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THE
Clarion Call CLARION UNIVERSITY’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1913
MARCH 14 , 2013
VOL. 99 ED. 18
Pittsburgh playwright puts on one-woman show Rachel Farkas STAFF WRITER
CLARION, Pa. - The Martin Luther King Jr. Program brought Pittsburgh Playwrights production “Straightening Combs” to Hart Chapel on Monday evening. “Straightening Combs” was written and performed by playwright and artist Kim El to share the struggles of AfricanAmerican females growing up in urban America. In her one-woman show, El took on six different personas while performing poetry, songs and short vignettes. The story began when El came onto the stage with short, curly hair, dressed in a red polka-dot apron, cigarette between her fingers, and straightening combs in hand. El was playing the part of a mother, straightening her daughter’s hair on a step stool in front of her. As El played the mother role, she lectured her young daughter that straight hair would be the only accepted way to fit in to the culture. This set the stage for the rest of the perfor-
Kelsey Waros / The Clarion Call
Pittsburgh playwright Kim El acts in her one-woman show “Straightening Combs” in Hart Chapel on March 11. mance, where El played a mother, a grandmother, a prostitute, a teacher, a student and an abusive husband. El went back and forth between performing in character and addressing the audience as a narrator of her own story.
“Straightening Combs” talks about a variety of subjects El and other AfricanAmerican women face while coming of age in an urban area. She touched on body dissatisfaction, broken families, abusive relation-
ships, mental illness and the stigma attached to being a “project chick.” While she wrote the play, El said the story was not entirely her own. She based it on her own life and stories she has heard from other women. Regardless, the mes-
sage is one to which many people can relate. “I’ve had people come up to me after the show and say, ‘That’s my mother, that’s my sister,’” she said. In the question-andanswer period after the show, El said she still struggles with her self-
image after growing into a lack of self-confidence. “If someone tells me I’m pretty, it freaks me out,” she said. “When society tells you your dark skin, nappy hair and big lips aren’t pretty, you start to believe it.” El said to remain positive and continue dealing with her own struggles she does a variety of things, such as meditation, listening to music and surrounding herself with positive people. She said she also uses writing as an outlet. “Writing is my Prozac,” El said with a laugh. “Prozac is too expensive.” El said writing this play was an exercise in self-exploration. She said she also wanted to create dialogue about self-image and abusive relationships. “The purpose was to start dialogue, not only in the African American community, but universally,” she said. El is a Pittsburgh native who graduated from Duquesne University. She will be performing “Straightening Combs” at the Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre through March 31.
University conducts survey on student engagement Alizah Thornton NEWS EDITOR
CLARION, Pa. - Students across the country are helping their universities learn about what types of campus activities interest them while at college. Clarion University is among one of the universities conducting the National Survey of Student Engagement. The NSSE survey results help universities determine how their undergraduate students are using their time in college and what they gain while attending college, according the NSSE website. Clarion University’s Department of Information Management and Institutional Research issued an email to Clarion students eligible to take the survey, mainly freshmen and seniors, in late February. “NSSE helps us understand how students are spending time in and out
of the classroom, which guides decisions that will benefit Clarion University students,” Raymond Moneta, director of IMIR said in the email to eligible students. The survey aims to provide college information about the amount of student engagement on college campuses. Student engagement consists of two components. “The first is the amount of time and effort students put into their studies and other educationally purposeful activities,” the NSSE website states. “The second is how the institution deploys its resources and organizes the curriculum and other learning opportunities to get students to participate in activities that decades of research studies show are linked to student learning,” the website states. Students who par-
ticipate in the study at Clarion are entered into a weekly drawing for prizes that include Clarion T-shirts as well as a grand prize drawing for two iPad minis. Samantha Dinger, a freshman speech pathology major, was one of last week’s winners. “My experience at Clarion has been a learning experience,” Dinger said. Dinger said the transition from high school to college has been a “big adjustment.” “I like the freedom involved in choosing classes that interest me. I’m looking forward to pursuing my degree,” she said. Raymond Moneta, director of IMIR, said this is not the first year the university has conducted this study. NSSE began nationally in 2000, Moneta said. The survey will remain open to eligible Clarion students through April.
Spike Lee film festival to begin Rachel Farkas STAFF WRITER
CLARION, Pa. -The Spike Lee Film Festival will be held at 6 p.m. on March 28 and 29 and April 1 and 2 in the Gemmell Multi-Purpose Room. The doors open at 5:30 p.m. Guest speakers will begin their presentations at 6 p.m., followed by two films each evening. Admission is free to students
with a student ID and $5 for community members. Movies being shown are “Crooklyn,” “Get on the Bus,” “Malcolm X,” “Bamboozled,” “She’s Gotta Have It,” “Do the Right Thing,” “Mo’ Better Blues” and “Jungle Fever.” There will be giveaways each night, including gift cards and gift baskets. There will also be a chance to win a meet-and -greet with Spike Lee on April 3.
THIS WEEK’S EDITION
Inside
INDEX
Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year visits Clarion. FEATURES PAGE 5
Writer Mark Nieson speaks for spoken arts series. ENTERTAINMENT PAGE 9
Adam Bostick learns from brother’s experience at Pitt. SPORTS PAGE 12
News Opinion Features Classifieds Puzzles & Comics Arts & Entertainment Sports Standings
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