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arts & culture
KANSAN.COM | MONDAY, APRIL 10, 2017
Aries
(March 21-April 19)
A partner's collaboration really matters today and tomorrow. Coordinate actions.
Review statements for errors with Mercury retrograde over the next three weeks.
Reaffirm your commitments.
Taurus
(April 20-May 20)
It's getting busy behind the scenes through tomorrow.
Begin a three-week revision phase with Mercury retrograde in your sign. Review communications. Determine what's working and what's
Gemini
(May 21-June 20) Have fun today and tomorrow with someone special. Guard against communications breakdown. Review the data to find the truth over the next three weeks with Mercury's retrograde.
Cancer
(June 21-July 22)
Have fun today and tomorrow with someone special.
Guard against communications breakdown. Review the data to find the truth over the next three weeks with Mercury's retrograde.
(July 23-Aug.22)
Leo
(July 23-Aug. 22)
Get the word out, especially today and tomorrow.
Misunderstandings and mechanical breakdowns cause delays over three weeks with Mercury retrograde. Aim for
clarity and simplicity
Virgo
(Virgo
(Aug. 23-Sept. 22)
Work out the budget today and tomorrow. Plan your
itinerary with Mercury retrograde. Disagreements spark easily. Keep confidencees and secrets. File papers early, especially regarding academics
Libra
(Sept. 23-Oct. 22) Pamper yourself over the next few days. Expect delays with travel, transport, invoices and collections. Review financial data with Mercury retrograde for three weeks.
Scorpio
[Oct. 23-Nov. 21]
Resolve misunderstandings with a partner over the next three weeks with Mercury retrograde. Support each other. Regroup and go again. Enjoy peaceful productivity today and
tomorrow.
Sagittarius
Sugartius
(Nov. 22-Dec. 21)
Coordinate teamwork today and tomorrow. Delays, misunderstandings or mistakes with Mercury retrograde frustrate the action over three weeks. Slow and clarify. Maintain equipment in good
repair.
Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 1)
(Dec. 22-Jan. 19)
Career has your focus through tomorrow. Romantic overtures could backfire over three weeks with Mercury retrograde. Work out misunderstandings right away.
Keep your sense of humor.
Aquarius
(Jan. 20-Feb.18) Study and explore through tomorrow. Clean, sort and organize over three weeks with Mercury retrograde. Go through old papers, photos and possessions. Backup files. Refine domestic intra-
structure
Pisces
Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20)
Manage shared funs
Sarah Wright/KANSAN Director blair dorosh-walther poses with Patrese Johnson, one of the women featured in the film during a reception after the screening.
mrought tomorrow. Take extra care with communications for three weeks with Mercury retrograde. Clear up misunderstandings right away. Do the homework.
'Out in the Night' documents controversial gang assault charges involving black LGBTQ+ women
▶ LIBBY FLOOD
@libbyflood13
n Thursday evening, the Spencer Art Museum hosted a Q & A and screening of the award-winning documentary looking into the story of four African-American lesbians who were controversially charged with assault, "Out in the Night."
Director and producer blair dorosh-walther, who identifies as gender non-conforming and uses the pronouns "hir" and "ze", and Patrese Johnson, one of the film's subjects, hosted the Q & A session.
The documentary tells the story of a group which, during a night out in the LGBTQ-friendly West Village of New York in Aug. 2006, were "sexually and violently" harassed by an older man. When the women attempted to diffuse the man's advances by telling him that they were gay, he became angry and threw a lit cigarette at them while screaming sexually explicit threats, promising to turn them straight.
The documentary includes security footage of the altercation that shows the man yanking dreadlocks from a woman's head and pinning a woman to the ground by her throat. Johnson, who was afraid her friend was "about to die," pulled a knife out of her purse and stabbed him in the stomach.
"I carry a knife because my brothers always told me to," Johnson said in the documentary. "They were always saying, 'Patreese, you're so small. How do you expect to protect yourself when we're not there?'"
The man's puncture wound lead the women to be rounded up and charged with "gang assault, assault and attempted murder," according to the documentary.
There were seven women present that night, all in their late teens to early twenties and came from a low-income neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey. Three of the seven pleaded guilty to avoid a lengthy trial. The remaining four, however — Johnson, Renata Hill, Venice Brown, and Terrain Dandridge — plead not guilty and stood by their right to self-defense.
"Out in the Night" tells the story of the legal fallacies and media storm that followed this decision.
dorosh-walther said Thursday that ze was initially involved as an activist before deciding to approach the women to make a documentary on their experiences.
"I initially didn't feel like it should be a white person telling this story," ze said. "But the story wasn't being told and I couldn't get it out of my head."
The New York Post titled its coverage "Attack of the Killer Lesbians" and called the group a "seething sapphic septet." New York Daily News began referring to the group as a "lesbian wolf pack."
For dorosh-walther, the headline that held hir attention was: "Man is stabbed after admiring a stranger."
"I was struck by that," dorosh-walther said to the audience. "It was shocking that this man was seen as a potential suitor and not a threat."
All four women were convicted of various levels of assault as a result of the fight. Johnson, the only one charged with attempted murder because of her weapon, was acquitted of that charge, but found guilty of assault and gang assault.
It was the charge of "gang assault" that activists believe spurred the media storm that followed, which largely referred to the group of friends as an organized gang or a pack of wild animals.
All four women were giv
"Under the law, if three or more people are involved in beating someone, it's gang assault," said arresting officer Christopher O'Hare, in the documentary.
en sentences ranging from three-and-a-half to 11 years. Johnson, who received the longest sentence of 11 years, was released in 2013. Since then, she has been traveling with dorosh-walther's documentary to raise awareness.
"Nobody ever asked us our side of the story," Johnson said. "We stood our ground, and look at the consequences."
dorosh-walther also shared the biggest criticism of the film and its apparent bias.
"I have a problem with objectivity," ze said. "I don't care about [the attacker's] side of the story. His side was written across mainstream media. His side was held up in a court of law. I'm interested in the other side."
Emily Wen, a first-year University student in the audience, found the film particularly "empowering" for her.
"As someone who is part of the LGBT community and
who is a woman of color, [the film] really resonated with me," she said. "This is something you really never see, something that aligns with you [as a minority]."
dorosh-walther highlighted issues that must move to the forefront of LGBTQ+ activism, including the right to feel safe on the streets, the right to defend yourself without fear of imprisonment and the right to exist as a queer person of color without experiencing violence.
dorosh-walther added that the documentary has largely been "preaching to the choir," but Johnson hopes it will reach a larger audience as well.
"People need to stop feeling like this is not their issue because they're not in it," Johnson said. "It wasn't your daughter or your sister this time. But it could be one day."
Hunninghake: The Chainsmokers reflect millennial culture
GUS HUNNINGHAKE
@gushunninghake
The Chainsmokers perform in concert. The dup has tour dates scheduled through the end of August.
When I sit down at night, after a long day of class and work, and I'm in a mood to contemplate life and the important things in it, I lately have been thinking about hit band The Chainsmokers.
Contributed photo
But before my mind wanders, I often first think about music's past greats.
I think about founding member of Pink Floyd Syd Barrett shredding his guitar and belting out lyrics that reflect deep themes of mental illness, greed, and loss of time. He dissected these issues on just one album, 1973's "The Dark Side of the Moon."
Take the single "Time," for example.
In between wailing guitar solos, Barrett goes into detail about realizing how time has gotten away from him as he continues to age. This track reflects a sort of regret for not grabbing life by the horns, and also a realization that the only way to make good use of time is by living a full life, not waiting around for something to happen.
I also think about Kanye West, who, at the start of his career, spent time writing lyrics about family ties, loss, corruption and the best person in the world: his mom. He spent time not only crafting smart lyrics but sonically interlaying beats that complemented his songwriting.
After enjoying the good music that I always seem to go back to, I then look at trending charts, and my good
vibe slowly turns sour. Like when you are having a great day, but then work calls and says you need to come in 30 minutes to fill a three-hour shift.
With the song's annoying basic bitch-like voice talking about her basic day being the sole source of lyrical content intercut between a catchy house beat, the single had something to say about millennial culture. In its own annoying way, "#Selfie" provided a sort of satirical commentary. In this case, how kids are glued to their phones.
This is when I almost always see a song by The Chainsmokers, and I think about their first hit. "#Selfie."
After a few sparse hits with "Kanye" and "Roses" — both of which were bland — the group shot into chart-topping fame with "Closer," a song featuring vocals from Halsey. Vocals that are about, well,
But, what's really wrong with their music? Here's the thing: Music is about so much more than selling a product. Music is primarily an art form, and art is about unique expression. Discarding that to just sell a product is disrespectful and wrong.
millennial romance. I guess.
Before I get too soap boxy,
let's break down their 2016
summer hit "Closer."
We get a couple of things from the first few lines. A boy starts telling a girl about how just dandy his life was pre-interaction with her; he tells her that he's drunk and that her friends are cool, but not really; and how he never wants to see them again. These lines deliver two very important themes to listeners: angst and relationship troubles.
But the track never gets deep past this encounter. Names never get put on faces. And in the end, there's
no resolution to the conflict between these two. The song discusses the fact that the girl, left in her "broke down car," didn't return the boy's calls, and then the rest of the song is about never growing up. Literally. They just keep reminding listeners that they will never get older.
If their relationship is founded on not returning calls and running away, I'm inclined to believe them.
The problem with The Chainsmokers is that every song they've released can't seem to break past surface level emotions and stories. But that's what their listeners, primarily millennials, love to hear.
Music consumers care less about hearing deep, personal lyrics, and more about catchy beats and lyrics that everyone can relate to in a small, often obscure way. Even if it sacrifices nuance and vulnerability, if there are angst and relationship drama involved, and the lyrics can be generic to its target audience, then the song's success increases tenfold.
What many fail to recognize is that this group's recent popularity pioneers the way for other groups to dumb down their content.
Take Coldplay's Chris Martin as an example. The Chainsmokers just released single "Something Just Like This" with Martin providing vocals. It's about an insecure guy being asked by a girl, and how risky he wants to be. And that's about it. There's just enough depth to get enough people to connect, but not enough to be personal.
The Chris Martin of old, who used to question his existence and purpose after traumas like 9/11 in his song "Politik," has disappeared into the night.
He sold out by contributing to a kind of hit song that shreds any sense of lyrical focus and, as mentioned before, tends to pique the interest of listeners uninterested in something unique or different.
Music is and always should primarily be about expression. And The Chainsmokers' expression is their right. But when their focus relies too much on production and obscure, surface level lyrics, then the music they make can never live on as something of true value and importance.