Communicator: Volume 45 Edition 3 by The Communicator

THE COMMUNICATOR MAGAZINE. VOL. 45 EDITION 3, JANUARY 2019

About the Cover PHOTO COURTESY OF KATE ENGLISH WEBSITE: KATEENGLISHPHOTOGRAPHY.COM INSTAGRAM: @KVTEROB

Elena Flores, Community art teacher, passed away on Dec. 31, 2018 after a three-year battle with cancer. Pictured is Elena with her daughter Maya. Elena taught with passion and enthusiasm that will be missed at Community. Her love for art and teaching never wavered during her fight with cancer. A month before her passing, Elena told Communicator writer, Bella Yerkes, that she was hopeful and still creating art. Yerkes wrote the story, found on page 24, of Elenaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s passions and life. Since her passing, Community High School staff and students shared their appreciation, love and memories of Elena, which can be found on page 26. BACK COVER ART BY CY VEILLEUX, SOPHOMORE AT COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL

TABLE OF CONTENTS 04

VOICE is Out

Community’s new literary and visual arts journal, VOICE, has recently been released. It features poems, prose and artwork from over 100 students.

Skyline Men’s Soccer: A Season to Remember

The Skyline men’s soccer team had a long, hard season filled with injuries and loses, but their team pride carried them through, eventually ending in winning the state championships.

A Look at Poetry

Community is full of poets; two of them, seniors Andie Tappenden and Thea Rowe, advanced to become members of the Ann Arbor City Slam Team this year.

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West Side Not Water Hill

One of Ann Arbor’s historically black neighborhoods, The West Side, has been affected by the process of gentrification that has changed it in drastic ways.

Out of the Pool

Michael Phelps opens up about his struggle with mental health, what helped him better understand himself and how he is using his platform to help others who are struggling.

Working to be Who I Am

A journalist’s story of how she handled seasonal affective disorder turning into major depressive disorder, and how she continues to fight for her mental health every single day.

Letter from the Editors Dear Readers, As we were preparing to send our third edition to print, we were informed of the heartbreaking news of the passing of our beloved art teacher, Elena Flores. Elena had passionately taught art at Community for the past 12 years. During her time at Community, Elena touched so many lives. Her passion for teaching was always evident in her mixed media and open studio classes, where she would inspire students to become artists. In Elena’s class, Max Westrum found his love for graphic design, which he has since turned into an internship and career. There are so many stories like his, in addition to amazing memories, from both students and colleagues here at Community. A few are featured later in this edition, and there is a memory wall up in our school across from her old classroom on the first floor where anyone can go write a message about Elena for all to see. After battling her cancer for three years, Elena passed away on Dec. 31, 2018. Elena stayed positive, hopeful and passionate throughout her fight; she continued to create new works of art frequently, mainly small pieces for her friends and family. Even after her diagnosis, Elena continued to work at Community as long as she physically could and when her body made her homebound, she missed Community, her students and the staff. Her presence in our school brought light to the days of students and faculty, and her unique way of connecting with students through visual art can never be replaced. We are inspired by her strength, creativity and kind heart. Her art studio will forever be a place where both experienced artists and amateurs can get in touch with their creativity and express themselves through art. We will forever miss Elena. Communicator writer Bella Yerkes got the chance to speak with Elena in late November of 2018, and she wrote about it shortly thereafter. She learned about Elena’s early career at Community, her love of teaching and her fight with cancer, and saw how she remained optimistic through it all. You can read her story on page 24. Students and faculty alike shared their memories and wellwishes for the Flores family. You can see those accounts on page 26. To Community, together we must stay strong together and remember Elena for all of the beautiful things she gave to us. To the Flores family, we are eternally sorry for your loss and we, as a community, will remember Elena forever. To Elena, we will miss you, the passion you brought to your job and the light you brought to Community. Elena, we dedicate this to you. Thank you for everything.

Your Editors,

COPY EDITORS Madie Gracey Loey Jones-Perpich Charles Solomon

WEB EDITORS-IN-CHIEF

Mazey Perry

Mira Simonton-Chao Gina Liu Paige Duff

MANAGING EDITOR

SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR BUSINESS MANAGERS Owen Kelley Camille Konrad Ruby Taylor

Isabel Espinosa

SECTION EDITORS Evan Ash Elena Bernier Hannah Bernstein Joshua Caldwell Jordan De Padova Atticus Dewey Dan Gutenberg Camille Konrad Zoe Lubetkin Joshua Martins-Caufield Mazey Perry Roxie Richner Andie Tappenden Geneve Thomas-Palmer Sacha Verlon Emma Winegarden Bella Yerkes

DESIGN EDITORS Ella Edelstein Isaac McKenna

VISUALS EDITORS Ebba Gurney iO Soucy

ADVISER

MENTORS Lacey Cooper Sophia Rosewarne

STAFF Luke Andoni-Sevas Sophia Berry Benjamin Cooper Leah Dame Brenan Dionne Ethan Gibb-Randall Daniel Gutenberg Hope Hesseltine Jenna Jarjoura Benjamin Kessler J Kincaid-Beal Andrew Lafferty Sophia Nunez Shea O’Brien Julian Reinhart Andrea Schnell Zachary Schueler Elijah Shore Joseph Simon Meghana Tummala Tai Tworek Cy Veilleux Nina van der Velde Maxwell Westrum

Tracy Anderson

Follow Us on Social Media! @ communicatorchs @ communicatorchs @ communicatorchs Mission Statement: The Communicator is a student-

ABIGAIL GAIES

AVA MILLMAN

WM. HENRY SCHIRMER

CAMRYN TIRICO

PRINT EDITORS-IN-CHIEF Abigail Gaies Ava Millman Wm. Henry Schirmer Camryn Tirico

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run publication and an open forum established in 1974 and created by students at Community High School. The staff of The Communicator seeks to recognize individuals, events, and ideas that are relevant to the community. The Communicator journalists are committed to working in a manner that is professional, unbiased, and thorough in order to effectively serve our readers. We strive to report accurately and will correct any significant error. If you believe such an error has been made, please contact us. Letters of any length should be submitted via e-mail or mail. They become the sole property of The Communicator and can be edited for length, clarity, or accuracy. Letters cannot be returned and will be published at The Communicator’s discretion. The Communicator also reserves the right to reject advertising due to space limitations or decision of the Editorial Board that content of the advertisement conflicts with the mission of the publication. Opinions expressed in this publication are those of the journalism staff and not of Community High School or the Ann Arbor Public Schools.

The Communicator NEWS

FEATURES

A&E

SPORTS

VOICE

HUMANS OF COMMUNITY

SERIES

FEATURE

In The Snow

FEATURE

Marci Harris: teaching French

VOICE

Stop Science-Splaining

CHS COMMUNICATOR .COM

A&E

HUMANS OF COMMUNITY

Music & Mocha with Theo Katzman

Marisol Cisneros

@chscommunicator

Autumn

Nina Beardsley

@communicatorchs

VOICE

@communicatorchs Communicator CHS @chscommunicator

An Artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Impact

Stop and Smell the Roses

January 2019

VOICE IS OUT

COMMUNITY HIGH SHOWCASES OVER 100 STUDENTS IN ITS NEW LITERARY AND VISUAL ARTS JOURNAL. BY SOPHIA ROSEWARNE

On Dec. 11, 2018, the editors and advisors of the first edition of VOICE cut open the cardboard boxes that held the books as the room filled with students waiting to get their copy. The release party was held during lunch and was complete with cake to celebrate the work of everyone involved. VOICE is Community High School’s (CHS) new literary and visual arts journal. The 164 page book is filled with poetry, prose and art. It is being sold at Literati Bookstore for 15 dollars and at CHS for 10 dollars. The journal was produced by a small team of students and staff at CHS. The editors are Aviva Satz-Kojis, Zoe Lubetkin, iO Soucy, Andie Tappenden and Nicole Tooley; the journal’s advisors are staff members Tracy Anderson, Judith DeWoskin and Sarah Weist; and senior Chloe DiBlassio’s artwork is displayed on the cover. Satz-Kojis became involved in VOICE after Tracy Anderson showed her a book as an example of what they could create. Satz-Kojis admired the book and Anderson 6

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invited her to become an editor. Satz-Kojis agreed. “At first I was the only submission and no one was submitting,” Satz-Kojis said. “Then all of a sudden they all came in. I would just spend my Sundays reading through all of the submissions.” DeWoskin, who was involved in Free Verse, CHS’s literary magazine, was brought into VOICE when Anderson asked her to be a co-advisor. When they began the process, DeWoskin and Anderson had students in their English classes submit pieces. Soon after, submissions began coming in from other students. However, it took some time before the amount of people sending in their work really picked up. The initial submission deadline of Oct. 31 was extended to the first week of November because more students wanted to submit. There were over 100 people who submitted when the editing process began. The editors set up a document where they could place all of the pieces. The editors and advisors carefully read each submission, and |

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once a piece had the approval of two editors it was in. “What Tracy and I were more concerned about wasn’t about [what] the editors accepted, but what they didn’t,” DeWoskin said. “The book is meant to be very inclusive.” On Nov. 10, the entire VOICE team held their final production. After two weeks of waiting, the final copies of VOICE came off the printing press. “I’m proud because it’s so beautiful,” Satz-Kojis said. “It’s really cool to make a tangible product, something that people can read and have in their houses.” “The best part of doing VOICE was creating something new with a group of students and watching it unfold,” Anderson said. “I’m super proud of the students who pulled it together and the students who submitted. I love the fact that they joined on to something that they didn’t know what it was, that we didn’t know what we would end up with.”

TOP LEFT: Aviva Satz-Kojis, Zoe Lubetkin and Andie Tappenden pose with Bernadette Quist, the sales representative for Adair, their printing company. TOP RIGHT: Sarah Weist cuts into the cake that reads “VOICE” with a rainbow. MIDDLE: Nicole Tooley, iO Soucy and Zoe Lubetkin open the boxes to have a first look at VOICE. BOTTOM LEFT: Juniors Arlo Durgy and Max Mellor enjoy a slice of cake after picking up their copies of VOICE. BOTTOM RIGHT: Students wait anxiously to pick up their own pre-ordered copies.

January 2019

Local Lawyers Fight for Muscogee Creek Rights KERRYTOWN LAW FIRM KANJI AND KATZEN ARGUE IN THE SUPREME COURT TO RESTORE RESERVATION STATUS TO OKLAHOMA LAND. BY AVA MILLMAN

A mere six feet was all that stood between Ann Arbor lawyers, Riyaz Kanji and David Giampetroni and the eight most powerful justices in the country. “You could hear the justices breathe,” Giampetroni said. It was a long and winding road that took the attorneys from the Kerrytown office of Kanji and Katzen all the way to the highest court in the land — the United States Supreme Court. As a young attorney just starting out, it was Kanji’s interest in civil rights law that led him to accept a job working for a firm that represented American Indian tribes. From this beginning, Kanji’s passion for defending American Indian rights drove him to start his own firm specializing in representing tribes across the United States. With offices in both Ann Arbor and Seattle, Kanji and Katzen has represented tribes in all corners of the country. However, they 8

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had never represented any tribe based in Oklahoma. That was until a young lawyer named Philip Tinker from Pawhuska, Oklahoma, joined their team. Tinker, a member of the Osage Nation himself, came to the firm having taken a special interest as a law student in the murder trial of Patrick Murphy. In 1999, an Oklahoma jury found Murphy, a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation, guilty of the murder and mutilation of another member of the Creek tribe, and sentenced him to death. When Murphy appealed the ruling, what started off as a grotesque yet straightforward murder became so much more. The basis for the appeal dates back to 1830, when then President Andrew Jackson approved the forced relocation of thousands of American Indians living in Alabama and Georgia, known in the history books as the “Trail of Tears.” Government |

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troops burned civilizations to the ground, murdered livestock and rounded up every soul in sight. Those who did not cooperate were shot in cold blood. One of the tribes subjected to these atrocities was the Creek Nation. For those fortunate enough to survive the brutal journey, Congress assigned the Creeks and four other American Indian Nations tracts of land, “The Indian Territory,” in what is today within the boundaries of the state of Oklahoma. In 1901, the federal government attempted to break up all Indian Reservations into individual plots of land, in order to allow non-native settlers to take over. The Creek Nation resisted these efforts but did permit non-natives to settle in certain parts of their territory. Most importantly, the Creeks never relinquished their status as an Indian Reservation.

Members of the Kanji and Katzen team and leaders of the Muscogee Creek Nation stand on the steps of the United States Supreme Court after the trial. “We had a great team, and everybody worked so hard on this case,” Kanji said. The tribal leaders in attendance included, Kevin Dellinger Creek Nation Attorney General, James Floyd principal Chief of the Creek Nation and Lighthorse Police Chief Robert Hawkins Jr.. PHOTO COURTESY OF DAVID GIAMPETRONI

January 2019

icus curiae. After months of preparation, Giampetroni stood on the floor of the Oklahoma 10th Circuit Court and presented the argument that the crime had been committed on the Creek Reservation and therefore was subject to Federal or Creek Nation jurisdiction. Despite what they viewed as long odds, Giampetroni and Kanji prevailed on behalf of the Creek Nation. “When we won, people were calling us and saying, ‘How did you do it? How did you win?’” Kanji said. “It was unbelievable because there had been this assumption that there were no reservations left in this part of Oklahoma.” For Kanji and Giampetroni, the elation of victory was quickly followed by the realization that the State of Oklahoma would attempt to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court. At stake in this decision is not only the recognition of the Creek Nation and all the land that goes with their reservation, but the recognition of the other tribes in Oklahoma and all the land that went with their reservations as well. “Suddenly, just by the virtue of this case, the non-Indian population living on a reservation went up by a factor of five,” Kanji said. “The 200,000 people who are not Indians living on reservations all of a sudden became 1,000,000.” In total, these reservations make up almost 50 percent of Oklahoma. On June 8, 2018, Kanji got the official order that the Supreme Court would be hearing the case, and the Kerrytown firm immediately got to work. “One of the things that we got to do in the Supreme Court that we didn’t have time to do in the 10th Circuit was really mine the history,” Giampetroni said. The team read countless documents, transcriptions and manuscripts from tribal leaders as well as those of Congress, in an attempt to decipher the true intent of past legislation regarding the Oklahoma Reservations. In ad-

“Suddenly, just by the virtue of this case, the non-Indian population living on a reservation went up by a factor of five.”

When Oklahoma became a state in 1907, settlers came in by the masses with no regard for the boundaries of the Creek nation. This historical background provides the basis for Kanji and Giampetroni’s appeal argument. In determining jurisdiction in American Indian cases, three factors must be met: the accused must be an American Indian, the victim must be American Indian and the crime must have been committed on reservation land. “The first two are definitely true: He is a Creek, and he murdered a Creek,” Kanji said. “That made the central issue of this case whether this Creek reservation exists or not.” Tinker first brought the case to Kanji’s attention while it was awaiting trial in the Oklahoma 10th District Court of Appeals. Kanji initially declined to partake in the case. However, Tinker persisted. “Over the course of a couple years, he was basically in our offices once a week saying, ‘Can we do the case?’” Kanji said. In 2016, the Supreme Court heard a case addressing the question, ‘what does it take to disestablish an Indian Reservation?’ The Court ruled that only Congress could disestablish an Indian Reservation, and it needed to do so explicitly. “The Supreme Court adopted, essentially, the arguments that [Tinker] had been pressing to us in our office and that he’d been pressing since law school,” Giampetroni said. Kanji decided to join Murphy’s case by representing the Creek Nation as a third party, in what is formally known as an am-

State Land Reservations of other Nations Muscogee Creek Reservation

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dition, Kanji and Giampetroni traveled to Oklahoma to experience the ins and outs of the Creek Nation’s government. After six months of nonstop preparation, the day finally arrived. While Kanji was no stranger to the court, having been a clerk to Supreme Court Justice David Souter, this was his first time arguing in front of the Justices. It is standard that the amicus curiae speaks last in such cases, leaving plenty of time for the attorneys’ anticipation to build. The countless hours of preparation boiled down to a ten-minute time cap to present their argument. Giampetroni explained how the Justices’ initial line of questioning would likely give clues as to whether they found their argument convincing or not. “For us, it was interesting because we had both,” Giampetroni said. “We had Justices expressing skepticism of our views, and Justices expressing strong support.” As soon as he stood up Kanji had no time to be nervous. Having memorized enough facts and stories to continue his argument for over five hours, the most challenging part of the day was expressing his thoughts in as little time as possible. “It doesn’t come naturally to me because I like to talk, but in that situation I was just trying to be really focused,” Kanji said. When it came to Kanji’s argument, he took a different approach from the attorneys that preceded him. “Every other lawyer, and these are good, experienced lawyers, was making speeches, they were arguing, they were debating,” Giampetroni said. “[Kanji] got up there and his tone was totally different. It was, ‘let’s just talk about it,’ and he had a conversation with them. It was really remarkable.” The consensus from the Kanji and Katzen attorneys in attendance was that their firm delivered a convincing and compelling argument in support of the Creek Nation’s claim to reservation land in Oklahoma. It will be several months before the Supreme Court releases its decision, but win or lose, these Kerrytown lawyers have represented the firm of Kanji and Katzen proudly.

Science in the City: Community’s Newest CR AN ANN ARBOR CITY PLANNER HAS TEAMS UP WITH A COMMUNITY HIGH SCIENCE TEACHER TO TEACH STUDENTS ABOUT URBAN PLANNING AND ECOLOGY. BY JORDAN DE PADOVA AND BRENAN DIONNE

Upon entering any of the six designated Community High School composting classrooms, a subtle scent of pickle juice hangs in the air. The sources of the odor are the barren, white compost buckets, inconspicuously tucked next to the door. These bins are the pet project of the Community High Ecology Club. The leader of the club, Courtney Kiley, is a science teacher at Community who strives to make the school as green as possible. “Climate change is going to ruin everything, so we have to figure out how to manage our resources and run our cities in an environmentally friendly and sustainable way,” Kiley said. Kiley and her Ecology Club have taken these words to heart by undertaking numerous projects such as maintaining the school’s rain garden, advocating for the installation of water bottle fillers and raising salmon for release into the Great Lakes. In late January of 2019, the work of Courtney Kiley, Heather Seyfarth and a few Ecology Club members will come to fruition in the form of Community High’s newest Community Resource (CR) class. Seyfarth, an Ann Arbor city planner, is developing and teaching this CR; the class is to be a means of communication, collaboration and education between the city and students in the community. While Kiley won’t be teaching the class, she will act as a facilitator. Through high membership in Ecology Club and the numerous afore-

mentioned science projects, Community High students have demonstrated their interest in the environment and the community in which they live. As a result, some students have a clear idea of what they want to see from the class. “I would want projects,” said Grace Bates, a junior at Community High School. “I’m really big on projects. I would love to go out in the city and do things that have an impact.” “I feel like if there was real hands on experience, if there was someone who was in the field, like a professional in city planning or urban planning, that would make me more interested in trying it out,” said Katelyn Miller, another Community High junior. The CR will help students understand the inner workings of city government and analyze what steps the city takes to increase eco-friendliness. “[We will cover] local government in general, like just structure, decision making, how the budget works, solid waste and looking at your own recycling and composting practices,” Seyfarth said. The CR would be project based, similar in style to the Community Foundations of Science (FOS) system which most Community students are familiar with. The class, which would be potentially based out of City Hall, would have a unique schedule, mixing lots of projects and trips with some necessary, more orthodox, class time. “Let’s say it’s Tuesday/Thursday:

On Tuesday, we would spend probably in a room at City Hall and do somewhat classroom-type learning where we’re sitting around talking about concepts,” Seyfarth said. “You’d have Thursday to work on a project or something like that. We could even reserve space at City Hall.” While Seyfarth is excited to get to work in the classroom, she is very aware that in order for students to understand the scope of local environmental work, they need an outside perspective. “Just getting out in the city as we do projects around Ann Arbor,” Seyfarth said. “That would be exciting, have it in your own hometown, and really being a part of it.” Seyfarth anticipates numerous exciting off-site trips including Ann Arbor’s solid waste, drinking water and wastewater facilities. This, however, will mean that the CR will only admit around 15 students, potentially excluding almost 25 other students. But there is still hope for everyone interested. Once approved, the CR will be first come, first serve, but students will have to get their paperwork done quickly if they want to reserve their spot. Considering that Ecology Club’s membership is at a record high, there is no doubt the new Ecology CR will be a popular class. For those that don’t make it, don’t worry: Seyfarth and Kiley are looking to expand the class and offer it again next year.

January 2019

Community Reaches New Fundraising Heights CHS RAISED $67,806 FOR FOOD GATHERERS THIS YEAR, BEATING LAST YEAR’S RECORD BY OVER $13,000. BY ELENA BERNIER PHOTOGRAPHY BY ATTICUS DEWEY

The scene at St. Andrews church on Nov. 20, was nothing short of ecstatic when the amount of $67,806 was announced. That’s how much CHS, with a mere 527 students, raised for their annual Food Gatherers fundraiser — which is equivalent to 353,418 meals. With a $50,000 matching grant, that totals to $117,806 donated. “We [were] all just standing there crying,” said Eileen Spring, the CEO of Food Gatherers. In the beginning of November, Sebastian Wreford, the manager of Food Donor Relations from Food Gatherers, visited CHS to kick off the annual fundraising effort. Forums started to devise their strategies, and the competition to raise the most began. In the end, the DeWoskin forum won, with more than $8,000 collected. But once the Food Gatherers assembly arrives, rivalries melt away, and all of the forums’ money is pooled together as one big gift from CHS. “[It’s] amazing, you guys raised so much money,” Wreford said. “It’s so much more than we have any ability to expect. We were all just astounded and delighted and impressed.” Out of the 21 forums at CHS, the Mankad, Morgan, Stapleton and Thomas forums earned the 100 percent Participation Award. Every student in these forums contributed to their fundraising efforts in some way. “Sometimes what you can do is give up your time and energy, and sometimes you can give up money, but everybody can [be] involved in some way,” said Anne Thomas, co-organizer and math teacher at CHS. “I just want that to be their attitude.” 12

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Lanie Chagnovich, a senior at CHS, raised money by emailing all of her extended family and friends, as well as going doorto-door collecting money and cans. She ended up raising about $2,280 — securing her spot as the Top Individual Fundraiser at CHS this year. Food Gatherers’ mission is to alleviate hunger and help address its root causes in Washtenaw County. The organization rescues and procures over 6 million pounds of food each year, which they then distribute to programs, like community kitchens, that they run, and to the other 170 nonprofits in Washtenaw County that are on the frontlines of the fight against hunger and food insecurity. “The money that we raise really helps [to] literally put gas in our vehicles [and] pays the bills so that we don’t have to charge anyone for this food,” Spring said. “All this food that we distribute is free to any individual in need, and it’s also free to all the agencies that we partner with. So it’s a really critical part of how we stay open throughout the year. We need operating dollars.” CHSs annual fundraiser all started in 2009, when Tracy Anderson, an English and journalism teacher at CHS, saw an article in the University of Michigan LS&A magazine about an organizational studies class who was challenged to raise as much money as they could in seven days for a soup kitchen in Detroit. The professor teaching the class, Stephen Garcia, got the idea from an organization studies professor Adam Grant, who had done a similar activity years before. The article described how |

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the class of 62 students broke up into smaller teams and devised strategies for fundraising. After seven days they ended up raising $13,000. It showed that this strategy can be more beneficial than having numerous smaller fundraisers without one main goal. Since 2009, CHS has continued to fundraise, and with each year they have raised more and more money. “It’s just really inspiring for people at this age to be that engaged, that focused, and doing it consistently now for several years,” Spring said. “We’re always so impressed because Community High is a small school in comparison to many other schools in the county, and they have such a huge impact on our work.” In addition to gifting Food Gatherers with the money to keep their services up and running, this fundraiser is an important learning opportunity for students. “Community service is really dear to my heart, [and] I feel like as a teacher I want to impart that on my students,” Thomas said. “I love giving back to my community — I want to model that for students, and I also want them to model that for each other. I want them to leave Community High School with this attitude of ‘How can I give back to my community? What can I do?’”

CHS students at the annual Food Gatherers’ assembly at St. Andrews Church, which takes place amidst their Multi-Culti celebrations.

Skyline Menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Soccer: A Season to Remember PLAYERS AND COACHES LOOK BACK AT INJURIES, TEAM PRIDE AND BECOMING STATE CHAMPIONS. BY LOEY JONES-PERPICH

January 2019

Standing at the top of Sleeping Bear Dunes on a hot August day, looking down onto the shining water of Lake Michigan, the Skyline men’s varsity soccer team felt nothing but excitement. One by one, they started barrelling down the dunes, running and falling faster than their legs could carry them. They sprinted into the cold water and started swimming until the entire team was floating in Lake Michigan, unable to touch the bottom. The players screamed nonsensical shouts of joy, well aware of how ridiculous they sounded. Through the distorted screams, co-captain Omar Hassan heard one specific call: “We’re not going to win one trophy; we’re not going to win two; we’re going to win three trophies this year, boys!” In Novi three months later, the same 26 players hoisted their third trophy into the air as they screamed, cried, laughed and jumped with joy: Skyline men’s varsity soccer had just become state champions for the first time since 2013. Their season began on that trip up to Traverse City, where they practiced, played games and bonded as a team. Between returning from the trip and the beginning of playoffs in October, the team played 17 games; two out of four of their regular season losses were to Saline, the team’s biggest rival. “In the regular season we tell the boys that these are scrimmages,” said coach Chris Morgan. “I mean, the two games that we played against [Saline] were 2-1 and 1-0. We knew we were right in those matches.” The team lost several players to serious injuries during the regular season, including Gustav Bottin, the team’s only exchange student. “It was during the game against Saline,” Bottin said about his concussion. “I was running to the ball, and somebody came running into me and my feet. I lost my balance and fell on my head.” It took him almost five weeks to be able to play again, and he was unable to play in any of the playoff games. He said he still felt proud to be on the team, however, and helped motivate the team at practice and games. Their first playoff game was against Huron, where Skyline won after a goal scored by junior Oskar Shiomi Jensen. A few days later, the team found themselves in a familiar situation: ready to go head-to-head against Saline for the district title. “It’s very difficult to beat a team three

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times, and they’ve done that to us,” Morgan added. “We beat them twice one year, and they beat us the third time in the districts. [These guys] never bought into all the hoopla, the hype about Saline. When it really came down to it, I think we wanted it just a little bit more.” In the 70th minute of the district championship, Skyline junior Bryce Schaner scored the game’s only goal on a free kick, earning the team in-district redemption, securing the team their first trophy of the season and guaranteeing a spot in the regional semifinals. “I’ve got to say, it was a great feeling,” Hassan, a defender, said. “There’s been the big rivalry with Saline for a few years. I was on the team two years ago, when the reverse had happened, where we beat them two times in the regular season and they beat us in district finals. And to be able to have that little bit of payback, it did feel good.” As they continued to play in playoff games of increasing importance, Morgan and the other coaches looked for creative ways to break the tension and help settle the players’ nerves. At the regional semifinal, they found themselves listening to opera in the locker room. “It’s just, ‘think good positive thoughts, boys we’re going to relax,’ because I knew they were nervous,” Morgan said. “I mean, we had 12 first-year letter winners. So they haven’t really experienced this. Then we played ‘Wonderwall Remix,’ and so then we got hyped.” Skyline beat Canton 1-0 in that game, and moved on to regional semifinals, where they triumphed over Dearborn after scoring two goals in the first half: The second trophy was theirs. They moved on, practicing meticulously to prepare for their state semifinal game on October 31. According to junior Thomas Duda Cortes, the team listened to ‘Don’t Worry, Be Happy’ by Bobby McFerrin before taking the field. Senior Marco Althoen scored Skyline’s first goal, but their opponent, Warren DeLaSalle, bounced back and managed to score one goal, sending the game into overtime. With less than three minutes left in the first overtime, senior Kai Jurgle scored on a penalty kick, sealing the win and sending Skyline to state finals. Three days later, the team — some on the bench due to injuries, most exhausted, but all ecstatic — sat in a Novi locker room, waiting anxiously to play their final game

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of the season against East Kentwood. Their third trophy was so close, they could almost taste it. Halftime came and went with the score tied at 0-0, but the team didn’t let that get them down. In the 72nd minute of the game, junior Chris Emerson scored the first goal with a bicycle kick into the net. 58 seconds later, Bryce Schaner managed to head the ball into the goal. With no other goals in the game, Skyline emerged victorious over East Kentwood with a score of 2-0. Skyline’s student section rushed the field, jumping and screaming along with the soccer players. The team was awarded medals, and then they were finally given their third trophy. “That is one of the best feelings anyone can ever have,” Hassan said. “To be able to go out with the best soccer family and team I’ve ever been on, with the responsibility of having to lead that team, is just one of the best feelings ever. It has been a goal for my entire high school career, to win a state championship, and to do it, especially with this group of guys, is the best feeling in the world.” “That was excellent,” added Skyline’s keeper and co-captain, Kyri Wixom. “What better way to go out, and being only the second team in the program to make it so far was really cool.” Gratitude was the overarching feeling on the field that evening, and even a week and a half later, at the team’s banquet, many players expressed how lucky and proud they felt to have been on such a wonderful team. “I’m proud of the work ethic of this team,” Hassan said. “I mean, this team is unbelievable. Every individual player is so skilled and yet such a great person on and off the field. And I love that about every single one of them. I’m proud to be able to call every single one of them my brothers.” “These guys, I mean, we had tears and we had injuries, so you guys just got to deal with that and get past it,” Morgan said with a tear in his eye. “And I think that’s the thing that they also taught me was strength, that inner strength, believing in yourself, believe in your team and good things are going to happen for you.” Now that the historic season is over for Skyline men’s varsity soccer, many players will transition into their club leagues to train for next season, or, for some seniors, their college seasons. None of the players, however, will ever forget their 2018 soccer family.

TOP LEFT: Players and audience members watch as junior Jamie Palms heads the ball in the state championship game against East Kentwood. MIDDLE: The Skyline men’s varsity soccer team celebrates with their trophy after winning the state championship. RIGHT: Keeper and co-captain Kyri Wixom breathes a sigh of relief during the championship game.

BOTTOM: Co-captain Omar Hassan embraces a teammate after winning the state championship. Hassan plays right back, a defensive position. “I think there’s a sense of fulfillment in not letting them get even close to the goal,” Hassan said. “I protect [our keeper] at all costs.” LEFT PAGE: Teammates hug each other and run towards the stands after winning the state championship. PHOTOS COURTESY OF EVELYNNE CRUMM

January 2019

Raw Human Connection

COMMUNITY ENSEMBLE THEATER’S FALL PRODUCTION OF “LOVE AND INFORMATION” WAS A UNIQUE EXPERIENCE FOR ALL WHO PARTICIPATED. BY ISABEL ESPINOSA

PHOTOS COURTESY OF MYRA KLARMAN

Standing backstage in Craft Theater just before her first scene, Stephanie Smith was nervous. She had acted in previous shows, but this kind of show was completely new to her. “I’ve had some experience with acting on stage,” said Smith, a sophomore at Skyline High School. “But I’m used to going into shows focused on how the dance is and how the songs are going to go, and not so much on the acting. So taking those elements out was really intimidating.” Smith believes that theater provides an opportunity to connect with other actors and crew members in a way she cannot find anywhere else. She likes how everyone has to put away their phones and get to know themselves and their characters. Smith, along with many other students from the district, chose to join Community’s theatre program, Community Ensemble Theater (CET), over other high school programs in the city. This fall, CET produced a contemporary show unlike any they have done in previous years: “Love and Information” by British playwright Caryl Churchill. During a typical theatre performance, the audience

is asked to silence their cell phones in order to be fully immersed in the show. However, “Love and Information” broke this standard by asking the audience to bring their phones charged and ready to scan QR codes that were projected behind each scene. Each QR code brought different elements into each scene: some instructed the audience to light elements of the scene with their flashlights, while others brought in different sound effects such as bird calls and baby cries. “Love and Information” is a play made up of 58 short scenes and split into seven sections. As written in the preamble, the scenes can be performed in any order within the section, but the sections must remain in the same order. The script has little to no stage directions, the characters are not named or gendered and there are several random scenes that can be inserted anywhere within the show. The show asks its viewers to consider how its meaning is constructed and to participate in the process of the performance. “Usually the audience puts their trust in the performers that [the performers] are not going to waste their time and [the audi-

The cast and crew warms up with the “Piggy and Lion” stretches in Craft Theater just before a show. During the stretch, actors and crew members alike make themselves as small as possible and then as large as possible.

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ence] is investing in something that they’re going to enjoy,” Smith said. “In this show, the cast is putting their trust in the audience that they’ll still stay engaged in what we’ve worked hard on even though we’re allowing them to have their phones out.” Reactions to the show from cast and crew members varied greatly; some loved the challenging aspect of acting in a show they helped create, whereas others hated the chaos and confusing nature of it. For many students, “Love and Information” was their first show with CET, which resulted in differing first impressions. “At first, I wasn’t sure how to feel about it as a show,” Smith said. As a person who typically acted in musical theatre productions, Smith was unsure about where she would fit into the experience. However, once the first run-through of the show was complete, Smith could see where everyone could find their niche and their character within the minimalistic script. “I was confused, but also excited,” said Aris Chalin, who assistant-directed the show along with CET President Andrea Schnell. “I didn’t know anything besides the name. And then when the rehearsal

process started happening I realized what kind of show it was.” Due to the fact that there were no guidelines from the script about roles, it was hard for director Quinn Strassel and assistant directors Chalin and Schnell to cast the show without any idea of what it may become after working on each scene. “It was a challenge that some of the scenes were more adult so it was hard for some of the students to imagine what they would feel like as adults, parents or elderly people,” Strassel said. “It was a lot of work on the front end. But then the actual artistic process was much more in the moment and spontaneous in making decisions quickly.” Strassel first read about “Love and Information” in The New York Times and immediately thought it would be a good show for CET to produce. To him, the avant-garde nature of the show fit the group of actors really well, and the simplicity fit the space that CET works in. Strassel loved how everything came together in the end, and how creative the crew had to be in order to make each scene unique. “I think this was the right show for this time in my life,” Strassel said. “I’ve done so many big projects where I have to have [and share] the full vision, and I think this was a time in my life where it was really great to share and to trust.” Having Chalin and Schnell as his assistant directors for “Love and Information” was necessary for Strassel. With only 10 minutes of rehearsal given to each scene at

a time, they required complete focus and commitment to be put into each scene. “We would [rehearse] the scenes with all of us in the room and then I would send the scene off with Aris or Andrea,” Strassel said. “I’d have to trust that they would get the job done, and they did.” Chalin had mixed emotions about being an assistant director at the same time as acting in the show. He never figured out how to be fully part of the cast, since most saw him as a mentor rather than just an actor. “But it was so much fun to get to dive a little bit into each one of the shows,” Chalin said. “People definitely took ownership of their own shows, but I almost felt like I was taking ownership of all of the shows, at least all the ones that I was helping to create.” Schnell learned a lot from assistant directing at the same time as acting in the show and being CET President. “I learned a lot about working with people, I don’t think I’ve ever had as much contact with people as I’ve had now,” Schnell said. “Something I never realized about Presidents and Assistant Directors is that people just ask you questions all of the time. It’s crazy how much trust they put in you, I didn’t know I could affect someone that much.” From her first experience with CET, “Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind,” Schnell has always felt like she was welcome in the ensemble. She believes that it is impossible for a student to go through a show, spending hours working hard with

everyone and going through all the work and tears and love that a show contributes to, and not come out with friends. “CET is really special because besides just putting on amazing shows, we also have a really great support system,” Schnell said. “CET has been the one constant throughout my high school life. I wanted to be president [so I could] help others want to do theatre and make sure it was a safe space and that everyone was having fun.”

“I think this was the right show for this time in my life. I’ve done so many big projects where I have to have [and share] the full vision, and I think this was a time in my life where it was really great to share and to trust.”

January 2019

a look at poetry at Community High with

THEA ROWE and

ANDIE TAPPENDEN They went into the city poetry slam with two poems and an open mind. Having placed third and fifth, respectively, at the city poetry slam at the Neutral Zone, Andie Tappenden and Thea Rowe are now members of the Ann Arbor city slam team. What comes next? BY ZOE LUBETKIN

It’s hard to pinpoint when it started, but maybe it was early 2017, sophomore year for both Thea Rowe and Andie Tappenden. On March 30, 2017, at the Neutral Zone, Ann Arbor Youth Poetry Slam Finals were occuring. There was a tie for sixth place, which resulted in a lighting round to break it. That is when Rowe performed her third poem of the evening. Tappenden watched and thought, “It’s incredible that people my age are doing this well.” At the end of the slam, Rowe ended up on the city-wide slam team; she would be a member that year and two following. Tappenden watched from the audience. When she thought back on it later, maybe it was this event that truly made her want to get into poetry. But it could have started later. Fast forward two years: Nov. 30, 2018, at the same event: Ann Arbor Youth Poetry Slam Finals. This time they both stood on stage; Tappenden ended up in third place, Rowe in fifth. Both are now members of the city slam team. What happened in the two years in between? More importantly: what happens next? Andie Tappenden is five feet nine inches and

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her handwriting curls in rushed, yearning lines. When she reads her poetry, she pauses, usually after asking questions that she gives to the audience to answer. “How many stories… are there of damned women listening to their hunger?” she asked at the start of her first poem, at the Slam Finals in November. No one responded directly, but snaps were heard and hesitant applause grew. At the same slam finals, Thea Rowe read a poem not about, but mentioning, vertebrae and reached up slowly to touch the back of her neck, pushing away hair to do so as she talked about recognizing each one of her bones. When she writes her pieces, sometimes it’s because things were “rolling around in her brain for a while,” but other times she starts with an image and fleshes it out from there, figuring out why it’s so intriguing to her along the way. This is how she wrote this recent poem, which started with an image from the children’s movie “Rasputin.” This is her third year on the city slam team, and Rowe feels like she doesn’t have to prove herself as an artist, unlike her previous years

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where, in her first year, she was one of only two sophomores on the team. Poetry is more for her now. “I don’t want to say that it’s less pressure than it was, ” Rowe said, “But it feels more like just pure fun.” The team is run out of the Neutral Zone and consists of six high school poets. They compete in slams and write poems. This year, the city slam team is focusing completely on the regional Detroit slam Louder Than A Bomb (LTAB). When Rowe was on the team in past years, they prepared for LTAB secondary to a bigger event in the summer that changed year to year. This time it’s all LTAB, a slam taking place in late April 2019 for high schoolers across the state. Team members compete both individually and in group poems, attend workshops and explore Detroit. To prepare, the team will start meeting regularly in January. Many of the team members are reading in Poetry Night in Ann Arbor, so before they meet for LTAB, they must prepare for that. This is the first time reading at an official event like this for both Rowe and Tappenden. Rowe plans to read her poem about “Rasputin” and

January 2019

â&#x20AC;&#x153;I like creating out of what is otherwise just a rigid structure and exploring the absolute boundaries of that and meaning through language.â&#x20AC;?

THEA ROWE

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“Last year, an exact year ago, there was just no way — I thought I would never ever read a poem for anyone.” ANDIE TAPPENDEN

ABOVE: Thea Rowe in the stairwell. She’s a member of the city slam team this year, as she’s been since sophomore year. It’ll be a nice way to cap off senior year, she thinks. OTHER PAGE: Andie Tappenden photographed in May. She credits the Neutral Zone and the poetry scene as a whole for “completely changing” how she views being vulnerable.

Tappenden a poem about cooking dinner for all her past selves. It’s a different setting than your typical slam: instead of the dual nature of slams, balancing writing and performance, this is purely writing without the judgement or the feeling of being evaluated on stage. “There’s less pressure as far as proving myself and my worth,” Rowe explained. “I’ll just be there because I want to be there, and I’m sharing something with all the people in the show and all the people in the audience that night.” In contrast, when it comes to slams, according to Rowe, they “can be really nerve-racking, especially because it’s such a personal thing.” The evaluation of such a subjective artform is hard: judges must look at performance, language, style. But slams are an important part of keeping people interested in the scene and making poets feel like they’re progressing. It was never really about the slams anyway. “I like creating out of what is otherwise just a rigid structure, and exploring the absolute boundaries of that and meaning through language,” Rowe said. Slams can be terrifying, but it’s an environment poets must not only adapt to but thrive in. Tappenden never would have imagined reading in front of anyone. She started writing poetry sophomore year but felt like she couldn’t go to Poetry Club on her own. She wasn’t involved in the poetry scene; her only experience performing was reading her poems to herself while she wrote them or after. “Last year, an exact year ago, there was just no way — I thought I would never ever read a poem for anyone,” Tappenden said. But this changed. She entered the poetry scene in spring of 2018 after watching a reading in December with her forum and wishing she was onstage. When Ellen Stone, head of poetry club at the time, asked her in the hallway if she wanted to read in the slam, she said yes. That slam season, she made it to finals, after placing second behind Rowe in the preliminary slam at Community High School (which was a huge shock for her). Tappenden made it to the second round but ultimately did not make the team. There was a different outcome this year, which Tappenden attributes partly to the shift in the way she viewed performance. “Why did I write these poems in the first place?” Tappenden asked herself, which helped her to connect more with the pieces and ultimately perform better. “Obviously I want to do well in the slam… but I didn’t write these poems for the slam, I wrote them for myself.” When I talked to Rowe and Tappenden about poetry, they spoke differently than when reading into a

microphone at a slam or when speaking in the classroom, which is to be expected. There is none of the rigid structure that Rowe turned to poetry to avoid; instead of the calculated syllables, the breaths and the pauses, words run into each other, creating longer and longer sentences until we are unsure where we have begun. But in a way, this makes sense: “Every writer is a poet by default and every sentence a little poem,” wrote Joe Moran in an essay that started with the sentence and drifted into something more. “The longer the sentence, the more closely it resembles poetry, or should do.” Their sentences, when talking about poetry, begin to resemble their passion. The future is yet to be determined for Rowe, an almost second-semester senior. For college, she wants to leave Ann Arbor. Nothing’s set in stone yet. She’s looking to stay involved in the literary arts scene. One thing is known: she’ll miss the poetry scene here in Ann Arbor. “I’m definitely taking it for granted at the moment and once I leave it’ll be a hole that I’m trying to fill,” Rowe said. Tappenden, also a senior, knows where she’s going: she’s committed to Swarthmore College, outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for field hockey. She knows the bigger picture, but even in this context, little things hit her day by day. The other day, driving to school, a song came on that she listened to before the preliminary slam at Community, the slam before finals, before she was on the team. The song: “Martha My Dear,” by the Beatles, a song she describes as a little sexist but ultimately a “bop.” That song came on, and she was reminded of finals again. “I got third!” she thought to herself. It keeps hitting her. Poetry Night is soon, and just weeks after the slam team will start to get together, preparing for LTAB, and soon after LTAB is the end of classes for seniors and graduation. After is college. The rest of life. But right now, driving to school, there’s time to reflect back on that slam at the Neutral Zone her senior year, where she made the team for the first time in her final year of high school. There’s time for it to hit her: “I got third!” And there’s time to wonder if at that slam, maybe there was someone in the audience, a sophomore perhaps, who just discovered their love of poetry. And just maybe it was found through listening to Rowe and Tappenden, hearing their words. It could be a far-fetched possibility. But they’re exploring the boundaries of poetry, of meaning through language. Who knows what could happen? January 2019

Life After Community: Marly Spieser-Schneider CHS ALUM REFLECTS ON HER TIME AT AND AFTER COMMUNITY. BY BELLA YERKES AND SOPHIA ROSEWARNE

Marly Spieser-Schneider and her fellow dancers rose up from the audience as Snoop Dogg’s “Drop It Like It’s Hot” began playing over the speakers. They were opening the Dance Body Spring Recital Spieser-Schneider’s senior year. When Spieser-Schneider pitched the idea to Deborah Sipos-Roe, the Dance Body teacher, she was sure she wouldn’t like it. Spieser-Schneider thought she would say the dance was too goofy and the song was inappropriate. But to her surprise, SiposRoe loved it: she thought it was fun and wanted to have it open the show. Dance Body had two groups within it: the dance class and the dance company. Spieser-Schneider spent her first semester at Community in the dance class, which met three days a week, and auditioned for the company second semester. The company took up both fifth and sixth block, so Spieser-Schneider spent her afternoons

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in high school dancing. “It was so amazing for me because I could have that be part of my academic day,” Spieser-Schneider said. “I could be in algebra and then go dance for two hours.” Through the company they took classes taught by Sipos-Roe, learned dances for the company and choreographed their own. Students from Pioneer and Huron came to Community to participate in their dance company as well. After graduating in 2005, SpieserSchneider went on to study dance at the University of Michigan, where she graduated in 2009 with a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Dance. Spieser-Schneider has submitted a grant to bring back a teen pre-professional dance group similar to Dance Body. Dance Body had a powerful impact on her. It was essentially a free studio, and a safe and fun space to explore dance and herself, and now Spieser-Schneider is bringing it back

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for the spring 2019 semester. Spieser-Schneider hasn’t heard back about the grant yet, but she is willing to run the program either way. “If I get the grant, it will be easier to do costumes and things like that, we will have a little bit more freedom in that way,” Spieser-Schneider said. “But as long as I have space, I’m willing to run it.” The class would have a similar concept that Dance Body had when SpieserSchneider was a dancer in it. She’d like to include technical training, group pieces, and individual choreography. She also likes the idea of allowing dancers to teach their own classes. The fall after graduation, SpieserSchneider and her friend, Nikki Polizzi, packed up a car with plans to drive across the country. They took Highway 2 from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to Seattle, stopping in Canada on the way. The pair drove to San Francisco, where Polizzi stayed

while Spieser-Schneider continued her journey. “I made it a project that — because I was doing a figure eight — in eight of the cities I stopped in, I made dances with people that I knew there or that I met,” SpieserSchnieder said. “I ended up performing not all of them, but some of them.” She made dances in San Francisco, Seattle, San Antonio, Pittsburgh, New York City, Baltimore, Maryland, New Orleans, and Ann Arbor. Spieser-Schneider didn’t get home until early December that year. In the spring, she went out to Vermont to audition for a small dance company that one of her professors connected her with. SpieserSchneider got into the dance company and moved to Vermont in late June of 2010. In addition to dancing, she helped manage a deli, worked on a farm, and completed her certification to teach Iyengar yoga, which entailed a day and a half long test. Spieser-Schneider came across the farming job on Craigslist. She worked on a small family farm twice a week doing whatever was needed, from weeding the garden to helping care for the animals. The year before she moved back to Ann Arbor, Spieser-Schneider lived in New York City. While she was there she taught dance and became interested in education. She loved New York but wanted to be able

to see her family more. Spieser-Schnieder decided to move home to Ann Arbor. “I was in a place where I really loved New York, and I really loved Vermont,” SpieserSchneider said. “But I was starting to feel like I wanted to be closer to my family. And the options were either I make a ton of money, so I can go home whenever I want, or I live at home and I visit these places.” Shortly after she moved back, SpieserSchneider’s close family friends retired from running the Community Farm of Ann Arbor. With a background in farming and education, and a dream to expand the educational aspect of the farm, she decided to apply. Spieser-Schneider was hired and is now one of the farm managers and is the director of the educational nonprofit connected to the farm called “Chrysalis.” She works on building the nonprofit’s relationships with the Neutral Zone and The Corner Health Center. Through the organization she works to make healthy food, cooking classes, and health education more available. “Good, healthy food is often only available to people with a lot of money, but it’s something I think everyone should have,” Spieser-Schneider said. Along with the farm, Spieser-Schneider teaches Iyengar yoga around Ann Arbor.

Over the summer, with the busy farming season, Spieser-Schneider struggled to find a time that worked for her to have a consistent class, so she has been subbing and running workshops. She hopes to schedule consistent classes at a studio over the winter since she will be less busy with the farm. Through her work with the Neutral Zone and the Corner Health Center, SpieserSchneider has discovered that she enjoys working in environments where the focus is on making resources available to people. Keeping this in mind as she moves forward, she could see herself working at somewhere like the Neutral Zone and Corner Health Center. “I also have a lot of big dreams about nonprofits. I’m a bit of a stickler for what I want to do in the dance world,” SpieserSchneider said. “I don’t really want to just work at a studio; that’s not really the environment that I’m interested in. And I don’t see myself wanting to be a college professor either. I like the idea of teaching at a public school or even a couple classes at a studio.” As she moves forwards, Spieser-Schneider keeps her mind open to what may come next. “I know myself well enough to know that something very unexpected might come up and I may go for it,” SpieserSchneider said.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF MARLY SPIECER-SCHNEIDER

January 2019

Designing for the Homeless BY SACHA VERLON

Three of New York City’s subway stations have added new seating — if you can even call it seating. These new structures are constructed with angled wooden bars held up by two metal legs. The bars are too narrow to sit on, and they are angled in a manner that the only way these function as ‘seats’ is if you bend your knees slightly and rest your butt gently on the bar. Seems uncomfortable? That’s the point. These additions came with a slew of other renovations done by the Metropolitan Transport Authority (MTA) in 2017. Most of the changes seem to have received positive press so far. New electronic signs have been installed that show how close a train is to arrival, and USB stations now offer riders a chance to charge their devices. Critics of the design point out that these benches may have been designed to exclude the homeless population. While the MTA has yet to comment on this matter, these structures are definitely not conducive for resting for long periods of time. Oliver Kiley, an urban planner with the Ann Arbor-based design firm SmithGroup, believes that this style of defensive design does nothing to deter homeless people, nor does it get rid of the systematic problem of homelessness. “It doesn’t really address the problem,” said Brandon Woodle, one of Kiley’s co-workers. “You could put in a lean bench and have someone put a mattress on the floor next to it.” This form of design variates in form and intention. For example, some city park benches feature short, nubby armrests that are too uncomfortable to function as armrests. Kiley explained that these are put in place so that it is impossible to lay down comfortably. “The same idea goes for things like putting spikes on top of walls to keep people from sitting on them, sleeping or skating on them,” Kiley said. “[The urban planners] are trying to mitigate what is perceived as a social issue through design. I don’t think that is the right way to go about it.” Urban planners need to realize that trying to exclude the homeless population from using public spaces does no good. These types of projects only drain money into creating structures that are unappealing to the general public and, most importantly, serve to make the lives of a certain demographic of people harder. What should be done is the opposite: make urban landscapes welcoming to people from all walks of life, including homeless people. Some people would argue that there are certain spaces that are unwelcoming because of their large population of homeless people. In actuality, these sort of spaces often arise because of design flaws that are unattractive to everyone.

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SmithGroup architects Oliver Kiley and Brandon Woodle discuss an upcoming project in one of the SmithGroup meeting rooms.

Ideally, a public space should feel welcoming and be easy to access. It should be well lit at night so that people using the space can easily see each other and their surroundings. Urban planners try to include as many seating options possible — such as places to sit down and eat or seating for the disabled — to accommodate for the community’s needs. Failure to meet these guidelines can make a space feel uncomfortable for everyone Liberty Plaza in downtown Ann Arbor, for example, is seen by some people as a hang-out spot for homeless people. Kiley explained that this is a result of the space’s poor design. “The basic design of Liberty Plaza is not encouraging, irrespective of who is there today,” Kiley said. “The fact that you immediately step down and become less visible to all activity and movement on the street [is isolating]. There are a couple

“You have to take the good with the bad. If you want an active and vibrant public space, people are going to flock to it regardless of their socioeconomic status.”

Liberty Plaza, a public space located downtown Ann Arbor, requires pedestrians to step down into the space using stairs, a characteristic of an unwelcoming public area.

“[Defensive design] doesn’t really address the problem. You could put in a lean bench and have someone put a mattress on the floor next to it.” of those stairways that feed into it that really should be more open to the street so that if someone wanted to cut the corner instead of going all the way around the corner, you could cut through the plaza. When you sit down, you can’t see out onto the street, and there is a lot of vegetation that blocks the view. It has always felt like a backwards space.” The plaza is not welcoming to homeless people either. The space is small and is mainly made of concrete, which factors into a more uncomfortable atmosphere. In addition, come nightfall, those without a mattress to sleep on have to resort to sleeping on one of the hard, metal benches. The solution? To create a wide, green and accessible space that is attractive for everyone. A space that has comfortable seating and is open and transparent to allow people to spread out while still allowing community members to mingle. A space that makes getting from point A to point B easier and more enjoyable. In the end, it makes the most sense to make urban spaces as safe and welcoming as possible to everyone in the community. It doesn’t make much sense to try to deter homeless people through a brutalist design if it doesn’t have any positive effect. “You have to take the good with the bad,” said Kenneth Kokroko, an employee at SmithGroup. “If you want an active and vibrant public space, people are going to flock to it regardless of their socioeconomic status... You can manage that in certain ways, but the reality is the more people that are invited into a public space, the safer it is. Because some nuisance type users might use that space, that should never stop you from creating a public space that is welcoming.”

January 2019

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Art Through it All ELENA FLORES OPENS UP ABOUT HER LIFE AWAY FROM COMMUNITY AS SHE BATTLES CANCER. BY BELLA YERKES

In late November, I had the chance to sit down with Elena Flores to talk about her life, art and her illness. As we sat in Sweetwaters at Westgate, Elena was so joyful and full of hope. She passed away on Dec. 31, surrounded by her loved ones. “I remember as a little girl staring at her paintings,” said Elena Flores about watching her grandma paint. “It was like magic, and then when I drew that seemed like magic to me.” From a young age, Flores was fascinated by art and would take classes at an art institute in Flint, Michigan, where she was raised. “I just love the idea of creating, making something that didn’t exist before just seemed natural,” Flores said. She would go on to pursue a Bachelors of Fine Arts in college. Flores was a practicing artist but struggled to maintain a steady source of income from art alone. After talking to someone who had just finished student teaching, Flores was inspired to try it. She grew up playing teacher with her five siblings but had pushed away from a teaching career because she didn’t want to simply do the same thing as her mom. Flores ended up combining her love for art and teaching. She taught elementary school art for 16 years. While she loved teaching elementary, there came a time when Flores desired to share more of her knowledge and artwork with students.

Thirteen years ago, Flores interviewed for a job at Community High School. The interviewing process was competitive because she was replacing Kris Hermanson, an established teacher at Community. She met with Peter Ways, who was the dean at the time, and then interviewed with a committee composed of Ways, teachers, students and a parent. She talked about her own art, what she could offer to Community and why Community was a good fit for her. She got the position. Her first day teaching at Community was confusing, with how the rooms were numbered and some of the slang for these rooms such as The Boneyard or Bodley Hall; however, she also recalled how warm and welcoming the school was to her. “I tried to show it’s about creating and whatever you create,” Flores said. In her teaching she has pulled away from a prescribed art education in order to empower her students to create. To do this, she offers classes such as mixed media and open studio. “I’ve learned from students and that’s helped me in my art,” Flores said. “It’s made me a better artist.” In April 2015, Flores was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Receiving this diagnoses left Flores feeling scared, bewildered and frozen. After this, she began to educate herself to understand the disease. She advocat-

ed for herself about getting surgery quickly. For Flores, the cancer was unexpected. It will never be cured; it is always something she will have to manage. She’s been managing her cancer for the past three years. At the beginning of the 2018-19 school year, Flores was asked to split her time between Community and Pioneer. Driven to teach, Flores ignored signs from her body that she shouldn’t have returned to school. These were signs of an infection that have landed Flores in the hospital twice. She has been on sick leave since. Being away from Community has been hard for Flores; she misses her students and being at Community. Flores’ friends, family, husband and other Community teachers have supported her along her journey. She has been continuing her art; with her time off, she’s been creating pieces for family and friends. She will be starting chemotherapy soon. “My hope is to come back and to thrive and to beat this cancer, I mean, beat it in terms of that I can go back to work and do what I do best,” Flores said. She hopes to come back to Community and continue to teach and learn from her students. She also hopes to share what her illness has taught her. “[Cancer] puts grace and gratitude in your life,” Flores said. “Nothing is promised.”

Elena Flores sits in her home studio. She’s been painting small pieces for friends and family. “It’s a safe place to be, it’s a place that I can just do it without judgment,” said Flores about art. PHOTO COURTESY OF ELENA FLORES

January 2019

Remembering Elena ELENA FLORES PASSED AWAY ON DEC. 31, 2018 AFTER A LONG BATTLE WITH CANCER. SHE TAUGHT ART AT COMMUNITY FOR THE PAST 14 YEARS, LEAVING BEHIND MANY HAPPY MEMORIES WITH HER STUDENTS AND COLLEAGUES. PHOTO COURTESY OF KATE ENGLISH WEBSITE: KATEENGLISHPHOTOGRAPHY.COM INSTAGRAM: @KVTEROB

Cindy Haidu-Banks Elena invited my granddaughter Adriana and I out to her home in Manchester so Adri could ride a horse for the first time. Adri was five years old at the time. I was surprised at how full of fear I was once we arrived. Adri however was super excited and game to give it a try. I had to stand back and breathe — my role as a protective grandmother overwhelmed me. Elena was amazing. Calm and gentle with Adri, firm and strong with her horse, Elena reassured us all this was going to be good. She introduced Adri to Ponpon, and soon my granddaughter was feeding the horse watermelon. On a beautiful sunny spring day my granddaughter rode her first horse, bare back, holding on to the mane, sweet Elena leading them around the greening yard. Confident and proud, the fearless look on my granddaughter’s face was captured in a photo. Thank you Elena for this joyful memory I share with my granddaughter. Madie Gracey It was the second semester of my junior year, when I took Elena’s ceramics class for the second time. But this time, I would be her teacher’s assistant. I stayed after class to help clean up, I worked on my own projects, I helped other students out and I got to know her. She helped me develop ideas for things to create from clay; she would either do a quick sketch or explain it to me. There was one day were we were re-organizing all of the glaze in the backroom, just talking about whatever was on our minds. We skipped around from art to travels, and school to family. You could tell she loved art, she loved talking about it, creating it and critiquing it. I am so thankful for the opportunity she gave me to work with her and to know her.

Jeri Schneider When I was new here at Community five or six years ago, the library was a mess because they had just built the computer lab. So the dean at the time, said ‘Just keep the library closed for the first week of school’ which just horrified me, so I was trying to get furniture arranged and I was feeling lost because I was new and I didn’t really know people. Elena had an open block and she just came in here [the library] and I didn’t know her but she was very kind and calm and on the first day of school and for a teacher to just be completely calm and relaxed was just remarkable to me. I was feeling really flustered and she just sat down and was like ‘Is there anything I can do to help you?’ It seems like a small gesture, but it was so kind and it was exactly what I needed, like this angel came to me and so she helped me move the furniture around. She was really sweet and I just loved her energy and her spirit. When those who don’t know her ask about her I just say that she was just a gentle kind soul and that’s how I have heard lots of other people describe her as well. Another time I had this cold that just knocked me out for a couple of weeks and this was in December when she was fighting for her life and in a lot of pain and she sent me a text message just saying ‘I’m sorry to hear your not feeling well, I hope you feel better soon’ and I just thought, ‘All I have is a cold and she’s fighting cancer but yet she is reaching out to me’ and that was just too sweet. 28

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Cherie Charbeneau I got the opportunity to go to the DIA (Detroit Institute of Art) with Elena to see the Frida Kahlo show, and this was a show of Frida Kahlo pieces that I have never seen before. She and Diego Lived in Detroit when he painted the murals. Cindy, Elena and I went to see the Frida Kahlo show and this was literally the day before she got diagnosed with ovarian cancer. And going to art and museum with Elena ( I’m somebody who appreciates art but I am not an artist in that medium, I would say my art was more with words) but to go to the art museum with Elena to me felt like such a gift because Elena had opened my eyes to a whole other perspective of viewing art. The things that she would point out to me were just enriched in a way that I had never seen before. I don’t think I have ever had as wonderful of an experience at an art museum, (and I have been going to art museums since I have seven years old) as that day with Elena. In particular, because it was Frida Kahlo because of her connections to the hispanic tradition and because of what she saw in this woman who had also gone through pain, trials and tribulation and so I’ll just never forget that show and that day. Of course ,it was the day before she got diagnosed and she was in pain herself that day but she didn’t focus on pain and in her life she did the same thing, she always was positive. The last page of her journal said, “Never give up on hope.” It was so beautiful that someone who experienced such pain in their life could hold on to beauty and hope and magic and it was so empowering for me to be her friend and to have her show me that perspective. I have dealt with many challenges in my life but I have never had the physical pain that Elena went through. She continued to hope and continued to create beauty up until the last minute of her life. It was a gift. Robbie Stapleton Every time we saw each other in the workroom or in the office I would ask about her health and she would give me a giant hug and then ask about mine. Olivia Wiley Elena Flores was a remarkable woman. She cared about social justice, the environment and kids. She always had a smile and the most delightful laugh. She was a wonderful colleague and friend. I miss her terribly, but am comforted by the fact she is no longer in pain. She always painted black birds and every time I see one I am reminded of her. She had incredible gifts of empathy and creativity. She always encouraged people to believe in themselves and to keep trying despite failure. I shall miss her always! Maxwell Westrum I’ll miss Elena because she exposed me to graphic design and subsequently the beginning of my career as a graphic designer. Without her class I wouldn’t have had the eye-opening realization that I had a future, I wouldn’t have become the resident graphic designer of robotics, I wouldn’t have gotten a marketing internship at the Michigan Theater and I wouldn’t have a portfolio to show for it. My last memory with her is telling her how I got my internship and what work I was doing. She wanted me to come back whenever I had free time to tell her about how it was going. Because of the profound impact she had on my life I will miss her dearly and I will remember her whenever I reflect on my work. January 2019

This page features artwork from Elena Flores, including the piece above, which reads â&#x20AC;&#x153;Dear Cancer, Thank you for making me stop and listen and remember what is truly important.â&#x20AC;? The right page features quotes from Community High School students and staff.

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Dear Elena,

Thank you for all that you brought to Community. Here are some of the marks you left on students, teachers and staff members.

“Big love to you forever!”

“YOUR SPIRIT IS ALWAYS WITH US.” - REBECCA

“Love always, Elena.” “Thank you for always being so patient and kind.”

“Art will be as beautiful and inspiring as Elena was.”

“Thank you for being a large influence on my art career. You will be missed.”

“Thank you for pushing me forward when I doubted my art.” “Thank you for lighting up people’s hearts. We love you so much. Xoxo”

“Thank you for teaching me graphic design two years ago. Rest easy.” “THANK YOU FOR “You will always inspire me to be a BEING A PART OF MY better person and see the beauty ONGOING ART CAREER all around me. I miss AND HELPING ME you dearly, but I hold you in my IMPROVE.” heart.” - Marel

“ELENA YOUR BEAUTIFUL SPIRIT AND WISDOM WILL CONTINUE TO LIVE ON”

“You and your art will live forever within all of us.” “Perfect, beautiful Elena - you are already missed dearly.”

“THANK YOU FOR INSPIRING US ALL IN OUR ART SKILLS.”

“You will be missed so dearly. Love you always, Elena.”

“Thank you for being my inspiration always. So much love.”

“Thank you for believing in my art, helping me grow as an artist, and giving me the opportunity to take it to shows. You taught me a lot. We all miss you.” - Lindsey Falbo “I LOVE YOU FOR NEVER SEEING ANYONE AS LESS THAN FULL OF POTENTIAL.” - R

January 2019

THE ARDUOUS LIFE OF KLOSKY

AFTER SIXTY-SIX YEARS LIVING THROUGH TIMES OF STRUGGLE, LOVE AND RESILIENCE, KLOSKY IS STILL HOPEFUL. HE SHARES HIS STORY. BY LEAH DAME

In Highland Park, Mich., Jim Klosky was just starting his life adventure. He had no knowledge of the ups and downs of life that awaited. As he grew older, life’s hurtful sting of reality struck and Jim Klosky was forced to face pain and struggle, encountering hardship after hardship. Despite fighting through the death of his mother, being homeless in Ann Arbor and his son’s battle against drugs, Klosky endured. HIS BEST FRIEND

Growing up, Klosky did not excel in high school. He frequently skipped school and did not care about any class assignments. However, Klosky loved to read — he wouldn’t read anything his teachers put in front of him, but he loved books. His favorite genre was history, more specifically Scottish medieval history. His fascination on the history of Scotland grew from his mother’s ancestry. Klosky’s mom loved the fact that he was always reading something. In 1966, they moved from Detroit to Rochester, Mich. There she worked as the secretary for the dean of the Library at Oakland University and Klosky got a job as a janitor when he was 14. They had many friends in common. Klosky met some of her friends who were students that worked in the mailroom at Oakland. They ended up being some of his best friends. 31 years later, Klosky got a job helping to build a house up north for a couple of weeks. He had always been good with his hands and knew the job would be right up his alley. One day he took a trip into town 32

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to get a cup of coffee, and five minutes after he left his mom passed away. There was no way of getting ahold of him until he returned. She had been suffering from lung cancer for a while. She weighed a mere 85 pounds and had been taking morphine to help ease her pain. She passed away in August of 1997, two days before Klosky’s 45th birthday. “I knew she wasn’t long for the world,” Klosky said. As much as he loved their home back in Rochester, Kolsky told his dad to sell it. All of the joy that was living in the house disappeared when she did. His dad made a fortune off of the land. It was over an acre, overgrown with trees and weeds. Klosky hoped he would buy property, but instead his dad bought a double wide mobile home with a $50,000 mortgage and rented out a lot for the home, putting a bunch of money in his pocket, at the expense of incurring debt. Now, Klosky regrets ever letting the house go. Klosky’s mom was his best friend. He missed her cooking, her social personality, how bright she was, but most of all just being able to talk to her. After her death, he knew things would go downhill from there. NOWHERE TO GO

When Klosky’s dad got sick, Blue Cross Blue Shield cancelled his coverage, which meant Klosky had to pay $5,000 a month to keep his dad in the hospital. Klosky had a job as a truck driver at the time, so he made good money. Klosky lived on a truck all day |

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in order to pay for his dad’s medical bills. It was lonely being a truck driver. Sometimes he would drive long distancess such as a trip from Quebec to Cerrado, Brazil. When Klosky was on the road, he would get calls from his dad asking when he’d be coming home. Klosky ended up quitting his job to take care of his father. When he got back home, Klosky discovered how bad things were financially and could tell his dad was losing all of his strength. His dad refused help from physical therapists and could not take care of himself, so Klosky decided to move his dad into hospice. Sadly, his dad didn’t last his first night. “I didn’t know he was going to die so quick,” Klosky said. He had no job, inherited his dad’s debt and was stickered out of his house. After his dad passed away, all of the mortgage payments for the double-wide were piled onto Klosky: $426 a month, with penalties for late payments. His dad’s death was a burden on him financially, but it was hard to be upset as he was his father. “I knew I could never catch up,” Klosky said. “It was too much.” Wayne — Klosky’s friend — invited him to stay at his campsite in the woods behind the University of Michigan’s helicopter pad. A tent would be his home for the next four months. “I didn’t have anybody to turn to,” Klosky said. “All my friends were poor, struggling to make their rent.” Klosky had the company of Wayne, a cou-

ple other guys and his own son who lived with him in his tent for a while. The worst part about living in a tent was the rain. They had a tarp over their tent, but it never worked well. Even on nights when it wasn’t cold and raining, it was tough living there. The weather was bad and the racoons were a menace. However, there were a couple nice things about living in the woods. The deer were a perk and he had loads of time to work on a book he was writing. One night while Kolsky was crawling into his tent to go to bed, he couldn’t see anything, but could feel something sprawled across his sleeping bag. He didn’t know at the time, but it was a racoon that got into a bag of M&M’s and dragged them all over his tent. “What the hell is that,” he wondered. Irritated, Klosky got up and started pacing and talking to himself. A man walked past him said something nasty. Klosky snapped back and before he knew it the guy charged him and knocked him to the ground. He got up with a broken nose and left. He was so angry he didn’t want to sleep there that night. That’s when he got into Delonis, a temporary shelter for the homeless in Washtenaw County. A caseworker at Delonis helped Klosky find a place to live in Ypsilanti. He was told he had to take the first thing that came along. It was a 127 square foot room for $450 a month. He had to share a kitchen and bathroom with three other guys, and the shower was so small that you had to tilt your neck down and keep your arms at your sides. He’s been living there for about two and a half years.

Arkansas. When Sam and his mom moved back to Michigan, Klosky got to see Sam on the weekends. The first weekend they spent together, he cried and cried. He wanted his dad to take him back home in the middle of the night, but by the next weekend, Sam didn’t want to leave. Wanting to be able to converse with Sam more, Klosky read all seven Harry Potter books in two weeks. They lived in a really nice spot where there’s endless country and all kinds of woods. He and his son would take long walks and they both loved it. When Sam turned 15 he started to bring his friends up on the weekends too. “I looked forward to every Friday evening,” Klosky said. “I’d pick up a Buddy’s Pizza and pick ‘em up and bring ‘em home. Those were some Klosky and his friend Wayne still keep in touch. They’ve good times.” Three months ago, Klosky known each other for many years.“[Jimbo’s] a very good found out some depressing man,” Wayne said. “This man’s amazing, he really is.” news about his son: Sam had developed a cocaine addichim a pack of Newport Red Hundreds evtion. He knew Sam was a heavy drinker. He ery time he visits him. Klosky knows he couldn’t keep a job for more than a year beshares with other guys, but understands and cause he would get drunk, then be too hundoes not mind. Sam has got a lot of support gover to go into work. When Klosky would and is finally seeing the light. be gone on a long truck drive for weeks at a “There’s no beating a father’s love for a time, it was traumatic — he was gone while son,” Klosky said. “I’m someone who behis son fell apart at the seams and was in lieves in unconditional love, and as far as I tears because he was so lonely. Klosky had know, he’s my only son.” no idea where he developed a cocaine adHIS SON: SAM diction. He was mostly worried about his WRITING YOUR STORY Named after Samuel the Prophet of The- son ending up dead. Currently, Klosky is trying to get his book ocracy from the Bible, Klosky’s son, Sam, Sam has been in rehab for a month and published to make enough money to live in came into his life. has another 90-day program to complete a better place, but doesn’t know where to go Klosky got a divorce when Sam was young before he moves back into his house. Klosky with it. He’s been working on his book for causing Sam, and his mother to move to panhandles to get enough money to bring over three years. It even got thrown away twice, but everytime he would write it over again and replace what was lost. The subject of the book is Scottish history, inspired by his mom. Wanting to study medieval history and literature, Klosky hopes to go to school at the University of Michigan or at a community college. He is optimistic when looking back on his life and viewing it today. “Oddly enough, I think I’m very fortunate to have become homeless, because I would have never been able to spend so much time on this book,” Klosky said. Jim Klosky’s triumph over the obstacles he has faced can’t go unrecognized. People pass by thousands of strangers throughout their lifetime. Every single one of those strangers has a story with grief, pain and bliss. There’s a stigma about people in need of money who choice to find it inside the goodness of people’s hearts. They’re labeled as a ‘bum’ instead of human. It’s up to everyone to look past their judgment and into their curiosity and compassion to realKlosky likes writing because it keeps him busy. He has a preview ready, with an illistration ize everyone has a story worth hearing. from1957, by Stan Camby. “I think I’ve done well on this [book],” Klosky said. “I’ve written a lot of stuff, but haven’t gotten anything published.”

January 2019

West Side HOW GENTRIFICATION HAS CHANGED ONE OF ANN ARBORâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S HISTORICALLY BLACK NEIGHBORHOODS: THE WEST SIDE.

Water Hill

BY TAI TWOREK

Jim Hickenbottom and Robert Foster challenge each other to an after school game of pool at Jones School on Dec. 23, 1967. Their friends, Ed Wilson, Jerome Hickenbottom, Terri McFadden, James Bryant, Beverly Patterson, Michelle Jones, Ferry Campbell, Junior Blissit and Robert Jones, watch their game in the background. PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL MUSEUM OF WASHTENAW COUNTY

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David Malcolm noticed his neighborhood was changing. It was when he was standing at the bus stop on Brooks Street, carrying a duffle bag.... Malcolm noticed a man kept eyeing him as he walked toward his house. A few minutes later, a police car slowly rolled past Malcolm on the street. The policemen in the car were fortunately friends of his, and let him know they got a phone call reporting a suspicious black man that matched his description. Or it was the time when his younger cousin got accused of stealing a woman’s lawn mower while walking from one property Malcolm’s family owned to another. He noticed police presence increase, and the looks and attitudes of new residents change. These changes began in the 1990s, and this was not the West Side he had known since the ‘70s. The West Side — now more commonly known as Water Hill — is the neighborhood off of North Main Street in Ann Arbor. Its main roads are Summit, Brooks and Sunset. It also includes the Kerrytown neighborhood around Community High School (CHS). It used to be a working class neighborhood with a high African American population, but starting in the ‘90s, the neighborhood began to undergo gentrification, which has recently ramped up. Gentrification is the process of wealthier people buying homes for low prices, and renovating them, which increases the property value in the neighborhood. In order for gentrification to happen, there needs to be money. As a realtor, Malcolm has seen people buy houses in the West Side from residents at some of their worst times financially, renovate the old houses and sell them for almost double. Malcolm says that gentrification goes hand in hand with generational wealth, and many people pass their houses down to their children, which he calls “trust fund babies.” Depending on where a house is located in the West Side and the type of renovations done, it can be sold for anywhere between $250,000 to $1,000,000. He has noticed that most of the people moving into the neighborhood are white millennials in their thirties, and sometimes are old retirees.The houses in the West Side were built in the ‘40s and ‘50s, and some even date back to as early as the ‘20s. Most people move out of state, down south or to Ypsilanti. “We used to be a neighborhood of people that look out for each other,” Malcolm said. “As a kid, I couldn’t go three or four blocks away without my mom getting a phone call. Now I look suspicious, or I look like I’m doing something that I shouldn’t be doing, or

I’m somewhere where I shouldn’t be.” Malcolm does not believe gentrification itself is a bad thing, but believes that the problem is with the people left behind. It installs fear in the long-term residents in his neighborhood — like his 90-year-old neighbor who has buyers constantly knocking on her door, asking if she is selling her house. The first African Americans that settled in Ann Arbor lived in the Lowertown area, around the Broadway Bridge, where the original downtown of the village of Ann Arbor was located. Pontiac Trail, which feeds directly into Lowertown, was a stop on the Underground Railroad. African Americans that came to Ann Arbor were steered into certain neighborhoods, like the West Side, and segregated by being denied loans on houses. The West Side consisted of predominantly black families. Many of the children attended Jones School, which serviced grades kindergarten through eighth grade, and formerly inhabited the CHS building. Although Jones School was not a strictly all black school, the majority of its students were black due to housing segregation in the district.

“We used to be a neighborhood of people that look out for each other... as a kid, I couldn’t go three or four blocks away without my mom getting a phone call. Now I look suspicious, or I look like I’m doing something that I shouldn’t be doing, or I’m somewhere where I shouldn’t be.” A few long-term residents have moved out of the West Side, but Malcolm has been hesitant to leave. He figures that he could probably have a larger home somewhere else, but the West Side has been his home his entire life. He attended Mack School on Brooks Street and his parents attended Jones School. His grandfather built their house, and his family owns several other properties in the neighborhood. Malcolm’s

family legacy is important to him, as his kids are following in his grandparents’ historical footprints. “My family legacy keeps me [in the neighborhood],” Malcolm said. “I’m at a point in my life where I have to understand that I am actually my great grandparents’ legacy, not that house. Even though my granddad built it when he came back from the war, it’s a house at the end of the day. Would they want to see me there uncomfortable or not wanting to be there? Or would they want me to make good use of it and be happy?” The neighborhood also has a strong legacy. Marlys Deen, a local historian for the African American Historical and Cultural Museum of Washtenaw County, also grew up in the West Side. She has witnessed the Civil Rights Movement and gentrification unfold in Ann Arbor: churches and community centers within the West Side had a large presence when she was younger. The original community center for African American teens was the Dunbar Community Center, on the corner of Fourth Avenue and Kingsley. It opened as a center for black teens discriminated from the then-segregated YMCA, but closed in the ‘50s when the Ann Arbor Community Center on North Main street opened. At the community center, people gathered for political meetings and held college fairs to help send African American students to school. Sometimes, discussions were held at night in large, multi-purpose rooms about the everyday discrimination members of the community faced. Another Black community resource is the Elks Lodge, a large stone house that overlooks Argo Dam on Wildt Street and Sunset. The lodge is Ann Arbor’s chapter of the black fraternity that started in 1899 in New York City. Ann Arbor’s chapter opened in the early 20th century, and has served the West Side for many years. It holds dinners and the house can be rented out for events. “When I was growing up, I used to see the guys [who belonged to the Elks Lodge] riding around with the little funny symbols on their cars and stuff like that,” Malcolm said. “I really didn’t know what it was, but I just knew they were always great men. I knew that when I looked at them, they went to work, I knew that they went to church, I knew that they took care of widows and they took care of their neighbors… basically we had great men to look at as role models.” (Cont.)

January 2019

However, as the West Side has changed, so has the presence of the strong neighborhood legacy. Malcolm has noticed membership of the Elks Lodge has dwindled from 300 members in the ‘60s and ‘70s, to around 30 current members. The property is one of the most wanted on the market, cashing in around 1.75 to 2 million dollars the last time it was appraised. However, the legacy created by the community centers has left its mark on the West Side. The term “Water Hill” is a fairly new name for the neighborhood. It was created by Paul Tinkerhess, a white resident, and named after the streets Summit, Brooks and Fountain. Some of the long-term residents, like Malcolm, hate the name Water Hill. To them, it’s always been the West Side. A new neighborhood tradition is the Water Hill Music Festival, where residents use their front porches as stages for local bands to perform every first Sunday in May. One of the first years that the festival was held sparked controversy within the neighborhood with it’s placement of porta-potties on a sacred spot for longterm residents. The porta-potties were placed on Belize Park, which used to be home to an old duplex. The young girl who lived in the second floor apartment babysat many neighborhood children after they came home from school at Mack. One day, the house caught fire. Deen believes that the

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girl was too afraid to jump out of the window to safety and too afraid to throw the child she was looking after down to neighbors trying to help. The two girls died in the fire. A few long-term residents still remember this incident, and Malcolm has witnessed that the issue is still brought up at neighborhood meetings. To them, it was disrespectful to place porta-potties on the final resting ground of their friends. Gentrification has changed neighborhoods on the local, state and national level. The history and people of gentrified neighborhoods are left in the dust, which is concerning to residents like Malcolm. He has noticed that gentrification is affecting public housing in Ann Arbor, and many neighborhoods in addition to the West Side are changing. Many residents who move to Ypsilanti to escape gentrification in Ann Arbor also notice that it is happening there as well. “I don’t mind that people are moving into the neighborhood, but I don’t like being a target of suspicion,” Malcolm said. “I don’t like my little cousins having the police called on them during the Water Hill Music Festival for stealing a lawn mower that belongs to them to go cut grass on a property that we own.” For Malcolm, the neighborhood will always be the West Side — not Water Hill.

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Maryls Deen recalled student-led demonstrations in Ann Arbor Schools, like Pioneer and Slauson, when the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Power Movement swept through the nation. The French Dukes Precision Drill Team, pictured below, was a large part of the West Side’s identity.

No, Not Just Nuts WHEREVER LAINEY QUEEN GOES TO EAT, SHE IS ON HIGH ALERT LOOKING OUT FOR ONE OF HER MANY LIFE-THREATENING ALLERGIES. BY DAN GUTENBERG

Lainey Queen started to feel her throat closing. She had just taken a bite into a gluten-free cookie, but the flour substitute contained one of her many allergens –– garbanzo beans. She raised her hand to explain what was happening and proceeded to leave her geometry class, heading to the office where she would later take an EpiPen. That was three years ago, but Queen has many other memories similar to that one, as living with food allergies can cause life-threatening reactions. It is especially difficult living with as many allergies as Queen has –– peanuts, tree nuts and legumes are on her list of allergies, and she was also diagnosed with autoimmune Celiac disease in fifth grade. Celiac is the reaction to eating gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye. Living with allergies can be extremely burdensome in ways that non-affected individuals may not experience. For instance, people without food allergies can go out to eat stress-free, knowing whatever they put into their bodies will not harm them. But for individuals like Queen, it is the polar opposite. “I hate [going out to eat],” Queen said. “I hate it so much. It’s not like, ‘do you want to go out to eat?’ It’s, ‘Do you want a specific food from a specific restaurant?’ Because I can’t just browse the menu, I know what I want going into the restaurant. It’s not ‘do you want to go to Zingerman’s?’ It’s ‘do you want gluten-free fried chicken and french fries?’” Ocassionally, Queen may find herself at a new restaurant, and after looking through the menu, she might find that there is no safe option, or that communicating with the kitchen is very tough, causing her to feel uncomfortable ordering any food at all. It is not the same experience that most people have when they choose to eat outside their own home. “Recently I went to Fleetwood Diner for the first time, and I found out that I couldn’t eat anything there, so I got water,” Queen said. “One time I went to Cafe Felix –– I couldn’t eat anything there. I got an apple.”

Misconceptions in the kitchen, or just the lack of awareness and education surrounding food allergies can cause serious harm to anyone with anaphylaxis — a serious and sudden onset reaction like the one Queen had to the cookie. Symptoms include hives or itching, swollen lips, reduced blood pressure, nausea, constriction of airways and/or difficulty breathing. A primary cause of accidental reactions can be due to cross-contamination –– when a food substance is transferred from one source to another, causing a harmful effect. For example, if eggs are cooked on a pan, and the pan is only wiped off before preparing food for someone with an egg allergy. Just the slightest amount of food containing protein of the specific allergen can cause a serious anaphylaxis reaction. The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention reports that the prevalence of food allergy in children increased by 50 percent between 1997 and 2011. With the increase of reported food allergies, it becomes even more necessary that everyone, including restaurants, becomes more educated on food allergies and the dangers of cross-contamination. In recent years, more and more restaurants have taken steps to help prevent reactions. Warnings on the bottom of menus mentioning allergens or signs at the front of a line listing possible allergens in restaurants are very helpful for individuals with food allergies when eating somewhere new. According to Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE), researchers estimate that up to 15 million Americans have food allergies, including 5.9 million children under age 18. That is one in 13 children, or roughly two in every classroom. Because of the significance of 1 in 13 children, it is necessary for schools to continue and advance in the awareness of food allergies. FARE also reports that every three minutes, an allergic reaction sends someone to the emergency room. With that staggering statistic, it is critical that ingredients and labels are checked to save a trip to the hospital.

January 2019

What’s the Business With Cannabis? The recreational use of cannabis for people over 21 years old was legalized in the state of Michigan on Dec. 6, 2018. Now, Adam Rosenberg, the founder of Green Wolverine, explores business ventures in the emerging market. BY SACHA VERLON

At age 16, Adam Rosenberg was eager for hands-on experience in the medical field; he got a job at Prizm Pain Management Specialists in Canton, Michigan, shadowing experienced doctors. He was assigned to the drug testing lab, making sure that patients were exclusively taking their prescription medications which were often opiates. He soon came to the realization that in doing so, he was discouraging patients from exploring alternative medicines, such as cannabis. “In cases in which it is cannabis or another medication, most often, cannabis is a better solution,” Rosenberg said. “It does not come with the same dependency potential and potential for harm.” Upon this realization, Rosenberg diverged from the traditional medical path and decided that he wanted to learn more about cannabis. During his freshman year at the University of Michigan, he got a job at the Medical Cannabis Provisioning Center. “Now, with Proposal One, they are not allowed to be called dispensaries,” Rosenberg said. “They are called provisioning centers.” Rosenberg worked there for six months, doing product preparation before switching to bud tending, which involves recommending different intake methods, strains, and forms of cannabis to patients. The experience taught him about the medical efficacy of cannabis and its importance as a medicine. From there, Rosenberg wanted to bring his knowledge and experience about the cannabis business to academia; he founded the non-profit club Green Wolverine through the University of Michigan Ross School of Business last year. Their main initiative is to educate the public about cannabis and provide students with the resources to conduct business in the cannabis industry. “Our mission is to present the positives [of cannabis] as well as the negatives, allowing the listener to draw their own conclusion,” Rosenberg said. “We do not encourage cannabis use, we do not discourage cannabis use. What we do encourage are informed decisions. Our mission is to facilitate success for students in any field by bringing in this novelty and information that is so unique. It is something that very few people have a full understanding of.” The club gained o hundred members in its first month at Ross and has attracted an additional hundred applicants per

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Adam Rosenberg poses in the Winter Garden in the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan after a business conference. Rosenberg is currently a senior as an undergraduate student at Ross.

semester since. The club currently has two hundred members. When choosing between which applicants to admit, Rosenberg looks for potential members who are ready to bring unique insights and ideas to the table. “It isn’t important what job they had the previous year or what their GPA is,” Rosenberg said. “It is about if they fit into our mission of advancing education, professional development, and networking in the cannabis space. [It is about] if they would be willing to put that interest into action and come to meetings and volunteer and provide value to the organization.” Members of Green Wolverine are split into a variety of different committees, each with a different focus. Rosenberg’s favorite committee is the Career Prospecting Committee, which works as an intermediary between members that are interested in a career in the cannabis industry. Those interested in investing in cannabis stocks can gain access to Green Wolverine’s investment fund. The club also plans many large-scale events every year, such as the science symposium that Green Wolverine organizes in partnership with the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy and the School of Nursing. For many members of Green Wolverine, statewide legalization of recreational cannabis will open doors for potential business ventures in the new industry. As Rosenberg explained, not only will the sale of cannabis garner hundreds of millions of dollars in additional tax revenue for the state, but the sale of cannabis will generate an estimated two billion dollars in sales for businesses involved in the industry. This includes all of the enterprises involved in the production and selling of cannabis. “Along the supply chain of cannabis, there are other businesses that are needed; these are the ancillary products and services,” Rosenberg said. “You are going to see additional sales at hydroponic stores, fertilizer companies… You are going to see lighting companies earn more money and real estate and packaging and accounting services, attorneys, complaints. So the real impact on the economy is multiple times that of just the sales of cannabis.” Although the sale of and use of cannabis is legal within the jurisdiction of the state of Michigan, marijuana is still considered a Schedule I drug under federal law. Substances under Schedule I are considered to have a high potential for abuse with no medical characteristics, making cannabis a federally illegal substance. The legal implications of this have limited the influx of capital into cannabis businesses in states where the substance is legal. “Because it is a Schedule I controlled substance, banks are not interested in getting involved so much at this point,” Rosenberg said. “So that is why on the stock side, U.S. companies are not being listed in the US. They are being listed in Canada, and particularly the CSE (Canadian Securities Exchange) has seen a massive influx of companies going there.” The state has until Dec. 6, 2019 to form regulations and process adultuse applications, permits that would allow businesses to sell cannabis recreationally. Rosenberg does not foresee cannabis retailers to start popping up on streets in Michigan’s towns and cities until about 2020. Some existing storefronts operating under a medical marijuana license will start catering towards a recreation consumer base as well, depending on the existing business model. Rosenberg noted that some medical centers will not be able to obtain an adult-use license, leaving these businesses behind in attracting new clientele. “From a strictly business standpoint, it makes a lot more sense to be catering to the full adult-use market because it is significantly larger than the patient population, which is about 300,000 currently here in Michigan,” Rosenberg said. Rosenberg sees the passage of Proposal One as a mark of Green Wolverine’s forsight and initiative working in an up-and-coming market. No matter what members decide to pursue in the future, Rosenberg is proud of the work that they have done to help pass the bill by educating the public on the business implications of cannabis.

January 2019

Living With a Look Alike

Arlo Durgy, left, and Sam Durgy, right, were born identical twins on Oct. 15 2001. Even their parents have trouble telling the two apart at times.

BY MAZEY PERRY

The Durgy twins have managed to pull off the classic switching places trick that is usually associated with identical twins: Sam Durgy went to Community High for a day and Arlo Durgy went to Pioneer. It wasn’t a surprise that it worked, because Sam and Arlo have been mistaken for each other their whole lives. Born identical twins on Oct 15. 2001, people have always had trouble telling the two apart. Until they started at different high schools, they were a package deal. With Arlo came Sam and with Sam came Arlo. They have both played baseball since they were in elementary school, and continued into high school. They also had all the same friends, so portraying that they were different people was difficult. Even their closest friends and family have always had trouble figuring out who was who. When they were little, their parents dressed Arlo in blue and Sam in red to tell them apart. It wasn’t until their freshman year of high school that the two were separated. Arlo got into Community and decided it would be a good fit for him. Sam continued down his set path to attend Pioneer High School. Arlo saw Community as an opportunity to make new friends who didn’t immediately associate him with his twin brother. 40

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“When we were little our parents dressed Arlo in blue and me in red to tell us apart.” Going to different schools has made it easier to tell them apart, but when they are together the confusion continues. “People confuse us every single day, even though we go to different schools,” Sam said. “If I hear someone yell Arlo, I respond to it. I’ve had full conversations with people thinking that I’m Arlo. They will talk to me about things that only Arlo does, and I just have to let them know that I’m Sam.” Being identical looking doesn’t bother either of them, because it has been something that they have had to deal with for their entire lives, but this year for Halloween, Arlo dyed his hair for his costume, which made it easy to tell the two apart. “I don’t think I’m going to dye it back; I sort of like that we don’t completely look the same for once,” Arlo said. Sam and Arlo are different people: just because they are identical does not mean |

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they are the same person. Having different colored hair and going to different schools has made that easier to establish. “Now that we go to different schools we have very different friends and different personalities; at the end of the day I know we are different people.” Arlo said. The hardest part of being identical is not being confused, but the constant comparison that they face.“We get compared a lot,” Arlo said. “I don’t usually care how Sam does until people compare us, because then I feel like I’m not Sam, so why am I being compared?” Their whole lives, they have participated in the same classes and extracurriculars, but now that they go to different schools they take different classes, and the comparison of grades no longer matches. “How I do on a math test shouldn’t be compared to how Arlo does, because we take different classes with different teachers.” Sam said. The Durgy twins don’t always get along, but growing up with a look alike and a constant companion has been something that both of them couldn’t imagine living without. “I just don’t know what life would be like without a twin,” Sam said.

The 7 Tips for Safe Winter Driving AS MICHIGAN’S WINTER APPROACHES, STUDENTS, TEACHERS AND ROAD PROFESSIONALS SHARE ADVICE ON HOW TO AVOID ICY ROADS AND STEER CLEAR OF SNOW. BY GINA LIU

ILLUSTRATIONS BY TAI TWOREK AND GINA LIU

Michigan spends about $154 per person on roads, compared to $214 spent per person in Ohio, creating more than $1 billion dollars more invested in Ohio roads, according to the Michigan Department of Transportation. So as teen drivers approach Michigan’s unique and unpredictable weather, they face relatively worse road conditions as well. The Communicator asked drivers – new and old, experienced and unexperienced, four wheel drivers and no wheel drivers, – about tips they had for winter driving. Whether it’s braking in ice or keeping a bag of kitty liter in your trunk, stay safe this winter with tips from Community’s finest!

STEER CLEAR Senior Will Panitch reiterates a tip he learned from his driver’s education class: steer while you break. That advice is part of the reason he was able to avoid hitting a car in front of him that had swerved to become almost perpendicular to his car on a snowy turn last winter.

LIGHTS ON When Brett Kilgore was 17, he had a particularly snowy drive from Cleveland to Columbus, Ohio, where he could not see the lanes and foolishly weaved between them, narrowingly missing a truck. Because of his experiences, a tip he recommends to other drivers is to drive with lights on in the snow.

PRACTICE WITH ICE Though Ruby Rios Hsu has only had her driving permit since March of 2018, she has plenty of tips for snowy driving: one being to practice with ice in empty parking lots. After her mother took her and her friend to a parking lot, Rios Hsu learned how slowly her car was able to stop.

SNOW PLOW SAFETY Emily Kizer, the communications manager for the Washtenaw County Road Commission, advises drivers to be cautious around snow plows. Snow plows have several wings and attachments to clean snow on the roads, and many who try and pass these machines can risk getting swept away.

KEEP KITTY LITTER! This winter will mark senior Emma Hoffman’s first winter driving by herself: she’s already manned her car with kitty litter and a shovel for the unpredictable winter conditions. Growing up, she saw her mother use it to gain traction on icy roads.

DO DONUT Brian Williams has been driving for 24 years on Michigan roads, and has learned that staying calm and ‘light-footed’ is key to winter driving. He remembers driving over an icy train track in Ann Arbor and doing a 360, ending up in the same direction. So he just kept driving.

AND DON’T PANIC When Ryoma FletcherSuzuki drives his large silver Volvo, he sees “cars driving sideways,” simply because they couldn’t control their vehicle. His tips are to think preemptively: don’t panic, oversteer and brake hard. Otherwise, you could end up a victim of winter driving.

January 2019

1:45.32 0.76 25.22 4 51.701:18.83 3 2 6 . 4 8 (3) 27.13 (3) 26.49 (1)2004 SUMMER 19 A T H I N A SWIMMING UNITED STATES SEMI-FINALS HEAT TWO 2 Q 1:47.08 0.76 25.24 =4 52.50 4 1:20.01 3 2 267. (=3) 27.51 (=2) 27.07 (2)2004 SUMMER 19 ATHINA SWIMMING 1:45.32 0.76 25.22 4 51.70 3 1:18.83 3 26.48 UNITED STATES ROUND ONE HEAT SIX 1 Q 1:48.43 0.73 25.98 4 54.01 3 1:21.57 2 2 8 . 0 3 (3) 27.56 (1) 26.86 (1) 2008 SUMMER 23 B E I J I N G SWIMMING UNITED STATES FINAL 1 WR 1:42.96 0.73 24.31 1 50.29 1 1:16.84 1 25.98 (1) 26.55 (1) 21. (1) 2008 28 OLYMPIC MEDALS UNITED STATES S E M I FINALS 39 WORLD RECORDS :46.28 0.74 25.53 6 1 52.35 4.06 1:51.51 SECOND 200 FLY HEAT 4:26.82H (3) 27.06 (2) 26.8 SUM COULDNâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;T SAVE HIM 2:48.43 3 BEIJING SWIMMING UNITED STATES ROUND ONE H EA EIGHT 2 Q 1:46.48 0.73 25.81 7 52.78 =3 1 : 1 9 .2 26.67ONLY HE COULD HEAT TWO 3Q 1:48.43 (=1)(1)1 1:45.32 0.76 25.22 4 51.70 3 1:18.83 3 2 6 . 4 8S (3) 27.13 (3) 26.49 (1)2004 SUMMER 19 A T H I N A 1 SWIMMING UNITED STATES SEMI-FINALS HEAT TWO ( 2 Q 1:47.08 0.76 25.24 =4 52.50 4 1:20.01 3 27.26 (=3) 27.51 (=2) 27.07 (2) 2004 SUMMER 1 9 ATHINA SWIMMING UNITED STATES HEAT SIX 1 Q 1:48.43 0.73 25.98 4 54.01 3 1:21.57 .03 (3) 27.56 (1) 26.86 (1) 2008 SUMMER 23 BEIJING STATES FINAL 1 WR 1:42.96 0.3 24.31 1 WR 1:42.96 50. 41 25.98 (1) 26.55 0.73 BY CAMMI TIRICO SWIMMING (1) 26.12 (1) 2008 SUMMER 23 BEIJING SWIMMING STATES SEMI-FINALS HEAT TWO 3 Q 1:46.28 0.74 25.53 6 52.35 4 1:19.41 4 26.82 (3) 27.06 26.87 2008 SUMMER 23 BEIJING SWIMMING UNITED STATES ROUND ONE HEAT EIGHT 2 Q 1 : 4 6 . 4 8 42

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Michael Phelps had reached the lowest point of his life. It wasn’t missing his 40th World Record by hundredths of a second, nor was it his six-month suspension from USA Swimming. Instead, it was after his driving under the influence arrest. His second one. In ten years. The first time, the 19-year-old was fined $250 and felt as if he had let people all across the country down. This time, now 29, the fastest swimmer in the world fell into a spell of depression. Phelps locked himself in his Baltimore bedroom for four days and contemplated suicide. He emerged more vulnerable than ever. He had finally realized how much he had been — and was — hurting. He checked himself into a rehab clinic and began to heal.

to dream as big as I possibly could,” Phelps said. “For me, that was trying to do something that nobody else has ever done in the sport in Olympic history. That’s really what drove me every day: just being able to push myself to see where I could really go.” So he did. He went on to set 39 world records. He went on to be regarded as the greatest swimmer of all time. After officially retiring in 2016, Phelps now lives in Arizona with his family. Father of two sons — Boomer, 2, and Beckett, 10 months — and happily married to Nicole Johnson, Phelps credits large parts of his healing process to the love and support his family provided. Though his swimming career is unmatched, he believes that what he is doing now is much more important. By working

“I know that there are people that are going through similar struggles that I or… any of the other celebrities or athletes that have opened up [are going through],” Phelps said. “We are all human beings. It’s important for everybody to see that because I think more people struggle with mental health than what we really understand.” Phelps has recently partnered with online therapy site TalkSpace to encourage others to seek the help that led him to a greater understanding of his emotions. In addition to mental health, the Michael Phelps Foundation, created after returning home from the 2008 Beijing Olympics, helps to promote water safety, happy and healthy living, and the pursuit of young people’s dreams. Despite the many hardships that plagued him during and after his swimming career,

The name Michael Phelps is one that has been and will go down among the best athletes in the world. Having competed in five Olympic Games between the ages of 15 and 31, Phelps has won 23 gold medals, 3 silver medals and 2 bronze medals. He is the most decorated Olympian ever: the second most trails him by ten medals. He has won the 200-meter Individual Medley in the past four Olympics, making him the fastest all-around swimmer in the world for the past 16 years in a row. Phelps says that one of the most important things his longtime coach Bob Bowman did was remove the word “can’t” from his vocabulary. Phelps never put a limit on what he could accomplish. “It allowed me

to destigmatize mental health, he believes he can change — and save — lives. “What I am doing out of the pool is way bigger than anything I’ve ever done in it,” Phelps said. “Being able to win 23 Olympic gold medals is something that I might never understand, but for me, to be able to have the chance to save a life — to make an impact on somebody — that’s way more important than ever winning an Olympic medal.” Phelps first opened up about his struggle with mental health in a Sports Illustrated feature right before the 2016 Olympics. Since then, Phelps has spoken to people across the country to help destigmatize mental health.

Phelps feels everything he has done has lead him to where he is today. “I would never change anything that really happened in my career, the good, bad or ugly because it’s been able to make me who I am today,” Phelps said. “I know I am very lucky and I am very happy [to be where I am].” By coming out and sharing his story of struggles with mental health, Phelps hopes it will help others to feel less alone. “You need to take a step back, take a breath and try to relax,” Phelps said. “You always [need to] remember that you’re not alone.”

3 6 (1) 21.62 1:18.83 SWIMMING UNITED STATES SEMI-FINALS 2HEAT TWO 2Q 1:47.08 0.76 25.24 =4 52.50 41:20.0 3 27.26 “WHAT I AM DOING OUT (2) 2004 SUMMER EAH 24.3 OF THE POOL IS WAY 0.76 25.2 51.70 3 1:47 2 .26.86(2)BIGGER THAN ANYTHING 1:18 2012 WR 18:4 2 1)1:51 2.6 I HAVE EVER DONE IN IT.” S WIMMING UNITE 8STATES FINAL 1:51.21 PR 0.73 24.35 726.86 W 1:42.96 0.73 24.31 18:6 50.29 1 1:16.84 1 25. O (1) 26.55 (1) 26.12 (1) SWIMMING =4 52.50 4 FINAL

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January 2019

Closeted Cover EVEN THOUGH COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL PRIDES ITSELF ON ACCEPTING LGBTQ+ PEOPLE, A STUDENT AT COMMUNITY STILL FEELS UNABLE TO COME OUT. BY ATTICUS DEWEY

The sun shone through the four-paned window in the bedroom of Terry Phillips*, causing them to stir from their slumber. They began their day like many other high school students do — waking up, eating breakfast and getting ready for the school day — but Phillips’ day began differently. They began by looking into the mirror and gathering the mental energy to pretend to be someone they aren’t. Terry Phillips is bisexual and can’t come out of the closet. They can’t come out in a city where being part of the LGBTQ+ community is widely accepted.. They can’t come out in a school where coming out is permitted, where they have faith that Community High School’s (CHS) Queer Straight Alliance (QSA) group would be able to support them. They can’t come out in a community where everyone would support them if they were to come out, when they know they would have the backing from everyone around them. Terry Phillips can’t come out because they’re afraid of what could happen to their daily life. “Every day I wonder if today is the day to come out,” Phillips said. “But then I think of all the things happening in the world, things happening in our own communities, and I decided not to. So, I look myself in the mirror and I think about how I’m going to act that day. I choose my outfits very carefully, I think about everything I might need to say during the day, all in the hopes that people won’t get the hint that I’m not straight.” According to a study conducted by the Human Rights Campaign, Phillips is one of the 42 percent of LGBTQ+ youth that say that they’re afraid of what coming out may mean. For Phillips, coming out would mean that they would be subject to lawmakers around the country who have passed “religious exemption” laws, which are a thinly-veiled assault against LGBTQ+ people; and while there has been significant progress in areas such as marriage, there is no federal law prohibiting discrimination of employment, housing and access to services. “I play sports at Huron, and every day I enter the locker room to hear jokes and comments all at the expense of LGBT peo44

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ple,” Phillips said. “If it’s happening here in Ann Arbor, it’s happening all over the country. For example, when you look at the Obama presidency and all the work he did for LGBT people, compared to the Trump administration now, it’s scary.” President Obama made several acts to integrate LGBTQ+ people more into society by signing in a variety of supportive acts. These acts included ending the Legal Defense on the Defense of Marriage Act, repealing the military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy and protecting LGBTQ+ Americans against discrimination. Thus far, President Trump’s administration has attempted to ban transgender people from serving in the military several times; the LGBTQ+ community has been erased from the National Survey of Older Americans; and a budget was proposed that would have cut funding to HIV/AIDS research and guidance on protecting transgender youth in schools was rescinded. “I think that for acceptance to be made in our society, education is the most vital thing to take that step,” said Brooke Rafo, a QSA member at Community High School. “When I was growing up, I didn’t think there was a difference between being straight and being LGBT, so I feel that if more people raise their children as if there is nothing odd about being LGBT, it would be a totally different story.” In the majority of schools across the country, the only location where LGBTQ+ issues are taught is in health classrooms. Of these classes, there are four main approaches in what is taught: the ignoring approach, which ig|

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nores non-heterosexual behaviors completely; the demonizing approach, a method which directly implies that homosexual behavior is wrong; the stigmatizing approach, an approach which only mentions LGBTQ+ behaviors when it comes to risk factors; and a truly inclusive approach, which includes and infuses LGBTQ+ health and issues throughout the curriculum. While many health teachers may try to incorporate LGBTQ+ issues into their classroom, states such as Arizona, Oklahoma and South Carolina prohibit teachers from talking about LGBTQ+ issues entirely. “I think that Community does a really nice job with the way it handles LGBT issues in classes,” Phillips said. “I took health with Robbie, and I firmly believe that she taught both LGBT health and issues as well as she could have into her classes. I’ve also taken Gender Studies with Chloe and obviously that class talks all about LGBT issues and it goes really in depth with how to change society to better fit. Community is a hidden gem in that way. I have friends in Indiana who have learned some things about LGBT health and issues, but then I start talking to them about what they’ve learned in school and it really doesn’t compare.” “The reason that Community allows for this to happen is that it’s a smaller school, which allows the staff and students to be more willing to learn about LGBT issues because they’re more likely to know someone affected by those issues,” said Chloe Root, CHS’s Gender Studies teacher as well as QSA’s advisor. While Community’s acceptance of LGBTQ+ people and issues is not lost on Phillips, they also realize that to come out the views on LGBTQ+ people in politics needs to change. The chance that they could suffer a pay dock, being uncomfortable joining military services, or suffer because of their sexual orientation; until these issues can change, is something that Phillips is terrorfied of. Until these changes can be made, Phillips will choose not to come out. “I really love Community and everything it does to work on accepting LGBT people,” Phillips said. “While I would love to come out of the closet until equality is achieved for both straight and LGBT people, I don’t think it would be wise for me to come out until then. At the same time, when rights are gained I will be one of the first people to announce my sexuality.” *Name has been changed to protect anonymity. PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY ATTICUS DEWEY

Combining facial aspects of over eight people, none of which are the article’s main source, the illustration represents all students who are afraid to come out.

January 2019

Every Part of Me

STORIES ABOUT COMING OUT AND BEING OUT FROM LGBTQ+ STUDENTS AND STAFF AT COMMUNITY. BY GENEVE THOMAS-PALMER

Amy McLoughlin

Ella Martin*

ILLUSTRATION BY RYAN THOMAS-PALMER

For the first 14 years of her life, Ella Martin* kept a large part of herself hidden from her mother — the woman who raised her and her seven siblings all on her own. Martin was worried that by coming out to her, she would be treated differently. “It was hardest for me to come out to my mom,” Martin said. “Not because I was worried she wouldn’t accept me, but I never wanted her to feel like she had messed up in any way, I always wanted to be the child she didn’t have to worry about. My mom is my idol. I always want her to be proud of me and I was worried that I wasn’t going to be the ideal daughter that she wanted, but it didn’t change things. When I told her [I was bisexual] she was kind of relieved. She said that she’d been suspecting it for some time and she was freaked out that I hadn’t told her so she was like, ‘What took you so long? Why didn’t you tell me?’” Before she came out to her mother, Martin went through depressive states, and felt “contained” by the secret she was keeping. “Sometimes, I would just feel restricted in what I could say, and how I could act,” Martin said. “I isolated myself and tried to keep it a secret. When you keep yourself so alone with something that you think is so terrible [that] you don’t want to tell anybody, you definitely feel scared. I was worried that my mom would look at me differently or act differently around me. That’s why I never really talked to her about it — because I didn’t want her to treat me differently.” Growing up, Martin and her family went through some hard times, and that often made her feel disconnected from the rest of her peers. She thought that was probably the main reason that, until a couple of years ago, she did not question her sexuality. “I already knew what it was like to be strange, and not be just another kid,” Martin said. “I knew what it felt like to be alienated or have people look at me differently and I worried about being different, being weird. Growing up I wanted to be just like everyone else. I didn’t want there to be anything else [that set me apart].” Even now that Martin has told the people most important to her about her bisexuality, she does not feel as though it is something that she needs to publicize. “It’s something that’s personal about me so I tell people that I trust or feel comfortable around,” Martin said. “It’s something that I tell people when I want them to know every part of me.” *Name has been changed to protect anonymity. 46

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PHOTO ILLUSTRATION FEATURING AMY MCLOUGHLIN AND THE LGBTQ+ FLAG

Twelve years ago, when CHS counselor Amy McLoughlin worked in Toledo, she served as the advisor for her school’s Gay Straight Alliance, she was not out to her students or her coworkers as a lesbian. At the time, it was unsafe to work in the public school system as a lesbian. McLoughlin could have been fired pegged as a child molester if she came out at work. “It was terrible,” McLoughlin said. “I wasn’t my full self and I was always code switching. I think there’s just a part of you that dies and that’s shut off when you have to do that. You spend a lot of emotional energy not being your true self. It’s just exhausting.” When she was in high school, McLoughlin doesn’t think she even knew what a lesbian was. “I always had a boyfriend, but I didn’t really care [about him],” McLoughlin said. “It was something I had to do. I didn’t know [I was a lesbian] in high school, but I was always attracted to my female friends. I would much rather spend time with women than hang out with the guy friends.” Even after McLoughlin admitted to herself that she was a lesbian, it took her a while to come out to her family. “I was scared that if I told my mom, or told my family they wouldn’t love me anymore, so I put off coming out for a very long time,” McLoughlin said. “I didn’t tell my mom [I was a lesbian] until I was 30, which by then I think she knew.” At first, McLoughlin’s mother didn’t respond well. McLoughlin remembers her saying “Don’t tell your grandma,” and “Don’t tell your dad.” However, McLoughlin was an adult, and her mother didn’t have the same power over her that she did when McLoughlin was younger. The only thing that McLoughlin relied on her mother for was love, and her mother told her she still loved her. After the initial shock wore off, McLoughlin’s mother grew to accept her daughter’s sexuality, and eventually became an activist for queer rights — campaigning and marching for gay marriage. “If I told [my mom] now what she’d told me then, she wouldn’t even believe me,” McLoughlin said. “She’d be like, ‘I never said that.’ I bet he wishes she could take it back. I know it’s hard — especially as a teenager — for your parents to react poorly at first, but understand that you’re still you and they still love you. It’s just going to take them a little while to get used to it in most cases. When parents love their kid, they’re going to change and they’re going to come around.”

a guide to waste AT COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL

BY ELLA EDELSTEIN AND ISAAC MCKENNA

THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (EPA) ESTIMATES THAT

PERCENT OF THE TOTAL AMERICAN WASTE STREAM IS RECYCLABLE. BUT ONLY

percent ever ends up in recycling bins. On a sunny Wednesday afternoon, we emptied the third floor trash and recycling bins out onto a blue tarp in order to investigate how much of our waste was being correctly sorted and disposed of. We sorted the contents of each bin into three piles: items that could have been recycled, items that could have been composted and items that can only be thrown away. The option to compost is a new one at Community; the Ecology Club, led by Courtney Kiley, implemented compost bins in several rooms around the school to minimize waste. But our findings showed us that the compost bins are far underused. The trash was full of items that should have been composted. It seemed that someone had been making s’mores; unopened packages of marshmallows and boxes of graham crackers fell onto the tarp upon opening the garbage bags. Among the food waste were two full boxes of spaghetti, a family-sized bag of chips and various fruit peels. Ideally, food scraps should never end up in a landfill, because they are almost all compostable. But more frustrating than seeing banana peels and a half-eaten sandwich in the trash was the food which was untouched: particularly the spaghetti and the s’more supplies. Turn the page to see a full analysis of the trash and recycling, and to find out when to recycle, compost or throw it away. January 2019

thrown away Landfill

Everything here was meant to be thrown away; it was mostly (1) thin plastic bags, (2) styrofoam and (3) dirty recyclables. Keep in mind, though, that most plastic bags can be taken to supermarkets to be recycled there.

4 Recycling Roughly a third of the “trash” that we found was recyclable. Most of what made up the recyclables were (4) yogurt cups; (5) plastic utensils, which are tricky (not all are recyclable and some are compostable); and a spattering of food containers, cardboard and glass tubes. Remember to wash out those yogurt cups before throwing them in the bin! Dirty food containers can contaminate a bin of clean recyclables.

Compost 7 6

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Our compost pile was perhaps the saddest. Much of the pile was food which did not need to be composted in the first place. The items were non-perishable: (6) dry pasta, (7) food in unopened bags like graham crackers and marshmallows, or (8) unopened fruit. Otherwise, the compostable “trash” was primarily paper napkins, (9) partially-eaten food and produce scraps. As a general rule, pretty much all solid food is compostable, so just toss it into the green bucket instead of the trash.

recycled 10

11 12 Recycling Even though there a lot more that Community could be recycling, the items that we do recycle are almost always meant to be there. (10) Paper made up the bulk of the recycling, but only one (11) of the cardboard graham cracker boxes ended up in the bin. There were several (12) plastic containers in the recycling, and as long as these are properly washed, they belong there.

changes

So, what can we be doing in order to insure that our waste is disposed of properly? We came up with a few ideas to start. First, it is a great start that we have compost bins in a few classrooms. But it seems that much of our food waste is still being trashed. Therefore, it may be helpful to place compost bins in more classrooms and in the hallways so that composting is more convenient. Second, since there were numerous dirty yogurt containers in the trash, it is important for students to know that a) their containers are recyclable and b) they need to wash them before recycling. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s understandable that people struggle with deciding where to toss their trash; there are a lot of rules that could stump anyone! So, a solution to increase recycling and composting awareness could be to create signs that list which items belong in which bin.

13 Trash There were only five items in the recycling bin that shouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have been there. Wrappers are the most obvious, but because the (13) paper bag had food stains and grease on it, it canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be recycled as it might contaminate other items.

January 2019

The Zebrotics Preseason COMMUNITY’S ROBOTICS TEAM REGISTERS AND TRAINS FOR THE UPCOMING COMPETITION SEASON. BY JOSEPH SIMON

At lunch on Dec. 3, 2018, students walked into science teacher Christia West’s room for a weekly meeting of Zebrotics, Community High’s robotics team. After the students sat down at a table and conversed for a few minutes, West started the meeting with an important announcement: registration for the team was due soon and anyone who missed the deadline would lose their place on the team. West then took to her computer to check who was already on the team and who still needed to register. This meeting took place during Zebrotics’ preseason, which involves registering and training for the upcoming FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition. The competition starts on Jan. 5 at a kickoff event where teams receive information about the competition, or the “game.” Zebrotics recently held a boot-camp style training event in which they learned various skills and participated in team-building ex-

ercises. Fundraising is also part of their preseason, as well as displaying their robot and demonstrating its capabilities at the AAPS S.T.E.A.M. Exposition on Nov. 29. “It’s just a fun time for us to play with our robot and get together with other teams because we see other teams a lot during the season,” West said. While robotics teams generally compete against each other, the robotics community has no deep conflicts or rivalries between teams. Instead, they work together and treat each other as a family. “At a competition, you’re going to be competing against one team one time and on an alliance with them the next time,” West said. “You’re always learning and helping other teams, so we learn from them or we help them, and that’s the whole group thing. You want to be the nice team, not the jerk team.” The Zebrotics team always helps other teams whenever they can. The team’s main

Zebrotics meets during lunch in science teacher and team advisor Christia West’s room to register for the FIRST Robotics Competition, which starts on Jan. 5 at a kickoff event where the specifications of the competition are revealed. PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOSEPH SIMON

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strength is programming; their seniors are especially skilled in this field and can be seen at competitions helping and teaching other teams. “Last night, Pioneer was having some problems with their robot until our team members worked with them to help fix it,” West said. “That’s the one thing about robotics teams, we all work together if other teams are having a problem because we want everybody to have a good, competitive robot.” This year, Zebrotics moved their robot building space to Scarlett Middle School to allow more space for organizing parts and materials. “We have everything from little, tiny electronics parts and pneumatics components to giant sheets of sheet metal,” West said. “We have to organize all that and keep inventory.” In addition, the team has considered different ways to improve their space while building robots or competing at the tournament. “This year, we really haven’t [built anything] because we are just moving into this space, but one of the things we were thinking about is building another workbench,” West said. “We might start working on things like our pit because the pits are where we are at competitions. The pit is your presence at the competition, so we have banners, and we’re thinking this year about making an actual structure out of PVC pipe that we can hang things on.” Staying prepared for the competition is crucial to a team’s success. This means being ready to make a repair or replace a robot part at any time. “We have to take all our tools to the competition because things break,” West said, “So we usually take our entire tool chest and there’s always a little machine shop at the competition, so if we break a part and we need to actually machine a new part, we can. We can cut metal [if] we need to fabricate a new piece, we can do that at a competition. And we have. These robots are, especially depending on the game, sometimes colliding with other robots and can be hitting things.” With the start of competition season drawing closer, Community High’s Zebrotics plans to keep preparing for the FIRST Robotics Competition until the specifications of the competition are revealed at the kickoff event on Jan. 5.

NATURAL REMEDIES BY MEGHANA TUMMALA

hen my body aches, my throat is sore and I start sniffling, I know I’m coming down with a cold. On school days, I wake up knowing I’m not sick enough to skip school; I dreadfully carry myself through the day until I make it home in one piece. My mom checks up on me — her hand on my forehead — to make sure I’m not getting worse. Seeing I’m all right, she does something I’ve been looking forward to all day. She hands me a warm cup of tea. However, it’s not just any kind of tea, it’s paired with ingredients known to have healthy benefits: mint leaves, ginger, lime and honey. “Don’t forget to drink it while it’s hot!” she told me as I added in some more honey. The hot tea rushes down my throat and works its magic: my throat is soothed and my body feels relaxed. According to my mom this tea works best when you think you might be coming down with something. However, in my opinion I think it’s good to drink even if you’re not sick. If I continue to grow sick and my symptoms are not serious, I try my mom’s natural remedies before taking any medications. I have found that eucalyptus oil and water vapor with turmeric help alleviate my sinuses. A hot shower can help ease body pains and applying vaseline overnight on the nose can reduce the redness caused by using tissues. However, these remedies are only for colds with minor symptoms; if you are feeling seriously unwell make sure to visit a doctor for professional help.

GREEN TEA RECIPE INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup water • 1 tbsp green tea leaves or 1 green tea bag • 12 mint leaves • 1.5 inches ginger • ½ lime juice • 1-2 tbsp honey

INSTRUCTIONS • Peel the ginger and slice it into 3-4 parts. • In a kettle add the water, the mint leaves and the ginger. Place the kettle on medium heat. • Let the water come to a boil and add the green tea leaves or bag. Wait 3-4 minutes as it boils. • Turn the stove off and wait 5 minutes. While you wait, in a mug add the honey and lime juice. Tip: Don’t add too much at first, wait to add the rest later. • Pour the tea into the mug and stir until the honey dissolves. • Taste the tea and based on your preference and tolerance add more lime juice and/or honey. • Enjoy the tea while it’s still hot!

January 2019

COMMUNITY HIGH JAZZ

BY ISABEL ESPINOSA AND ANDREA SCHNELL PHOTOGRAPHY BY ISABEL ESPINOSA

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LEFT PAGE TOP: Pianist Aris Chalin, Trumpet player Jake Lee, and Bassist Jonah Eichner from the top Jazz Band, “Unified Field Theory,” performing the first set of the second show of the night. They performed “Gertrude’s Bounce” by Richie Powell, “Elveen” by Wynton Marsalis and “Porky” by Cannonball and Nat Adderly. LEFT PAGE BOTTOM LEFT: CHS junior and Bassist Max Fraser calmly walks the bassline during his combo’s set near the end of the first show. The first song they performed, “Michigan, My Michigan,” was a variation on a classic holiday song.

LEFT PAGE BOTTOM RIGHT: Trumpet player Corey Watkins playing a solo during the first set of the night. The CHS Jazz concert began at 6 p.m. on Tuesday Dec. 18, 2019 at the Lydia Mendelssohn Theater. TOP LEFT: Senior and first-year jazz student iO Soucy singing a soulful duet wirh bassist Jonah Eichner. Together, they performed Irving Berlin’s “I’ve got My Love to Keep Me Warm.” TOP RIGHT: Tim Cohn, the alto and tenor saxophone player for top combo “Unified Field Theory,” during his solo on the second

song of their set, “Elveen.” Two weeks ago, they played that song for award-winning trumpet player, Wynton Marsalis. BOTTOM LEFT: Jacob Perlmutter, a junior at CHS, looks to his fellow “The Keymasters” combo members — Gordon Lewis, Etai Smotrich-Barr, Sacha Verlon, and Max Fraser — during their performance. BOTTOM RIGHT: Sophomore Ben Reynolds feels the funk during a solo with his combo, “Funk Dream,” during their set. When Reynolds played a funky lick in his solo, the crowd cheered.

January 2019

New Year, New Me, No More.

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Staff Editorial Happy New Year! Around this time, we hear a lot of talk about health. January is a month rich in resolutions, many of which have to do with living physically, mentally and/or spiritually healthier lives. Whether the promises are to start working out more or finally write in that dream journal, it can feel like everyone is making them. Well, we want you to make us a promise. We want you to start making health a priority. That can be a big ask. We live in a culture that glamorizes unhealthy student habits, and a Pew Research Study published in November 2018 indicated that the post-millennial generation (that’s us) is set to be the best-educated yet. This leaves us even more vulnerable to the pressures to work ourselves to the bone. It can be hard to resist pulling all-nighters, skipping snacks and spending days trapped inside studying, especially when it feels like everyone else is doing it, but that makes it all the more important. Your physical health shouldn’t be an afterthought. That being said, it also shouldn’t be the only thought. Maintaining your mental and emotional health is just as vital — and can sometimes be even harder. This time of year is known to be tough on the mind; if you find you’re struggling, know you’re not alone. You’ve got to treat your brain like your body in that regard: you wouldn’t ignore a physical problem, so don’t ignore the mental ones. Try to push yourself to reach out to people you’re close to, and make sure you’re checking in with yourself. There is someone else’s health we want you to be thinking about too: Mother Earth. In 2018, a series of reports on climate change’s current and predicted future impacts left many feeling hopeless. But there’s no room to lose hope now. We want you to take the steps you can to help create a healthy planet. Research, ask questions, make small changes and do what you can! Going green is a group effort, and it’s easy to find something you can do to pitch in. Taking care of our planet couldn’t be more important. It’s time to step up and become a part of the change. So do us this favor. Try to make health, personal and planetary, a priority this year. With that said, we at the Communicator wish you all a happy, healthy 2019.

Dip a Toe In LET’S ADDRESS THE ISSUE WITH OUR APPROACH TO ECO-FRIENDLY LIVING. BY PAIGE DUFF

The eco-friendly community can be anything but friendly. As someone who’s involved in it, I say this with no guilty conscience. I read sustainability blogs and follow environmentally conscious influencers on Instagram. I go to websites to follow the lives of people living trash-free, and try to shop with the planet in mind. And there is very much a sense of community in these spheres; people swap tips and tricks, and applaud each other’s action. I love reading about the new ways people have learned to go green, and am often in a position to try them out myself. But there’s a darker side to this world. It’s what keeps people from participating in saving our planet; it’s the all-or-nothing approach. There’s judgement within green communities, and aspersions cast on those who can’t contribute in certain ways. We muse: why don’t they change their diet, or clothing, or methods of transportation? We ask: how can they sit back and do nothing? We view these people as careless, heartless and brainless, and we judge their contributons as not enough. It’s often not as simple as it seems. Let me explain. I have a water bottle I bring to school with me every day. It was a birthday gift. It’s CO2 negative, made out of sugarcane, and it cost my parents 35 dollars. And while I feel good

carrying around a product that I know has a positive environmental impact, it’s ignorant to assume a 35 dollar water bottle is an option for everyone. Many eco-friendly products cost more because of their production process, and are out of many people’s price ranges. Other eco-friendly lifestyle changes have limits too, like health issues that prevent people from going vegan. There are plenty of spaces in which people can’t — or choose not to — step up. The issue arises in the way we handle it. Many have adopted the all-or-nothing approach: the discouraging idea that if you can’t do it all, you shouldn’t bother doing anything. It centers around the themes of completion and perfection, and this attitude isn’t just illogical; it’s dangerous. We can’t afford to succumb to the idea that there are people who simply are and are not eco-friendly, no matter how easy it might be to resign oneself to the latter. And that’s a major part of the problem; the ease of counting yourself out, of deciding you have nothing to contribute. It’s perpetuated by the exclusivity of the eco-friendly community, and it’s got to stop. The number of times I’ve forgotten my reusable straw at home is surely in the hundreds, but more important are

the times when I haven’t. There are people who live completely waste-free, and those who remember their old homework belongs in the recycling, not the trash. Some can buy a battery-powered car; some can walk to work once a week. These actions may not have equivalent impact, but they all deserve to be acknowledged, and they all make a difference. We should be celebrating the many ways we can make a difference, not judging each other for the ways we can’t. As climate assessments paint scarier pictures of our planet’s future, many are looking for ways to help. This is an opportunity for the eco-friendly community to reevaluate. It’s time to understand inclusion is the name of the environmental game. It’s time to accept that people’s situations shape how they can contribute. It’s time to retire the all-or-nothing attitude, and encourage each other to dip a toe into eco-friendly living.

January 2019

put your money where your heart is 56

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I BUY THINGS THAT I SHOULDN’T BE BUYING, AND I’VE BEEN DOING IT MY WHOLE LIFE. BY RUBY TAYLOR

I’ve been buying Covergirl mascara since seventh grade. On Nov. 6, 2018, when the company announced that it was becoming cruelty-free, I was relieved and excited. I’ve always been passionate about animal rights. I was even vegetarian for years. But in spite of that, I’ve been buying Covergirl products for four years, with full knowledge of their animal testing. Animal testing is an objectively cruel act. Rodents, cats, dogs and other creatures are bred for testing, and are forced to live miserable lives in laboratories: lives that frequently end in painful, elongated and experiment-related deaths, according to Cruelty Free International. Despite the fact that their animal testing policy conflicted with some of my core ethical beliefs, I continued to buy Covergirl products. It rarely crossed my mind. When it did, I’d tell myself that my contribution to the corporation didn’t really mean anything. That it was only nine dollars, and it was no big deal. But nine dollars, once every two or three months, for four years — that adds up. Over the course of those four years, according to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), 400 million animals were tested on in the U.S.. 400 million animals experienced excruciating pain. Many of them died. And I was contributing to it. From a makeup standpoint, my conscience is now cleared. Covergirl has become cruelty-free, and I can buy my mascara in peace. But soon after my realizations about past mascara purchases, I began to think about other products I buy, and the morals of the companies I continuously support. Covergirl is not the only unethical company that receives profits from me. I buy Victoria’s Secret products with full knowledge that they have exploited prisoners in the past. My conditioner is also tested on animals, but I’m yet to find another brand

which tames my frizzy hair, so I keep buying it. After sitting with my hypocrisy, it occurred to me that all of the items I spend money on, despite disagreeing with the companies’ ethics, have to do with my femininity. Makeup. Bras. Underwear. Conditioner. This is not just an individual predicament. It is a ploy that prays on the societal standards women are held to. A person who gives up makeup, bras, underwear or perfect hair is looked down upon in our society. Corporations believe that women in America need these items to be embraced in society, so they exploit this demand with their own single interest in mind: money. Corporations consistently put money before ethics; they find the most profitable products and produce them as inexpensively as possible. They do this by performing harmful tests on creatures who cannot defend themselves, or by finding ways around the law to pay their workers below minimum wage. In America, women are required by a patriarchal society to conform to beauty standards if they are interested in acceptance, and unethical corporations believe that the drive to be embraced in this society outweighs that to be morally conscious. Our sexist society disregards the idea that women would think — or even hold enough empathy to care — about those who their products are hurting. The prospect that women would refuse to consider the lives lost in the making of the items that they are buying is far-fetched, due to a stereotype of vanity, selfishness and shallowness. Corporations rely on the idea that if a woman were to have the audacity to consciously choose to buy or not to buy items based on morals, she would be an outlier. They rely on the idea that the lack of eth-

ical products will leave consumers with no other option than to buy their unethical ones. This is where those corporations are wrong. I don’t want to give up on my appearance, but I can’t stomach the idea of supporting injustices like animal testing or prison labor. I want to be able to wear makeup. I want to have clean hair. But I also want a clean conscience. I’m done contributing to the torture of thousands of animals: it is not a price I am willing to pay anymore. I decided that it is time to remove myself from the vicious cycle of buying cheap, unethical products. It’s time to buy with intentionality. Drugstore makeup companies, such as Covergirl, becoming cruelty-free is a giant leap towards making environmental and ethical consciousness in the beauty industry accessible for people, regardless of their economic status. Cruelty-free products are no longer a rich person’s game. They are now readily accessible, and it is up to us to purchase them. As consumers, it is our duty to support companies who are up to the challenge of creating good products on good principles. Those are the companies who need our money. Those are the companies who deserve our money. As contributors to society, it is our duty to promote the proper treatment of other animals and people, because those directly affected can’t. To encourage the unfair treatment of animals or people is inexcusably wrong. As humans, it is our duty to better ourselves and do everything in our power to help others and to put good into the world. It is our duty to use our voices to advocate for those who are voiceless.

January 2019

Being a Teenager: Then vs. Now SIX COMMUNITY HIGH TEACHERS AND STUDENTS TALK ABOUT THEIR EXPERIENCES WITH AND OPINIONS ON BEING A TEENAGER. BY J KINCAID-BEAL

Edward Kulka, math teacher at Community High, in his senior year of high school.Neue Light in 8pt font with 10pt spacing.

Christia West, science teacher at CHS.Neue Light in 8pt font with 10pt spacing.

Brett Kilgpre at 18. Kilgore teaches geometry and econ at CHS.Neue Light in 8pt font with 10pt spacing.

Ed Kulka is a math teacher at CHS. His teenage years took place in the late sixties to early seventies, turning 13 in 1967, and graduating in 1972. Kulka said he didn’t consider school to be important when he was a teenager. “We didn’t give it a whole lot of thought,” said Kulka. “School is more important to [teenagers now] than it ever was to us.” When asked if he would rather be a teenager or an adult, he said, “I’m glad I don’t have to be a teenager.” When asked Kulka said the best thing about growing up in the ‘60s and ‘70s was the lack of phones and other advanced technology and communication. His parents knew when he would be home, and he showed up on time. “I was not in touch with my parents at all,” Kulka said. He once went on a high school trip and didn’t talk to his parents for two weeks. He recounts the experience as making him more self-reliant. T.V. usage was also different back when Kulka was growing up. “We had channel four, channel two, channel seven and channel nine, and that was it,” Kulka said. “The world was a lot smaller because of that.” They got news from newspapers, and were only really up to date on what was happening locally. Kulka got his driving license on his sixteenth birthday. The process was much easier than it is now; drivers ed was a class at his high school, he took the test and got his license on the same day.

Science teacher Christia West teenage years took place in the 80’s.. “Everyone has their own high school experience. My high school experience was [that] high school was way too easy for me.” West said she was bored by high school, never studied, aced all her tests, and was on the honor roll. When she got to college it all changed, and she realized she now needed better habits. “A lot of [my current students] are in that boat where they might be going along, and then all of a sudden they hit that subject and realize… ‘I have to change my plan of action’.” When West was a teenager, if she and her friends wanted to hang out they had to figure out a place and time beforehand. “My younger friends [now] will just show up, and contact people when they get there,” West said. “I think it’s harder to be a teenager [than an adult],” West said. “There’s just so much pressure on teenagers.” West got her driving license when she was 16, but since she lived in the country, she had been driving tractors from the age of 14. Driving was very important to West. “I lived ten miles from town. Without a car, I would never see my friends,” West said.

Brett Kilgore is a math teacher at CHS. He was a teenager in the early 2000s. He believes it’s similar to being a teenager now. He always knew he wanted to go to college, but growing up in Ohio, he never thought he would go to the University of Michigan. The main social media was AOL instant messenger. “That was one of my favorites,” Kilgore said. According to him, being a teenager today is more difficult than when he was a teenager, because of social media and bullying “in addition to forming your own personal relationships and connections.” The process of being able to drive was very similar for Brett as it is for teens now-adays. He got his learner’s permit at 15, and could drive with an adult in the car, then got his driver’s license at 16.

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Dom Gatto, a CHS junior.

Lee Bonevich’s dog, Luna. Lee Bonevich is a freshman at Community High School. eue Light in 8pt font with 10pt 0spacing.

Mali Chapel-Lakin is a Community High sophomore.

Dom Gatto is a junior at Community High who cares about school. “We can all dislike school but I think we can all appreciate it,” Gatto said. “I need school to go places.” Gatto plans on going to college for writing. School is critical, but Gatto says nothing comes before mental health. “School is important, but you know what else is important? Being alive.” Something that’s not important to Gatto is social media, and they only go on it when they’re bored. “I wish I cared about politics, but it’s too depressing,” Gatto said. “In some aspects, [I look forward to being an adult], I want to drive,” Gatto said. “That’s really it, I want to drive.”

Lee Bonevich is a current freshman at Community High school and says he does not look forward to being an adult. “I’d rather not pay for taxes,” Bonevich said. “If we didn’t have to go to school or have so many rules about life, then yeah, sure, being a teenager is fine. School is okay, I just don’t like the workload.” “It’s just hard trying to find a job, or trying to find living for those who don’t have homes,” Bonevich said about being a teenager. Bonevich also does not want to go to college, saying it’s a waste of time, money, and stress. “Usually college is something you would use in the future, I just don’t see a point to it,” Bonevich said. Bonevich also doesn’t care about politics, or social media, and said he’d rather just be socializing or playing with his dogs.

Mali Chapel-Lakin is currently a sophomore at Community. “I would say I like school. I really enjoy hanging out with my friends,” Chapel-Lakin said. She says it can be stressful, but recognizes that that is the nature of school and finds healthy ways to deal with it. “School is definitely something I value, but there are also things in my life like my family and the things I’m passionate about that are also very important,” said Chapel-Lakin. She says she uses social media a lot, mainly Instagram and Snapchat. “I feel like it affects my life because it’s one of my main ways of communicating with people,” Chapel-Lakin said. Chapel-Lakin grew up in a very liberal family and really cares about politics. “I agree with pretty much all of [my family’s] views,” Chapel-Lakin said. “I feel like we live in a bubble”. She has mixed feelings about being an adult. When asked if she’s looking forward to it, Chapel-Lakin said yes and no. “Yes, it will give me more freedom, but it’ll also give me more responsibility.”

PHOTO BY MIRA S-C

January 2019

An Experience to Remember THE MOMENT THAT CHANGED ALL THE PLANS I MADE FOR MYSELF IN 2018. BY JENNA JARJOURA

It was around noon on Sunday, Oct. 7, and I was making my way down to the lobby of our hotel in Schaumburg, IL. The team had two hours before we were supposed to head back to the field, and we were hoping homework would help get our minds off what was about to come — the championship game of our soccer tournament. The team that was going to arrive at 7 o’clock that night was not the same team that arrived the night before. The night before resulted in a tie on the soccer field; a tie that should have been a loss we could have learned from. Instead, we were granted a second chance to play the same team at a different time. We had a hunger instilled inside of us by our coach — to go out onto the field and not let anything stop us from winning. This was far from the truth. As we stepped onto the field, all our worries drifted away, and we were handed the ball by a young referee. He smiled at me and cracked a joke to brighten the cloudy day. I set the ball down onto the faded circle and impatiently waited for the sound of the whistle. 14 minutes went by and we were already tired. The other team was finding ways around our players and our frustration spread through the field. An opponent had kicked the ball in the air all the way from midfield to the corner flag. We all shifted downward towards the flag to where another opponent was racing. She had managed to get the ball, pass our defense and cross the ball into player number 13, who then scored on our keeper. We had started to overthink, which never makes anything better in a game. “Keep your heads up and be hungry,” my teammate yelled, just as coach had told us. I set the ball down once again and did the same play, hoping for a different outcome. There it was: a beautiful ball sent down the right flank just for me. I ran onto it as my teammate overlapped me in case I needed help. My coach’s voice resonated in the back of my head: “Take her on Jenna; please go in honey; stop doing nonsense.” It was the final game of the tournament, and I wasn’t there for nonsense. I moved my way to the outermost part of the field to take on my opponent, number 99 — a girl about my height, but more muscular with a pale white face. I kicked the ball past her and as I did, more people surrounded me to get it. Number 99 stayed with me and didn’t

leave. She kicked at my feet as if the ball was still there, but it wasn’t. It was just my feet that she swept right up from underneath me. I fell on my right foot: my kicking foot, the strongest part of me, the best part of my game. Falling incorrectly, I sat up. My shoe had fallen off. I moved my foot away from where I fell to see a dislocation in my ankle. My gold and black shoe was still on with the laces perfectly tied. But, my foot had been pulled out to the right in a horrifically wrong way. It looked as if my foot was flexible enough to make a 360 around my ankle. I was shaking up a storm and somehow managed to pop it right back into place with no pain until the aftermath. The ball had just gone out and the whistle was blown. The referee came to sit next to me and talk me out of what just happened. There was no way I was okay after what had just happened. My vision blurred from all the tears. My heart felt like it was in my throat and everything began to shake more and more. The pain was harsh, I began to have a panic attack. The next thing I knew, my father was running to help me up and my coach was running from the bench. My teammates were circling up and talking about what the next play had to be. This is what teams do. They circle up when something is going to take a long time and when someone’s injured. I just didn’t envision an informal timeout to form because of me. A young woman with cherry red hair drove up to the bench in a golf cart within seconds, carrying bags of ice in her arms. She introduced herself as Beth and started to look at my ankle, which within just a couple minutes was two times its regular size. She comforted me, telling me that injuries happen all the time and I was going to get through this. At that moment it really didn’t feel like it. I was jolting uncontrollably and couldn’t hold myself together. She was patient with me and, as she listened, was able to move my foot fine — as if nothing happened. But when I tried to move it on my own, it was the worst feeling. A stinging pain from all sides — like pins all over my ankle — making me hold my breath. We applied iced frequently, and I begged my father to let me stay until the end of the game, even though it was freezing outside. The longer I stayed, the angrier I got. I wished that I could’ve been out there with my team helping them instead of watching them.

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The game ended 4-0, and everyone came off the field a wreck. Many kept their heads up, but others were angry and not to be bothered. I stayed put until Beth was back, and she took me to the car. I was not ready for a four-hour ride home on a Sunday night. But, my father told me to relax and just listen to music or keep myself busy. As I began to chat with my friends and get my mind off the current situation, the drive home was not as bad as I expected. The next couple of days, I didn’t go to school and instead went to doctor appointments: one to get x-rays, and another to talk about the next steps. My father and I went in thinking it would be a severe sprain and I’d have a cast or boot for a month or so until I could get back on my feet. After the x-rays were developed my

“My doctor entered the room and was looking at my x-rays. He looked up at me as if not wanting to tell me what was next.” father and I met with my doctor. I had fractured the outermost bone in my ankle also known as the fibula. The ligaments in between the two bones in my ankle had been damaged as well. The next words that came out of his mouth were words I wanted to kill; I needed surgery and that was the only way to get this fixed. I had my first surgery on Oct. 19. I shook up a roaring storm before the surgery, nervous to be put under by the anesthesiologist, but the operation happened as if it were under my nose. Smooth and quick. The aftermath was painless as well. I went home and watched Riverdale for hours before passing out into the deepest, nicest sleep. I woke to many medications that minimized and numbed my pain. Once I came back to school I used a knee scooter for six weeks that I never made peace with. Now, I have begun the strengthening process through physical therapy at Medsport and am able to walk again. I plan to be back on the soccer field by the spring season at Pioneer High School. I will gradually work up the strength in my right leg with time and patience. Slowly, the day will come when I can get back on the field with the same hunger I had a month ago.

Playing in Bowl Games is not Worth the Risk TOP COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYERS SHOULD SKIP THEIR BOWL GAMES TO PREPARE FOR THE NFL DRAFT. BY JOSH MARTINS-CAULFIELD

IMAGE CREDITS (TOP TO BOTTOM): WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, KIRBY LEE, RICK OSENTOSKI

The best tight end in the country in 2016 was Jake Butt. He won the Mackey Award (awarded to the best tight end in the country) and was one of the leading receivers on a Michigan team that finished 10-2 that year. Usually, Mackey Award winners on good college teams get drafted in the first few rounds of the NFL draft: Tyler Eifert was drafted in the first round after winning the Mackey Award in 2012; Hunter Henry was drafted in the second round after winning the award in 2015 and Mark Andrews was drafted in the third round after winning last year. Butt was consistently projected to be a first or second round pick in the 2017 NFL draft the whole 2016 season. However, Butt was drafted in the fifth round of the 2017 NFL draft by the Denver Broncos — potentially losing millions of dollars — after tearing his ACL in Michigan’s bowl game. In recent years, players have been skipping their team’s bowl games to avoid exactly what happened to Butt in 2016 and other players in recent college football history. Notable players who have skipped their bowl games include current Carolina Panther and former Stanford star running back Christian McCaffrey. McCaffrey skipped the Sun Bowl in 2016 and was the eighth overall pick in the 2017 draft. Current Jacksonville Jaguar and former Louisiana State University star running back, Leonard Fournette, skipped the Citrus Bowl also in 2016 and was the fourth overall pick in the 2017 draft. Both of these players and countless others who have skipped their bowls are now multimillionaires after becoming first round picks in their respective drafts. This year, a number of players have already announced their intentions to skip their bowl game. This includes Michigan’s star defensive end, Rashan Gary, who was the number one overall recruit in the 2016 class when Michigan recruited him to their football team. The expectation around him was that he would not be at Michigan for long, but some Wolverine fans are still angry at him for skipping the bowl game. That same feeling was present when many fans accused former Michigan standout safety and Heisman Trophy candidate, Jabrill Peppers, of skipping the Orange Bowl in 2016 (the same bowl Butt injured his knee in), even though Peppers said and the Michigan Football team confirmed that he injured his hamstring in pregame walkthroughs. Even though Butt said that if he had the choice again he would still play in the bowl game rather than skip it, he made the wrong decision. The only significance bowl games bring to a season is that it gives teams extra practices which help develop young players, except if it is the College Football Playoff, which no player has skipped yet. All of the players who have or will decide to skip their bowl games in preparation for the NFL draft not only have the right to do so, but should do so. If Christian McCaffrey played in the Sun Bowl and tore his ACL, like Butt did, there is no question that he would not have been picked so highly in the draft, and would have most likely fallen out of the first round altogether. Instead of making 27.7 million dollars over his first four years in the league, he could only make around five million (Lions’ Teez Tabor’s salary, who was a second round pick). Any college football player who is expected to be an early pick in the NFL draft should think long and hard about their decision whether to play in their team’s bowl game, because it could cost them millions. January 2019

Shaving is a Choice SINCE WOMEN STARTED SHAVING FOR VANITY, IT HAS BEEN MEN WHO SET THE BEAUTY STANDARD. BY MAZEY PERRY

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Why is it normal for women to shave their bodies, but not men? According to “Mic” magazine, since ancient Mesopotamia, women have been shaving their bodies. Back then, it was for the purpose of safety, not vanity. In ancient Egypt, it was seen as hygienic for women to remove all hair except their eyebrows. As time went on, razor technology developed and so did the push for women to shave. In 1915, King Camp Gillette invented a razor that was safe for armpit removal, and since sleeveless dresses had become fashionable, women were urged to remove their armpit hair. Post World War II, the rise of women shaving increased due to the nylon shortage. For the first time in history, women were urged to shave their legs in order to make it appear as though they were wearing stockings. Dresses and skirts became shorter, making shaved legs normal for women, along with their armpits.

I simply don’t want to,” Lete-Straka said. “I don’t like spending a ton of time in the shower, and I don’t care about having a hairy body, so why would I spend time shaving?” Since women started shaving for vanity, it has been because men have set the standard that they should. Men invented the razor, yet they advertised that the image of women being clean-shaven is sexier, and that men can do what they want with facial hair. “In the world that we live in, men have control over a lot of things, and so it just feels good to take control of something that otherwise men think they have control over,” Lete-Straka said. It is normal for women to shave and it is thought that women want to shave. It is a common belief that clean-shaven women are more appealing than women with hair and that women want to appeal to men over themselves. Sometimes though, some women just want to shave for themselves and not for men; the beauty stigma around having “smooth” legs and armpits, teaches women to feel the need to shave at all in the first place.

BEAUTY

HYGIENE

She stood in the shower as water ran over her unshaven armpits. Sophie Lete-Straka has not picked up a razor in several months. HISTORY

It is often thought that women with hairy bodies are not as pretty as those without. Having hairy armpits and legs is not feminine, and therefore makes women look less appealing to men. However, what men want should not dictate what a woman does to her body. “Most of the time I don’t shave because

The stigma that being hairy is unhygienic is simply untrue. Humans have been covered in hair since they first evolved. Being hairy is natural. Women and men grow hair all over their bodies and a person’s decision to shave or to opt out shouldn’t be controversial. Both women and men should have the choice to keep or remove their hair, and if a

woman chooses not to, she is not dirty: she is just as clean as a man with leg hair. “Being hairy a lot of the time is seen as unhygienic,” Lete-Straka said. “When really it’s not even about being a feminine woman with hair, it’s about being a human being. I am just letting my body do what it naturally does.” FEMINISM

Not shaving became part of the feminist movement as a way to send the message that men cannot control what women do to their bodies. For some women, not shaving is a way to make a statement. “I am challenging the idea of what it means to be a beautiful feminine human, but also what it means to be a clean natural human too,” Lete-Straka said. For some women, not shaving is a choice they make because it is just what their body looks like. “Shaving isn’t a big, important, feminist, radical choice I make,” said Hazel Sher-Kisch. “It’s just who I am; 99 percent of the time it’s just what I look like.” Today’s society makes not shaving seem like a big deal, when in reality, some women just don’t want to shave because they shouldn’t have to. “I have grown up in this society and it has become engraved in my head that being hairless is equivalent to being beautiful, being feminine, being a woman,” Lete-Straka said. “I’m not only keeping my body in its natural state to challenge the world around me, but also to challenge the deeply internalized misogyny within myself.”

Shaving Through History Ancient Ancient Egypt Roman Empire Mesopotamia

Women start shaving with chizzled rocks to avoid frostbite.

It is seen as hygenic for women to shave their entire bodies.

Women shaved for hygene, but also to signify their class. Women of higher class were shaved.

1558-1603

1800’s

Early 1900’s

King Camp Gillette created a safe razor for women to use on their armpits

Queen Elizabeth I decided that shaved legs were not an important statement, but shaved eyebrows and a shaved hairline were.

World War ll There was a nylon shortage, so women began to shave their legs to make it appear that they were wearing tights.

Sleeveless dresses came into style, and so did shaved armpits

January 2019

Sitting in a seat at the Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell (University of Massachusetts), surrounded by thousands of high schoolers from around the country, listening intently to 24-year-old science prodigy Shree Bose, I felt truly happy. BY ABIGAIL GAIES

Yes, I was overwhelmed by the number of people who were there — I had thought there were going to be only a couple hundred. Yes, I couldn’t see very well — I had chosen my seat poorly, but thankfully there were three massive screens showing what was happening on stage. But I barely even noticed, because I was just so thrilled to be at The Congress of Future Medical Leaders, an opportunity that I was lucky enough to enjoy the summer after my junior year of high school, and it’s an opportunity I hope others decide to enjoy, too. In brief, the Congress of Future Medical Leaders is an invitation-only program for high school students interested in science, medicine or research based on standardized test results and expressed interest in the subjects. On Dec. 7, 2017, merely days after I got the invitation letter, I received an email from my counselor, John Boshoven — sent to the then-junior class at Community 64

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High — saying that the organizations sending these letters or emails were scams trying to get your money, that these “honors” probably weren’t all that: “Buyer beware!” as Boshoven cautioned. At this point I was confused: Why would they say that Nobel Laureates and professors from renowned medical institutions were speaking at this conference if it was all a scam? If it was a scam, it seemed a bit over-the-top to me, so I did some research. Looking through the list of past speakers, a name was familiar to me: Michael Brown. Michael S. Brown, M.D., is the winner of the 1985 Nobel Prize in Physiology of Medicine for his research in cholesterol metabolism and his discovery of the LDL receptor; the recipient of the 1988 National Medal of Science for his “contributions to modern medicine”; a Director of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals; and only slightly less prestigious, my grandmother’s cousin, whom she |

Opinion

grew up with like a brother. I reached out to him, telling him that I had been invited to the Congress, and asking if he thought it was legitimate and a good use of money and time. He told me that yes, he would recommend the experience to anyone interested in medicine/science, that he had spoken at the Conference three times, and that he was, in fact, speaking there again this year. With this information, I knew the Congress couldn’t be a scam, no matter what Boshoven had said, so I signed up for it and started planning my trip to Boston.

Read the rest of the article online at chscommunicator.com, where the story of my experience at the Congress is continued, including what exactly it is, what some benefits of attending are and video clips of keynote speakers.

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Cull It What It Is OH DEER! WHERE HAVE ALL THE DEER GONE AND WHAT’S NEXT FOR THEM? BY SOPHIA BERRY

I used to peer out my parent’s bedroom window into our yard for good amounts of time when I was younger. The sun would illuminate the brightest highlights in the green leaves, grass and ivy. Rabbits, squirrels and the occasional groundhog would dart across my yard into the dark brush. For a young child, this was plenty of entertainment, but the older I get, the more my yard lost its once brilliant flora and fauna. The deer were first to go. There used to be a family of five deer that lived back in my yard where the weeds were too thick to walk through. No one to interfere with their lives. My favorite time to see them was when it just became spring and the deer still wore their scruffy winter coats. When they’d nibble on the newly bloomed brush around my neighborhood, it meant spring had come. Everyone in my neighborhood was well accustomed to our extra neighbors. It made our residency seem less like suburbia. Over the past few years I noticed tags on the ears of the family. I didn’t know if it was good or bad, but my mother speculated it was from something called a “cull.” I didn’t know what it meant, but my mom did. She spent part of her time rallying on behalf of the Stop the Cull movement in Ann Arbor. Her involvement is what I believe sparked my activist mindset I hold today. She went to protests, rallies and even spoke to city council in their meetings on behalf of the movement.

As the years slowly crept by, I saw our four-legged family less and less. Spring would bloom, but there was no deer to shed their hot winter coats and to eat our early blossoms. For some people around my neighborhood, it was a blessing. They spearheaded the cull since the deer had been eating away their well-landscaped gardens, and they decided the best retaliation to this dilemma was to shoot them where they stood. Building a fence around their garden or using one of the many natural deer repellents seemed too benign for this group. They treated the deer issue as if the deer had come into their space and destroyed it for purely primal reasons: to eat, breed and sleep. Why should we punish animals for surviving in an area we have made livable for ourselves, and nothing else? It’s true that there are issues with deer overpopulation in Michigan. We can’t deny that no matter our opinion on this issue. But it’s unfair to treat it as the number one reason for landscape damage, car collisions and Lyme disease which comes from ticks that use deer as a host, not the deer itself. This overpopulation issue is attributed to the endangerment of the main predator of Michigan deer: grey wolves. Though there are efforts within the state to repopulate the species, a dilemma arises when the effort to repopulate collides with urban lifestyle. There isn’t a safe way to repopulate wolves in such densely populated areas. The next solutions are lethal removal and sterilization.

Lethal removal is less expensive for the city than sterilization but, the shooting of deer in local parks and city areas leads to liability of someone or something that’s not a deer getting shot. While surgical sterilization is more expensive their group contracted to carry out the Ann Arbor cull. White Buffalo reports less than a 2 percent fatality rate associated with the sterilization, though to be done effectively 95-98 percent of the female deer population would need to be sterilized. When looking at just the facts it seems easier to chose lethal removal as the best option. Except when you live around an essential war-zone. The parks where you want to walk your dog or go for a run are closed off so people can shoot down animals in the one space where they truly belong. Humans are great at destroying this planet and are praised immensely for fixing the problems they have created. Shooting deer because they have outhunted the natural order, is a temporary and brutal solution that shouldn’t be the main method of removal when sterilization, repopulating wolves and natural repellents exist. In the endless battle of man versus nature it seemed man was prevailing in this round. Soon the cull will be up for reconsideration and this could happen all over again for the next four years. I ask you to speak to your city council members to dissuade them from bringing back a cull that has a main focus of lethal removal.

January 2019

THE CASE FOR VACCINES BY MEGHANA TUMMALA

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When Marcy McCormick was around four years old, she contracted chickenpox. There wasn’t always a vaccine for the chickenpox. As a result, parents would purposely expose their kids to the virus because once they got the virus and recovered, they were immune to the virus for the rest of their life. However, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) does not recommend parents to do this. It can lead to shingles — a disease caused by the same virus as chickenpox. When McCormick was purposefully exposed to the virus, she was very lucky — or so it seemed at the time — since she got a mild case. Unfortunately, later in high school when she was 17 years old, she got shingles: an inflammation caused by the reactivation of the chicken pox virus. A very painful rash started on her face and made its way to her torso. “I was out of school for about a month total, but it was two weeks of a very painful burning, itching rash [and] the only thing that would [alleviate] the pain would be to sit in an ice bath for 20 to 30 minutes,” McCormick said. However, in 1995, the chickenpox vaccine became available to the public in the U.S., and ever since, more than 3.5 million cases of the chickenpox have been prevented by the vaccine each year, according to the CDC. The first word I think of when I hear the word “vaccines” is “cure.” The United States has come a long way from the days when polio and chickenpox, among other viruses, were very common. However, many people don’t share the same word association to vaccines as I do. In fact, some people who don’t get vaccinated view them as dangerous. This not only puts them at risk, but others as well, especially those who can’t get vaccinated due to health issues. When Marcy McCormick took her two-month old twin sons to get vaccinated, they each had different reactions to the injection. “Tobin was a rock star,” McCormick said. However, his brother, Teo had a different reaction. “For the first 30 seconds or so, he didn’t know how to react. And he just got red, and his eyes got big, and he stopped breath-

ing,” she said, recalling that she wanted to shake him to get him to breathe again. “Then all of a sudden, he just let out this huge scream and wail.” Kaissa Moon, a doula (trained birthcoach) at the SEM Community Doulas, had a different experience with her second son. It was eleven in the morning when Moon took her six-month old son, Giacomo, to the pediatrician’s. He was poked multiple times. The different vaccines coursed through his body. Once they came home, Moon noticed Giacomo became fussy and miserable. She took him to his bedroom upstairs, and after getting him to sleep, she came back down. Something on the video monitor caught her eye. Giacomo was shaking. She rushed over to his bedroom where he wasn’t shaking anymore but his lips were tinted blue. Picking up the phone, she called the pediatrician who then talked her through the situation. Giacomo experienced a mild seizure. “I was just scared. I was scared and when he looked normal again, I was relieved.” Moon said. After this experience, Moon decided to stop vaccinating. “After the reactions and doing some research, [we] decided we had some genetic predisposition to [react to vaccines],” Moon said, later stating that her first son also had a negative reaction, specifically breathing problems and breath-holding spells. “I think you can be totally pro-vaccination but still understand that it just doesn’t work for everybody,” Moon said. “So it’s hard for me to say that I’m anti-vaccination, it’s just not safe for my kids. I think the hardest thing about it, honestly, is that once you start refusing or delaying vaccines you get labeled as this crazy person who thinks Jenny McCarthy is like the coolest person in the world and it’s just not true.” Unless medically exempt from vaccinations, it’s important to get vaccinated, not just for your own benefit but for those around you who can’t get vaccinated. This is called herd immunity. For example, if in a population the number of people who are

vaccinated is close to the number of people who aren’t (including those who can’t because of medical reasons) when a virus is introduced it would spread a lot faster, infecting both people who chose not to vaccinate and those who medically couldn’t. Whereas in a population with more people vaccinated, a virus won’t spread as quickly.

“I think that we are seeing a re-emergence of diseases that easily should have and can be wiped out entirely.” Although Moon had legitimate medical reasons to not vaccinate, Michigan has a higher percentage than most states for exemptions from vaccines. According to the CDC, 5.4 percent of children enrolled in kindergarten in Michigan were exempt from vaccinations for nonmedical reasons in the 2013 to 2014 school year. These nonmedical exemptions were categorized into two reasons, religious and philosophic. I’m not sure what these philosophical reasons are in Michigan — although I have my suspicions — but a Public Health Report in 2011 in the PubMed Central (PMC) concludes that my suspicions were right. “Our data shows that compared with parents who only delay, parents who refuse vaccine doses are significantly more likely to report too many shots as the reason for their refusal; they had concerns about autism, vaccine effectiveness, or vaccine side effects; or they had heard or read unfavorable reports about vaccines in the media,” the report read. Thanks to celebrities like Jenny McCarthy, who is president of the Generation Rescue organization, a nonprofit that advocates against vaccines due to its supposed relation to autism, some people believe these scientifically unsupported arguments. This not only brings up more individual cases of viruses, but also virus outbreaks like measles and hepatitis A. “I think that we are seeing a re-emergence of diseases that easily should have and can be wiped out entirely,” McCormick said. “We are seeing a huge resurgence of measles, and that absolutely has an extremely effective vaccine, and these re-emergences

are happening in neighborhoods or in areas where there’s a big opt out rate for the vaccinations.” McCormick said. As sad as it is, what McCormick says is true. Because of people who choose not to vaccinate and outbreaks in other countries where Americans often travel to, as of Nov. 3, 2018, there have been 220 individual cases of measles and 15 outbreaks compared to the 120 individual cases in 2017, according to the CDC. “I would say to those people [against vaccinations] that they are being very irresponsible [and] that because we live in a society, we have this responsibility to take care of each other,” McCormick said. “And being vaccinated yourself, you are making sure that you’re not carrying a virus that could then infect someone else and be very deadly and potentially serious.” It amazes me how there are all of these different reactions — some bad and some expected — for something that happens for only a couple of seconds: a shot. Something crucial for our health. I agree with McCormick, in that it is possible for us to get rid of these diseases and viruses. This shouldn’t have to be a partisan debate. Scientists and the CDC have repeatedly said that there is no connection between vaccines and autism. The CDC put it simply for why parents should vaccinate: they are tested to guarantee safety and effectiveness and the immunization schedule ensures immunity before children are exposed to life-threatening viruses. Don’t get me wrong, there are people who medically cannot have vaccines — especially, people with HIV/AIDS or other diseases that affect the immune system — and if you are concerned you might fall into this category, talk with a health professional. “We know that there is this sort of coevolution happening between us and viruses and bacteria. And that to keep it at bay, to control it, we need to make sure that certain viruses and diseases aren’t just running rampant across society,” McCormick said. “And we can do that very effectively with vaccines. And that idea of herd immunity, if a certain percent of our population is and can be vaccinated, then we can keep these diseases at bay and we can effectively wipe them out.”

The Flu vaccination coverage is very low in the United States — for both children and adults. According to the CDC, from 2017 to 2018, 57.9 percent of children — 6 months to 17 years — in the United States are vaccinated (the yellow bar in the figure above) compared to the 54 percent vaccinated in Michigan (the blue bar).

January 2019

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Working to be Who I Am MY JOURNEY WITH DEPRESSION AND HOW I COPE. BY ANDREA SCHNELL

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ISABEL ESPINOSA

Every year as it gets cooler and days get shorter, everything turns a bit gray for me. The leaves fall, the sun sets at 5:30; suddenly l feel exhausted. I can’t do anything except sleep and eat. Some days my appetite leaves me as well. A gloominess overtakes me. I make a call to my therapist and send an email to my psychiatrist; it is that time of year again. I have seasonal affective disorder (SAD). SAD is a form of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). I was diagnosed with SAD and eventually MDD because during my sophomore year as winter came and went, the depression never left. It squirmed its way into the summer; I got anxious about the endless amount of time I would now have, without school, to be sad. My depression had touched the one thing that was supposed to be a break: summer. I decided it was enough. That year, my friends and I had a pool party after the last day of school. I remember tightly holding myself together whilst everyone swam. It was as if the less I spoke, the less they could see was going on inside. I got in my car to leave, and as soon as I turned away from the pool, I was sobbing. I cried for hours on end. I cried because I was crying. Wasn’t the last day of school supposed to be the happiest day of a high schooler’s life? I decided I needed to make a greater change. I needed to fight back. I was going to therapy every week but clearly, that was not enough. I was fed up. I asked my therapist about antidepressants. The word was bittersweet. Antidepressants. I couldn’t really believe it was something I needed. I always thought my depression would never be that bad. I never wanted it to be that bad. My therapist picked up on my hesitation. She explained that antidepressants would not change me; they would only help me feel like myself again. So I started to take medication.

About a month later I woke up, immediately rose out of bed and looked out the window and smiled. I smiled. For no reason whatsoever. I cracked open my window and breathed in the fresh air. It was as if this whole time, I hadn’t really been breathing. I took a deep breath. For a moment I felt real again. A tear fell down my cheek, a tear of joy. I knew I had made it out. Even after that first smile, I still had my bad days. Which is 100 percent, completely natural. I still had moments where I didn’t feel like myself. But what mattered the most was that I was having moments when I did. My coping mechanisms had finally began to work. Everything I was doing to try to get better had worked. Slowly but successfully I had begun to build myself back up. I work really hard to be who I am. It sounds funny but it’s true. I have to. And that’s okay. I’m asked all the time how I can be so cheery and positive: I’ve worked for it. I have four alarms that remind me to take my medication. Every day in the winter from around 5-7, I use my light box — a special lamp that imitates the sun’s light. I exercise at least three times a week. I make sure I always eat and drink enough water. I have a bedtime. I journal every day. I go to therapy. I go to the psychiatrist. I smile at others. I tell people if I don’t feel good. I don’t keep my depression a secret. I don’t put school work before my mental health. I say no to people. I say yes to people. I carry my journal with me in case I start to spiral downhill. I combat my own thoughts. I write down messages to myself: I am smart. I am beautiful. I am not my depression. You are not alone. I, for one, I am with you. If you need immediate help, call the National Suicide Prevention lifeline at 1-800-273-8255, or text START to 741-741.

January 2019

Marathoning for People Who “Can’t” I NEVER THOUGHT I COULD RUN A MILE, I JUST COMPLETED 26. BY ELIJAH SHORE

Writing about running was never something I wanted to do. For me, running has always been personal. I’ve never had a trainer, a coach or a running partner. I run alone. I didn’t want to write this article as a self congratulatory ego piece. I didn’t want to write this piece to inspire people to run. I wanted to explore a phrase I hear a lot when I talk about my running and especially about marathoning: “I could never do that.” Two years ago, I was the kid that “could never do that.” In the simplest terms, I was fat, both medically and aesthetically: 185 pounds and 5 foot 7. I had never run more than a slow mile in gym class and other than that I never exercised. So how did my health change dramatically for the better? It started when my life got dramatically worse. Throughout my life, I’ve dealt with a stutter. Stutters are fickle creatures; they can get much worse or better depending on who you’re talking to and how stressed you are talking to them. Up until my sophomore year of highschool, there was one thing that stayed consistent about my stutter. No matter how hard it was for me to talk in front of a class or a clerk at a store, I could always communicate with my close friends fairly well. For about a month during my sophomore year, however, I was almost mute. Imagine every time you tried to say anything to anyone, a mean fairy clamps your mouth shut. 70

The Communicator Magazine

Want to make a comment about the war in Vietnam to your history class? Not gonna happen. A quick joke to your friend about the awful substitute teacher? Sorry. Want a hamburger from your local burger joint? Might as well starve. Before that awful month I had started exercising, just a little bit, but it wasn’t until I reached one of my lowest lows that I got serious. Running was the outlet to my frustration. At first, I would only run a little. A ¼ mile at the end of my walk home from school. A ½ mile sprint after a bad day. For those first couple months it didn’t matter how far I ran, just that I was out of breath when I reached my destination. It took me about a year to get to the point where I was running two miles almost every day. Even then, I never really thought about marathoning, I was just a kid who liked to run. And run I did. In my head, I think of those days like a montage from one of the eight different “Rocky” movies. Like Rocky, I think of myself as the underdog getting ready to fight against my stupid problems with some nice inspirational song playing in the background. The reality was much less glorious than a classic 70’s movie and much more about getting myself to go run, even on days when I didn’t feel like it. The way I got better was not through some superhuman willpower, it was through being persistent and making good habits. |

Opinion

When I finally finished my first marathon in just under four hours, it was a culmination of consistency. For the four months leading up to it, I ran four days a week, every week. I did two small runs on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, a medium run on Fridays and a long run on Sundays. I never missed one. My training wasn’t totally without hiccups. Two of my toenails fell off, I sustained some minor leg injuries and I almost collapsed after a particularly exhausting 20 mile sludge through the mid-August heat. No matter the setback, when it was time for my next run, I ran. Running a marathon is often glorified as something only for the unnaturally strong and determined. The truth is more tangible. Anyone can run a marathon and not just in the “you can do anything” fabrication parents tell their children, but in a real, tangible way. Running hasn’t solved my life. I still struggle with most of the things I did back when I was a sophomore. What running has done is dull all of life’s sharp edges. Negative emotions blow away faster when you have an outlet to disperse them. My outlet is running and it let me achieve something I could “never” do.

PHOTO BY: MIRA SIMONTON-CHAO

Money Talks With Tommy Letke LETKE EXPLAINS HOW HE TURNED $1,000 INTO $20,000 BY TRADING STOCKS AND BONDS AT THE AGE OF 13. BY ZACK SCHUELER

Tommy Letke makes a lot of money. Andhe does it all from his phone. When his peers are on Snapchat, he sits beside them with his phone out too. Except he is on Simple Moving Averages (SMA). SMA helps Letke find bonds and stocks that are up for sale and trading; it provides him with the percentage that the seller is willing to take. During some of his class periods, Letke has made hundreds of dollars. To teachers, it looks like Letke is any other kid with a phone out under the desk. At the age of 13, Letke and his parents decided it was time he learned to make money on his own. Letke’s parents loaned him $1,000 to get started. Throughout the process, Letke was hesitant: from when he got his first $1,000 to the point where he bought his first stock. His thoughts varied

from “I’m going to lose money,” to “I’m going to make a lot of money.” He held his breath anxiously until he clicked the big “purchase” button. He then took a deep breath out. After Letke bought his first stock, he knew that he made a good choice because the price of his percentage went up making him money. At that exact moment that he saw he had made money, he decided he was going to continue his business and nothing would stop him. Instead of getting presents for his birthday and Christmas, Letke’s relatives contributed to his business. His generous relatives started to put money into his bank account. With the money Letke received, he would use SMA to see what he could afford and what seems to make him mon-

ey. He would then either buy the stock or sometimes he was able to bargain with the seller, getting the stock for a lower price. “If you can handle pressure, understand marketing, and if you are good with math and numbers then this method of making money is for you,” Letke said. “However, there are investors you can hire that will meet with you and your parents and they will teach you the fundamentals along with the risk and benefits.” Letke started off with $1,000 and he paid every penny back. Now, two years later, he has turned his original amount into $20,000. Letke’s investment philosophy is all about stocks and how to be a smarter investor. “Don’t gamble your money because trading is a lot different from gambling,” Letke said. January 2019

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The Shoot LOCATION: CHICAGO, ILL. MODEL: NATALIE BELL, SKYLINE JUNIOR PHOTOGRAPHER: EBBA GURNEY OUTFIT: COAT — H&M SWEATER — FOREVER 21 PANTS — FOREVER 21

January 2019

COMMUNITYâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR A LOOK AT A FEW OF THE BEST BOOKS RELEASED IN 2018 AS DESCRIBED AND ADORED BY COMMUNITY HIGH STUDENTS AND STAFF. BY ANDIE TAPPENDEN AND CHARLES SOLOMON

The Communicator Magazine

A&E

ROBERT MORGAN’S FAVORITE:

LUCY SCOTT’S FAVORITE:

CIRCE

TYLER JOHNSON WAS HERE

“What Miller really does in “Circe” is [she] takes a well known mythological hero and does I think what the greatest kind of historical fiction does, which [is] use the mythology as a framework but then inserts all these interesting human details in the middle. So of course, Circe as a character is probably best known from the Odyssey, during which while Odysseus is traveling with his men. He stays for a while on Circe’s Island and she turns some of his sailors into pigs. In this way, Circe in her initial presentation in this myth is this trope of the femme fatale: she’s just a dangerous kind of alluring woman. And these are so common in Greek mythology, these character types. Basically every woman in Greek mythology is like [a] dangerous prize to be won, which is a bummer because I think Circe is such an incredibly interesting character. And the novel does such a great job providing a personality for her; the choices and sacrifices that Circe makes in this book are just incredible. There’s just this fabulous sort of confidence and sense of self assurance that Circe builds over time that’s so appealing. She’s just so cool. “Circe” is sad but in a very different way. It’s not suddenly sad; it’s kind of inevitably sad. A lot of “Circe” deals with this Greek idea of prophecy and myth of something is going to happen and we know that it’s going to happen from the beginning, but it’s still sad when it happens. In real life we use mythology as parable, to communicate some sort of truth about what the world should be like or what we hope for. And oftentimes that meant reflecting the culture of ancient Greece; but Miller does such a genius job of updating these texts that “Circe” still feels so relevant in 2018. It’s just the writing is absolutely gorgeous. Circe has this incredible written voice where she’s so frank but also so loving that she just kills me every time.”

“I just found [it] while I was looking at the bookstores. “Tyler Johnson Was Here” has this gorgeous cover that’s of an African American guy, and it has these really gorgeous flowers around it; it’s like the artist Kehinde Wiley, and I just thought it was really cool; like, I know I like this artist, so I might like this book and then it looked really cool. “Tyler Johnson Was Here” is about a guy who goes with his brother to a party; the police end up breaking it up and his brother ends up being shot and killed by the police. It’s a book about police brutality and how it affects the black community and really interesting, really sad, but a very good book. They’re just very real issues and very eye-opening as well because for me, as a white person, police brutality isn’t something that I have to really think about first hand and so it was really eye-opening for me to be reading that. It’s always on my radar, but I’ve never really gotten that much of a perspective on it from that point of view; dealing with gun violence in general, people don’t tend to be that open about it unless they’re being spurred into activism, and so it was really interesting to be able to hear about it from someone who’s going through it. It’s just a very real-feeling book, very raw, and books like that are almost harder to read just because they remind you so much of real life; and obviously that’s kind of the point of writing because a lot of the time you do want to make it real, but then also there’s the point of it being real and a hard topic and being like, “oh, I really have to think hard about how much this affects people.” It’s interesting to read stuff like that because I’m able to empathize more with people who have gone through it because… there are words put to the feelings I guess.”

PHOEBE BOLZ’S FAVORITE:

MATT JOHNSON’S FAVORITE:

BY JOY MCCOULOUGH

BY ZORA NEALE HURSTON

“In Italian Art we learned about Artemisia Gentileschi, [who] was a painter of the Renaissance era in Italy. She was one of the first people to use the Chiaroscuro technique, which is the light and dark contrast. One of her most famous paintings is Judith slaying Holofernes and in so many previous versions of these paintings, the women look so frail and terrified, but the way she portrayed them… they were powerful and they were real people. [The book] tells her story, and it’s very inspired by the #MeToo movement as well: This guy who said he would mentor her ended up being really terrible and he assaulted her and it messed her up for the rest of her life, but it inspired a bunch of incredible paintings. She was a really talented and creative person, and if you take Italian Art and Culture, she’s like Steve’s favorite artist of all time. She had to go through all these things and still no one believed her no matter everything she told; even her father didn’t believe her. It was really difficult to read but also incredibly accurate and poignant. It’s a combination of prose and poetry, and it’s very beautifully told; it’s like nothing else I’ve ever read before. The narrative and her own emotions and thoughts are told in this beautiful kind of broken poetry, and the way it conveys and drives the plot is so beautiful; it makes it really easy to read while it still has such power and force behind the words. It’s told from her point of view. It takes some creative liberties, but is inspired by such an amazing person. It gave me a good insight to what she went through and what she had to struggle through; being a woman in the Renaissance and being a female artist, she wasn’t recognized at all. It gives you a really good picture of the struggle women have to go through, because while she had her own special story, it’s the story that everyone knows and it’s really terrible but beautiful the way it’s told.”

“I like history books; I think I tend towards them because I really like history as well. I think that both are the study of humanity from different angles: English and especially fiction is looking at how stories can teach us about what it is to be human, and history is looking at the catalog of humans who have already lived. [My third favorite book of 2018] is not really a new book, but it is; it’s Barracoon, Zora Neale Hurston’s new book, which is fascinating. It’s the story of the last slave ship that came over well after slave ships were technically allowed to come over but right before the Civil War. It’s half anthropology but it’s written in her very poetic style, so it’s poetic but also interesting. Just to get a new book from Zora Neale Hurston, who’s one of my favorite authors of all time, is a giant gift. Her use of language, I think that she’s spectacular in that. She’s super curious — Her curiosity is over everything. She’s not judgemental; she’s very curious about human beings, which I think is refreshing and hard to do. It’s hard as an author to come in and not have judgements that you’re making about people but instead to try and examine the people as they are. There was a lot of history there I had no idea about. She was talking to actual people who were on it because she wrote that in the 1920s and it was just never published. It’s a good read! But it’s a hard read. She has beautiful language, but as a black writer in the 1920s and also as somebody in the academic field, she really has to be academic. But there’s a lot to be gleaned from it. It’s important to read stories where you can see yourself, but it’s also really important to read stories that are very different. Everytime you hear someone else who has a different story, I just feel like you get a slightly better sense of what it is to be human.”

BY MADELINE MILLER

BLOOD WATER PAINT

BY JAY COLES

BARRACOON

January 2019

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SofIa BY SACHA VERLON

Sofia Berenfeld woke up on a Tuesday morning with an important decision: she could either wear sweatpants or she could stunt. “I put this on and I was like ‘you know what, we’re just gonna do it to ‘em’, and here I am,” Berenfeld said. The Community High School senior’s outfit takes elements from her Halloween costume; the camo-patterned pants, which Berenfeld bought from Wet Seal, are inspired by ‘Kim Possible’, a cartoon character that fights crime while maintaining the day-to-day grind of a high school student. Berenfeld’s sweatshirt comes from Meijer, which she regards as an affordable place to buy Champion clothing, a brand that usually carries expensive price tags. The shoes are Nike Air Force Ones, 12 million of which are sold every year, according to Nike.

Stunting January 2019

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CHICAGO, IL â&#x20AC;&#x201D; On the evening of Oct. 31, 2018, instead of trick-or-treating, The Communicator staff watched the Hit Broadway Musical, Hamilton. On the following days, they attended the National High School Journalist Conference, hosted by the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA) and the Journalism Education Association (JEA).

January 2019

THE

The 1975 Mine BY ISAAC MCKENNA

The Fearless Flyers

boy pablo

Frank Ocean

Vulf Records (Vulfpeck’s record label) has a new star group. Comprised of Joe Dart and Cory Wong of Vulfpeck, as well as Mark Lettieri of Snarky Puppy and three time Grammy-nominated drummer Nate Smith, The Fearless Flyers should get your attention just from their lineup. But their self-titled EP exceeds expectations. Every song is guaranteed to get you moving, and “Ace of Aces,” one of two singles released before the full EP, stuns right out of the gate. Opening with Smith’s ridiculously tight drums, the three stringed instruments come out grooving on a head-bobbing riff. The supergroup sticks with the Vulfpeck groove while staying fresh with new compositions and classic funky guitar. The EP is a perfect lead up to the release of Vulfpeck’s new album, “Hill Climber.”

Nicolas Pablo Muñoz, AKA boy pablo, creates drifting, dreamy, music in a genre of its own. Hs new EP, “Soy Pablo,” expands upon the success of his previous releases. “Sick Feeling” seems like a heartwrenching love song about losing someone dear, but in an interview with Genius, he says that the song’s topic is surprisingly lighthearted. “[It’s] actually about turning on the Playstation,” Muñoz said. “I used to turn you on, but I don’t anymore.”

Although Frank Ocean’s “Thinkin Bout You” dominated his classic album “Channel Orange,” “Lost” provides another, arguably catchier love song to the release. Ocean’s silken vocal layers float over a thumping beat in this masterful song.

Ace of Aces

The 1975 made a big move away from their classic shimmering pop sound when they released their third LP, titled “A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships.” The album moves from the experimental grittiness of songs like “TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME” to the heart-wrenching acoustic guitar of “Be My Mistake.” “Mine” pushes the record even further, introducing soaring trumpet over what is effectively a mellow jazz ballad. The song crescendos without ever getting loud, a testament to Matthew Healy’s incredible vocals. The album, although it may at first seem to be a massive departure, is a strong, logical follow-up for an evolving band.

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Sick Feeling

Constant

Lost

For the rest of the playlist, go to: bit.ly/playlistjan2019

CR Spotlight: Emma Hoffman

“Commie High: the Film” BY SHEA O’BRIEN

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ISABEL ESPINOSA

Emma Hoffman, Community High senior, sat in the hallway editing clips with software on her laptop. A familiar sight, as Hoffman pursues her passion for film with not one, but two Community Resource (CR) classes. Whether working on a professional documentary, or doing homework for her college class, Hoffman continues to pursue her goal of a life in film after high school. Hoffman is taking Introduction to Media Studies at the University of Michigan, learning all the necessary things taught in a college film class. In addition to learning in the classroom environment, Hoffman also gets class credit for assisting with the Community High School documentary, “Commie High: The Film.” Hoffman began working on the CR her sophomore year with five other students, helping to edit scenes, and assisting with the mic’d up interviews of students and faculty. “I remember sophomore year, when I started, I never thought I would take a CR,” Hoffman said. “Now I’ve done it for years.” Now, three years into the program, Hoffman has a much larger role in the production. After the other five students moved onto other things or graduated, Hoffman is the only student left working on the documentary. With a leading role, Hoffman video chats with director Donald Harrison and head editor David Camlin to talk about the

production and get her individual responsibilities assigned. “We’ve finished filming, so now we are in the editing process,” Hoffman said. “I take conference calls and facetimes from Dave… and talk about some new editing techniques.” With this format, Hoffman has plenty of freedom for completing her work. “I can do my work wherever I can take my computer,” Hoffman said. “With my software I can do editing from a friend’s house or even Sweetwaters.” With a CR workload set up on the basis of self motivation, Hoffman is given the opportunity to complete her work whenever most convenient throughout the day. In her time spent on the documentary, Hoffman has learned a lot about the history of the school. In order to capture the full picture of “Commie High,” the film crew looked into the murky past of the school ”When Community first started a lot of people used drugs, and it was kind of a burn out school,” Hoffman said. “There are interviews where people talk about a teacher involved with a student romantically, which I thought would never happen here.” Through all her time spent on “Commie High,” Hoffman has an entire other class focused on film. In her other CR, Hoffman learned about the theoretical aspects of

film, with her professor, Dr. Sarah Murray. During her class, Hoffman dove into a collegiate curriculum around the theories of digital media and its effects on modern life. “We read a lot of studies on scientific investigation with a lot of reading homework and a few essays,” Hoffman said. “We try to relate these alternate forms of media to how they affect the real world and, in turn, affect humans.” With so much study into media, Hoffman hopes to study film at a possible range of schools from Emerson in Boston or USC in Los Angeles. “Because of my CR, I know how to set up for an interview and things to look for, like lighting, where the sandbags go on our audio equipment so it doesn’t move, how to mic up someone, [just] the very basic skills,” Hoffman said. “It’s good to know where to start and I won’t be totally new at this in college.” “Film is such a unique form of storytelling,” Hoffman said. “Working with film, you work with so many different moving pieces, but you end up creating this smooth, flowing project… the way that you can use both audio and visual is to work together and even enhance each other is something I find just incredible.” January 2019

The

Fashion Page From the sneakers on our feet to the necklaces around our necks, our style speaks — sometimes without us even knowing it. Style is communication without words. PHOTOS AND WRITING BY MIRA SIMONTON-CHAO

MARIKA CHUPP “You can really go however far you want to with [fashion]. I do often prioritize comfort or convenience, [but I also] definitely combine. I have a lot of juxtaposition [in] what I wear: I’m wearing this leather jacket and black ripped jeans, but I’m also wearing this really nice flowy top like I should be frolicking in a meadow. Other times I’ll wear something super fashionable but then a cardigan my mom gave me over it. I feel like that developed out of comfort [because] when I wear something cuter I’ll have some part in it that’s just comfortable. But, [at the same time], nothing I wear is uncomfortable. I don’t buy things that are uncomfortable. [Fashion is] a really awesome medium for people to express themselves, and personally the thing that I relate the most to that is my piercings. When I got my piercings I looked in the mirror and felt more like myself — [not] just a clone of my family. What you wear is something you can control, [and] it’s not news that there are so many things in our life that we can’t control. You don’t even necessarily have to spend a lot of money on clothes if you want to explore fashion. Thrift stores are cool because, first of all, you have no idea what you’re going to find. It’s stuff from all over the place; it’s not like you go into a store and everything’s the same style. I definitely do a lot of thrift shopping, but honestly, more often, my mom goes thrift shopping and she brings things back for me, [and] I make them work with the rest of my wardrobe.”

The Communicator Magazine

ELI HAUSMAN “One of my favorite designers, I think it was Ronnie Fieg, said ‘The shoes are 90 percent of your outfit. They say 90 percent of who you are,’ and I definitely like shoes the most. [My favorite designers are] Ronnie Fieg of Kith and Tinker Hatfield, famous for designing most of Nike’s most popular shoes. I wear a lot of Tinker Hatfield’s designs. His Air Maxes, which I’m wearing right now, I wear a lot. Kith, I’ve looked at, but it’s more expensive, especially because it’s a New Yorkbased company and design program. I really appreciate Levi’s. Right now I’m looking into a lot of Levi’s stuff, not necessarily jean jackets or sherpa jackets because everyone has those, but their engineer’s coats. I’m also starting to get into Carhartt streetwear, which is Carhartt WIP. I mostly take pieces of what a lot of people like and make [them] my own or change [them] up a little bit to a standard that I like without being what everyone else is. I would say shoes are probably my biggest thing and then jackets. Ronnie Fieg inspires me because he turns sweatpants and whatnot into stylish wear by putting his designs into them in a high-quality fashion. [I also look up to] Joe Lapuma, of Complex, and Odell Beckham Jr. [I am also inspired by] famous athletes because I follow a lot of their accounts, [but] not necessarily rappers or artists because mostly all they wear is Gucci or Louis Vuitton. [I like streetwear because] you can run down to the Salvation Army and people will be thinking ‘oh my gosh that is awesome’ but you bought it for five dollars, which I’m starting to get into now. Streetwear, you can do anything with it, and it can be new or it can be old and you bring it back, which is mostly what streetwear is right now.”

MAYA GREKIN “I definitely see fashion, and especially clothing, as really artistic. It’s really important for everyone to find a way to be creative every day, and I think that an easy way for someone to do that is through fashion. [People are] creating what they’re representing themselves [as] and how they carry themselves and share themselves. And that’s a nice thing — to have ownership over something [like that]. I definitely have always wanted to be one of those people that puts a lot of thought in the way that I carry myself, trying to represent the person that I am through what I wear. But lately, I have not been in that headspace. Now, I just try to look very simple and, almost controlled. Things are kind of chaotic with senior year and whatnot, so I guess what I wear is very put-together and clean. I really like simple, pretty things. I guess, not to generalize, [but] girly, more soft, things. There’s this girl right now that I’ve been obsessing over — [Taylor Giavasis]. This doesn’t really have much to do with fashion, but she posts pretty revealing things with not much clothing [where] she’s in front of really beautiful nature [scenes]. Something that I love about her is that she makes her body, in a way, non-sexual. I think that a really big thing with Instagram models [is that] people like to picture them in a negative way and say they’re just showing off their bodies and whatnot. But when I look at her pictures and what she wears, which are usually very simple things, I don’t think of her body in a sexual way. I don’t notice that she’s not wearing much; it’s just beautiful. She just looks very happy and I think that’s just a really cool thing.”

January 2019

1000 Words BY MADIE GRACEY

In the fall of 2018, Elinor Duck and Zoe White ventured into Bird Hill Woods, Duck as the photographer and White as her model. Bird Hill Woods is just off of Newport Rd. where people walk their dogs, hike or take photos. “[It is] a very common place to go [in the] fall,” Duck said. “Especially when the leaves are just changing their color.” Duck has always wanted to be a photographer and has used photos like these to boost her online portfolio. She takes advantage of every moment she has to go out and capture photos. She loves to take portraits of people and explore new scenery. But her photos have a deeper meaning to her. “It was a beautiful fall day, and Zoe and I took the long way to the place we went as kids, Bird Hills,” Duck said. “We took a popular road, Huron River Dr., to sightsee and ended up at Bird Hills. But I took this photo because I wanted to remembered it forever.” This is one of many photos she took that day and added to her portfolio, which she plans to use for college applications. “When you want to be a photographer you kind of just take photos of everything that catches your eye,” Duck said. She is very proud of this photo and believes it shows more than the colors of the leaves but also shows one of White’s personalities. Duck is confident in her ability to capture more than just what pleases the eye but tells a story at the same time.

The Communicator Magazine

January 2019

GETAWAY C H I C A G O 3 88

The Communicator Magazine

Constant

BY ISABEL ESPINOSA

2 1. CLOUD GATE

Cloud Gate (The Bean), is a public sculpture designed by British artist, Anish Kapoor. The 110-ton sculpture is constructed out of 168 stainless steel panels welded together and polished, so that it shows no visible seams and reflects the city’s skyline. The Bean was the result of a design competition, and was constructed between 2004 and 2006 despite its many construction challenges.

3. SKYDECK CHICAGO

Located on the 103rd floor of the Willis Tower, the Skydeck is the highest observatory observatory in the western hemisphere, with 360 degree views of Chicago. The Skydeck has two glass balconies that extend more than four feet beyond the building directly above Wacker Dr. 4. THE MAGNIFICENT MILE

2. THE CHICAGO RIVER

The Chicago River is not known for its length, but rather its historical significance: the river is a link from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River. In 1877, in response to concerns about the city’s water supply, the Illinois General Assembly made the decision to reverse the flow of the river from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi. By using a series of canal locks that increased the flow of water from Lake Michigan into the river, water emptied into a new canal that streamed into the Mississippi River. In 1999, the system was recognized as a “Civil Engineering Monument of the Millennium” by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

The Magnificent Mile is the upscale section of Michigan Ave. that runs from the Chicago River to Oak Street. Lined with various mid-range to high-end shops and hotels, it is considered to be the largest shopping district in Chicago. Currently, rent on The Magnificent Mile is the eighth most expensive in the country. 5. MILLENIUM PARK

Originally intended to celebrate the third millennium, the constrcution of the park began in 1998 and opened four years late, in 2004. In 2015, the park became the location of Chicago’s annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony.

5 January 2019

Our Turn: On Mental Health BY MAZEY PERRY

“Mental health is super real and it’s so easy to say that ‘it’s not going to happen to me, I can stay up for another hour, or do this other stresscausing thing, or put myself under another wave of anxiety,’ but in the end it all adds up. Especially for minorities, because they’re always thinking about the other problems in their lives that might affect them, and mental health is pushed aside. But mental health has an effect on everyone, no matter where you come from, how much help you have or who you are.”

GINA LIU

“Mental health is important, and it’s a super important conversation to continue having. Stress can really contribute to a poor mental well-being. There’s a lot of depression in teenagers, and for that reason it’s just really important to be aware of your own mental health and always be thinking about what you can do to improve it. If you feel like a friend is struggling the most important thing is to not stay silent.”

LUKE ANDONI-SAVAS

“If you are going through mental health problems or have a mental illness, it’s important to seek help. The first step is really to talk to someone. From there, the next step is to figure out what you can do to address your mental health. Another thing people need to realize is that mental health problems doesn’t always look like sadness. People are good at hiding their emotions and it might not be apparent on the outside, so the biggest thing is to not assume. Talk to them before you jump to conclusions.”

MEGHANA TUMMALA 90

The Communicator Magazine

Constant

ONETHING LAST Eve Shikanov

CHS SENIOR REFLECTS ON THE LAST THINGS SHE EXPERIENCED. What was the last song you listened to?

Let’s see... I listened to “Summer is Gone” by NaMBe.

When was the last time you stayed up late talking to someone on the phone?

I think a few weeks ago. I don’t typically do that. I’m the grandma that goes to bed at 9 p.m., so whenever I do end up staying up late I have a really good conversation with a really close friend.

What was the last thing that made you smile?

Literally anything that Emma Hoffman says. Anything dumb that comes out of her mouth makes me smile.

When was the last time you laughed so hard your stomach hurt?

Last week. Steve said something funny in Salvage Art and I just could not stop laughing. It was so funny.

Who was the last person who you had coffee with? Myself. And it was hot chocolate, but it was really good. Sometimes you just have to treat yourself.

Where was the last place you went with your family?

Last night we went to a holiday-themed party at my mom’s boss’s house. There were tons of students from his lab and from my mom’s lab. It was really cool seeing where I could end up in a few years.

What was the last movie you watched?

I recently rewatched “The Princess Diaries,” which was really fun.

What was the last book you read for fun?

“The Handmaid’s Tale.” It was really good. It’s so well written, there are so many little literary devices used that it’s so fun and you get so immersed in the visuals of the story.

ART BY CY VEILLEUX