead and ask him if he’s a “repressed homosexual.” It might cost you his friendship, AFAR, but someone who calls only once or twice a year to recount his romantic fuckups doesn’t sound like much of a friend anyway. No way! On the Lovecast, it’s Sarah Silverman!: savagelovecast.com.
mail@savagelove.net @fakedansavage
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| January 24-30, 2018
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| January 24-30, 2018
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Horoscopes
CULTURE ARIES: March 21 – April 20
You could be changing your mind (and your tune) about more than a few things. Jumping prematurely into actions that had more to do with what you thought was expected, than with anything that has to do with you, has landed you in a bit of a pickle. The need to make the best of it competes with the idea that it might be better to start over. If the fact that you are overly invested in things that are no longer relevant is freaking you out, it’s time to face the music. You don’t need to panic, but you might as well get used to the idea that everything needs to shift. TAURUS: April 21 – May 20
by Cal Garrison
LEO: July 21 – Aug. 20
If it feels like everything would come together if it weren’t for “so-andso,” or, if you could just get rid of “this, that, or the other thing,” guess again. The truth is, there’s nobody out there; every blessed thing is a reflection of some aspect of your own consciousness that has come into being just so you can see it. If that sounds depressing, the idea that it all comes down to you is actually liberating. The only thing you can rearrange is the way you see it. Before you go nuts trying to reconstitute what is outside of you, look within, and remind yourself that everything is an inside job. VIRGO: Aug. 21 – Sept. 20
Waking up to what needs to be done is pushing you to make a few decisions. What seemed so important a few years ago is now at a place that makes you wonder what you were thinking. Elements of disillusionment have filtered in to your mind, just enough to blow it. Part of you refuses to believe it. The rest of you is busy trying to figure out how to carry on. This is one of those times when the whole ball of wax has to flip. Finding another reason to live, in the midst of the daily grind, will require a philosophical approach and a willingness to surrender the past.
It’s getting hard to figure out who you need to please. Going back and forth between what people and things require of you, and what you really need to be doing for yourself is a huge item. What also seems to be coming up is the fact that you’re finally coming to terms with all the water that has gone under the bridge. Until now, your life has been one long emergency. As the dust settles on what you’ve had to live through, delayed emotional responses are bringing up all kinds of stuff. It’s high time. As the truth comes to light you will get a clearer sense of where to go from here.
GEMINI: May 21 – June 20
LIBRA: Sept. 21 – Oct. 20
You have a powerful personality. With more than a few things to distract you, much of your potential is getting siphoned off to a lot of Mickey Mouse issues that don’t amount to much. Be wise enough to conserve your energy for things that actually matter. Part of the problem is, you think that multiple options will increase your chances of success, when in fact, you’d do way better to haul back and focus only on what you are best at. I guess it comes down to deepening your connection to people, to your experiences, and to situations that require more devotion.
You’ve managed to come out on top of a situation that had “train wreck” written all over it. Plowing through the wreckage is where it’s at for many of you. Making sense of it all will see you needing to patch up some of the things that got damaged on the way. As you work through the issues that put you in this position, getting real about where you went wrong and being strong enough to learn from your mistakes is bound to change your behavior and create a whole new set of rules for your relationships. This is an intense and mindblowing process. Go easy on yourself.
CANCER: June 21 – July 20
Between one thing and another sometimes it helps to wake up to the idea that you’re not the person who was here a year ago, or even yesterday. Becoming aware of the fact that you have opened a whole new chapter would be less unsettling if your ego could let go of the need to be who you were. Recent epiphanies have shocked your system enough to make you question everything. Stories that underscore the extent to which you had to lose track of yourself in order to find your way will eventually see you picking up the pieces and putting things together again.
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SCORPIO: Oct. 21 – Nov. 20
You’d do well to keep an eye on what you want from people who have no way to fulfill your expectations. It’s easy to project what you think needs to be going on onto other people. The problem is they are not living your version of reality. More than anything, it’s your turn to get the picture when it comes to giving them all the space and time in the world to do what they need to do for themselves. You could argue that you only have their best interests in mind but if you think about it for five minutes, you have absolutely no idea what their best interests are at this point.
SAGITTARIUS: Nov.21 – Dec. 20
It isn’t hard to see how much you care. In some cases it might make a difference, but, in the long run you could find yourself regretting the fact that you wasted so much of yourself on something that didn’t pan out. This is about finding out what people are made of. Having placed your bets on whoever is sitting on this pedestal, in your quieter moments the thought that you gave them way more credit than they deserved nips at your heels. In the midst of the deepest wish to make all of this take a happy turn, there is a whiff of narcissism in the room that could mess up everything. CAPRICORN: Dec. 21 - Jan. 20
Once you stop looking for results you will get where you need to go. The idea that something needs to happen, in a certain way, at a certain time makes you the biggest obstacle to your own success. So much of who you are is stuck on the idea that your master plan is the only possible approach, when in fact the way things turn out finds its own way, and has its own rhythm. It would be good to stop pushing long enough to bring the best possible outcome to bear on things that have either gone over the top, or that have been made too complicated by previous mistakes in judgment. AQUARIUS: Jan. 21 – Feb. 20
There is some third-party interference that is making it hard to get the job done. Either that or it’s making it hard to get your needs met. Whatever this is about, it’s time to figure out how to be a grown-up about it. The ones who seem to be stepping on your toes are too out of touch with what works to know better. At times like this there’s no way to confront people or approach things directly. A good strategy is in order. It may even be time to split. Detach yourself from the situation, assess your options, and stay cool enough to deal with their insecurities. PISCES: Feb. 21 – March 20
Wondering how to make what appears to be a tough situation into something you can live with is where it’s at right now. If this is the last thing you ever thought you would be doing I wouldn’t be surprised. In some cases all it comes down to is being smart enough to take the good with the bad. The “up” side of things has to do with what will come of it once you find your way through the hard part. Others are well aware of how much this is taking out of you. Finding ways to replenish yourself at the end of the day will require an internal focus and a quieter, less-is-more attitude.
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| January 24-30, 2018
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