AS Review - May 05, 2014

Memoirs of identity: the Fifth Annual Queer Experience, p. 4 Flying fruits and astronauts: STRFKR & Kithkin bring down the VU, p. 6 Breaking the taboo: One student works to create a resource for those left behind by suicide, p. 8

Vol. 29 #26 5.5.2014

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Kithkin rocks out and tells tales of the forest in the Viking Union Multipurpose Room on April 27. Photo by Isaac Martin // AS Review

making your life better, one page at a time 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 © 2014. 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 under-represented issues, inclusive coverage, informing readers and promoting dialogue.

IN THIS ISSUE NEWS 4 The Queer

Experience AS Queer Resource Center hosts fifth annual truth-telling event

5 Gendered

Experiences of Urban Mobility Open discussion explores sexual harassment on public transportation

COLUMNS 6 STRFKR A dancing astronaut, sex toys and good music - Dominic D’Angelo explores them all

11 HvZ Andrew Wise is in trouble if there’s a zombie apocalypse, see why on p. 9

FEATURES 8 Breaking the taboo Western senior Haley Beglau forms support group for loved ones of suicide victims

9 See-through solar Western team creates a transparent solar window

We welcome reader submissions, including news articles, literary pieces, photography, artwork or anything else physically printable. Email submissions to as.review@wwu.edu.

We welcome letters to the editor. Please limit your letter to 300 words, include your name, phone number and year in school, if you’re a student.

Send them to as.review@wwu.edu. Published letters may have minor edits made to their length or grammar.

THE AS

REVIEW Cade Schmidt Kylie Wade Isaac Martin Trevor Grimm Kelly Mason Andrew Wise C Hayley Halstead Dominic D’Angelo Designer Keghouhi Bedoyan Adviser Jeff Bates

Editor in Chief Assistant Editor Lead Photographer Photographer Copy Editor Writers

Ethnic Student Center advisor Nate Panelo (right) takes a photo of Mayra Guizar, Western President Bruce Shepard, Heather Heffelmire and Danyal Lotfi (left to right). President Shepard brought cookies to the ESC to recognize students for organizing the “Diversity Is” rally. Photo

by Isaac Martin // AS Review

May 5, 2014 • 3

EVENTS Jazz Jam Sessions May 5 // 7 p.m. // UGCH // Free Bring your gear to jam or come enjoy some music over a cup of coffee.

Political Science Conference May 6 // 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. // Free Students can present their papers to students and faculty at the Political Science Student Conference. There will be a guest lecture from 3-5 p.m.

Gendered Experiences of Urban Mobility May 6 // 6-8 p.m. // MH 138 // Free Brought to you by the AS Women’s Center, Katie Nordgren from Vancouver, B.C. will be giving a talk about her Women’s Studies project on sexual harassment in the public transit system.

For more on this event, check out our story on p. 5.

Open Mic Night May 6 // Sign-ups at 6:30 p.m., show at 7 p.m. // UGCH // Free Come share that hidden talent of yours!

Or if you are untalented or just shy, grab a seat and admire others’ talents.

Let’s Start a Conversation May 7 // 5-6 p.m. // CF 231 // Free A campaign to start conversations, there are no wrong or right answers, just great conversations at this event! This week’s question will be “when do you take a stand?”

Campus Accessibility Forum

Tibetan Religion & Medicine

May 7 // 6-8 p.m. // AW 304 // Free

May 9 // 4-5:30 p.m. // Wilson Library Reading Room // Free

There will be a discussion on problems with Western’s accessibility. Disability Resources for Students will talk about their work and how they are working to meet students’ needs.

KVIK presents Void Walker May 7 // 7-8:30 p.m. // VU 552 // Free KVIK’s student produced sci-fi thriller show has reached its series finale! The show follows travelers who navigate a void before reaching their final resting place. Catch up on previous episodes before attending online at http://vimeo. com/channels/voidwalker.

Culture Shock May 7 // 7:30-9:30 p.m. // Performing Arts Center // Free Hosted by the Ethnic Student Center, students and community members can come together to showcase their culture and learn about other cultures. The event features performances from spoken word to cultural dances. For more, check out our story on p. 4.

Wednesday Night Concert Series: David’s Drinking Band w/ Katie Gray May 7 // 8 p.m. // UGCH // Free David’s Drinking Band and Katie Gray will be performing. Come listen to some free music!

Dr. Sienna Craig, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology at Dartmouth College, will be speaking about how Tibetan medicine circulates through diverse settings in Nepal, China and more.

5th Annual Queer Experience May 9 & 10 // 7 p.m. // VU MPR & Old Main Theater // Free A memoirs style truth-telling event, the cast of this year’s Queer Experience has worked on their personal memoirs for over 7 weeks. For more, head to our coverage on p. 4.

Love Moves 5K May 10 // 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. // PAC Plaza // Free Western’s chapter of To Write Love On Her Arms is hosting its annual 5K walk/ run to raise awareness about suicide, self-harm, addiction and mental illnesses.

Nelson Mandela, The Heart of the Flame May 10 // 5-10 p.m. // VU MPR // $10 w/ student I.D. The Ethnic Student Center presents its 16th annual dinner and showcase, this year commemorating Mandela. Come learn, eat delicious food, enjoy dance performances and celebrate!

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Memoirs of identity: The Fifth Annual Queer Experience

ESC’s Culture Shock ready to pack the PAC

By Kelly Mason

By C Hayley Halstead

The fifth annual Queer Experience will be held at 7 p.m. Friday, May 9 in the Viking Union Multipurpose room and Saturday, May 10 in Old Main Theater. The truth-telling event, sponsored by the Associated Students Queer Resource Center, features students sharing their experiences as queer-identified individuals in memoir style.

The cast, which consists of about 15 students, has undergone over seven weeks of training to prepare their personal memoirs. Each memoir will feature an individual’s own personal experience of how the queer identity has impacted their life.

Similar to Vagina Memoirs, the Queer Experience offers individuals a safe space and a voice. Queer Resource Center Assistant Coordinator Clinton Kvistad-Renaissance is one of the facilitators of the Queer Experience and understands the significance of this event within the queer community.

“The ability for queer people to share uninterrupted is really important. It’s them saying what their life has been like, or a portion of their life, or how their identities interact and no one else can take that moment from them,” Kvistad-Renaissance said. “I feel like it’s really empowering. You’ve worked so hard on this piece and now is your time to share it. No matter what, people are going to be so blown away and I feel like that’s so important and that’s so affirming.”

Being a part of the show not only allows queer-identified individuals a chance to share their experiences, but the event helps build a stronger queer community.

“It’s tough to maintain a solid queer community on campus because there are so many different groups and different interests, but one of the really good things Queer Experience does is it brings together a really wide range of people and all of us, even the facilitators, become part of the community,” Kvistad-Renaissance said. “It builds up a support network for people, it fosters a lot of friendship and a lot of growth.”

Kvistad-Renaissance was a former cast member and has a firsthand experience of the friendships created by being a part of the Queer Experience. The event is currently in its fifth year and KvistadRenaissance hopes to see it continue and expand.

“The performance is a great way for people to be exposed to new ideas,” Kvistad-Renaissance said. “It offers a space for people to realize like, ‘I’m not the only one who had this experience, someone else had this too.’ That’s really important because it helps take away that feeling of isolation.”

After booking the Performing Arts Center to host its largest annual event, the Associated Students Ethnic Student Center is proud to present “Culture Shock.” On May 7 at 7 p.m. this free event will feature 20 different students who will showcase their cultures through a wide array of performances.

These performances range from singing to instrumental music, from spoken word to cultural dances and more. Last year, the largest group consisted of 14 performers and with an even higher number of participants this year, the AS Ethnic Student Center Program Coordinator Polly Woodbury is ecstatic about the event.

“It’s an opportunity for all the ESC clubs to get together and showcase what their culture is,” Woodbury said. “It’s also a celebration for the end of the year.”

Woodbury was first introduced to Culture Shock as a freshman when she performed a hip-hop dance with a friend.

“It was amazing,” Woodbury said. “I didn’t know how big the event was because it was my freshman year, but I was super excited.”

When she was on stage, looking into the audience, Woodbury saw the entire Multipurpose Room in the Viking Union packed, with all eyes on her.

“I was like, ‘wow,’ I didn’t even know I was part of something larger than just a performance,” she said.

Last year, AS Ethnic Student Center Marketing & Outreach Coordinator Teena Thach wrote and performed a song at Culture Shock.

“While performing, it’s amazing to be able to share part of yourself with the university,” Thach said. “I think it’s a great way to show people different cultures while everyone is just having a good time.”

Thach emphasized that it doesn’t cost anything to attend Culture Shock, people just need to stop by for a night of great performances.

“We make it a free event because we want everyone to come and we want it open for anyone to bring their family and friends,” Thach said. “The PAC is huge and we want to fill it up.”

While this event is intended to be entertaining, it also serves to educate and highlight the different cultures that make up Western’s community.

“You’re not just going there for entertainment, you’re going there to learn about people’s cultures,” Woodbury said.

If you have any questions about the event, contact Thach at as.esc. publicrelations@wwu.edu.

May 5, 2014 • 5

Getting home safely: Students examine sexual harassment on public transportation

By Andrew Wise

A woman is beaten by a man for refusing his sexual advances in a SkyTrain station in downtown Vancouver. A transgender couple feels the heat of an angry stare from the man sitting across from them on the bus. A young woman disembarks from a bus 15 blocks before her stop after a man she didn’t know repeatedly touched her thigh.

These are just a few of the hundreds of stories told on the blog, “Harassment on TransLink.” Six months ago, Simon Fraser University undergrad student Katie Nordgren and classmate Alexa Dredge created the site in an attempt to create a venue for discussion of the serious dangers for women and other gender identities who use Vancouver’s public transit system.

Nordgren will be presenting and participating in an open-forum discussion at the Associated Students Women’s Center’s upcoming event, Gendered Experiences of Urban Mobility: Creating Safe Space in Transit. The event will take place on May 6 from 6-8 p.m. in Miller Hall 138.

Nordgren connected with the Women’s Center through Elizabeth Sigurdson.

When Sigurdson noticed that the blog was gaining attention at the national level in both the U.S. and Canada, they contacted Nordgren about coming to Western.

“I thought it was really awesome that the project was getting so much attention and I really wanted to bring that here and have her talk to us about it because it’s a really important issue that we need to address,” Sigurdson said.

The blog has been featured on CBC, a major Canadian television network, and Nordgren has been working with transit police in Vancouver to come up with ways to address issues of harassment.

Sigurdson said that street harassment is in issue that exists throughout society.

“Street harassment is kind of everywhere, it doesn’t matter where you go, it happens to people in every public venue, including transportation, including on campus and including in dorms,” Sigurdson said. “It still happens from time to time, and it’s something that we need to pay attention to and have people share their stories and also work on ways to end the kind of harassment that goes on.”

Students will have an opportunity to share at the event. AS Women’s Center Coordinator Sara Wozniak praised Nordgren’s creative use of social media.

“I feel that social media has such a huge role in everything to do with activism now, so it seemed like a new, fresh idea to show people,” Wozniak said.

Above all, the Women’s Center hopes that students leave the event with a sense of solidarity, knowing that they’re not the only one to experience harassment and that they have the ability to confront and address those situations.

“If you see it happening, call people out or help someone out if they’re being harassed by someone else. Also, just ending the issue overall by addressing the underlying social structures that are causing this harassment to happen in our society,” Sigurdson said.

Top Ten: April 22 - 29 1

Awake Tycho

2

Brush Manatee Commune

3

Love Letters Metronomy

4

Salad Days Mac DeMarco

5

“You Make Me Wanna Die” [Single] The Shivas

6

Galore Thumpers

7

Earthbeat Be Forest

8

Gilded Oldies Cataldo

9

Sun Structures Temples

10

Forcefield Tokyo Police Club

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.

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Flying fruit & astronauts: STRFKR & Kithkin rock the VU

By Dominic D’Angelo If there is joy in copulating with stars ,STRFKR laid it down on Sunday evening.

Indie beats, an ecstatic atmosphere, astronauts and sex dolls, it was all there, culminating in an experience that was both invigorating and psychedelic. In many ways it stood out as a testament to the power that the Associated Students Productions Pop Music team has to bring contemporary music to campus and the understanding they have of both what’s current and what students want.

I walked to the concert at 8:30 p.m., an hour past the start time. The Viking Union Multipurpose Room stood three-fourths full

with college students. Eavesdropping, I caught wind of classic concert indie talk: bros in tank tops mentioning to girls in T-shirts how they “discovered” the band years ago, that one old dude in the back trying to sound professional, the chatter of hurried stage hands moving from the soundboards to backstage. After nearly six months of not seeing a live band, it felt nice to be back in the music scene.

The first band Kithkin, a self-proclaimed “Cascadian Tree-folk Tribe,” entered the stage after an hour and began to play. With strong bass lines, echoing vocals and tribal drums, Kithkin played a set that was reminiscent of the lo-fi late-1990s pop scene and the scream vocals of Modest Mouse’s song “Bukowski.” They

began rather slow without much enthusiasm from the crowd, but quickly got up to speed when they performed an impromptu version of Phil Collins’ hit “In The Air Tonight,” a song that the audience readily sang along to. After that it was all smooth sailing as Kithkin’s bass player/drummer stage dove into the crowd and stunned the audience by jumping off amps to deliver blows to his tribal drum. The entire set was a true performance, but nothing was more memorable than when Kithkin’s bass player went backstage and returned to scream out what appeared to be a story, all the while throwing fruit from the greenroom at the audience. Although quite a few members of the audience looked like they did want a bite from

STRFKR and Kithkin teamed up to deliver an epic performance on April 27 in the VU MPR. Our photographers teamed up to bring you all the scenes from the night. Top row: Photos by Isaac Martin. Bottom left & right: Photos by Trevor Grimm. Next page, top left: Photo by Isaac Martin; next page, top right & bottom row: Photos by Trevor Grimm.

May 5, 2014 • 7

flying fruits, I could tell from my vantage point in the front row that at least two or three members of the crowd got an unwanted apple in the Adam’s apple. Although they weren’t what I would call a perfect performance, Kithkin played a good set and it was sad to see them go.

After an hour of waiting for the stage hands to get the stage warmed up, STRFKR took the stage. No warm-up, no wait for the feeling of the band to reach the crowd, the moment that STRFKR took the stage the energy was ecstatic. Within two songs balloons dropped and confetti was shot out of fireworks. Within

four songs members of the band were crowd surfing. Within five, I briefly looked away and looked back to find that there were two male sex dolls crowd surfing. Seven songs in, one of the band members returned from backstage wearing an astronaut’s costume. And at eight, the astronaut was riding an inflatable raft atop of the crowd, buoyed between the two male sex dolls.

I have been going to concerts since I was in seventh grade. I have seen bands wear tin foil hats and unicorn costumes. I’ve tripped out to crazy movies behind psychedelic music. I’ve

watched a barefoot man try to swallow a microphone in the middle of a set.

In all my years of going to concerts I have never seen a performance so quirky, exciting and fun as STRFKR delivered on Sunday. And despite the overwhelming stage presence, the music was still good. They played all of their hits: “YAYAYA,” “While I’m Alive” and their highly popular cover of “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” Apart from a few microphone issues, it was perfect.

All in all, it was an experience I’ll be telling my friends about for a long time.

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Breaking the taboo: One student works to develop a resource for those left behind by suicide ‘what are you doing for therapy? How are you working through your loss?’ Especially because suicide is so sudden.”

“My father won’t be present at my wedding, he’s Beglau pitched the program to Western’s Counseling Center, but she encountered hesitation about how much creating it would cost. So not going to hold my first child and I’m not going she took the idea to Western’s president Bruce Shepard, who lost his son to see him age.” in the same way Beglau lost her father. Shepard liked the idea and deTwenty-two-year-old Western senior Haley Beglau constantly cided to back the group. The director of the Counseling Center, Nancy thinks about her father, Kurt. She thinks about him while she sips a cup Corbin, offered to head it up. Not enough people expressed interest to of black coffee. She thinks about him on her 20-minute break at work. make it happen this quarter, but Beglau is hoping it can become a realShe thinks about his humor. But she won’t hear his voice again. Three ity at the start of the next school year. years ago, her father took his own life. When Beglau talks about what happened she is careful with the words she chooses. She emphasizes the phrase “passed away.”

“I use that terminology, passed away due to suicide, because ‘commit’ sounds like commit a crime, commit a murder,” Beglau said. “You don’t commit cancer.”

After her father’s death, Beglau took a year off from Western and took classes at Edmonds Community College. She wanted to be closer to family and be able to receive counseling. After returning to Western, Beglau started looking for resources and support. She was referred to one-on-one free counseling and grief groups. But when she attended grief groups with her family, she felt a barrier between them and the rest of the people there. She felt like her loss was taboo and that others’ losses were somehow better. Eventually she stopped going. She wished for resources that better fit her needs. She still struggles to understand what went on in her father’s life that caused it to end so abruptly. It seemed like everything in his life was moving in a positive direction.

He was days away from taking his nursing exam, had a job lined up and Western senior Haley Beglau holds a photograph of her father, had a supportive wife. There was no note or phone call to say goodbye. who passed away due to suicide three years ago. Photo by “My father always said suicide was a cry for help, so it came as a real Isaac Martin // AS Review shock when he passed away,” Beglau said. “I think it was an absolutely traumatic, terrible choice in the moment and then he took his life.”

Feeling lost without support programs tailored to her experience, She imagines the group as a safe place for people to confront their Beglau decided to create the kind of resource she was looking for. It loss without feeling the weight of the stigmas attached to suicide. started with a class assignment to create a program to address a gap in “I am trying to break the taboo surrounding suicide,” Beglau said. services. The project was only supposed to be hypothetical, but Beglau “Just like in domestic violence, rape or anything else hard to talk about realized it was something she wanted to bring to Western’s campus. in this culture, it just needs to be talked about.”

Beglau worked with her group members to create a survey that asked Although there are many groups dedicated to suicide prevention, participants if they would be interested in a suicide survivor group. Of Beglau said groups supporting the loved ones of suicide victims are the 64 students who responded to the survey, 23 of them indicated they rare. If you’re interested in joining, contact nancy.corbin@wwu.edu. would be interested.

“Life is what you want to make of it,” Beglau said. “I could quit school, “I can only imagine how many more people have lost someone due or I could have a really negative life, but I don’t want to. My father’s loss to suicide,” Beglau said. “I really want to bounce ideas off people like, was out of my control, but what I do with my life is in my control.”

By C Hayley Halstead

May 5, 2014 • 9

Western team creates a see-through solar window Another group of researchers is trying to produce a spray-on solar collection material. But within the UWBPC, NOVA is unique. During the competition, Bennett works to reel in the potential “investors,” the judges of the competition who walk from booth to booth listening to the teams’ pitches.

“I imagine myself as a fisherman, or a shark, depending on what I’m doing,” Bennett said. “If I’m standing near the table I’m the fisherman and I’m trying to bait them in. I’m not trying to do that in some kind of cheesy, salesman kind of way, I’m trying to get their attention, engage them, and say, ‘Hey, who are you, what are you about, have you seen this?

Because this is awesome.’”

Of the 16 teams that qualified for the final competition, 10 were from UW, and for

into research and preparation for upcoming competitions. Bennett said it was an exhilaratAfter the shortcomings of Western basketing experience to hold a check worth so much ball, it’s comforting that at least one team from money. To win the $25,000, Bennett says the Western reached a sweet 16. But this team’s key is salesmanship. uniform is a suit and tie, its game is solar en“We have a solid team. We have a solid ergy and the tournament is the University of project. We have solid numbers. But honestly, Washington Business Plan Competition. these things come down to salesmanship, the Western students Blake Bishop, Christian ability to clearly educate the investors and to Erickson, Josh Bennett, James Mayther, Sarah clearly convey our message. If we can’t do that, O’Sell and Jim Kintzele make up the team we might as well not even go,” Bennett said. behind NOVA Solar Window, a transparent But Bennett’s confidence is infallible. material that can function as a solar panel on When asked if there were any moments of the outside of a clear window. doubt during preparation for competition, The team and their product won $10,000 he responded: “I don’t doubt. Doubt is a at the Sixth Annual Environmental Innovation waste of time.”

Challenge on April 3 before ranking in the top In the end, the future of the project comes 16 at UWBCP on April 29. The winner of the down to money. The team is working to have final competition on May a window using their 22 will take home $25,000. technology installed in the “The project started Viking Union.

“We can all agree that Bellingham and Western is not Seattle out as a three-inch cube Their initial proposal five years ago, and every and the University of Washington. It’s unfortunate but it’s to the Green Energy Fund year it’s been making these patently true. And it’s cool to show them and the rest of the Committee was turned leaps in terms of technoldown, but the possibility state of Washington, and really the rest of the world, that big is still there. ogy and this year, as soon as we found out that it was “We don’t want to do things can come out of little places like Western.” clear, we all immediately an installation at Western latched on to the idea of that’s subpar. It has to -- JOSH BENNETT windows,” said Josh Benlook like it’s coming from nett, the team’s marketing a massive corporation director. or operation that knows Bennett said that a year ago, the material Bennett and the rest of the team, it’s impor- exactly what they’re doing. It has to look awewas flexible but a bright orange color, “almost tant to prove that Western can compete with some,” Bennett said. like a safety orange.” Now that it’s transparent, all of them.

Going into the final competition, team Bennett sees huge long-term possibilities.

“We can all agree that Bellingham and CEO Blake Bishop said in an email that, “The “We’re making solar panels inhabit the Western is not Seattle and the University of competition [in May] is going to be tough, but same space as a window. That’s wholly new, Washington. It’s unfortunate but it’s patently the team is confident.” and if we can convey that message, I think we true. And it’s cool to show them and the rest Bennett says that with a good chunk can come out on top,” he said. of the state of Washington, and really the rest of money and a little more development, The market for transparent solar collectors of the world, that big things can come out of solar-window skyscrapers might only be is still small. One company produces windows little places like Western,” Bennett said. five years away. striped with photovoltaic cells, which look The $10,000 the team won at the EnviFor the entire NOVA team, the future to the eye like a piece of college ruled paper. ronmental Innovation Challenge went back seems, well, bright.

By Andrew Wise

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Q&A with poet and activist Staceyann Chin

By Dominic D’Angelo On April 24, prominent spoken-word poet Staceyann Chin visited Western for the annual Associated Students Women’s Center event Take Back the Night. In an event supercharged with emotions ranging from pain, rage, inspiration and happiness, Staceyann’s words did not fall short. Hailing from Jamaica, Staceyann identifies as Jamaican, Asian and lesbian and has a personal history in sexual abuse, rape and discrimination. We sat down with Staceyann Chin to talk to her about her experiences and the importance of Take Back the Night.

Q: How did you become involved in being a spoken-word poet for marginalized-identities’ rights? How did you become involved in events like Take Back the Night?

I was sexually assaulted myself and I had so many things happen to me that this is a way of fighting back. It is giving a voice to these very crazy issues that gave me my power back. Now it’s just a joy to watch other women come into the same power, to share space with women who are already finding and speaking that power. I can’t imagine anything else.

Q: Why do you think events like these are important on college campuses?

Because assault happens here so much on campuses across the nation, across the world. It’s where boys start beginning to become men, it’s where you are out from under your parent’s care. It’s almost like the first time where they have their own space unmanned by parents or the high school policing that often exists. I think that because of this a lot of people are testing the boundaries of their power, some exploitation happens, and I think events like these are really, really important because out in the world you won’t have these types of policing. This is where so many young people learn the values that they will take with them for the rest of their lives and it is so important for them to have this conversation now, instead of ten years from now.

Q: What do you hope that people will take away from “Take Back the Night”?

I hope that people will become empowered, that people will become loud. I hope that they will get rid of the shame associated with assault that they carry when they have been assaulted. I hope that they will see assault as an issue that we have to deal with now, that we have to change now. It’s a global issue, it’s a non-gender specific issue.

Most of the assaults happen to women and are perpetrated by men, Q: Why did you want to come to an event like this?

I do Take Back the Nights all the time because I believe in the power but you also have many assaults that happen to men and women are of it, I believe it is necessary. I work with women’s centers all the time the perpetrators. It’s not just one or the other, I think that we should change the context of the conversation. because it is important, it is urgent, it is necessary, it is now.

Left and right: Poet and activist Staceyann Chin brings raw energy to her performance at Take Back the Night on Thursday, April 24. Center: The Take Back the Night march winds through campus. Photos by Trevor Grimm // AS Review

May 5, 2014 • 11

Humans vs. Zombies: Our writer tries to survive

By Andrew Wise // Design Bedoyan

by

Keghouhi

I don’t own a Nerf gun. Sorry, Nerf blaster. I think I might have had one when I was small, but the darts were probably lost within a week or two and it eventually floated out on a garage sale pile.

I regretted not holding on to that particular toy as I walked cautiously from my dorm room to the Ridgeway dining hall, balled up socks in hand, orange bandana tied to my left arm, eyes darting toward every rustling bush. It was only day one and I knew that there were unlikely to be any “zombies” lurking on the Ridge at 7:30 a.m., but the anxiety was inescapable.

I’m a total outsider to this game. I’ve watched a few episodes of “The Walking Dead,” but I don’t own any camouflage clothing, not to mention the dart-firing artillery that most people have. I’m not a gamer and I don’t know anything about strategy in a situation where monsters wait around every corner. The only attribute I bring to the table is that I’m an athlete. I represent Western as a distance runner, so I hoped that the ability to leave zombies in the dust would help. I was a baseball player in high school, so I hoped I would be able to

throw a balled up sock with precision.

I had images in my head of sprinting away from packs of shouting, rabid people with orange strung across their heads, looking back as they steadily faded away, exhausted. I imagined winging sock balls at attackers and nailing them in the torso. I’m sure thoughts of such epic moments are what bring a lot of people into the game. But it never goes the way you picture it. I walked in fear, jump-

to the doors, about to make the jump to the Environmental Sciences building. But I didn’t look around the corner. She basically bumped into me, a devious smile curling under that orange headband. I was, needless to say, disappointed. If I was to go down, it should have been truly hopeless. I should have been cornered by twenty zombies, out of rolled up socks, bravely resigned to my fate. Instead, I stumbled into someone on accident and just like that, my hu-

“If I was to go down, it should have been truly hopeless.

I should have been cornered by twenty zombies, out of rolled up socks, bravely resigned to my fate. Instead, I stumbled into someone on accident and just like that, my humanity was gone.”

ing from building to building, avoiding a lone zombie here and there. These one-on-one encounters were awkward, especially when the zombie attempted to make conversation or come up with a threatening line straight out of a bad SyFy channel movie.

Having not watched very many of those movies, I rarely had a good comeback. I just ran.

Day one, Wednesday, was a lonely first day.

I didn’t band together with any other humans.

I saw a couple of the organized, pseudo-military groups moving through strange parts of campus in formation, speaking to each other by code names. I wouldn’t do them any good because I was so thoroughly unarmed, so I continued my stealthy strategy.

I lasted until Friday afternoon. The end did not involve any dramatic glory. There was no chase. I was walking along the front side of the Communications building, staying close

manity was gone. She was laughing. I dutifully handed over my card and transferred the bandana from my arm to my head.

I was humbled by the game. Those who are into it take it to a different level. The controversy around it is warranted. I can understand why campus veterans would rather that people didn’t wear military uniforms while brandishing plastic artillery. I understand too the professor who refused to teach during HvZ. These seven days are a different sort of reality for the people who truly participate. That alternate reality is a reflection of a conglomeration of video games, movies and books that are a reflection of our popular culture. Any reflections will be controversial. All that I know now is that it’s as addicting as it is stressful. However weak my effort was, I caught a glimpse into a different world. And I’ve got a lot to learn in order to survive the next zombie apocalypse.

12 • as.wwu.edu/asreview

What’s on your bucket list?

Students share what they want to do before they leave Western

Brianna Ellis, junior

Nicholas Sweeney, junior

Shiffite Awel, freshman

Max Singler, junior

Michaela Trulson, sophomore

Casey Bateman, senior

Major: Creative writing

Major: Studio Art

By Kelly Mason // Photos by Trevor Grimm

Major: Creative writing

Major: Communications & PR

Intended Major: Accounting

Major: Geology

Bonus content: These six students shared even more of their backgrounds, dreams and goals with us! Head to as.wwu.edu/asreview for the full interviews.