Inside this issue:
Letter to the Editor addresses Burlington shooting, PAGE 4
Habitat for Humanity hosts Q&A for upcoming Costa Rica trip, PAGE 6 Lock eyes with a stranger to build community, PAGE 8
Vol. 32 #3 10.03.16 Vol. 30 # #.#.#
2 • as.wwu.edu/asreview
Flags fly over flowers at weekly downtown peace vigil. Cover photo by Morgan Annable // AS Review
IN THIS ISSUE NEWS 4 Canvas Collects Data on Student Usage
Viking Union 411 516 High St. Bellingham, WA 98225 Phone: 360.650.6126 Fax: 360.650.6507 Email: as.review@wwu.edu as.wwu.edu/asreview @TheASReview facebook.com/theasreview Š 2016. Published most Mondays during the school year by the Associated Students of Western Washington University. The AS Review is an alternative weekly that provides coverage of student interests such as the AS government, activities and student life. The Review seeks to enhance the student experience by shedding light on underrepresented issues, inclusive coverage, informing readers and promoting dialogue.
STUDENT LIFE 10 Does eye contact make you fall in love?
Student use of Canvas can actually be monitored by professors, a feature students will have access to soon.
6
Habitat for Humanity sends volunteers to Costa Rica
Find out how you can get involved!
An event called Eye Contact and Human Connection is encouraging students to stare.
12
Is the Pumpkin Spice Latte worth it? We sent a reporter to give us his take on the popular drink.
FEATURES 9
A profile of jazz professor Kevin Woods
This influential music professor is striving to bring jazz to Western students.
5 Wednesday Night Concert Series
WMD and HimeHime will put on quite a show at the Underground.
We welcome reader submissions, including news articles, literary pieces, photography, artwork, letters to the editor or anything else physically printable. Please limit letters to 300 words, include your name, phone number and year in school. Send all submissions to as.review@wwu. edu. Published letters may have minor edits made to their length or grammar. The AS Review is distributed via electric bicycle, the purchase of which was made possible by the Sustainable Action Fund Grant Program.
Morgan Annable Alexandria Baker Ricky Rath Erasmus Baxter Julia Berkman Josh Hughes Chris Beswetherick Adviser Jeff Bates
Editor-in-Chief Assistant Editor Lead Photographer Writers
The Khmer Student Association held their first meeting of the year on September 26 with a photobooth, potluck, and live DJ. Photo by Ricky Rath // AS Review
10.10.2016 • 3
EVENTS
CALENDAR OF EVENTS Drawing Jam
Thursday Night Trivia
Express your artistic side in the VU Gallery! You only need to bring your creativity as supplies are provided.
Test your knowledge on a broad range of subjects at this fun event. Turn to page 8 to brush up on your trivia skills.
Oct 3- 21 // 11-5 p.m. // VU Gallery // Free
Super Smash Bros Tournament
Oct 10 // 7 p.m. // Underground Coffeehouse // Free
The Super Smash Bros Club is hosting this open tournament for anyone to join!
Open Mic Night
Oct 11 // 7 p.m. // Underground Coffeehouse // Free
This open mic night is open to anyone to participate. Come serenade your fellow students, or sit back and enjoy the music!
La Familia Diversa
Oct 12 // 12:45 p.m. // Fairhaven College Auditorium // Free
Cricket Keating examines the restructuring of social life in the 2008 Ecuadorian Constitution in the third talk in the World Issues Forum series.
Wednesday Night Concert Series Oct 12 // 7 p.m. // Underground Coffeehouse // Free Rock out to a great show by WMD and HimeHime.
Oct 13 // 7 p.m. // Underground Coffeehouse // Free
Top Ten: October 10-16 1
A Moon Shaped Pool Radiohead
2
Sunlit Youth Local Natives
3
99.9% Kaytranada
4
IV BadBadNotGood
5
Schmilco Wilco
6
Hot Hot Heat Hot Hot Heat
7
Good Luck and Do Your Best Gold Panda
Share a minute of eye contact with a stranger and build community.
8
My Woman Angel Olsen
Dead Parrots Society feat. Puppies
9
Skiptracing Mild High Club
10
Freetown Sound Blood Orange
Drawing Jam Reception
Oct 13 // 6-8 p.m. // VU Gallery // Free
Join the artists in the VU Gallery to celebrate the creative efforts students have put in to decorating the walls of the Gallery.
Dead Parrots Improv Show
Oct 13 // 7 p.m. // Underground Coffeehouse // Free
Let the Dead Parrots entertain you with some improv comedy!
Make Eye Contact with a Stranger Oct 14 // 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. // Red Square // Free
Oct 14-15 // 8 p.m. // Old Main Theatre // $3 or free if wearing a DPS shirt Laugh the night away with improv, featuring puppies from Happy Homes Happy Tails, a local no-kill animal shelter. Profits go to Happy Homes Happy Tails.
KUGS is the Associated Students’ student-run radio station. Listen online at kugs.org. If you’re interested in getting on the waves, pick up a volunteer application in the station’s office on the seventh floor of the VU.
4 • as.wwu.edu/asreview
Letter to the Editor
Western student and Ethnic Student Center employee shares his thoughts on the aftermath of the Burlington shooting and how to move forward as a community Dear Western Community, I would like to take this time to give my condolences to the families and friends of the victims from the Burlington mall shooting. I know how difficult and unexpected this tragedy has been for these individuals. As we grieve this loss, we must also reflect on the perpetrator and other perpetrators of numerous shootings across the nation. The perpetrator may not have been a student affiliated with this institution, but how does our inability to reach out to surrounding communities contribute the chaos in our nation, around the globe? As an institution that prides itself in a high academic standard and intellectualism; we have discussions, debates about contemporary issues and elections. We have honor societies and honors courses for those who excel academically. Yet, we fail to provide support to a number of students. How is it beneficial to have competitive programs and challenging discussions if we are only benefiting ourselves? Does this even matter if our communities are wounded? If shootings and bullying continue to exist? Our knowledge often stays within our walls, within our classrooms. Sometimes we want to enhance that knowledge by hosting events, or workshops around certain concepts with guest speakers specialized in a discipline; those events might discuss issues in our communities and in our globe. Some of those issues may even impact the lives of those on our campus, but after those events, the speaker leaves, and the problem is still floating in our atmosphere. It is my hope that we work within our institution to collaborate with different students, departments, and expand our resource scope. To expand our outreach to our exterior communities. To provide education and tools to populations that cannot afford higher education. If we consider that the perpetrator of the Burlington shooting is Turkish, and the reaction towards this person, we can see that often when a person of color commits horrific acts of violence an entire ethnic community is impacted. A group is portrayed as innately violent. Stigma is attached to a racial identity. This reaction differentiates when a white person commits a similar act, viewing them by the life they had prior to the event. This binary is problematic. Sincerely, Alan Alatorre-Barajas Ethnic Student Center Cultural Education Coordinator
Do you want to put your acting skills to the test in a low-pressure environment? Theater 370 (Play Direction) is looking for people to be in ten-minute scenes directed by the students in the class. Auditions will be held in Old Main Theater on Wednesday, October 12 between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. No acting experience required! Anyone who is interested, please stop by for a few minutes during audition times.
Canvas collects data on student usage Students will soon have access to the analytics function BY ERASMUS BAXTER
Access an assignment at 1 a.m., or wait till the day before it’s due to start on it? Your professor may know, due to the analytics function on Canvas. The function shows professors how many times a day a student has viewed or interacted with their class’s canvas page, as well as how many times they viewed specific content, such as an assignment page or document, and at what time they last viewed it. For example, a professor could see that you downloaded the course syllabus 20 times, the last time being at 9 p.m. on Sunday. Sophomore Anna Hoekman was unaware of the feature. She says that while it’s not a big deal to her personally, it seems like an invasion of privacy. “[I] think of [Canvas] more as a private forum for me,” she said. Currently students are not able to view this data on themselves but they will soon be able to, according to John Farquhar, Director of Western’s Academic Technology & User Services (ATUS). “[Students viewing their analytics] is turned off by default by Instructure and therefore was accepted by our staff as our standard,” Farquhar said in an email. Farquhar said that the staff would like to provide that function to students. They recently began working on a plan to make it an option. “At present, we are waiting to hear back from Instructure if there are any other changes that occur by making this available,” he said. “Assuming that there are none, we will turn [student access] on as soon as possible.”
Political Science Professor Paul Chen says that he he’s hardly looked at the data Canvas stores. “I certainly wouldn’t use Canvas’s data for measuring effort, or else students could just access Canvas material & stayed logged in, pretending to be using it when in fact they are doing something else,” he said in an email. He says that he’s heard instructors discuss using Canvas data to show a correlation between time spent on assignments and a higher grade, but considers such a connection obvious. He does not think students should be concerned about their Canvas usage being logged, but also acknowledges that knowing that they are being monitored may change student’s behavior. “Whenever we think we’re being observed, we change our behavior,” Chen said. “On a deeper level, this merely shows the difference [between] appearance & reality. It’s important to always be reminded that appearance is not reality, despite our tendency to assume that it is.” Hoekman says that knowing Canvas is collecting data for other people will change her use of it. “[I’m going to] be more aware of what I’m doing,” she said. Once students are able to view their own analytics, they can access them by going to “People” under the class menu, clicking on their name and choosing “Analytics.” The graphs will show your activity in the class by date, your communications with the professor, your submissions by timeliness, and your grades plotted on a box-and-whisker chart of the class scores.
Wednesday Night Concert Series: WMD w/ HimeHime
10.10.2016 • 5
BY JOSH HUGHES
ABOVE LEFT: Photo courtesy of WMD. ABOVE RIGHT: Photo courtesy of HimeHime Both artists performing at the upcoming Coffeehouse show find common ground in the way they paint vivid imagery through their instrumental soundscapes. WMD and HimeHime will be playing a show from 7 to 9 p.m. on Wednesday, October 12 at the Underground Coffeehouse, showcasing a vibrant combination of live and electronic elements for their performance. Hailing from Seattle, WMD is the electronic solo project of Michael Erickson, who is just coming off of the June release of his sophomore album Limerence. His music taps into a blend of chillwave, downtempo, and even chiptune (video game music). Chiptune, similar to vaporwave, delves into retro sounds from video games and re-appropriates their context. As daunting as that can sound, WMD lands somewhere between Tycho, Washed Out, and Baths in his luscious, melodic production. Without any vocal accompaniment, Erickson lets his electronic production and guitar playing carry the weight of creating meaningful pieces of
music. The note that comes with his album says “This album is about hiking to a hidden lake in the rain /This album is about quick visits to the countryside in the summer / This album is about sitting on your porch at 8 p.m. watching the sun set / This album is about everything we did / This album is about her.” There is a consistent feeling of melancholia that the whole album soaks in without sounding sappy or overly sentimental. Regardless of Erickson’s thematic intentions, Limerence provides an excellent soundtrack for both casual listening and more intently hearing the subtleties in his music. Opener HimeHime, also coming from Seattle, similarly uses instrumental flourishes to express his largely electronic music. While Mackenzie Simon’s music project utilizes lead vocals on some tracks, his most recent release, Cancer, also lets the music flesh out some of his complex ideas. He self describes the album as “(dealing) with the emotional struggle and disconnect of losing loved family
members to cancer. The album is a deep introspective look into one’s relationships to dying loved family members, contemplation of the human condition, and a celebration of life.” It’s a heavy task for a record to be given, and much of his lyrical content in the few songs he sings on paints a good portrait of the disconnect he’s talking about. However, some of Simon’s best music comes out when he lets his music do the speaking, letting seemingly disparate live and electronic sounds intermingle into strangely cohesive tracks. While both artists toy with the quiet and ambient, they each carve out a distinct sonic palette that makes them greater than the sum of their parts. The vocal sampling on WMD’s “Garden Gate” is pure bliss and the guitar leading into the synth odyssey on HimeHime’s “Ambrosia” sounds unlike anything in contemporary mainstream electronic. Be sure not to miss out on seeing both of them live this upcoming Wednesday at the Underground Coffeehouse!
6 • as.wwu.edu/asreview
Whatcom-based Habitat for Humanity is sending volunteers to Costa Rica BY CHRIS BESWETHERICK
The Whatcom chapter of Habitat for Humanity prepares for a build trip to Costa Rica from March 18 to March 26 and invites anyone interested to attend their Q&A on October 17 at the Cornwall Habitat for Humanity. At this Q&A, anyone unsure of the program can learn what it takes to participate. During the trip, 14 volunteers will meet the inhabitants of San José, Costa Rica to help with building shelters and explore the country. Habitat for Humanity employs a program known as the “Tithe Program” which was conceived from their Christian background. The program partners Habitat Global Village, their international branch, with religious countries. Costa Rica is part of this program, meaning 10 percent of the donations received for the trip are directed to churches and the Habitat’s ministry. “It’s a build trip. We are going to build,” Whatcom Habitat for Humanity publicist Holly Harkener said. “Costa Rica is a Tithes partner, which makes it a global village trip.” This trip, therefore, is a part of the international branch of Habitat for Humanity. Sara Bond- Yancey leads this trip, and has been a captain of many build and global village trips in previous years. Bond-Yancey recently moved to Bellingham and has started growing Whatcom’s chapter with her experience. “We have only done one other trip like this,” Harkener said. “What makes it unique is that we are doing it at all. [Bond-Yancey] is from Habitat for Humanity international, so she really knows everything about this trip.” At the Q&A, Bond-Yancey will accept any relevant question to the trip and the organization with pleasure. “She’s heard them all, she can answer any question,” Harkener said. “We always find people have questions because it is such a big deal to travel [so far.]” Traveling and joining missions like this often means a daunting price tag, but in the past, Habitat for Humanity has raised an excess of money for their trips, meaning anyone who wants to go can. “Bond-Yancey has done fundraising for this so many times, so if anyone really wants to go, there should be no reason not to,” Harkener said. “People are able to fundraise enough for it, and Sarah knows how to best present oneself [to do so.]” Habitat for Humanity creates a team page for the volunteers which also doubles as a platform for crowdsourcing. Unlike other crowdsourcing sites, Habitat for Humanity directs 100 percent of donations to the volunteers and the team. The fact that Habitat for Humanity hosts the donation page lends credibility to the volunteers, which will hopefully attract donors who are a serious asset for the organization. Lauren Clark, a sophomore at Western, has worked with Habitat for Humanity in previous years where she learned how to build a shed. Her friend inspired her to contribute to the organization because of the company’s model and their feminist program “Women Build.” “Habitat for Humanity is the place where you build houses and other things for people in need,” Clark said. “We learned how to build from a group of women.” Sometimes, a mission does not witness much progress in the short amount of time they spend on location, but for this trip, Costa Rica has a different model for building that installs prefabricated walls, rather than walls requiring strong foundations. This means, in one week, the volunteers will clearly know their impact. Habitat for Humanity wants more participation from Western students, and the Q&A will help anyone become inspired and make sense of the trip.
LEFT: Volunteers for Habitat for Humanity work on various projects. Photos courtesy of Habitat for Humanity.
10.10.2016 • 7
Annual Drawing Jam in the VU Gallery invites one and all to color on the walls Photos by Chris Beswetherick // AS Review
8 • as.wwu.edu/asreview
Practice for the Underground Coffeehouse Trivia Night BY JOSH HUGHES
This upcoming Thursday, October 13, the Underground Coffeehouse is hosting the first trivia night of the quarter from 7 to 9 p.m. One of many special events held at the venue, it gives students a chance to test their knowledge on a broad range of subjects. To get the gist of it, here’s some sample questions you can quiz yourself on to see where you stand on general trivia.
THE QUESTIONS:
28. The desire to eat strange things that are non-nutritive is known as what? 29. What are the four main ingredients found in beer? 30. The writer Eric Blair went by what pen name? 31. How many teams are there in the American National Football League? 32. Aspirin comes from the bark of what tree? 33. What famous animated film is the line “You stay I go” from? 34. Chilean sea bass was originally called what? 35. What is the only sea on earth with no coastline? 36. How many fingers do the “Simpsons” cartoon characters have? 37. What phrase, often used in typing practice, includes every letter of the English alphabet? 38. In our solar system, which is the only planet to rotate clockwise? 39. Joseph Smith was the founder of what religion? 40. Which painter started the impressionist movement? 41. What is the name of the first pizzeria to open in the United States?
13. Coffee, selling between $100 and $600 per pound. 14. Hollywoodland, though it was changed in 1949 to represent the district instead of a housing development. 15. Blue, though green is now the recognized color because it is the national color of Ireland. 16. 1966, after completing their U.S. tour. 17. Karaoke, developed in the 1960’s. 18. Gone With The Wind, accumulating over $390 million from its release in 1939. 19. A cygnet, derived from Old French and Latin. 20. Tokyo, Japan, with a population of roughly 13.62 million. 21. Eucalyptus leaves, which are fibrous and very low in nutrition. 22. One, “The Red Vineyard at Arles.” 23. 88mph. 24. Greenland Ranch, California, which reached 134 degrees Fahrenheit in 1913. 25. Future, who once went by the name Meathead before gaining popularity. 26. 1995, when they replaced tan M&Ms. 27. Meme, a word created by Richard Dawkins in 1976.
THE ANSWERS:
what color? 16. What year did The Beatles stop touring? 17. What is the Japanese term that means “empty orchestra?” 18. When adjusted for inflation, what is the highest grossing film of all time? 19. What is a baby swan called? 20. Which city has the largest population in the world? 21. A koala’s diet consists of mainly what? 22. How many paintings did Vincent Van Gogh sell during his lifetime? 23. In the movie ‘Back To The Future”, what speed did the DeLorean need to reach in order to achieve time travel? 24. Where did the highest temperature ever recorded in the U.S. occur? 25. What is the rap stage name of Nayvadius DeMun Wilburn? 26. In what year was the blue M&M first introduced? 27. What word is defined as an idea, behavior, or style that spread from person to person within a culture?
1. The Panama Canal, a 48 mile man-made waterway. 2. The Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, Houston Texans and Jacksonville Jaguars. 3. The chameleon, usually measuring 6-7 inches in length, has a tongue several inches longer than its body. 4. Blackbeard, who once captured a French vessel and renamed it Queen Anne’s Revenge. 5. The Scoville scale, named after its creator, which measures Scoville heat units, or capsaicin concentration. 6. Halitosis, which 20% of the general population is reported to have. 7. The Andromeda Galaxy, located about 2.5 million light years away. 8. Jean-Paul Sartre, claiming he was worried that it would limit the impact of his writing. 9. Gus Grissom, going first in 1961 and again in 1965. 10. A parliament, rooted in the long-standing idea that owls are wise creatures. 11. Run D.M.C. The group’s third album went platinum in 1986. 12. The second Monday of October.
1. What canal connects the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean? 2. What four NFL teams have never made it to the Super Bowl? 3. Which animal has the longest tongue relative to its size? 4. Edward Teach was a notorious English pirate better known by what nickname? 5. What is the name of the scale used to determine spiciness of peppers? 6. What is the medical term for bad breath? 7. Which is the closest galaxy to the Milky Way? 8. Who declined the 1964 Nobel Prize for literature? 9. Who was the first astronaut to visit space twice? 10. What is a group of owls called? 11. Who was the first rap artist to go platinum? 12. What day is Thanksgiving celebrated in Canada? 13. Kopi luwak is a very expensive type of what? 14. What did the famous Hollywood sign in L.A. originally say? 15. Saint Patrick’s Day was originally associated with 28. Pica, which is most commonly found in pregnant women and small children. 29. Grain, hops, yeast, and water. 30. George Orwell, author of 1984 and “Animal Farm.” 31. 32, divided into two conferences of 16 teams each. 32. White willow tree, which also contains salicin. 33. “The Iron Giant,” released in 1999. 34. Patagonian Toothfish, until it’s current name was invented by a fish wholesaler in 1977. 35. The Sargasso Sea, home to the seaweed of the genus Sargassum. 36. Four, consisting of a thumb and three other fingers. 37. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. 38. Venus, which rotates clockwise in retrograde rotation once every 243 earth days. 39. Mormonism, which he founded in Western New York in the 1820’s. 40. Claude Monet, who served as a consistent practitioner of the movement’s idea of expressing one’s perceptions over nature. 41. Lombardi’s, which first opened in Manhattan in 1905.
A profile of Western jazz professor Kevin Woods BY ERASMUS BAXTER K
10.10.2016 • 9
evin Woods started his jazz education when he was two years old. The current director of Western’s jazz program, Woods grew up with a trumpet player for a father. “I would listen to him practice and play and get ready for gigs and I would try and figure out what he was doing,” Woods said. “He didn’t really teach me lessons; I never really had lessons until college. So just through hearing him do it, and hearing the music in the house I got influenced.” -
s
Photo courtesy of Kevin Woods
He got his first instrument, a bugle, when he was ?two or three years old. On road trips he would use a comb and a bubble gum wrapper to kazoo along to Louis Armstrong solos. “I could play all the solos,” he said. “Just basically singing them, humming them, was my initial training in jazz before I even knew what I was doing. I was emulating and copying what I was hearing. I had very tolerant parents.” Woods thinks this self-taught style helped him gain a better understanding of jazz, an art form known for improvisation. “I came up the way most of the jazz greats did,” he said. “Where there wasn’t a bunch of written
music and it was more of an oral tradition. I would love to have all my students train their ears first and then match it with theory and all the academic side of music. Once you learn the academic side you can rely on that too much and not have good or trained ears.” He notices that it is easier now to listen to a wide variety of music, instead of being limited by what records or cassettes are available. “When I was coming up I used to go to a music store and I’d buy whatever jazz album they had that a cover that I thought looked interesting.” Now with so much music available it is harder to focus in on one piece of music. “I skip around, which I think is detrimental to the deep learning process that it takes to begin mastering an art form,” Woods said. However, he does think that the internet has made it easier for people to pursue music and to find people to play it with than when he was growing up. “There weren’t really, in Walla Walla and Spokane, any young people who were interested in the only music I knew existed really, which was classical and jazz music,” he said. Perhaps because of this, Woods has adopted teaching as way of sharing what he loves. “I think if you really love something you’re going to end up teaching it, because you want to pass on that tradition and your experience and knowledge,” he said. “[It’s] similar to performing, you’re sharing something that’s a part of yourself.” He first started teaching music his freshman year of college, and found he liked it. Later he went on to teach English at a university in Korea. “There are a lot similar things to teaching somebody who is learning ESL [English as a Second
Language] as there is to teaching someone who is learning JSL — jazz as a second language,” Woods said. “I think was able to be somewhat successful as an ESL teacher because I had previous experience teaching a language, or a vernacular of a language through music.” After graduating from Western in 2005, Woods taught as graduate student at the University of Colorado Boulder and worked as an adjunct instructor at Western in 2008 and 2009 while also running the Whatcom County Community College jazz program at the same time. When the economy crashed he was forced to go out on tour and perform across the country. After having toured across the country, and briefly in Europe, Woods found that his real passion was teaching. “It seems glamorous, [but touring is] really hard,” he said. “The older you get the harder it is on you. Trying to eat healthy on the road, trying to exercise and stay in shape when you’re in a car or van or bus for 12 hours. It wipes you.” Now, in his second year as the director of Western’s jazz program, Woods says he’s hoping to build a great jazz program and invites people to come check out a performance. “We do a lot of performances,” he said. “A lot of off-campus performances. The community in general, for the size of Bellingham, has a vibrant live music scene which everybody knows about, but some of that is jazz.” This winter they are collaborating with Western’s orchestra for a production of The Nutcracker. They will take turns playing the original arrangement and Duke Ellington’s arrangement. It starts December 2, in the Performing Arts Center and Wood’s hopes people will check it out.
Dogs of WWU steal the hearts of students Story and photo by Julia Berkman // AS Review Name: Winnie Age: 3 Hobbies: Barking, napping, chasing anything with a pulse, professional hunting, opera singing Favorite color: gray (has always dreamed of seeing green) Greatest Ambitions: to sniff everything ever Occupation: Fantastic detective, found a body once Softness: Very soft. 10/10 would pet again Owners: Bree and Henry
10 • as.wwu.edu/asreview
Does a few minutes of eye contact with a stranger really make you fall in love? BY JULIA BERKMAN
Find out for yourself on October 14
Have you ever made accidental eye contact project with a similar theme. In order to understand the phenomena of eye with a stranger, only to quickly lower your gaze “When we don’t have community, we become contact, I paired two of my friends up to see the and pretend they didn’t catch you staring? It’s an less able to deal with trauma and life stressors that connection up close. These two people have never almost universal experience, and it’s something we all experience,” she said. had an extended conversation with each other, so Ellen Dennis wants everyone to lean into. The It is her hope that facilitating this event will after three strange minutes staring into each othEye Contact and Human Connection event will help others feel more connected to their humanity er’s eyes, here’s what they told me. be hosted on campus on October 14, and it’s your and community. “It’s funny, but I also feel like I know him better chance to stare unabashedly into a stranger’s eyes. Another advocate for the strange connection of than I did before even though we didn’t talk,” says Eye Contact and Human Connection is focused silent eye contact was the New York Times “Modone of the participants. on reviving the lost art of human connection. ern Love” writer Daniel Jones. Jones wrote about a The other agreed. This event is inspired by performance artist recent study conducted by Arthur Aron in which “For a while I was focused on how weird it felt, Maria Abramovbut after a while ic’s “The Artist is I was just lookPresent” series. The ing at her and I performance was felt really calm,” simply the artist and he said. “Maybe a table. Those who the calm feeling chose to partake in is what the [New the experience sat York Times] down and stared article is saying is into her eyes until love. I definitely they felt compelled don’t love her, but to leave. maybe we feel a Many people had little closer than visceral reactions to before.” the silent, permeatAs an outsiding stare of the arter, I could see ist. Some cried, some that they became squirmed, and some more comfortable spoke to her as if she around each other were able to reply. since sharing that This was, for many, moment. Maybe an extremely eye there is something opening experience. to prolonged eye The feeling invoked contact. is what Ellen Den“To me, we nis, the organizer of humans need each Two students share a moment of eye contact in Red Square. Photo by Ricky Rath // AS Review this event, is trying other on levels to recreate. he examined the effect of eye contact. After asking that our western culture doesn’t even acknowledge “The inspiration behind this [event] is a very and answering 36 personal questions, the particexists,” says Ellen Dennis. personal drive to understand and connect with ipants of the study were encouraged to look into If you’d like to see for yourself whether or not other persons on a deeper level than we do in our each other’s eyes for four minutes. Afterwards, long bouts of introspective eye contact can lead to daily comings and goings,” says Fairhaven student those who participated didn’t exactly feel love per personal growth or new friends, you should go to and event organizer Ellen Dennis. say, but a deeper connection to their partner was Red Square on October 14 in order to stare into Last spring she completed her Fairhaven senior definitely reported. the eyes of a stranger.
10.10.2016 • 11
Dr. Gloria Burgess brings the beat of Old Africa to Western BY CHRIS BESWETHERICK Photos by Ricky Rath // AS Review
“Y
ou’re all dancing like you’re from Bellingham,” Gloria Burgess said while leading a lecture exploring the idea of “the negro and spirits from a perspective of African spiritual history” at The Performing Arts Center on Tuesday October 4. Burgess is a performance studies PhD and author. “It’s a joy and a blessing to be here this evening,” Burgess said to start her lecture. Burgess introduced to the audience the idea of Old Africa, around which she set all of the lecture content. Burgess spoke solely of the past to bring the audience back in time to enhance their worldview in a new direction. Burgess and the audience defined worldview as morphing, wide perspective, and so began her insights into the transformation of Africa. “Old Africa was one huge landmass,” she said. “Now, it is split up into so many countries.” Burgess stated that these human-made boundaries between African countries goes against the spiritual connection Old Africans worshipped for so long.
“Everyone in [an African] village believed they were a single organism,” Burgess said. “‘We’ was privileged over ‘me.’” Their sharing of life transcended the physical realm and allowed them to feel each other’s presence among the village. Everyone was connected by something, which Burgess helped the audience discover. “Hush, hush, hush now. Mmmm. Listen,” she said to quiet the audience so they could listen like Old African tribes would. “Lean into those voices that whisper at dawn...Words and music. What is this? Words and music. These are the glue that hold people together.” Through music, African communities strengthened their bonds. The belief is that music was everywhere and at all times, as was their spiritual worship. “The songs are free. There is music in the air over my head,” Burgess said. The music they hear is referred to as spirituals, which are African songs that can be created about anything occurring in life that had enough emotion to be sung about. These songs bridged the worshippers to each other, their
religion and daily life. “Music and words are intimately connected to everyday life,” Burgess said. “There were songs for war, songs for playing, songs for conceiving a child, songs for having a child. Worship was not set aside, everything was worship.” These tribes believe music purposefully connects the whole world and can carry certain meanings. The audience learned that spirituals have layers to them. The first layer is the real, definite meaning of the song. For example, in “Wade in the Water,” the clear definition is an instruction to simply walk through the water. However, African slaves, who were taken from Old Africa, repurposed the meaning of the lyrics to function as a code; they did so with other songs, too. This spiritual, then, carried multiple meanings slave owners could not interpret, so slaves sang this to instruct anyone escaping to walk through the water to avoid tracking from dogs. “Spirituals become, then, a radical declaration,” Burgess said. “A radical declaration of community, of salvation, preservation of the whole being. A whole way of knowing.” Music being in the air connected all people of Africa together, allowing each individual to feel the presence of their tribe and friends and family and self. Interestingly, when many were taken from their homes and then enslaved in the United States, the people of Africa did not refer to them as stolen, but
lost. This is because they could not feel the presence of some of their nearby peers, but also because they did not know about slavery, they just felt their absence. Spirituals were then what continued to connect those who were taken away, or lost, to their home. Burgess, to really relate the African spiritual history to the audience, invited the attendees of the lecture down to join her in a ring shout, which is a mode of celebration. A ring shout can last hours upon hours, with singing, drumming and dancing. Burgess quickly taught everyone the words to “Sometimes I feel like a Motherless Child” and “Wade in the Water” and suddenly the room beat with a cadence of claps and stomps and voices putting the music back into the air. Considering few audience members had participated in the ring shout, the energy felt low for Burgess. Usually, these ring shouts are filled with an abundance of people, all of whom know the lyrics and meanings and so embrace the power of the music. Burgess has published four books, given keynote speeches and master classes on African Heritage at venues like Benaroya Hall and the Women’s International Network Conference in Geneva. Heritage resources brought Burgess to participate in this lecture, and will continue hosting talks and exhibitions to broaden the worldview of the Western community.
12 • as.wwu.edu/asreview
The PSL: Is it worth it? Debriefing the Debate A review by Erasmus Baxter Photo by Ricky Rath // AS Review
Fall. Autumn. That time of year when things start to get cold and dark, but when the real cold and dark days of winter are still yet to come. This season has many names. However, one element has remained constant through the ages: Pumpkin Spice Lattes. Coming in at $4.25 for 12 ounces, the infamous pumpkin spice latte, or PSL, from Starbucks is $1.30 more expensive than a regular Starbucks latte, and close to the price of a footlong sandwich at Subway. A favorite of gentrifiers everywhere, it is undoubtedly a cultural icon, but is it worth it? At first glance, this polarizing drink looks no different than any other beverage ensconced in a white and green Starbucks cup. Removing the lid reveals a swirl of whip cream dusted with the essential pumpkin spice sitting in a halo of frothed milk. The rich smell of pumpkin pie caresses your nostrils. The first layer of light, frothy bubbles condenses in your mouth leaving a sweet aftertaste. As you slip through this layer you enter the core of the drink. A sweet, full-bodied coffee taste with edges of spice awaits you. As you venture deeper, the pumpkin taste becomes more central, interspersed with notes of dairy. It is as if someone stuffed pumpkin pie and whipped cream in a blender, and in the process the blender caught on fire, warming it up to a pleasant temperature. My companion described it as: “Pumpkin. Sugar. Hot. In a cup.” Overall, the drink strikes a delightful balance between pureed pumpkin pie and sweet, milky coffee. The two tastes circle and complement each other on the tongue, like two puppies chasing each other’s tails. After finishing the drink, I was left with a bittersweet aftertaste in my mouth that had me craving more sugary coffee drinks, and a feeling of caffeinated energy. It’s worth noting that a pumpkin spice latte has less than a third of the caffeine of a cup of drip coffee from Starbucks. So, if you’re looking for something to get you going in the morning stick to the cheap and easy option, but if you want a sweet, seasonal treat and have the cash to splash, a PSL may be the way to go. Just be sure to bring your Uggs!
T
BY JULIA BERKMAN
he first presidential debate took place while Hillary Clinton notes the fact that he on September 27 of this year. The two benefitted from a national economic disasparticipants, Hillary Clinton and Donald ter. Trump’s attacks on his opponent mainly Trump, took to the stage at Hofstra University focused on the fact that Clinton has been for the first Presidential debate of this elecunable to market change in the her 30 years in tion. The reason this is considered the first American politics. The chaos was amplified in debate is because all the previous debates have the second and third sections. been intraparty, meaning that this is the first Trump’s accusations that Clinton has been debate of the season to cross party lines. unable to broker change are met by equally As such, the event was met with the usual fevered accusations and controversy suramount of controversy and spectacle. The host rounding Trump’s taxes. Allegedly, Trump has for the evening, Lester Holt, set up the rules not paid his taxes in 19 years. It’s easy to see of the debate: 90 minutes, structured into six where his distaste towards business tax comes 15 minute sections, focusing on three main from. He says he is under an audit currently, issues. The however, presidential the IRS has nominees stated you then walked are allowed out onto the to release stage. your taxes During during the the first audit. segment, the Accordtwo candiing to dates spoke Clinton, about their Trump views on the owes American billions job econoto wall my. Clinton street, and advocated hasn’t paid for a higher ABOVE LEFT: Republican presidential nominee Donald any federminimum Trump. ABOVE RIGHT: Democratic presidential nominee al income wage and Hillary Clinton. Photos courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. tax. Trump equal pay. replied that Trump focused mainly on bringing jobs from that makes him a smart businessman. American companies back to the States. Trump focused in on the scandal surroundClinton struck a nerve with Trump, a busiing Hillary’s emails, telling her she had a duty nessman, when she spoke of her plan to raise to release them to the American people. Clinthe taxes on companies such as his. Trump, on ton acknowledged that using a private email the other hand, had a different plan: reducing server was a mistake, while Trump said it was business taxes from 35% to 15%. This plan has done purposely. been compared to Reagan’s Trickle Down EcoThe main points of contention in this debate nomic scheme, which would tax companies brought to light the sheer differences between less in order to allow them to raise the wages the two candidates. In order to glean a clear of their employees on their own. view on who you support, watch the debate Tax experts have estimated that this plan for yourself and see the candidates in action. would indebt the United States a further five It’s rife with pivotal information necessary in trillion dollars. making a decision in the upcoming election. The two debated on, but not without controversy. Trump is one of the few investors in Editor’s Note: This article has been the United States to have benefitted from the published for informational purposes only. The AS Review does not endorse housing market crash in 2008. Trump calls his personal economic boom simply business any particular political candidate.