2020-02-17

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM Ann Arbor, Michigan

‘It traumatized me’: Monday, February 17, 2020

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Former employees of Sava’s bring numerous allegations of sexual harassment, misconduct

DOMINICK SOKOTOFF/Daily ZAYNA SYED & SAMMY SUSSMAN Daily Staff Reporters

School of Music, Theatre & Dance junior Chloe CastroSantos was working at Sava’s, a popular Ann Arbor restaurant, in 2018 when the head chef Gustavo Salazar Esquivel allegedly propositioned her for sex.

This was the summer after her freshman year at the University of Michigan, and he had just helped her during a particularly busy shift. She tried to thank him for his assistance.

“I was like, ‘Thank you so much for helping me today, really appreciate it.’ And he was like, ‘I helped you, so you help me.’ And he alluded to oral sex,” CastroSantos said in an interview with The Daily. “It traumatized me because I was at work. I’m just trying to make my rent and go home.”

On July 28, 2018, CastroSantos emailed a resignation letter to Sava’s management.

She alleged that she had been repeatedly sexually harassed while working in the restaurant’s kitchen and that Sava’s management, including the restaurant’s owner and SavCo Hospitality CEO, Sava Farah, had failed to address this.

“I have the upmost (sic) respect for Sava and the establishments she has built from scratch and that is why it was so heartbreaking to see what was willingly condoned and even on a certain level encouraged in her restaurant,” Castro-Santos wrote.

About one year after CastroSantos’s email, former Sava’s employee Ghia Parow alleged that Esquivel and a male cook committed sexual misconduct against her.

Parow posted on her Facebook page about the incident. Before she made the post private, it was shared 628 times, with many former employees sharing their own stories of alleged sexual harassment and misconduct at Sava’s and Aventura, two restaurants owned by SavCo Hospitality.

Esquivel, who also goes by “Gustavo Salazar,” according to confidential Sava’s documents obtained by The Daily, did not respond to multiple messages from The Daily requesting comment for this article.

“I think Gustavo was very good at his job but I don’t think that should matter,” CastroSantos said in an interview with The Daily. “If you’re choosing to give your money to this company, you’re making a very clear statement about what your values are and whether you value the quality of human life for women.”

Sava’s is widely considered a staple of the Ann Arbor food scene. Last year, The Daily ranked it as the “Best Romantic Dinner” in its yearly Best of Ann Arbor series. Aventura, a Spanish inspired-restaurant and bar, and Wilma’s, a trendy, health-minded cafe, are other SavCo Hospitality-owned local favorites.

An investigation by The Daily uncovered numerous previously undisclosed allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct from former Sava’s employees against other employees since June 2018. The allegations range from sexually explicit verbal statements to groping, unwanted touching and propositions for sex.

The Daily found evidence that SavCo Hospitality management

was repeatedly made aware of many of these allegations.

The Daily contacted Sava Farah and SavCo Hospitality requesting comment for this article, and was referred to Chief of Staff Janelle Zini.

“We are beyond disappointed that an institution like the Michigan Daily would engage in such inaccurate and irresponsible reporting,” Zini wrote in a statement to The Daily. “These claims are so far from the truth that it would be absurd for us to respond. We have no further comment and are focused on continuing to take care of our staff and guests.”

Zini noted that SavCo Hospitality could not turn over more confidential employment information, citing SavCo Hospitality’s obligations as employers.

Management disputed these allegations to staff. In an email to SavCo Hospitality employees sent Tuesday evening, a copy of which was obtained by The Daily, Zini and SavCo Hospitality Training & HR Manager Maggie Jennings reiterated their belief that they could not respond to The Daily’s reporting.

“In order to maintain confidentiality of all parties involved, SavCo is unable to respond to these claims even when every ounce of us wants to take this opportunity to illustrate the reality of each of these mischaracterized situations,” Jennings and Zini wrote. “What we can say is that we stand behind the way any instances of misconduct or harassment have been, and will continue to be, handled and addressed.”

The Daily was provided with a statement from Laura Peretick,

a server at Sava’s for the past seven and a half years. Peretick is also president of the Employee Experience Council, a group that she wrote “gather(s) once a month to discuss how to improve the employee experience, and create positive change in our restaurants.”

Peretick said in her time working at Sava’s, she never once felt “unsafe.”

“I am very proud to work at Sava’s, and to be a part of an organization that truly cares about it’s (sic) employees. My immediate managers, as well as upper management take our well being very seriously,” Peretick wrote in an emailed statement to The Daily. “I have seen lives transform here because Sava’s gave them a chance. I have seen countless times my managers go above and beyond for my co-workers.”

Peretick said she believed Sava’s handled allegations of sexual misconduct with integrity, adding that she was involved with the investigation into Parow’s allegations.

“This is not an organization that takes sexual assault allegations against it’s (sic) people lightly,” Peretick wrote.

“To say that management mishandled the situation alleged in the Facebook post, fueling your article, is absolutely false. There was a thorough investigation that I personally was a part of.

I know all parties involved in the claim very well and I solidly stand behind Sava’s.”

Castro-Santos attributed the disparity in experiences between employees to a difference in culture between the workers in the front of the house — meaning employees who interact with customers — and the those in

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told The Daily. “And when they walked behind me, they would always grab my waist.”

Three days after sending her email, Castro-Santos received a reply from Farah, who referenced her own experiences of sexual harassment at a restaurant when she was younger.

“As a woman who started working in kitchens at 13 years old, I was exposed to this type of misconduct 20 years ago — at a time when sadly, no one was willing to hear about this sort of thing,” Farah wrote. “Long since, I have vowed to run things differently in my business and I have always taken pride in the fact that our kitchen culture is female friendly, until now, hearing about your encounters.”

Farah told Castro-Santos Sava’s would take action to address her allegations.

“What you experienced and how you were treated should have never happened and I am deeply regretful for the conduct you reported and the responses from my managers that left you feeling dismissed an (sic) unheard,” Farah wrote. “As of receiving your note, we have implemented a hyper vigilant zero-tolerance policy for harassment of any type, we have re-trained every single manager on our policy and also how to properly handle these matters in the future and we have held each person in your email accountable to their actions and inactions.”

On April 6, 2019, another Sava’s employee complained to management about Esquivel, this time over sexually explicit comments she witnessed Esquivel make against Parow.

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back of the house, which includes the kitchen.

In her first month working at Sava’s in May 2018, CastroSantos said she witnessed occasional sexually explicit verbal statements, though she attributed this to kitchen culture.

“I’d worked in kitchens before,” Castro-Santos said.

“Sexist stuff sometimes happens in the kitchen because it usually is a male-dominated field.”

However, Castro-Santos alleged the restaurant’s culture worsened toward the beginning of June 2018, with the arrival of Esquivel.

Castro-Santos alleged that an employee warned her about what he thought Esquivel might do to her.

“I was told by (an employee) that I would be ‘if not groped then at least verbally harassed,’” Castro-Santos wrote in her July 28 email to Sava’s management.

She alleged in her email that another male employee repeatedly verbally harassed her. Management from the restaurant, Castro-Santos alleged, repeatedly witnessed these comments. “(I)t became a joke on the line that he would verbally harass me daily. Everyone working in the kitchen knew about it, but nothing was ever actually done about it,” Castro-Santos wrote in her letter to management. “If I were a man … I wouldn’t be given demeaning nicknames.”

She alleged that she was subjected to more than 20 instances of unwanted touching from other employees while working along the kitchen’s narrow line in a six-hour shift.

“Men who worked there would walk behind me,” Castro-Santos

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News

2A — Monday, February 17, 2020

SAVCO from Page 1A One such comment Esquivel allegedly made was to call Parow “sucia,” which means “dirty” in Spanish, a slang term for whore. This employee asked to be identified by only her first name, Savannah, out of fear of professional retribution.

“I had noticed that in the kitchen they were calling her ‘sucia,’” Savannah said. “They were harassing her so I went to a manager.”

Sava’s management told Savannah they would address this issue, but Savannah alleged she saw no response to this complaint.

“They’re like, ‘Oh okay we’ll definitely deal with this,’” Savannah said. “And nothing happened.”

SavCo Hospitality terminated Savannah’s employment April 30, 2019. In a letter sent to Savannah, a photo of which was obtained by The Daily, a Sava’s manager explained that her termination was related to her telling other employees what she claims she had witnessed.

“Most recently, there were two incidents in which employees named you as the individual that told them stories regarding sexual harassment issues not being addressed in the workplace resulting in them no longer wanting to work at our establishment,” the Sava’s manager wrote. “... Both incidents that those individuals reported hearing from you specifically are untrue and have been thoroughly investigated and concluded with the individuals involved.”

The manager said this was why Savannah was being fired.

“While we can’t assume your intentions, the consequences of your behavior are beyond repair and this is why we must part ways with you effective immediately,” the manager wrote.

“We can no longer condone the toxic and harmful way in which you conduct yourself.” *** The alleged sexual misconduct described in Parow’s Facebook post took place weeks after Savannah reported Esquivel’s alleged “sucia” comments to Sava’s management.

The Daily spoke with three individuals with knowledge of Parow’s description of these events from before they became public. All three corroborated the consistency of Parow’s account of the alleged sexual misconduct.

Parow alleged that after a private dining event, she walked towards an outside underground storage facility, which employees call the “Dungeon.” Esquivel and another kitchen employee allegedly grabbed her by the arms and tried to force her into the Dungeon.

No other individuals were present to witness this incident.

The other kitchen employee did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

“We’re going to rape you,” they said, according to Parow.

Ever since she first made her allegations this summer, Parow has maintained that she does not remember what happened after that statement. Though she had not consumed alcohol, she said that she “blacked out” at this point, according to interviews with Parow and two other employees.

The Daily obtained a copy of SavCo Hospitality’s investigation into Parow’s claim.

According to the investigation, Esquivel and the other chef denied pulling Parow into a storage area or threatening sexual assault. They alleged that Parow had repeatedly made sexual jokes and comments to them in the months leading up to the incident, something that the

investigation notes Esquivel had once reported to another manager.

Parow’s claim of the alleged sexual misconduct was found to be unsubstantiated.

The investigation also notes that “a final warning” had been issued to Esquivel.

Following a meeting with Human Resources representatives, management removed Parow from future private dining events.

According to Parow, they agreed she should take time off for her mental health.

At a later meeting, Parow was given a contract releasing SavCo Hospitality from any liability if Parow sought to sue them at a later date.

“I was in no place to be signing absolutely anything,” Parow said.

“I was a fucking mess. I was so scared. I was always looking over my shoulder at the time. I thought it was for my paid time off, and I needed rent. Rent was due almost … I signed it, I walked out of there.”

Parow had also signed a nondisparagement agreement as part of her initial employment paperwork.

The agreement specifically prohibits Parow from speaking negatively of any “employee, business or process” of SavCo Hospitality.

Non-disparagement agreements, or NDAs, have come under scrutiny in the wake of the #MeToo movement. In December, The Daily reported on confidential NDAs reached between the University of Michigan and former employees, agreements totalling approximately $1.265 million over a six-month period. Ex-University employees complained that the agreements silenced them by stifling criticism of their former employer.

The Daily found evidence of two non-disparagement agreements, including Parow’s, that SavCo Hospitality reached with former employees. Both had been included in documents the employees signed when starting their employment.

Though Parow worked at Sava’s and the other employee worked at Aventura, the terms of these agreements were nearly identical.

It is unclear if these agreements are still included in incoming employment paperwork.

In an interview with The Daily, Ally Coll, the president of the #MeToo advocacy organization The Purple Campaign said these agreements have debilitating effects on public discourse around allegations of harassment and misconduct. “(NDAs) have allowed organizations and leadership at organizations to avoid actually addressing the underlying issue,” Coll said.

Companies that reach these agreements are also emboldened, Coll explained, to not resolve claims of harassment and misconduct equitably.

“They no longer are as worried about making sure that both parties feel that their claims were fairly resolved,” Coll said. *** On Aug. 12, 2019, Parow posted an account of the incident with Esquivel and Sava’s management’s response on Facebook. Though they had offered her a position at another SavCo Hospitality-owned restaurant, she had quit working for the company months earlier.

Parow alleged that management brushed off her complaint.

“They did not want to hear it.

They put it away, they covered it up,” Parow said in an interview with The Daily. “They knew, just because this stuff has happened before and my Facebook post has brought out a lot of women to come forward and share. So I’m not afraid of being called a liar or anything, because it’s the fucking truth.”

In response to Parrow’s post, SavCo Hospitality shared a statement on Facebook. The

statement has since been taken down.

“We want everyone to know that any and all alleged incidents that have been brought to the company’s attention have been fully investigated and handled with care. We do not tolerate any type of harassment in our company,” SavCo Hospitality wrote, according to an article from MLive. “The situation in question was thoroughly investigated over several weeks, including interviews with all parties involved … We took the situation very seriously, and we are certain we handled this matter appropriately, given a diligent investigation and several objective individuals all reaching the same conclusion.”

Farah discussed the investigation in an interview with MLive in August.

“We apologize for the experience she’s having, but we investigated, and it came out completely unsubstantiated,” Farah said.

The Daily spoke with another Sava’s employee familiar with the circumstances of Parow’s allegations of sexual misconduct.

The employee declined to be named for fear of professional retribution.

They claimed Farah described Esquivel and the chef’s actions as a joke in a private conversation.

This was after SavCo Hospitality concluded its investigation of the incident, and the employee believed this was the final finding. “(Farah told me) the incident was a joke,” the employee said. “But it was okay … because Gustavo knew that it was inappropriate now.”

The Daily spoke to another Sava’s employee working at the restaurant at the time that the investigation into Parow’s claim concluded. This employee asked to be referred to only by their first name, Sam, citing fears of professional retribution.

Sam claimed company-wide staff meetings were held to discuss the findings of the investigation into Parow’s allegations, but employees had a difficult time asking questions because management dominated the conversation.

Sam said they believed these meetings were organized to scare employees from speaking publicly about the allegations.

“I genuinely believe they did that, purposefully, so that they could hear less voices, get less feedback and create this culture of silence,” Sam said.

In text messages between Parow and Farah shortly after Parow’s Facebook post, Farah threatened Parow with a lawsuit.

Parow provided copies of these text messages to The Daily.

“This is a gross misrepresentation of what occurred and if I have to defend myself I will have to have my legal team hit you with a slander lawsuit tomorrow morning,” Farah wrote.

Parow said she felt betrayed by SavCo management. She had once thought highly enough of Farah to get a tattoo of the Albanian word “besa” — referring to the Albanian code of honor — after it featured prominently in a TEDx Talk Farah gave in March 2018.

“I was in awe of (Farah),” Parow said. “I looked up to her … I was proud to work for her — a powerful woman-owned business. I was really about that.”

Parow took down her Facebook post. Farah never sued. *** The Daily spoke with three other former Sava’s employees. Two of the employees requested anonymity, citing fears of professional retribution. In this article, one will be referred to as Anne and the other as Jane.

Jane alleged that male workers repeatedly harassed her with sexual innuendos and sexist verbal statements. In one instance, she recalled a male worker allegedly asking her for details about her

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romantic relationship.

Jane also alleged that male workers repeatedly touched her, often inappropriately, while walking past her in the kitchen.

She said this occurred so often she became desensitized to it.

“It was every single day,” Jane said. “You would just kind of let it happen after a while because it’s just — they’re not going to stop.”

Anne alleged that when Esquivel began touching her inappropriately another male employee mimicked him. “(A male employee) saw what Gustavo was doing to me and started imitating his actions,” Anne said.

“Like grabbing my butt and like getting really close to me.”

She alleged that this continued throughout her time in the restaurant’s kitchen.

“The groping would happen a lot,” Anne said. “The trying to go down my pants happened a few times.”

Anne spoke of an incident in which a male employee — the same employee who Parow alleges cornered her in the Dungeon with Esquivel — and Esquivel allegedly followed her into a storage area and propositioned her for sex, asking if she would have a “threesome” with them.

“I said, ‘I won’t even have sex with one of you. What makes you think I’m going to have a threesome?’” Anne said. “It was just that they all had this mindset that that’s just what I do.”

Jane also spoke of an incident in which Esquivel allegedly kissed an employee in view of one of the restaurant’s security cameras.

It is unclear whether this incident was recorded or if a recording still exists.

When Anne later brought forward an allegation of misconduct, she, like Castro-Santos, thought Esquivel’s status affected the company’s response.

“They went into saying how great Gustavo is for this company and they just wouldn’t stop talking about it,” Anne said.

The implication, she thought, was that if she didn’t withdraw her complaint, “they’ll be losing their most prized chef.”

Mimi Verdiyan, another former Sava’s employee, wrote of her skepticism regarding the investigation process.

“I never witnessed any sexual misconduct myself,” Verdiyan wrote in a message to The Daily.

“The way (other allegations were) handled was messed up.”

Verdiyan described the process by which information about allegations was disseminated to employees. She said she heard other employees discuss these investigations.

“The people who went through the ‘investigation process’ did mention that it wasn’t really an investigation and more a strategy to dissolve the issue itself,” Verdiyan wrote.

“Just weird insidious ways to keep everyone from asking too many questions.”

Verdiyan said she experienced something similar when she made a complaint about racial discrimination.

“They had similar strategies when (a) situation with racial discrimination at the host stand was starting to surface,” Verdiyan wrote. “Which again is what I was closer to.” *** Dan Rodaire, a former employee of Aventura alleged he witnessed repeated harassment against other employees. It was Parow’s post that led Rodaire to come forward with his own allegations. He shared his experiences in a Facebook post responding to Parow’s post.

“Dear Ghia, I’ve never met you but I am absolutely sure that everything you’re saying is true because I had an extremely similar experience working at Sava’s sister restaurant, Aventura,” Rodaire wrote. “I was fired in direct response to a meeting with management in which I had reported continual sexual harassment from a prominent kitchen employee towards almost, if not all, of the women who worked as server assistants, among others.”

In an interview with The Daily, Rodaire said that he made several reports to management about this harassment. In his Facebook post, he alleged that upper management was aware of it.

“As someone who spent a lot of time in the manager’s office fighting for what I believed in — I knew for a fact that all of upper

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com management was aware of these problems,” Rodaire wrote.

Rodaire also spoke of the disparity between the front of house and back of house cultures at Aventura.

“There are two totally different worlds at Aventura,” Rodaire said in an interview with The Daily. “There’s the front of house and then the back of house.

The front of house is mainly University of Michigan students, and I’d say that ethical standards for the most part were upheld in front of the guests. The upstairs world was mainly regulated, but the downstairs world was not.”

Many former employees said they believe SavCo Hospitality will not change its responses to allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct until it begins to affect the company’s bottom line.

“They can’t possibly publicly believe (Parow) or acknowledge the truth of her story in any way because they would lose money,” Sam said. “They work in the interest of creating a profit and if their profit is going to be harmed

by allegations of sexual assault then they would do anything that they can to tamp those down.”

Rodaire noted SavCo Hospitality’s emphasis on their public image.

“If they were to fire (an employee) for sexual harassment, the story would become about them,” Rodaire said. “It would put their name in the press, and that’s what they don’t want.”

Castro-Santos said she refuses to support restaurants owned

by SavCo Hospitality after her experience working for them.

“I have very strong feelings about not giving them my money,” Castro-Santos said. “I think that we individually have a responsibility to ourselves and other people to not endorse a company that doesn’t need our money and doesn’t help its employees — doesn’t care about its employees.”

Reporters Zayna Syed and Sammy Sussman can be reached at zasyed@michigandaily.com and sbsu@michigandaily.com.

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Michigan in Color

Monday, February 17, 2020 — 3A

A First Generation’s Lullaby of Loss RUCHITA COOMAR MiC Columnist

“Ruchi, how do you live like this? How will you get married?” my mother shook her head, sifting through the ruins of my room. A dissonant pitch filled the air. Being young, messy rooms, disheveled hair and an outspoken voice were the products of my outright opposition. I sat in the only cleared portion of my room, shoulders firm, head high, basking in the glory of my

rebellion.

Growing up in a SouthAsian household posed a life long ultimatum, as concepts of independence and traditional notions of womanhood often felt mutually exclusive. Every invitation from my mother to cook had to be accompanied by an elaborate scheme to shape me into a domestic role. My mother’s requests of tabling out chai and chaat to guests were indirect requests to jeopardize my autonomy. The song of my dissent climaxed, with me, the melodist, stringing together an

anthem of independence.

In college, I stand now, softer, more resolute in my selfdetermination. I go home for the holidays and see the lines in my mother’s face. Older, tired, she no longer invites me to harmonize. My shoulders hunch. I lean forward with the weight of loss shrouding me. I sit with a solemn understanding of my “choice,” as generations of tradition have now been drowned out by my stanzas.

Now, I sit, in messy rooms, empty kitchens, a delicate dirge sinking into my skin.

“Ninety-Nine” JINAN ABUFARHA MiC Columnist

I talk to God in the dark.

Thank him thirty-three times.

Give praise thirty-three times.

Thirty-three times I say I’m sorry.

I ask for forgiveness.

Often not knowing what for.

My mother used to light incense. Stand over us in the dark.

And send her prayers in the smoke.

On those nights I stayed awake.

Saw the smoke take on

the form of a woman lost in the desert, a man being swallowed by a whale, a serpent inhaling the world whole.

Mornings were greeted by the smell of ash.

And anxiety ridden memories we did not live, the fear of mistakes we had not yet made.

And love.

My existence was delivered by sin. I wonder if God knows I’m sorry To be alive. Wonder if that’s why I spent this lifetime swallowing saltwater in anticipation of drowning.

If living is my penance.

I wish my body was not made of mud and ruin.

I fantasize combusting into fire and lighting my own way.

But none of my history Is history enough to learn from.

My fingers do not recognize they were made to count prayers. My hands reach too far.

My mother does not come into my room anymore.

Those empty nights I still get down on my knees, Press my head to the floor, And search for something holy.

Illustration courtesy of Dalia Harris, MiC Featured Artist This piece is a self-portrait focused on disconnection from identity. I made this when I was feeling pretty confused about my own identity. The butterfly is supposed to represent the disconnect of soul, and the blood represents disconnect from the body.

“Jude? Are You Still There?”

“Para: Mis Amigas”

DEVAK NANUA MiC Assistant Editor

DANIELA LUGO Senior MiC Creative Content Editor

The purest form of love I have experienced has come from friendships. I have always believed that a soulmate does not have to come from a romantic relationship. A soulmate can be your friend or even a hobby that you cannot live without.

The love my friends have shown me is so pure and it ranges from having my hand held when I cry to having them stay in my room until I fall asleep. It is in these moments that I realize how deep our bonds run and how lucky I am to have such powerful women in my life.

Illustration courtesy of Daniela Lugo

She told me that she didn’t believe in love.

I found this hard to believe because the Beatles had convinced me that it is all that we need. I had first heard of her through a friend who struggled to find words of meaning and instead sufficed for cheap laughs and empty spaces.

After being stuck somewhere between Philadelphia and Hanover, with brief trips to Jerusalem, we finally crossed paths. And when I saw her standing there, the gaze from her emerald eyes had sent me searching for the same words which my friend had struggled

with.

I spent the majority of our time together thinking of clever lines as she sipped on a cherry Pepsi, fooling everyone who was a fool for her. But like the fool who failed to play it cool, the brief moment that we did share left me hanging off a cliff. There was something in the way she moved which attracted me like no other.

Our ease and mutual understanding made that ordinary porch feel like a strawberry field. Made me feel like I wasn’t alone in what felt like a crowd full of strangers.

But eventually, I traded her emerald gaze for the glare of blue iPhone read receipts and conversations for texts which could have easily been forgotten.

Effortless in a different sense, I suppose. This isn’t to disregard some of our moments which felt larger than life. But somehow, the closer we seemed to get, the more we seemed to distance ourselves from each other.

Did we run the risk of talking until we couldn’t go on?

Ignoring the chance that we may fall apart before too long?

Like a castaway, looking at my phone as if it were a compass that gave me no direction. Man overboard! Jumped into a sea of unanswered questions and unresolved emotions.

So tell me Jude, does letting her into your heart and under your skin make it better? Or is it just that the long and winding road may not lead to her door?

The Public Shaming of Ilhan Omar, Or, What Happens When Disingenuous Diversity Backfires On You HIBA DAGHER MiC Columnist

Illustration courtesy of Hiba Dagher

This past November, voters in the U.S. made history by electing not one, but two incredible Muslim women into our 116th House of Representatives. They are Ilhan Omar, a Black, Somali Immigrant from Minnesota’s 5th Congressional district who frequently and unabashedly calls out deeply problematic white men in power, and Rashida Tlaib, an incredible Palestinian-American woman who coined the phrase “Impeach the Motherf*cker” on her first day in office.

Rep. Tlaib and Rep. Omar were praised nationally for their progressivism and their commitment to civil rights.

They posed on magazine covers, standing alongside new Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. They were even affectionately made a part of the “squad” of freshmen WoC Representatives, along with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.

That is until they decided to speak out on an issue that is seen as largely untouchable in US politics: defending the rights of Palestinians.

Many who follow politics know about Rep. Omar’s infamous response to a tweet from a journalist who spoke about how

the House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy was threatening to punish Omar and Tlaib for their criticism of Israel. Omar wrote back “It’s all about the Benjamins baby,” and later clarified that she was talking about AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. AIPAC spends about 3.5 million dollars in lobbying cash to support pro-Israeli interests in the United States. Omar was immediately attacked by both Democrats and Republicans – one of the few bipartisan partnerships of this past year.

I’m not going to get into the nuances of the history of Israel and Palestine and the conflict today, mostly because it’s far too much to compress into a few inches of paper, and I would absolutely oversimplify. Instead, I suggest that you do your own research, especially into Arab, and most especially into Palestinian voices. What I will say is this: criticism of the Israeli government shouldn’t be confused with antiSemitism. Criticism of the Israeli government is a matter of calling out the institution’s numerous human rights violations against an occupied people who have little to no right to self-determination.

Rep. Omar ended up apologizing for her statements, yet she continued to be silenced not only by the usual suspects (Trump and Republicans) but also by her own party. House Democrats were

quick to vote on a resolution that condemned hate speech — a move that was widely seen as a callout of Omar. What I find ironic, though, is that the same institutions and organizations that initially praised the election of the two first Muslim congresswomen were also so quick to attack them the moment that they said something beyond the mainstream ideas of “progressivism.”

But these attacks are not surprising. As a Muslim and Arab-American woman who has been in activist and feminist spaces for most of my teen years, it proved everything that I had ever suspected: that a lot of calls for inclusion are, frankly, disingenuous. So-called feminist organizations call for us to join their ranks, to be a part of their crusade against the patriarchy, and then ignore the perspectives of Arab and Muslim women. They call for the freedom of women to wear whatever they want without facing harassment, but a Muslim woman wearing a hijab, niqab or burqa is viewed as “oppressed,” rather than as making a deeply personal and spiritual choice. A Muslim woman might feel uncomfortable about how so much attention in feminist spaces is focused on sexpositivity rather than issues like inaccessibility to education and employment for women, maternal and gender-based health, genderbased violence, FGM, etc. However,

she might not feel comfortable expressing her opinions for fear of being ignored as “prudish” and potentially ostracized by the very women who claim to fight for “all women’s rights.”

Diversity matters to us! ... until we speak out.

Listen to women of color! ... until we say something that you don’t like.

Stand with Muslim women! w... but only until we go off our predetermined script.

What all of these people seem to realize though, is that just because you elect a Muslim representative, it doesn’t mean that they’re going fade into the woodwork once the excitement has lulled. Rep. Omar and Rep. Tlaib were not elected in their districts in order to give the Democratic Party good PR, or glossy magazine spreads with their arms crossed, dressed in muted tones of red, white and blue. They were elected to change the world for the better, and sometimes that requires speaking when no one else will.

Reader, I challenge you. It doesn’t suffice to apologize and offer platitudes, promising that you’ll do better, that you’ll listen, that you’ll learn. Compassion without action is just observation.

Put in the work to learn about Muslim women – our issues, our feelings, our perspectives.

Approach us, talk to us. Most of us have been waiting for a while.

Opinion

4A — Monday, February 17, 2020

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

MIN SOO KIM | COLUMN

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RAY AJEMIAN | COLUMN

Pete Buttigieg is not the candidate for LGBTQ+ Americans

C

oming out of the Iowa caucus victorious, Democratic candidate and Mayor of South Bend, Ind., Pete Buttigieg has seen a recent surge in popularity. Because he is the first openly gay person to make a serious bid for the presidency, Buttigieg’s success is undoubtedly a big moment for LGBTQ+ Americans, especially in a state like Iowa that voted for Donald Trump four years ago. However, that hasn’t made him the community’s champion. LGBTQ+ voters in Iowa strongly favored Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and even preferred Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., to Buttigieg.

This may seem strange from an outside perspective, but the truth is that Buttigieg has fallen short on many of the issues that impact everyday LGBTQ+ Americans.

Perhaps the biggest controversy surrounding Buttigieg is the poor relations between nonwhite citizens and the police force in South Bend under his leadership. Just months after becoming mayor, he fired police chief Darryl Boykins for allegations that he had recorded white officers using racist language, including that in reference to Boykins himself. Boykins was one of three Black public leaders in South Bend, all of whom were gone within three months of Buttigieg’s first day; meanwhile, some of the recorded officers have since moved into higher positions and the city’s settlement awarded them 10 times as much money as it did Boykins. That same year, a Black teen was beaten and shot with a stun gun in his own home (and was awarded $18 in 2016 for his troubles by the court), and last year a Black man was shot dead by a white SBPD officer with no body cam turned on. In a city with a 27 percent Black and 15 percent Latinx population, the police department is 90 percent white.

As mayor, it is crucial that Buttigieg address his police department’s mistreatment of marginalized people, but he has failed to do so. In the wake of the fatal shooting, Mayor Buttigieg began discussions with activists in which he denied requests to fire the police chief over his subordinate’s deadly misconduct — which is especially poignant given his swiftness in firing Chief Boykins for audio recordings. As talks with activists trickled down the bureaucratic hierarchy and more and more officials ignored requests for comment, SBPD officers brought firearms to community meetings about police brutality — meetings that the mayor promised, and failed, to attend.

As it so happens, LGBTQ+ Americans also have a history fraught with police violence.

The catalyst for the modern gay rights movement was a series of riots against police raiding gayand trans-frequented establishments like Compton’s Cafeteria in 1966 and the Stonewall Inn in 1969. There’s a reason trans women of color like Sylvia Rivera are credited with starting the fight; trans and nonwhite LGBTQ+ folk were outcast from mainstream society to the point that they relied solely on their own found families of other LGBTQ+ people to survive, like the houses of ballroom culture portrayed in “Paris is Burning.”

Trans people and queer people of color had almost nothing to lose. Police violence against LGBTQ+ people remains pervasive to this day — 48 percent of LGBTQ+ survivors of violence who have interacted with police have experienced police misconduct as of 2013 — and it’s just as disturbing as the police brutality was half a century ago at the time of the riots. Some cases, like that of the transgender women in the Sacramento County Jail in the early 2000s, are akin to mental

and physical torture, including regularly being paraded around shirtless before male inmates, hearing threats and slurs from officers and prisoners alike and rape. Needless to say, queer people are sensitive to issues of police brutality such as those frequently seen in South Bend, and for the estimated 42 percent of LGBTQ+ Americans who aren’t white, it is doublyimportant.

There are many other issues not directly related to the community that have a profound impact on LGBTQ+ individuals. Buttigieg has said that he does not think felons should have the right to vote, a policy that disproportionately disenfranchises nonwhite and LGBTQ+ people; this is even more troubling when you consider the sheer size of our nation’s prison population.

He’s been criticized by the community for volunteering with the Salvation Army, which, while altruistic in nature, displays just how far removed he is from the realities of LGBTQ+ people less fortunate than himself. Salvation Army has repeatedly tried to push homophobic legislation and deny LGBTQ+ employees benefits or even fire them, and as recently as 2017 transgender people have been denied help by one of their substance abuse centers. Buttigieg has even spoken out against LGBTQ+ media for criticizing him, and while his complaints did reflect legitimate issues within the general community, the articles in question were not actually written by LGBTQ+ media outlets. These comments also came at a time where many LGBTQ+ outlets were downsizing or shutting down, as some in the industry pointed out, and disparagement from a national figure like Buttigieg only causes further harm to queer journalists and worsens public perception of the community.

Despite having the potential to guarantee votes from much of the LGBTQ+ voting bloc, he has been quiet about LGBTQ+ civil rights issues — so quiet, in fact, some voters don’t even know he’s gay himself, like an Iowa woman who wanted to change her vote after finding out.

Buttigieg has been quiet enough on LGBTQ+ issues to draw the support of homophobes and moderate enough in his politics to push away less rich, less white LGBTQ+ voters. There’s a reason these voters are flocking to Sanders specifically, and it’s because he has succeeded with these communities while Buttigieg has failed.

Sanders has a long history of supporting gay rights, decades before it was as popular as it is today, sharply contrasting Buttigieg’s quietness and less divisive, more “respectable” centrism. And, perhaps more importantly, Sanders has become the champion for the poor and the working class, to which LGBTQ+ Americans are more likely to belong. So long as Pete Buttigieg runs on policies that put LGBTQ+ people on the backburner at a time when our civil rights are in direct jeopardy, he will not find support from his gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans siblings.

Ray Ajemian can be reached at rajemian@umich.edu.

A

Fight the virus, not the people

good friend of mine was walking back home from her class.

For whatever reason, she coughed lightly. As soon as she did, however, she could feel someone looking at her, almost giving her a glare, from across the street. My friend is Korean American.

I live in an apartment where other international students from a number of different countries reside. I have run into neighbors who come from India, France, China and more places. One day, as I let out a big breath of relief the long day was over while waiting for the elevator up to the eighth f loor, three of my neighbors joined me. One was from China.

He was talking on the phone before getting in the elevator, and I could make out some of what he was saying, thanks to my Chinese minor. The other two were English-speaking male friends. The four of us boarded the elevator. By the time we reached the third f loor, my Chinese neighbor let out a sneeze. Unfortunately, it was loosely covered as it may have caught him somewhat off g uard. The two Englishspeaking friends immediately looked at each other as one whispered, “Is he …?”

Novel coronavirus originated from Wuhan, a city in Hubei province of mainland China. The city has a population of nearly 20 million and is the sixth biggest in China. According to the BBC, there are more than 17,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and some 361 deaths in China. Experts

are saying it is still too early to determine exactly how fatal the disease is due to the possibility of undocumented cases. However, most infected people are expected to fully recover in a week, like from a normal f lu. Following the breakout of this epidemic, economists and financial experts are anticipating a disruption in the global economy, given China’s emergence in the global market as a superpower.

The coronavirus epidemic cannot repeat the rhetoric of blindly blaming Asians.

Despite the severity of the disease, it is not an excuse to overreact against Asians in general. The World Health Organization (WHO) has officially declared a global health emergency.

Officials and governing bodies, including the Chinese government and the University of Michigan, have taken measures to prevent the disease from spreading — though they may differ in extent. However, this does not give anyone the right to bring race or ethnicity into the discussion. We see cases of xenophobia and racism brought on by diseases elsewhere. President Trump

has banned foreign nationals from reentering the United States if they have traveled to China in the past 14 days, even though this goes against the WHO g uidance. It seems as if panic about the disease is spreading fast. But the recent trend of anti-Asian racism is not limited to the U.S. Some Italian businesses are not allowing Chinese people entry, and London’s Chinatown has turned into a ghost town.

As important as it is to be conscious about our personal hyg iene in order to prevent the disease from spreading, it is equally important to be aware that Asians are not to blame. There was racial backlash with the 2003 severe acute respirator y syndrome, or SA RS, outbreak. Some Chinatowns were shunned, and similar forms of racism arose.

The coronavirus epidemic cannot repeat the rhetoric of blindly blaming Asians, especially Chinese people. The disease may have no correlation to its alleged orig in — a market in Wuhan — which means the Chinese food the anti-Asian racists label as “dirt y” or “unusual” will be free from blame. We must stay away from offensive speculation.

We must understand that we are all different in distinct ways, including our diet. In the end, uninformed bias and blind hatred may be more dangerous than the coronavirus itself.

Min Soo Kim can be reached at kiminsoo@umich.edu.

ARJUN LAMA | COLUMN

A

The Batman of Basketball

s kids, we idolize our favorite athletes like literal superheroes.

The analogy is obvious as these physical specimens not only look the part, but have superhuman powers, whether they’re jumping 50 inches in the air to dunk a basketball or trucking through three men into an end zone. As we age, we start to identify less with the powers, and more with the individuals themselves — for instance, in the Avengers movies, the conflicting ideals of Iron Man and Captain America about how they should use their powers are what make the movie so compelling, even to adults.

Early on in my life I realized I wasn’t cut out to be a professional athlete. I lacked the athleticism and talent, but still had a passion for sports, and as long as the sun was out I could be found playing pick-up football or shooting hoops. Even outside of sports, people enjoy things they may not have a natural talent for, and may often feel deterred from pursuing that passion because they fear failure.

Growing up, my favorite superhero was Batman — from the tech he possessed to his cool, measured demeanor, he was the ultimate threat to all villains of Gotham City. Oddly enough, a major appeal of Batman is that

he actually doesn’t have any super powers. He is driven by his mentality, which stems from the memory of his late parents and provides fuel to eradicate crime and help humanity. Bruce Wayne could be any man with fire and drive for a cause, and that persona could inspire any average person to do amazing things.

As an athlete, Kobe Bryant was the Batman of basketball, a 6-foot-6-inch, lanky shooting guard drafted into the NBA at the ripe age of 17. Bryant was no doubt talented, getting drafted as the 13th pick of the first round.

However, in his first two years, Bryant was far from perceived as destined for stardom. He came off the bench and appeared to be headed down the track of a solid, steady guard who could contribute as a good role player for a team. What separated Bryant from his peers couldn’t be seen in games, or even in practice. His passion for the game of basketball allowed him to transcend the sport itself, and become the legend that he is known as now.

Many people view Bryant as a personification of persistence, dedication and discipline, and assume that his success is due to some sort of iron will. The truth is that the 4 a.m. weight room sessions, 1,000 shots a game,

tactical film sessions to get any edge on his match-up that night and blood, sweat and tears Kobe Bryant put into basketball could not be fueled by dutiful willpower.

He, like any other human, would have inevitably given up. To consistently be amongst the best in the league over his 20-year career, he was fueled by the same intense passion for the sport that existed from the day he picked up a basketball. In his own words from his letter “Dear Basketball” written after his retirement from the sport, “I played through the sweat and hurt / Not because challenge called me / But because YOU called me.”

After the tragic passing of the Black Mamba, I can’t help but reflect on the values that being a fan of his instilled in me, and how much they have impacted my life both now and for the future. There are many talented people in the world, and it is easy for people to get deterred from pursuing their passion due to the worry of not having what it takes, not having the God-given gift someone else may. Kobe Bryant is a reminder that people should never give up on their interest, because the only true superpower is that of loving something.

Arjun Lama can be reached at arjunl@umich.edu.

KAAVYA RAMACHANDHRAN | CONTACT CARTOONIST AT KAAVYAR@UMICH.EDU

Arts

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Monday, February 17, 2020 — 5A

Anne Carson fans, prepare for a letdown with ‘Troy’ EMILY YANG

Daily Arts Writer

Anne Carson can come across as a writer with no clear lineage or influences — even as she references the work of other authors, her poetry and prose seem to float relatively free of clear affiliation to any contemporary literary trend.

Her career as a classicist (with a generalist’s flair: she’s written about film and modernism extensively) might have something to do with this: It’s possible to interpret her as someone who doesn’t follow a writer’s career, but works through a set of preoccupations, trying to draw ever more out of them, like an academic. Her writings also represent a specific stylistic preoccupation that she has been working out in a similar way — the transposition of Ancient Greek society and literature onto the formal constraints of Modernists like Beckett and Stein.

Her twenty-first book, “Norma Jeane Baker Of Troy,” should be recognizable in form and content to readers of Carson. The conceit of this work is a sort of transposition of the plot of Euripides’ “Helen” onto the biography of Marilyn Monroe, and more broadly to a mid-century milieu of writers,

filmmakers and celebrities.

Arthur Miller, Truman Capote and Fritz Lang all make appearances, or are alluded to. The titular Norma Jeane Baker (Monroe’s birth name) both is and isn’t Marilyn, and

If this sounds convoluted, it’s because it is. One gets the sense here though that there’s too much in the ancient and in the contemporary that aren’t effectively talking to each other

sometimes takes on other guises entirely. The framing device for the play, according to The Shed’s website, is that the text of the play is dictated by an office manager to a typist in 1963.

BOOK REVIEW

This isn’t explained or included in the slim New Directions edition that I am reading from.

The script is mostly done in lineated monologue broken up occasionally by segments of prose that resemble lesson plans.

The play is really in dialogue with two external texts — both the play by Euripides and the 1952 Fritz Lang film “Clash By Night.” The latter, in which Monroe plays a small part, is centered around an increasingly violent love triangle that becomes an antagonism between the two men involved.

The theme of both Euripides’ and Lang’s dramatic works is of a woman as a catalyst for violence. Euripides’ play additionally draws attention to the way that Helen was reduced to a prop or a symbol in the course of the Trojan War — he has Menelaus appear in Egypt confused by the sight of his wife, as he thought he had captured her and hidden her in a cave.

The Helen Menelaus captured turned out to be a phantom.

In Carson’s retelling, this deception (and Helen’s absence from the site of the conflict) is played up — Norma Jeane is, instead of Egypt, in the Chateau Marmont to rehearse lines for “Clash By Night,” waiting for her husband Arthur (Miller; described here, clumsily, as “King of Sparta and New York”) and worrying after her daughter

FORT GANSEVOORT

Hermione, who she sets out to meet at the end.

If this sounds convoluted, it’s because it is. One gets the sense here that there’s too much in the ancient and in the contemporary that aren’t effectively talking to each other, even if Carson’s aim is to make points about the most broad human themes possible — gender roles, war, storytelling.

There’s an unsatisfying backand-forth between Carson’s muddled attempts to meld these disparate sources and her stark, generalized proclamations that don’t really end up contributing a whole lot of clarity or movement to the form of the whole. As I read, I kept asking myself why these historical scenarios were being brought together, what good it does. It doesn’t help that Carson frequently reaches for a sort of cheap timeliness — using the word “livestreaming” for the striking image from the Iliad of Helen sewing a tapestry

SAYAN GHOSH

DEF JAM RECORDINGS

Bieber effectively ruins Valentine’s Day with LP Justin Bieber released a love album on Valentine’s Day. There is, quite possibly, no better way to fall out of love with your significant other than listening to Changes.

It feels like a lifetime ago since The Biebs’s last album. The singles off of Purpose and their massive commercial success indicated that perhaps JB had more longevity than his boyish origins suggested. The smart thing to do — release something while the sea of relevance was still at high tide. Instead, he decided to come out with Changes five years later, to the interest of no one.

Supposedly, this album details the love story that led to Bieber’s recent marriage to Hailey Baldwin. Considering the last big release to address marriage (here’s to you Chance), it isn’t surprising that Changes at its best is uninspiring and at its worst makes a swift bid for the worst album of 2020.

To start with, there is a serious question to be asked about how Justin views love. This album depicts it as robotic. It feels like an unending string of procedurally generated platitudes that lack any personality or insight into their actual relationship. Then there’s Justin’s idea of “spicing things up,” which is just Bieber adding in lyricisms along the lines of “Struck a match, you got me litty,” a line he thought was so clever he decided to use it again in another

Anne Carson New Directions Feb. 25, 2020

thematic purpose. The whole play has a slipshod quality to it, pieces never quite aligning the

Sayan Ghosh: Electronic Body Music Daily World Music Columnist

Daily Arts Writer

Norma Jeane Baker of Troy

way you want them to.

Carson’s interest in Ancient Greek as poetic material seems to be in its representative directness as opposed to modern languages — Greek represents, for her, a sort of symbolic bedrock for Western culture, and she is often most effective at her most rigorous exegetical mode (e.g. “Eros the Bittersweet,” “The Gender of Sound,” the notes for her Sappho translations). “Norma Jeane” feels markedly sloppier than this. It relies too much on the novelty, and doesn’t have the sharpness I usually associate with her work. It’s possible, in retrospect, that some of her other poetry traffics in this same vagueness — her poem “TV Men” from 1995 covers a lot of the same thematic ground — and this is just the first time it’s done too crudely, too obviously, with very little of her usual precise fire.

DAILY WORLD MUSIC COLUMN

ALBUM REVIEW

DREW GADBOIS

depicting the carnage outside her window, putting a reference to fracking into the play that serves no real aesthetic or

song (verbatim). Justin often reuses lines or ideas on Changes.

How else does one reach their goal of 17 songs and nearly an hour of material?

The worst part: The most memorable lines on the album are the most problematic.

Typically these lines fall into two categories: uncomfortable information about his sex life and hopefully unintentional misogyny. Examples of the former can be found in lyrics like, “Fully committed, you’re here for the stay

Changes Justin Bieber Def Jam Recordings

down / Look in the mirror, you’re right for the take down.” Literally within the first six lines of the album, we already have Justin looking like a predator. This type of highly questionable insinuation finds itself on nearly every song in some form or fashion. The latter category can be boiled down to one line: “Stay in the kitchen cookin’ up, got your own bread.”

If it was just a blanket sexist statement then that’s one thing, but the fact that he was trying to use the line as an empowering symbol for his woman shows an almost unparalleled level of tone-

deafness. Seriously, how many people have heard this line before the album was dropped? 100? 150?

That means there exists at least that many people with the same amount of ignorance.

Musically, things aren’t much better. Sure, the production is overall inoffensive, but that just makes things boring. There are a few songs like “Habitual” and “Available” that have something slightly interesting going on underneath, but then are sullied by bland trap beats. There are trap beats on nearly every song of the album, making everything sound similar; the beats are used as a crutch for bad songwriting.

The vapidness of this album cannot be overstated. It got to a point where a Lil Dicky feature actually seemed enticing if only to appreciate the trainwreck.

Perhaps the biggest problem with Changes is that it doesn’t even play the role of an awful album well. At least with Corey Feldman or Speedin’ Bullet to Heaven it feels like an event when you decide to listen to them. Speedin’ Bullet also saw Kid Cudi experimenting with his sound. It didn’t pay off at all, but at least it showed some type of artistic earnesty. Changes has none of this. It is as basic as basic can be and feels less like art and more like advertisement. That’s basically what this album is, an ad for other artists to see he’s available for collaborations. In fact, collaborations were the only thing keeping him relevant in that five-year span of time. Perhaps he should stick to what he’s best at: flaunting his ass as a cartoon baboon for a Lil Dicky song.

“Body music” is what Ralf Hütter of the pioneering German electronic music group Kraftwerk called their 1978 album The Man Machine.

While not the most reflective example of Electronic Body Music (EBM), it does share the confusing mix of qualities that make EBM so enticing. Not nearly as groovy as house, not nearly as rigid as techno, EBM straddled the line between the danceable and the experimental and while it laid low after its heyday in the 1980s, it’s making a bit of a comeback.

The roots of the genre can be traced back to Kraftwerk of course, as well as another German band DAF (short for Deutsche Amerikanische Freundschaft). Their most iconic album, the 1981 release Alles Ist Gut, is a classic example of the rather dirty, grimy yet somewhat sensual sound that characterizes the genre.

For the most part, the sound on cuts like “Der Mussolini” and “Alle Gegen Alle” are relatively simple in terms of arrangement, with very precise, metronomic drums and catchy synth riffs. The most enticing part of these tracks (as well as most on the album) is Gabi Delgado’s deep, powerful incantation-like vocals. Delgado, the son of Spanish immigrants, also flirts ironically and in a way, reclaims Fascist imagery (as in the aforementioned “Der Mussolini”), paving a way from the outset for a genre that is meant to be provocative and controversial.

Throughout the 1980s, labels in Germany and Belgium promoted body music throughout Europe, with groups heavily influenced by the aforementioned DAF, as well as equally provocative groups like Front 242 and Nitzer Ebb (many detailed histories may be found online). Its influences also spread halfway across the world to Australia, in particular to a Sydneybased band called Severed Heads.

The group was a pioneer in its usage

Not nearly as groovy as house, not nearly as rigid as techno, EBM straddled the line between the danceable and the experimental

of tape looping and other soundgeneration techniques, combining their experimental streak with a talent for pop — the best example of which is their biggest hit, the 1983 track “Dead Eyes Opened.”

Originally a hastily added track to fill out a cassette, the single became an unlikely hit among non-commercial radio stations in Sydney. The track begins with a hypnotizing, if fairly

standard electro-poppy synth pattern. Around a minute in, they incorporate a recording of a British crime journalist describing a brutal double murder, and about a minute later, the group incorporates a brutal set of industrial noises they are well-known for, creating a fascinating juxtaposition between the rather innocuous synth riff and the dissonant harsh sounds they introduce. The six-minute track feels five times its length, and while “Dead Eyes Opened” is not quite the best example of “pure” EBM, it achieves the main goal of the genre, to induce a hypnotic, primal trance.

While EBM died down slightly with the advent of other genres in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, its sounds have again widely permeated techno and other more mainstream types of dance music in the last few years.

Artists like Broken English Club (see “Plague Song”) and Phase Fatale have infused their techno with the characteristic “buzz” of body music to create a new and exciting hybrid. Frenchman Terence Fixmer has collaborated extensively with Nitzer Ebb’s Douglas McCarthy to create similarly EBM-infused techno, with the latter’s vocals on tracks like “Chemicals” adding that extra edge that harkens back to the genre’s heyday. Moreover, labels like the Berlin-based Aufnahme+Wiedergabe and Fleisch Records have led a renaissance of EBM in the country of its origins.

Proof of the cyclical nature of dance music as well as the enduring appeal of the sounds and attitudes that EBM embodies, these artists and labels continue to push the genre forward for new audiences.

Arts

6 — Monday, February 17, 2020

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

FILM REVIEW

FILM NOTEBOOK

‘Clemency’ sheds light on dark realities of death row KARI ANDERSON Daily Arts Writer

PARAMOUNT

Love of ‘Titanic’ will go on SABRIYA IMAMI Daily Arts Writer

I have a confession to make: Last Friday was the first time I ever saw “Titanic.”

It was my first excursion on the RMS Titanic with ’90s Leonardo DiCaprio (“Inception”) and Kate Winslet (“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”) in all their glory.

It was the first time I ever saw Jack and Rose dance below deck, talk about their future together and spit over the railings. It was the first time I saw That Sunset Scene (you know which one I’m talking about).

It was the first time I had ever heard Rose in the future recount a tragedy that none of her listeners could really grasp the severity of — and I don’t just mean Brock Lovett (Bill Paxton, “Aliens”) or Lewis Bodine (Lewis Abernathy, “The Name of God”). I mean us viewers in the audience, too. It was the first time I saw the Titanic sink. It was the first time I really understood why it hurt so much that the raft wasn’t big enough. It was the first time I heard “My Heart Will Go On” in its original context.

I saw “Titanic” on Valentine’s Day, surrounded by elderly couples with their arms wound tightly around each other, crying quietly as Jack and Rose promised to never

let go. As I watched the film, the coughs, sneezes and sniffles of Michigan in February faded away, and I found myself immersed in 1912 aboard the Titanic with characters I had heard about all my life but never really known.

I knew the story, of course — or at least I thought I did. Jack. Rose.

“I’m the king of the world!” The raft isn’t big enough. “My Heart Will Go On.” Screen fades to black.

As it turns out, there is much, much more to this movie than I had thought. I didn’t really know the story until I watched it.

There are some moments in movies that were surprising when they were first released, but as someone born in 2001, I grew up knowing my whole life. Darth Vader is Luke’s father. Haley Joel Osment could actually see dead people. And Jack Dawson dies.

But here’s the thing. Tragedy is horrific when it takes you by surprise, but it’s worse when you know it’s coming. You watch “Titanic” and take in the extravagance of the beautiful ship with not enough lifeboats, knowing that it’s going to sink. You smile from your seat as you watch Jack and Rose fall in love, but your smile fades when you remember that their ending isn’t happily ever after.

You see them, holding each others’ hands tightly as Rose lays on the raft and Jack remains afloat beside her, and can’t help but think maybe

this one time I watch this movie, it won’t have the ending I know it will. But it does.

Last Friday was the first time I cried while watching “Titanic,” surrounded by other people saddened on Valentine’s Day, choosing to spend it crying on their partner’s shoulder (or in my case, my roommate Sophia’s).

“Titanic” has always been one of those movies I never really thought I had to see. The ending wasn’t predictable, per se, but it was common knowledge. So I figured, why watch this sad movie with an ending I already know?

Here’s why: “Titanic” teaches you something. Not about falling in love in three days or about spitting in Billy Zane’s (“The Phantom”) face.

Not even about the Titanic sinking.

It teaches you something about the people around you, the people you watch the movie with. That they’re important to you in a way that you can only understand when you’re reminded of just how short life is. It teaches you to never let go of them. It reminds everyone of their personal love story, not necessarily one of romance. Perhaps it’s familial, like Rose and her mother’s tragic relationship. Or maybe it’s friendship, like Jack and Fabrizio (Danny Nucci, “Crimson Tide”).

Or maybe it is love. Whatever it is, “Titanic” reminds you to cherish it and remember how important it is to you before it’s too late.

The opening scene of “Clemency” is an execution. A group of people gather around a prisoner as a medical worker places the IV into his veins that will deliver fatal drugs to his system.

The room’s atmosphere is solemn and emotionless, but there is also a sense of urgency, a need to get it over with. The ticking of the clock is intertwined with the beeping heart monitor as the people standing around the prisoner wait for his death to be official.

This is the reality of Warden Bernadine Williams (Alfre Woodard, “Miss Evers’ Boys”), who oversees the executions of prisoners on death row. Williams has thrown herself into a routine when it comes to carrying out the death penalty to keep herself detached: using clinical terms like “procedure” to refer to executions, avoiding direct connections with inmates and not making any exceptions when it comes to protocol. Yet, when the opening execution does not go as planned, the warden’s routine is shaken, forcing her to confront the reality of her profession. Writer

and director Chinonye Chukwu (“Alaska-land”) brings us this dark drama not just to tell us a sad story, but to give us a window into a reality that is present today, a glimpse into the feelings of helplessness that percolate within the people who carry out this process.

The audience is given little time to recover from the first execution before we move on to another one

Clemency State Theatre Neon

— that of Anthony Woods (Aldis Hodge, “Straight Outta Compton”), a prisoner on death row who was convicted of murdering a police officer. Despite media attention, the ambiguity surrounding his crime and the tireless efforts of his defense lawyer, Marty Lumetta (Richard Schiff, “The West Wing”), Woods’s execution seems inevitable. The only hope he can

cling to is a chance for clemency — pardoning a criminal of capital punishment — from the governor.

While the pacing is erratic at times, its somewhat lengthy quality feels true to life, as the legal process is often slow and arduous. As the lingering emotional effects of these executions impact everyone in the prison, characters have different responses. Woods shuts down, becoming despondent over his impending death. Lumetta, despite many years as an attorney, plans to retire after Woods’s case, unable to find hope in other people’s decisions and inevitably watch another client die. Williams’s husband, Jonathan (Wendell Pierce, “Selma”), struggles to deal with his wife’s quiet despair as she becomes a shell of herself, her mental health becoming paper-thin over time. While off-duty, Warden Williams deals with her internal struggle by drinking excessively and sinking into herself, kept up at night by nightmares. But as soon as she returns to the prison, she resumes her impassive front, distress seen only through the small breaks in her façade: a twitch of the lip, an unfocused gaze, or the hint of a bitter tone in her words.

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SPORTSMONDAY February 17, 2020 | michigandaily.com

MICHIGAN ADVANCES TO 7-7 IN BIG TEN PLAY WITH 89-65 WIN OVER INDIANA CONNOR BRENNAN Daily Sports Writer What started as an average loose ball became anything but.

Jon Teske might’ve just missed a point-blank layup attempt, but he wasn’t going to give up on the play.

As the rebound evaded the grasp of the Hoosiers, the senior center dove on it and had the wherewithal to find Franz Wagner alone under the basket for two.

Teske’s effort, apart from sending the Crisler Center crowd into an uproar, capped off an offensive onslaught that saw his team take a 12-point lead on Indiana late in the first half.

From there, the Michigan men’s basketball team (16-9 overall, 7-7 Big

Ten) held serve to beat the Hoosiers (16-9, 6-8), 89-65, Sunday afternoon.

It didn’t take long for each offense to get going. Collective scoring from the Wolverines and a quick pair of triples from Indiana’s Al Durham led to a 12-11 scoreline by the under-16 timeout, with Indiana holding the slim advantage.

The floodgates were open and Michigan wasn’t too keen on closing them. Behind a barrage of 3-pointers, senior guard Zavier Simpson dropping dimes — he had six assists in the opening 20 minutes — and senior center Austin Davis cleaning up the offensive boards, Michigan took control.

Despite being traditionally thought of as Teske’s backup, the big man’s recent performances have blurred those lines, with both players receiving similar minutes in the first half.

“Austin is wired the right way,” Michigan coach Juwan Howard said.

“He’s a total team guy. He’s never tried to go for his numbers or do things that he’s not good at. He comes in with the right attitude in practice and working hard. He’s buying into the teaching and development, and he’s going out there and having a great carryover game after game.”

Even more offensive production from the Wolverines gave Michigan a 41-34 cushion going into the break, with junior forward Isaiah Livers leading the way with nine points.

And that cushion only grew in the second half. Wagner chipped in five quick points out of the break, delighting his brother, former Michigan standout and current Washington Wizard Moritz Wagner, sitting courtside.

Simpson continued to spread the

wealth offensively, ultimately finishing with 11 assists. “(Zavier) did a really good job controlling the tempo of the game,” Howard said. “He was hunting for singles. He wasn’t trying to make the home-run play — finding guys that were open and being patient with the basketball.”

What was a refreshingly comfortable half for Michigan could only be tarnished by the sight of Livers hobbling to the bench after falling out of bounds. Sunday marked Livers’ third game back from a re-aggravated groin injury suffered against Illinois on Jan. 25.

After missing just six minutes of game time, though, Livers checked back in at the 7:54 mark — not that the Wolverines particularly needed him at that point, up by 19 — and played through a limp. Howard

described his status as day-to-day afterwards, and Livers is currently in a boot with what appears to be an ankle injury.

In the end, Michigan handled its business with relative ease. Six Wolverines scored in double digits, with Wagner leading the way with 16. The balance and confidence on display more resembled the Michigan squad that knocked off No. 2 Gonzaga in November than the one that lost five of six Big Ten games to begin January.

“I feel like we’re back in the beginning of the year a little bit,” sophomore forward Brandon Johns Jr. said. “We’re all just so connected, trusting each other and knocking down shots.”

In similar fashion to recent versions of the Wolverines, Michigan seems to be gaining momentum when it matters most — heading into March.

Allison Engkvist / Daily | Design by Jack Silberman

INSIDE:

SIMPSON NOTCHES 11 ASSISTS TO LEAD ‘M’ TO WIN - JACOB KOPNICK HOCKEY CRUSHES MSU 5-1 - ROHAN KUMAR AND BAILEY JOHNSON BASEBALL AND SOFTBALL IMPRESS ON ROAD TRIPS - LILY ISRAEL AND JARED GREENSPAN

2B — February 17, 2020

SportsMonday

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

RED BERENSON’S

ETHAN SEARS

Managing Sports Editor

In 2017, just after Mel Pearson was hired as the Michigan hockey coach, he went to Red Berenson’s house and had what he called the best conversation of his life.

The two sat on the deck in Berenson’s backyard and talked for two hours, about anything and everything. It was a beautiful night, Pearson recalled, and they sipped drinks.

A weight appeared to be lifted off Berenson’s shoulders. “After all those years of hockey, I think he just finally relaxed,” Pearson said this Wednesday.

For years, when Pearson worked under Berenson as an assistant coach, he had seen him in the crucible, up close. They had coached Michigan to 10 Frozen Fours and two national titles together before Pearson left in 2011 to coach Michigan Tech. Berenson would stay in his job until he was 77 years old, finishing his career with a 13-19-1 season, his worst since his first year behind the bench, back in 1985.

There’s always a conflict in coaching. Be it recruiting, on-ice performance, an off-ice issue or something else entirely — it always comes back to the head coach. For 33 years, it always came back to Berenson.

All that was over now.

A few hours before Pearson recalled that conversation, Berenson sat at a desk in his Weidenbach Hall office, talking about a packed schedule.

The night before, he’d played hockey with the Michigan alumni team at Yost Ice Arena, on the rink with his name inscribed on it, like he does every Tuesday. On Wednesday night, he planned to go to a high school hockey game to see one of his grandkids. On Saturday, he’d play another game in Howell, with the Red Wing alumni team. On Monday night, he’ll be in Detroit to watch Michigan play Michigan State.

Michigan didn’t play at Yost this weekend, but at home games, Berenson sits in the athletic director’s box now, entertaining donors or merely spending time with his wife, Joy. He still feels pulled toward the ice.

He was asked if it was nice to have the stress off him without coaching — without being in constant conflict.

“Well, it was fine and I have no regrets,” Berenson said. “So it was good.” Then he moved into talking about how he still feels invested in the team. Really, the question went unanswered.

He holds a job in the athletic department, helping endow scholarships in the hockey program — a project he started back in the late-1990s when Tom Goss was the athletic director. He’s close to finishing.

To some extent, he’s relaxed more, but the Berenson who Pearson saw that night three years ago, after officially handing off a job synonymous with his name for three decades, hasn’t moved away from everything, at least not completely. Pearson notices the competitiveness simmering beneath the surface, calm but clear.

“I don’t feel like I’m not in hockey anymore,” Berenson said. *** For years when Berenson coached, he preached the idea of a life after hockey. He was born in 1939, near the end of the

Great Depression and he says his parents’ culture “was just survival.” Berenson inherited that. And wanted to get away from it.

In an age where education was frowned upon in some hockey circles, Berenson went to college, choosing Michigan over Denver because, he said, “some of the guys that went to Denver, I just didn’t have a lot of respect for them as students.” Years later, he completed an MBA, driving back to Ann Arbor for class the day after the Canadiens’ Stanley Cup celebration parade in 1965. While hockey players drank in the locker rooms, Berenson quit an offseason office job at Molson Breweries because there was too much drinking. He wore a helmet when doing so carried a stigma.

Berenson played for 17 seasons, coached in the NHL for six, then in college for 33. The last three years have been the closest thing to a life after hockey he’s had, yet last week he found himself at a hockey rink nearly every day, eating popcorn and watching Michigan practice from a seat in the corner of Yost.

“I came back here and I had no idea I’d be here 30-something years, but it just worked out that way,” Berenson said.

“While I’ve been here, I’ve been able to digest that feeling that this life after hockey has already started, but I’m right in the middle of hockey.”

This year, Berenson plans to get away from everything the same way he has for the last 50 years. He’ll get a group of friends together, pack up the car and drive north. They’ll spend 7-10 days in canoes, portaging rapids they can’t make it through and camping at night, isolated from the rest of the world.

In an office filled with reminders of his hockey achievements, Berenson’s favorite photo is of himself, shirtless and bearded, wearing sunglasses and standing in a canoe on the Missinaibi River. He picked up the hobby while he played, discovering he had an interest in the outdoors and, during the offseason, real time on his hands to explore it. The physicality of it appeals to him. So does the remoteness.

He did it with the same group of three or four friends for years, and as a coach, he used to invite graduating seniors as well, using it as a bonding event.

One year, when current Michigan assistant Bill Muckalt went, his canoe partner, Deke, tore his Achilles. There was no discussion of cutting the trip short. On the last day, Muckalt recalled, Berenson paddled off into the Lake Superior sunset. “I’m with Deke like, ‘If we dump this canoe, we’re dead.’ Cause the water’s freezing,” Muckalt said. Still, they made it through each day, setting up camp and listening to the Stanley Cup Finals on the radio at night.

“That’s the worst real injury that we’ve had,” Berenson said. “And yet it wasn’t life-threatening. It was just, it was inconvenient.”

He’s not looking for overly tough trips anymore. Last year, the wind was in his face the whole time and there were too many portages. Some of the mainstays who did the trips for years have dropped off. Last year, Kent Brothers, an ex-player who went on a trip nearly three decades ago after graduating, called Berenson out of the blue and asked to go again.

They loved having him. Berenson doesn’t reach out to players each year anymore, though. At some point, they didn’t seem interested in something like that. “They know that I go and if they want to go, they can call,” Berenson said.

Two Saturdays ago, Luke Glendening came back to Yost to visit. His career embodies the traits Berenson values, the ones he saw less and less of as time passed by.

Glendening came to Michigan in 2008, recruited as a walk-on. He played four years, earning a degree and getting good enough to earn an NHL spot as an undrafted free agent. He’s in his seventh year with the Detroit Red Wings now, but when his career ends, he’ll have a degree to fall back on.

Berenson paints Glendening in contrast with Josh Norris, another former Michigan player who left after last season, as a sophomore. He’s with the AHL’s

Belleville Senators now, a minor-league affiliate of Ottawa. Berenson doesn’t understand why.

“Now, he’s probably happy in the minors,” Berenson said. “But as an advisor and his coach, I would’ve said, you’ll get to the NHL just as fast by staying in school. ... You don’t know how long you’re gonna play hockey.”

Norris never played for Berenson, though he was recruited by him. But the old coach sees him as a part of a trend, ever-growing, that started in the mid2000s, when certain players started to come to Michigan thinking they had it figured out. A recruit named Steve Guolla once asked Berenson if he could wait on a decision after being offered. Berenson rescinded the offer, making the decision for him. He wanted a group of four-year players who wanted nothing more than to be in Ann Arbor, lining up behind each other for playing time. Things were regimented, just the way Berenson, an old-school coach who comes from an oldschool background, wanted them.

Unmistakably, Berenson is a man of his age, both in how he handled his program and in his personal life. He keeps things to himself.

When Pearson’s father passed away, he found a photo of him and Berenson together, on an All-Star team in Humboldt, Saskatchewan in the late-1950s.

Berenson had told Pearson he knew his father. Neither man had said anything to Pearson about having played together. *** The current senior class is Berenson’s last.

Once they graduate, there will be no one left on Michigan’s roster who played for him, only those he recruited and called after the 2017 season, telling them he wouldn’t be there.

He’ll lose something in that — it’s easy to pick up on the way Berenson speaks about his former players. He watches the NHL constantly, and it’s hard to believe he isn’t doing that to keep an eye on them. Last week, he came into the Yost offices and asked Pearson if he knew Andrew Cogliano would play his 1,000th NHL game on Thursday. Pearson had no idea. But Berenson keeps up with these things.

The last players with ties to his reign leaving won’t end the connection Berenson feels with the program. Pearson, Muckalt, volunteer assistant Matt Hunwick and player development coach Steve Shields all played or coached under him.

When Pearson brings recruits in now, he tries to make sure they meet Berenson.

He still comes into the offices to talk a couple times a week, meeting with the coaches or just with Pearson in an unofficial advisoral capacity. Once in a long while, he’ll talk to Pearson after a game.

No one feels he’s stepping on toes — the staff values any advice he has, and he doesn’t want to overstep. When Pearson took over, he made sure there was still a stall for him in the coach’s locker room.

“He’s got such a good way about him,” Pearson said. “Not forcing or telling you anything to do. You just start talking about something and then you get into some coaching or maybe a player, or if you have a discipline issue, or maybe a player isn’t playing up to their potential or whatnot, how you deal with it.”

As for his current role, Berenson is unsure when he’ll leave it.

“Year to year, I don’t have a plan,” Berenson said. “As long as I’m healthy and fit and alert, if it works for Warde, and if it doesn’t work for him, I’m fine. I’ll be fine without this. But I’ll still be a fan.”

Even though his passion for hockey is as strong as ever, Berenson relishes having more time to spend with his family now. He and Joy have always done trips in their AirStream, driving across Canada to visit family, and that hasn’t changed. Last summer, to celebrate their 60th anniversary, the family got together and stayed at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island.

The island is remote and isolated, the way Berenson likes it. There are no cars — just bikes and horses to get around — and the whole family was there, as far removed from the hockey world as could be.

SportsMonday

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

February 17, 2020 — 3B

Simpson stars as ‘M’ beats Indiana Wolverines blasted by Rutgers, 62-41 JACOB KOPNICK Daily Sports Editor

Zavier Simpson took the ball up the court to kick things off against Indiana on Sunday.

But, fairly uncharacteristically, Simpson attempted to find his man on the right side only to see the ball land squarely in the hands of a Hoosier. Rather than follow up Indiana’s opening bucket with a couple points of his own, Simpson was staring down a turnover and a lessthan-ideal start.

But that would be one of his only mistakes all afternoon.

Over the next 40 minutes, Simpson turned in one of his strongest performances of the season on the way to 12 points and 11 assists. All Sunday afternoon, the Wolverines’ offense fired on all cylinders and showed its ceiling on nearly every possession — and it almost all involved No. 3 en route to a 89-65 win.

One look at the stat sheet will quickly reveal the benefactors of Simpson’s efforts distributing the ball. His presence as the floor general lends itself to a balanced box score with as many as five players scoring double digits — as was the case on Sunday.

Perhaps the most obvious benefactor of Simpson’s

elevated play was freshman forward Franz Wagner, who notched a team-high 16 for Michigan, many of which came directly from Simpson’s fingertips.

But Simpson has played plenty of games with Wagner this season, so what made this go-around so different?

“I think a lot of stuff has to do with our off-ball movement,” Wagner said.

“Because if two guys off the ball are just standing around, it makes it easy for one guy to be lower and one guy just staying at the top and just hooking everything up, so when he has the opportunity to get downhill, be aggressive, people are gonna collapse.

“He’s a good player, and that’s when he’s at his best, making decisions with the ball, finding open guys and we can score from there.”

As the game progressed, it became increasingly obvious just how easily Simpson was able to score on the Indiana defense. Two points off the pick-and-roll became the expectation rather than a shock at how well the offense was clicking.

Simpson’s role in Michigan coach Juwan Howard’s offense, though, may at first glance seem a bit baffling.

The first-year coach

ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily

Zavier Simpson had 12 points and 11 assists in Michigan’s win over Indiana.

has made his philosophy abundantly clear: If you’re open, let it fly. And any offense for the Wolverines that relies on Simpson to let it fly is surely in for some rough games.

But in Howard’s words, Simpson makes teams die by a thousand cuts rather than by volume shooting from the perimeter. So when his game is on, he allows others to take the oh-so coveted open shot.

“He made some great decisions with the basketball,” Howard said. “He did a really good job of controlling the tempo of the game. One thing that was critical with him was his decision making and that he was hunting for singles.

He wasn’t trying to make the home-run play. Finding guys who were open, being patient with the basketball, reading what the defense gives him.”

Earlier in the season, it wasn’t always the case that Simpson’s prolific passing ability led to knock-down jumpers from the likes of Wagner, sophomore forward Brandon Johns Jr. and others.

Rather, Michigan often found itself in stretches — or entire games — of debilitatingly stagnant shooting. Wide-open looks haunted the Wolverines as they attempted to get back a semblance of the fun they were having when they cruised to an early-season tournament win in The Bahamas.

Simpson only collects 11 assists Sunday if his teammates hit the shots the team’s leader creates. Wagner and Johns, for instance, have taken immense strides in being able to execute when it matters.

Simpson only had one noticeable mistake.

One turnover. So when Michigan is pointing fingers over its stagnant offense or lack of emotion, you know Simpson is most likely doing his part — and it’s going to be damn-near perfect.

BRENDAN ROOSE Daily Sports Writer

Down by eight with under 10 seconds remaining in the second quarter of Sunday’s game, senior guard Akienreh Johnson drove down the right side of the key, looking to cut into Rutgers’ lead.

After an abysmal first offensive half, a bucket would send the Wolverines to the locker room at the Rutgers Athletic Center down by just six, with an opportunity to regroup and come out more motivated in the third quarter.

But in came Mael Gilles.

The Scarlet Knights’ forward swiped the ball away and found guard Arella Guirantes in transition, who drew a foul on Johnson and made one of two free throws. Though the play didn’t end Michigan’s chances of a comeback, it was indicative of the shorthanded Wolverines’ offensive struggles throughout Sunday’s game.

Rutgers dominated, 62-41, thanks to its stif ling defense and Michigan’s sloppy, turnover-prone offense — especially in the first half.

“That was the difference obviously early on when they got the lead in the first half,” Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico said. “(It was) our turnovers, and our turnovers were leading to easy buckets, and I felt like they only really scored on our turnovers early. … They had 12 points off of them at half.”

In recent games, the Wolverines had been fairly successful on offense, thanks to a versatile high-low attack between sophomore forward Naz Hillmon and the team’s outside shooters. It featured a pretty simple formula: Feed Hillmon in the paint, draw double-teams and kick it out to the open player. Often, Hillmon was so effective that she could score against the

MILES MACKLIN/Daily

Sophomore forward Naz Hillmon scored just five points in Michigan’s loss.

double-team anyway.

That just wasn’t working on Sunday. With Hillmon limited after suffering an upperbody injury Thursday against Northwestern, the Wolverines’ offense stagnated. She was held to just five points — her lowest total all season — and Michigan in turn scored its lowest total since March 2013, when it tallied just 40 points in the final game of Barnes Arico’s first season.

“I think, as much as (Hillmon) was out there at times — and she did try her hardest and did her best — you know she’s not herself,” Barnes Arico said. “You can tell she’s in pain, and you can tell she tried to go out there and do everything she could to help us be successful today, but she didn’t have that same smile on her face, and the same energy that she does on a regular basis.”

After a slow first half, the Scarlet Knights’ offense found its rhythm in the second half.

Guirantes — their leading scorer — led this attack, hitting jumpers from everywhere en route to a 15-point second half.

She finished the game with 24 points.

Meanwhile, without Hillmon’s normally dominant production, the Wolverines

struggled to get anything from inside. Attempts to drive to the basket often ended in forced passes and turnovers, and the few inside shots they did get up were either blocked or rimmed out. Rutgers tallied nine blocks on the game, and Michigan went a poor 10-for26 on layups.

“The RAC — and I’ve played here a lot … it’s an incredibly difficult place to play,” Barnes Arico said. “And Rutgers at home is very different than Rutgers on the road, and I think the physicality kind of took us out of what we wanted to do early. “ ... I’m not really making excuses, we obviously know that we have got to get better, but this has been a little bit of a stretch for us in terms of, you know, the games we’ve been playing in this short period of time, with the turnaround, with the injuries added to that.”

Sunday’s loss was the toughest part of a brutal stretch on the Wolverines schedule — their third game in just seven days. With their best player not at 100 percent and just nine healthy players on the roster, a loss shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise.

But the way it happened doesn’t bode well.

Revival

Michigan blows past Michigan State, 5-1, to earn 23 of 27 possible points since the New Year ROHAN KUMAR Daily Sports Writer

EAST LANSING — Prior to Friday evening’s game, one might have thought goals would be hard to come by for the Michigan hockey team.

In the Wolverines’ midNovember series against Michigan State, they got swept, going scoreless in the second game.

And leading into Friday’s puck drop, Spartans’ goaltender John Lethemon boasted a .942 save percentage — the best in the nation.

But all that didn’t matter.

Michigan’s offense thrived, helping the team run away with a 5-1 victory against Michigan State (14-14-1 overall, 10-8-1 Big Ten).

“I’m not surprised,” Michigan coach Mel Pearson said about scoring five on Lethemon. “I’m not surprised. We have guys who can put the puck in the net. We talked about, it’s been well-documented, our lack of scoring in the first half, but we weren’t healthy. Now we’re getting healthy. Some things are going in. We’re getting some confidence. We got a number of guys who can score, so I’m not surprised.”

This game meant a lot to Pearson. So much so that he brought his team up to East Lansing the night before. He wanted to make clear how much this game mattered and wanted his players in the best environment to excel.

“It’s always nice when you don’t have to travel on a game day,” senior forward Jake Slaker said.

“We got to do all our pregame stuff here and could just focus. No distractions, and I think it worked out for us tonight.”

A few minutes into the first period, the Wolverines (1412-3, 9-8-2-1) started to spend considerable time in their own defensive zone. Some breakout struggles were apparent, as they had numerous turnovers.

But after a lengthy defensive stretch, Michigan caught a break.

The team went on its first power play less than six minutes into the game, after forward Patrick Khodorenko got called for

slashing. The Wolverines took that change of momentum and made the most of it.

Senior forward Will Lockwood got a pass from freshman defenseman Cam York by the left circle. He passed it to sophomore defenseman Nick Blankenburg in the high slot, who then sent it to the right circle where Slaker buried a one-timer 33 seconds into the power play.

“They haven’t given up a power play goal since I don’t know when,” Pearson said. “So we got off to a real good start.”

A couple minutes later, Michigan doubled its lead on the back of senior defenseman Luke Martin. York skated the puck behind Michigan State’s goal and soon connected with senior forward Nick Pastujov on the right side. Pastujov then swung the puck to the left circle, and Martin rocked a one-timer past Lethemon to make it 2-0. It was Martin’s first goal since his sophomore season and just the third of his career.

“It was nice to get the monkey off the back,” Martin said. “It was a great pass from Nick and a great play from Cam. It’s just nice to keep the momentum going and continue to keep our foot on the gas.”

The Wolverines received two more power plays in the opening frame, due to tripping and slashing calls. Unlike the opening power play, though, the Spartans killed both.

Michigan returned from intermission and matched its first period offensive production.

It started 10 seconds after play resumed. Sophomore goaltender Strauss Mann settled the puck behind his net, then passed it along the boards to Martin. Martin then sent a long pass diagonally across center ice, and senior forward Jacob Hayhurst collected it just before his zone entry. Hayhurst then cut toward the net from the left side, brought the puck to his backhand and snuck it through Lethemon’s legs, giving Michigan a 3-0 lead and muting Munn Ice Arena.

And then with under eight to go in the second period, the Wolverines widened their lead to

four goals. Junior forward Dakota Raabe got the puck near Michigan State’s goal and sent it to freshman defenseman Keaton Pehrson at the right side of the blue line. Pehrson slid the puck to his left. Sophomore defenseman Jack Summers took one touch to settle it, then rifled the puck into the bottom right corner.

Early in the final period, Michigan went on its first penalty kill of the night with York headed to the box for tripping. Finally getting the man advantage instead of giving it, the Spartans made the most of it. Nearing the end of the two minutes, defenseman Dennis Cesana passed to the crease from the right circle and forward Sam Saliba tapped it in to put the Spartans on the scoreboard.

With eight minutes left in the game, junior forward Luke Morgan fought for the puck at the left side of the crease and quickly passed it across to Slaker. Slaker capitalized, further fueling the momentous win and continuing the Wolverines’ streak in which they’ve now won 23 of the last 27 conference points.

“We’ve got an energy with us right now,” Martin said. “Wouldn’t want to be the next team on our run.”

BAILEY JOHNSON Daily Sports Editor

EAST LANSING — Jake Slaker had just stopped in the left faceoff circle when he turned and saw a pass coming from Nick Blankenburg at the blueline.

That place in the circle has become the senior forward’s office on the power play lately, and this time, the pass found just the right spot. Slaker’s one-timer sent the puck off his stick and into the net before goaltender John Lethemon had a chance at stopping it.

For the second time in three games, Slaker opened the scoring on a power-play goal from the left circle. Friday, the goal came just six minutes into the game.

“We’ve been working on power play a lot lately,” Slaker said. “We’ve been up and down this whole season, so it was really huge to get a quick goal and then that just kinda kept the momentum going for the rest of the game.”

It was Slaker’s third goal in three games — and he added a fourth before the night was over.

Michigan held a 4-1 lead just

over halfway through the third period, and Michigan State was largely carrying the momentum of the game. But then redshirt junior forward Luke Morgan found the puck in the slot in front of Lethemon, and Slaker saw an opportunity.

He slid down to the far post and yelled for the puck. Morgan slid it across, and Slaker’s quick wrister just beat a sprawling Lethemon. “(Freshman forward Nick Granowicz) and Morgs were working so hard,” Slaker said.

“I saw Morgs kinda get the puck and I was screaming at him as loud as I could (on the) backdoor. He threw the puck to me and luckily, it just went in for me.”

The goal extended Slaker’s streak of multi-point games to three and gave him his third two-goal game of the season. Since the Great Lakes Invitational in late December, Slaker has nine goals in 11 games — though he didn’t score until Nov. 23 and tallied just three goals in the first half of the season. After suffering an upper body injury against Western Michigan on Oct. 25 — the fifth game of the season — Slaker

ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily

Senior forward Jake Slaker scored two goals in Michigan’s 5-1 win over Michigan State on Friday night.

missed the next three games.

It took him some time to get his feet back under him, and the injury continued to nag at him for another few weeks once he came back. A two-week break at Christmas helped solidify the healing, and once the second half of the season started, Slaker took off.

“I think going into the break, maybe a few games before that, I started feeling that I was starting to get into the stride of the season,” Slaker said. “I think going into Christmas break, getting some rest and coming back fresh was really important for me.”

Added Michigan coach Mel Pearson: “He’s healthy. The first half of the year, he was not healthy, and when you have these nagging injuries, he missed a number of games. But he knows how to score. He’s a gamer, like a number of our guys. But he’s a senior, too, and he wants to have his best year and he’s doing a heck of a job.”

Slaker’s current best season with the Wolverines came in his sophomore year, when he scored 27 points in 40 games. This year, he’s got 23 through 26 games and has at least one point in 12 of Michigan’s last 15 games.

As the Wolverines push into the last few games of the regular season, contributions from seniors like Slaker have been key in getting Michigan back in the win column after a rough first half. Pearson has spent most of the year talking about how the Wolverines need their seniors to contribute, and Slaker’s success has clearly been crucial in Michigan’s recent run.

His two goals in Friday’s 5-1 win are just the most recent demonstration.

“I’m just playing with confidence right now, trying to do the little things,” Slaker said.

“Just play well defensively, do all the little things, play physical and I’ll get my chances. Lately, they’ve been coming to me, and I’m just trying to take advantage of it.”

SportsMonday

4B — February 17, 2020

Baseball

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Michigan gets revenge on Vanderbilt in three-win opening weekend

ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily

LILY ISRAEL

Daily Sports Writer

The 2020 season started the way the No. 8 Michigan baseball team (3-1) hoped the 2019 season would end.

Trailing by one run in the top of the ninth inning, first baseman Matt Schmidt stepped up to the plate. For the fifthyear senior, this opportunity had been a long time coming.

In the first game of the season in a rematch against the defending national champions, the story wrote itself. But Schmidt wanted to write the ending.

Schmidt blasted a go-ahead, two-run home run off of one of the nation’s premiere closers to give the Wolverines a lead they wouldn’t relinquish en route to a 4-3 victory over No. 1 Vanderbilt.

“It was kind of a surreal experience,” Schmidt said.

“We fought and competed and got the win against a good Vanderbilt team. ... It was kinda

JARED GREENSPAN Daily Sports Writer

Lauren Esman wasted no time.

Pinch-hitting in the sixth inning with the bases loaded and the score tied, the freshman utility player belted the first pitch she saw from Louisville’s Taylor Roby over the right-center field fence for a go-ahead grand slam.

Esman’s heroics sealed an 8-4 win for No. 11 Michigan softball (9-0) over Louisville (2-7), capping off a weekend sweep that also included a 6-2 win over the Cardinals and 4-3 and 4-0 wins over No. 25 North Carolina (5-5) in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.

good to get revenge there.”

Michigan rounded out the MLB4 Collegiate Tournament in Scottsdale, Ariz., with wins over Cal Poly, 8-5, and No. 3 Arizona State, 5-0, and a loss in its final game of the weekend against UConn, 7-1.

On the pitching side in the opening game, junior righthander Jeff Criswell got the start and fifth-year senior lefthander Benjamin Keizer earned the win. Keizer came out of the bullpen in the sixth inning and finished with 1.2 shutout innings and gave up no runs.

The pitching drama was saved for redshirt sophomore right-hander Isaiah Paige.

Paige entered in the ninth inning after Schmidt’s heroics put Michigan back on top. The final three outs proved to be the hardest of the night as Paige gave up a single and hit a pair of batters. Despite this, he didn’t allow any runs and earned the save.

The first game against the Commodores to open the weekend garnered the most

attention — and rightfully so — but the three remaining games provided insight into what the rest of the season might hold.

“There were so many different breakout candidates that could be on the horizon,” Michigan coach Erik Bakich said. “Just guys that had their moments in different games that could be positive contributors for the entire season.”

In the Wolverines’ second game of the weekend against Cal Poly, junior righthander Blake Beers, with the help of strong infield defensive play, didn’t allow a baserunner until the bottom of the fourth inning. Beers earned the win with no earned runs and just four hits.

The top of the batting order provided strong hitting with three base hits from junior outfielder and leadoff hitter Jordan Nwogu. Junior shortstop Jack Blomgren added four hits of his own, helping Michigan to an 8-5 win.

Down the stretch of the game, the Wolverines’ defense started to become a little sloppy and allowed several extra bases.

Bakich thought the game could have easily gotten out of hand with all the added baserunners, but freshman righthander Cameron Weston came out of the bullpen to earn his first career save.

After its win over the Mustangs, Michigan immediately boarded the bus

to head to Phoenix Municipal Stadium for its third game of the weekend, against Arizona State — an added game that only made the Wolverines’ weekend tougher.

The situation wasn’t the most conducive environment for redshirt freshman left-hander Steven Hajjar to start his first career game. But Hajjar took the game in stride, getting more comfortable as the innings went on and earning his first career win in the 5-0 victory.

He pitched six innings with just three hits and seven strikeouts.

In arguably its most impressive win of the weekend, Michigan looked toward players on last year’s bench.

Sophomore left-hander Jack White pitched three scoreless innings in the relief effort.

Senior pinch hitter Dominic Clementi provided the final boost for Michigan when he hit a two-run double in the ninth inning.

“New guys stepping up, I think that was kind of the storyline throughout the entire

weekend,” Criswell said.

The Wolverines played their final, most physcially and mentally tough game against UConn. The Huskies scored first in the first inning and, despite a small rally in the fourth inning led by Nwogu and redshirt sophomore Danny Zimmerman, they wouldn’t relinquish their lead, as the Wolverines fell, 7-1.

“This game was a learning lesson,” Bakich said. “It was good for them to experience how they felt being emotionally drained and physically drained and still try to have to compete with that, cause that’s how it’s going to feel months from now.”

Ultimately, Michigan finished its opening weekend 3-1, including two wins over top ranked teams in the country.

“I think we knew going into the weekend, if we came out of this thing 4-0 we’re probably not as good as it seems,” Bakich said. “If we came out 0-4 we’re not as bad as we seem. (There were a) lot of takeaways of growth opportunities.”

“I was just ‘see ball, hit ball,’ that was my mentality,” Esman said. “Just attack early. I knew I needed to score some runs because it was a tie ballgame, so I was just trying to hit it to the right side. It just happened to go out.”

Prior to taking the lead, the Wolverines had to claw themselves out of a 3-1 hole, their first and only deficit of the weekend. In its first turn at bat after Louisville took the lead, Michigan answered.

Senior outfielder Thais Gonzalez drove in a run with a single to right field and junior infielder Taylor Bump blasted a two-run home run to center field.

“This team, they’re very resilient,” Michigan coach Carol Hutchins said. “I’ve said that since the fall. You know, we accept that we’re not perfect, and we’re just going to keep working to be excellent.”

Esman might have provided the weekend’s most memorable moment, yet she was not alone in contributing at the plate.

Across the four-game slate, production came from every spot in the lineup. Seven different Wolverines registered multi-hit games, with senior outfielder Haley Hoogenraad having two such performances.

Michigan averaged 5.5 runs per game, a welcome sign after it

mustered just three runs against USF and Fresno State to close out the USF-Rawlings Invitational a week ago.

“I have confidence in every player in our lineup when they come up,” Hutchins said. “We all know that there’s a chance to fail, so we don’t worry about that. We just go up there and try to get the best situation we can.”

Sophomore outfielder Lexie Blair had a bounce-back tournament, looking more like her freshman year self when she hit .405 as a unanimous All-Big Ten first team selection. Despite entering Friday’s game on a three-game hitless streak, Blair went 5-for-14 on the weekend,

earning a hit in each contest.

None was bigger than the infield hit Blair recorded in the seventh inning of Friday’s game against North Carolina. After two sacrifice bunts pushed the go-ahead run to third, Blair beat out a chopper to shortstop, giving Michigan the lead.

“I was just trying to keep it simple,” Blair said of her approach. “I wasn’t trying to hit the ball so hard, so my swing isn’t how it normally is. Slow it down and just do my part, however I can.”

On the pitching side of things, sophomore Alex Storako and junior Meghan Beaubien continued to shoulder the load. In

a 4-3 win against the Tar Heels, Storako relieved Beaubien and gave up only one hit across six innings, striking out 13. The next day, it was Beaubien’s turn to offer a dominant performance, going the distance with a threehit, nine-strikeout shutout.

“They’re a great pitching tandem,” Hutchins said. “I’m pleased with that. … I think the fact that both of them appear to be quite selfless and are team oriented and are ready to do their part when they get the call is very impressive.”

Across the four-game challenge, the entire team certainly seemed ready to do its part.

We fought and competed and got the win against a good Vanderbilt team.

Softball

Wolverines move to 9-0 with sweep of Big Ten/ACC Challenge ALEC COHEN/Daily