Thursday, June 27, 2019
ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
inside
Faculty assist in victorious project design
NEWS
Katie Bouman The ‘U’ alum talks her time on campus, capturing picture of black hole
Three professors, ‘U’ alum win competiton with proposal ‘Detroit Square’
>> SEE PAGE 8
OPINION
From the Daily The Michigan Daily Editorial board addresses ‘U’ proceedings in Doe v. University of Michigan >> SEE PAGE 4
ARTS
Childish Gambino Tracking the trajectory and musical evolution of the Bonnaroo headliner >> SEE PAGE 6
MICHIGAN IN COLOR
Guava Island
Devak Nanua writes about the significance of the Donald Glover’s Film, writes to his brother
>> SEE PAGE 9
SPORTS
Baseball Michigan loses game three of College World Series final, 8-2
>> SEE PAGE 12
INDEX Vol. CXXVIII, No. 115 © 2019 The Michigan Daily
NEWS .................................... 2 OPINION ............................... 4 ARTS...................................... 6 MiC......................................... 9 SPORTS................................ 10
michigandaily.com
HANNNAH ALLBERY Daily Staff Reporter
Community members raise awareness for the victims of the attack in Sudan on the Diag Sunday.
MAX KUANG/Daily
Students and activists gather on Diag, demand peace for Sudan Community shows support for Sudanese people Sunday afternoon JIALIN ZHANG
Daily Staff Reporter
In the wake of a violent attack in Sudan leading to at least 30 deaths, students and activists packed the Diag on Sunday to demand action and to show support for the Sudanese people. The rally consisted of a recapitulation of the events, a prayer and an open discussion which followed shortly after in North Quad Residence Hall. The humanitarian crisis in Sudan first began when protesters demanded longtime president of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, be removed from office after remaining in power for more than 30 years. Protests were first provoked when President Bashir’s government imposed emergency austerity measures in an attempt to save the Country’s failing economy in December 2018. Protesters succeeded in forcing Bashir out of the office, and a seven-member Transitional Military Council replaced him.
Despite the removal of the president, the TMC struggled to appease the tension in Sudan. Protesters continued to demand a civilian-led government, in response, the TMC launched a violent attack on protesters on June 3, resulting in at least 30 deaths. Khadega Mohammed, Wayne State University junior and one of the organizers of the event, said her goal is to help the community become aware of the current situation in the country and the severity of the crisis. “I think it is especially important that we organize something like this because what is happening in Sudan is not just a Sudanese cause, it is a humanitarian cause,” Mohammed said. “I’ve noticed that a lot of people are silent about this, there is nothing happening in Michigan, there is no awareness event for it.” Because of her Sudanese heritage, the situation was personal for Mohammed. With this connection, she felt the obligation to spread awareness. “If nobody is going to do it, then I’m going to have to do it,” Mohammed said. “This is my people, this is my country that I care about. So I’m going to do an event to raise awareness and to echo the scream of Sudanese
people.” During the rally, Mohammed led the chanting of phrases such as “Who are we? Sudanese. What do we want? Justice. When do we want it? Right now” and “No justice, no peace” to voice the struggle for justice in Sudan. Zaynab Elkolaly, an incoming freshman to the University, said she believes regardless of race and ethnicity, everyone should feel obligated to show their support for those affected. “You don’t have to be Sudanese to care about a humanitarian crisis,” Elkolaly said. “People are too motivated by the fact that it would be their family or someone they care personally involved, but I don’t think that should be a factor, it should be the people who need help, and we need to respond to that.” Elkolaly also criticized what she believes to be the ignorance and stereotypical assumptions Americans tend to have when it comes to crisis in underdeveloped nations. “In this region of the world, Middle East and Africa, there is this tendency for people to believe that, ‘Oh, it’s a third world developing country, there is going to be violence,’” Elkolaly said.
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Over the past two years, the DIA Plaza/Midtown Cultural Connections international design competition accepted project proposals that could transform the Midtown district of Detroit. The goal of the competition is to unite 12 cultural institutions, including the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit Public Library and University of Michigan. More than forty project submissions were narrowed down to three finalists and a winner titled “Detroit Square.” The project has a core team of Olivier Phillippe from Agence Ter (based in Paris, France); Anya Sirota and Jean Louis Farges from Akoaki (Detroit); Cezanne Charles and John Marshall from rootoftwo (Detroit); and Harley Etienne, an assistant professor of urban and regional planning at the University Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. In addition to Etienne, three other of these team members have ties to the University. Sirota is an associate professor of architecture at the Taubman College, Marshall is an associate professor at the School of Art & Design and Taubman College and Charles is an alum of the School of Public Policy. Sirota said she believes her team’s key to success was their plan being more fluid and adaptable instead of concrete and decisive. “It is not a finished plan; it is not a masterplan in and of itself,” Sirota said. “It is a framework to engage the 12 institutions. It proceeds with a very clear, strong diagram of its shared parts, but then assumes they will need to be adjusted to conform to the material reality of the institutions’ needs.”
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