Ethos Magazine Spring 2017

SPRING 2017 /

VOL.9, ISSUE 3 / FREE

Behind the

Flame Pg. 16

The Blues are Back in Town Pg. 12 - Blacklisted Pg. 22 - A Day at Occupy Medical Pg. 41

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contents

ETHOS MAGAZINE /

4 | ETHOS | Spring 2017

SPRING 2017

PHOTO Musicians who perform at Mac’s demonstrate coordination and skill while maneuvering both their instruments and the stage. (See The Blues are Back in Town pp. 12)

8 All Dogs Allowed 12 The Blues are Back in Town 16 Behind the Flame 22 Blacklisted 26 As You Like It 30 American Qur’an 32 Feministe 34 Love Letter to Mumbai 35 Checkmate 37 Homosexual Tendencies 39 Warming Through Winter 41 A Day at Occupy Medical 44 Movie Review: Paterson Spring 2017 | ETHOS | 5

I

EDITOR’S NOTE

have sometimes wondered where humans derive their courage. There are times I have sat in silent contemplation observing people undertaking ordinary life and wondered whether we are born with courage inside of us or if we are just graced with moments of overwhelming electricities of emotion, forcing us to create courage as we go.

Courage (n.): the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc. without fear; to act in accordance with one’s beliefs, especially in spite of criticism.

In my short time thus far on this spinning orb of light and darkness, I have seen courage at work in unlikely places. I have witnessed it in watching someone stand up for a friend; I have glimpsed it in the moment someone tries something new and succeeds; I have felt it in the energy of the instant someone allows themselves to love; But the place courage has most revealed itself to me, is in humans just unapologetically being – embodying the hidden parts of themselves that brighten the colors in their irises with an individualistic gleam that helps make up the unique patterns of life.

This simple courage of people is threaded throughout this issue of Ethos Magazine. It is in confronting national issues in our stories “‘Homosexual Tendencies’: A Coming Out Saga,” and the second installment of our Free Speech Series, “Blacklisted.” It is in the creation of second chances in “A Day at Occupy Medical” and “Finding Sexual Healing.” And more subtly, as in our stories “Children Who Checkmate” and “Behind the Flame,” it is in doing what you feel most compelled to at your core regardless of what others may say.

These are all tiers of courageous acts, each one cultivating the human spirit without apology.

It seems only fitting this spring issue of Ethos Magazine would be bursting with these little moments of individual chroma, revealing people as their fullest selves after bravely blossoming.

We hope you grow with us.

Ethos is printed on 70 percent post-consumer recycled paper Ethos thanks Campus Progress for helping support this student-run publication. Campus Progress, the youth division of the Center for American Progress, is a national progressive organization working to empower young people to make their voices heard.

JORDYN BROWN EDITOR IN CHIEF

Published with support from Generation Progress.

Ethos is a multicultural student publication based at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon. Ethos receives support from the ASUO. All content is legal property of Ethos, except when noted. Permission is required to copy, reprint, or use any content in Ethos. All views and opinions expressed are strictly those of the respective author or interviewee. Ethos is a publication of the Emerald Media Group.

6 | ETHOS | Spring 2017

s ON THE COVER (See: Behind the Flame pp. 16)

EDITOR IN CHIEF Jordyn Brown

editorial MANAGING EDITOR Hannah Steinkopf-Frank ASSOCIATE EDITORS Patrick Dunham Erin Carey Erin Coates Katherine Smith COPY CHIEF Aliya Hall

art CREATIVE DIRECTOR Brittney Reinholtz

WRITERS Olivia Singer Sarah Hovet Morgan Krakow Mara Welty Srushti Kamat Tess Novotny Iago Bojczuk Claire Rischiotto

DESIGNERS Jason Yun Emily Harris Emily Foster Katie Leimbach Lindsay Wong

photography

contact

PHOTO EDITOR Sierra Pedro PHOTOGRAPHERS

KJ Hellis Phillip Quinn Natalie Hardwicke Johnny Hammond Will Nielsen Kendra Siebert Hetta Hansen Sarah Northrop Meghan Jacinto Ty Boespflug

ILLUSTRATOR Dorothy Hoeft Erick Wonderly editor@ethosmagonline.com

special thanks ASUO

Congratulations to the Ethos staff, both past and present, for its award-winning work. For its previous issues, Ethos received multiple awards from the Associated Collegiate Press and Columbia Scholastic Press Association, including a 2013 ACP Pacemaker Award for a Feature Magazine, its first Digital Magazine Silver Crown and two Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards. Generation Progress named Ethos Best Overall Publication in 2012-2013.

Spring 2017 | ETHOS | 7

PHOTO Liesl Wilhardt, founder and director of Luvable, kisses her French Bulldog Pika. Pika was found in January of 2015 when police raided a crime scene in Los Angeles. She was found under a piece of plywood in a hole but was rescued and nursed back to health.

8 | ETHOS | Spring 2017

ALL D GS ALLOWED One shelter’s quest to nurture the nation’s unwanted pets.

N

WORDS | MARA WELTY PHOTOS | KJ HELLIS AND JOHNNY HAMMOND

estled within a forest of lofty pines, Luvable Dog Rescue is home to a collection of kindhearted pups that roam the 55 acres of woody grounds. Among the trees, a cluster of vibrant cottages peek through the leaves, their blue and periwinkle walls contrasting with the rich olive branches in the foreground. Each house is decorated with a colorful sign, adorned with a string of lights, and occupied by rescued pit bulls and other mixed-breed dogs.

Since 1999, the rescue has been dedicated to re-homing rehabilitated dogs that have been rescued from high-kill shelters. For the first eight years, the dogs at Luvable were saved from local Oregon shelters. However, Luvable now rescues most of their canines from highkill shelters in southern California, where dogs are known to be euthanized hours after their arrival due to overpopulation.

Founder and Executive Director Liesl Wilhardt and her own rescued French bulldog, Pika, live on-site at the shelter. Wilhardt has always showed an affinity for animals, raising dogs and hermit crabs as a child. “I thought, ‘What could I personally do right now with what I have?’” says Wilhardt. “That was my inspiration. I had no idea it would become such a large organization.”

The colorful cottages help the dogs acclimate to a home environment. Within each cottage there is furniture, artwork and televisions. “[The dogs] are living in actual houses instead of just a concrete kennel floor, and I think that’s been one of the biggest factors as to why they’re able to heal and relax,” says kennel staffer Mecca Ray-Rouse. From outdoor playtime to hiking through the trove of towering trees, the dogs at Luvable gain a sense of home. “I would say most of them adjust very quickly, because most dogs are just very resilient,” Wilhardt says. “Within days, sometimes they’re different dogs. It’s amazing.”

Spring 2017 | ETHOS | 9

PHOTO Rain the rescue pitbull presses her nose against the glass to greet new visitors. Rain is in the process of readoption and is patiently waiting for her new home. Luvable is committed to the dogs they rescue for their entire lives and require dogs to be returned to them instead of going back to a shelter.

Once reserved dogs can be seen later running and playing with their friends through meadows surrounding Luvable.

Among these pups are two 8-month-old brothers, Pablo and Picasso, who recently arrived along with a group of others after a short time on the euthanasia list at a California shelter. Picasso’s mouth is slightly slanted, a single tooth poking upwards towards his crooked nose, a peculiarity that a backyard breeder considered unadoptable. But now the siblings sit tranquilly on the laps of two volunteers, monitoring the room with their large black eyes as their warm baths are readied and cottages prepared. The brothers have received increasing popularity since their arrival at Luvable after their story went viral on Buzzfeed and CNN, prompting adoption requests from around the world, including Lithuania.

But not every dog at Luvable is so lucky. Some pit bulls have been residents at the shelter for nearly two years, while many others are returned days after their adoptions, brought back to Luvable forlorn and reluctant to socialize. “It’s so hard to see when they come back,” says Ray-Rouse. “I think one of the biggest challenges is that people think it’s always a super happy job, but honestly it’s one of the hardest things.”

Originally on “puppy-shift” as a summer volunteer, RayRouse climbed the ranks and now works at Luvable full-time, feeding, medicating, cleaning, and retrieving the rescued dogs from 5 a.m. transports from Los Angeles. When most dogs 10 | ETHOS | Spring 2017

arrive at Luvable, many have matted fur, fleas, and are infested with worms. Dogs are then healed, socialized and rehabilitated

by Luvable’s staff.

“That’s the reward; that’s the high we all get as rescuers,” says Wilhardt, “to see a dog that was once so traumatized and so withdrawn and see its transformation.”

The dogs at Luvable are commonly a result of a failure to spay and neuter pets, which creates large stray populations and subsequently high euthanasia rates. “It’s more challenging,” says Ashley Olson, the manager and director of adoptions at Luvable. “If they come in as a stray they have two days until they’re euthanized typically. If they’re surrendered they’re usually walked straight to the back and euthanized.”

At times, dogs that Luvable plans to save from southern California shelters are euthanized before rescue. But for the dogs who are able to make the 900-mile journey north to Eugene, Wildhardt’s shelter becomes a sanctuary. Wilhardt hopes to eventually find people who are homeless or struck with financial instability that are willing to live with the dogs in the cottages. “You can imagine how much happier the dogs would be,” Wilhardt says. However, due to Lane County’s strict regulations on land use, the plan has become temporarily derailed.

For now, Luvable’s dogs are the sole occupants of each cottage, in final preparation for finding life in a forever home.

PHOTO 10-month-old pit bull and corgi mix Picasso gets his first bath after being rescued from a high-kill shelter in Southern California.

Picasso has a misaligned jaw, which gives him the appearance of a Pablo Picasso painting.

PHOTO One of Luvable’s new dog cottages.

PHOTO Mecca Ray-Rouse, a kennel staffer, feeds Hummus his daily antibiotics inside of a slice of hot dog. Hummus is a new rescue and is being treated for a nonthreatening kennel cough that is like the common cold in humans.

Spring 2017 | ETHOS | 11

12 | ETHOS | Spring 2017

THE BLUES ARE BACK IN TOWN

WORDS OLIVIA SINGER | PHOTOS SARAH NORTHROP

Spring 2017 | ETHOS | 13

“The number of talented artists and musicians we have around here is incredible. It never ceases to amaze me how great some of these people are that live right here in our community,” says Pat McCallum, owner of Mac’s Nightclub, a restaurant, bar and live music venue in Eugene, Oregon. Mac’s is advertised as “the home of the blues.” Since opening nearly 15 years ago, McCallum has faced some challenges with the popularity of his business, as he considers a blues club a bit of a “dinosaur.”

“We manage to sustain and remain relevant, but I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you that it’s a challenge.”Although McCallum has encountered some business obstacles over the years, Mac’s has built its own community over time.

Mac’s is located on 16th and Willamette Street and hidden inside the old, white Veterans Memorial Building. From the outside, many may not realize the inside of this 1946 building hosts a nightclub with the longest standing bar in Eugene, signed instruments, images of musicians covering the walls, underground club lighting, and bands on stage playing live music.

Every Tuesday night, Mac’s features live blues music. On Wednesdays it’s jazz and variety and the rest of the week features other genres like folk-rock, reggae, rock & roll, R&B and classic rock. Although Mac’s started primarily as a blues music venue, it has since introduced these other genres of live music over the years.

14 | ETHOS | Spring 2017

McCallum says this shift was necessary to reach out to greater audiences. “Some of the music is world class stuff, some truly dynamic music,” he says. They host local, regional, and sometimes even national bands.

McCallum says the average customer is aged from 45 to 50, or older. “Primarily, we definitely cater to an older demographic,” he says. “I think the music is a big part of that.

But I also think there are very few establishments in Eugene where people of this age group can go out and still enjoy live music and dance to live music.” Though McCallum may not always see the number of customers he hopes for, he does often see familiar faces. Much of Mac’s clientele are “regulars” and have found this venue to be a comfortable and special location.

In a place like Eugene it can often feel as though the city exists around the University of Oregon, and all of the young people who attend. A place like Mac’s opens up a location where people of any age can dance, drink, eat and enjoy an evening out.

Betsy Williams is a Mac’s regular. She has been coming to Mac’s for the last few years since her West Coast Swing Club started meeting in the ballroom upstairs of the Veteran’s Memorial Building. “Some of us [from the club] started coming on Tuesdays because there is just nothing like dancing to live music,” she says. Williams has been teaching jazzercise for 20 years and says she lives for dancing. “I always tell my students

‘Hey I am going to dance at Mac’s tonight!’ and several of my students have come here because they love to dance also.”

Williams says Mac’s feels like a safe place. “I come down here sometimes to meet friends or sometimes I come down by myself and there are usually people here that I know.” Mac’s is unique for being one of the few places in town to listen to live music and for much of her generation to go out and feel comfortable dancing to it, she says.

Byron Case, house bass player and co-host of the “Rooster Blues Jam” has been performing at Mac’s for many years.

Every Tuesday evening the Rooster Blues Jam hosts an event where individuals and sometimes groups of musicians come to Mac’s and sign up to perform. The Rooster Blues Jam sign-up sheet includes space for guitar, bass, drums, vocal, harmonica, keyboards, horn and “other.” The hosts then form completely unique musical groups from the names on the list and put them together for a 35 minute set to perform for the audience with no rehearsal. Many of these musicians are regulars but sometimes there are new faces, artists eager to perform.

“We are very lucky to have this wonderful, historical building for our Tuesday night Blues Jam, which is kind of like a social club,” says Case.“We all know everybody: Dancers, musicians, and people who just like to listen to good music. This is something we do for fun. There’s no pay. It’s just for fun.”

Performing every Tuesday, Case says that Mac’s feels like his second home. “Music is something you can play ‘till you drop.

I’m retired. I’m 70 but I just enjoy it. I love seeing people smile.”

“

MUSIC IS SOMETHING YOU CAN PLAY ‘TILL YOU DROP.

PHOTO Jerry Zybach’s gritty vocals and Gibson guitar create an original blues vibe.

”

Though McCallum has encountered some obstacles with the relevance of older styles of live music, a sense of community has been found inside the old, white building and he certainly doesn’t plan to change that anytime soon. In a time where inclusiveness often feels hard to come by, Mac’s provides an environment where people of all ages can feel comfortable dancing or coming together just to enjoy their shared passion for music.

PHOTO Parke Blundon strums a bluesy A major chord.

Spring 2017 | ETHOS | 15

Behind the Flame:

A

After graduating from Bend Senior High School in 2013, 22-year-old Mack McHone began studying at Shasta College in Redding, California. In only one term of studying business, he realized that sitting in a classroom was the very last thing he wanted to do; he wanted to be out in the world making a name for himself. Deciding business school wasn’t right for him, he left Redding and set out to follow in the footsteps of his father, Wade McHone. Wade has been a welder for 35 years.

“I just wanted to be successful,” Mack McHone says. “I didn’t know how, but I knew that’s what I wanted.” McHone’s success as an established welder is directly tied to his uncompromising work ethic. Today, he runs Mack’s Metal Fab in Bend, Oregon, where he repairs everything from exercise bars to heavy equipment to building truck customizations.

His dedication to his work is obvious. In his shop he kneels on the cold cement floor for over 30 minutes to weld a bed frame together. He meticulously inspects all corners and angles.

His journey to success was fueled by always wanting more for himself. “I think it’s in my bloodline,” says McHone, “I’m an alpha male, I’m always hungry for bigger, better, stronger...that’s just who I am.” McHone originally headed to North Dakota to work on the oil rigs alongside his father. He attributes this time spent in North Dakota and his relationship with his father to his steadfast work ethic. “I was thrown into it, but I was lucky because if I got into a bind I would call my dad and ask for help,” says McHone. He learned all his welding skills from his father, including patience through a long work day.

“I’d work for 24 to 48 hours straight,” says McHone. “You’d have guys complaining how tired they were and that they needed to go home.You get a sense of how tough you are, and I learned that from my dad. The last thing I was gonna do was let my dad down.” Around town McHone’s welding is known for its precision and durability. “People keep coming back to me time and time again,” he says of his loyal customer base. His merchandise reps his tagline: “build perfect shit.”

Despite his sleeve of tattoos, intense biceps, and seemingly hard exterior, McHone has an indisputable love for his 71-year-old Nana. “She’s my best friend,” he says. McHone works out of his late grandfather’s shop in Bend in order to be closer to his Nana.

The welding shop is on her property, and only a few steps away from her front door.

McHone’s tough exterior melts as he listens to his Nana recount stories of his family in her living room. “I wanted to be close to her so that I could drop in on her and give her loving,” he says. Nana smiles as she talks about her special connection to Mack, and notes how thankful she is for him. “Mack and I really do have a special connection,” she says. “He’s always stopping by to check on me and spend time with me.”

While welding is a tough and physical trade, it can also be very personal, and be inspired from many aspects of the welder’s life and personality. This trade is more than just sparks and tough edges: it’s created by the people who hold that flame. This is Mack McHone. from many aspects of the welder’s life and personality. This trade is more than just sparks and tough edges: it’s created by the people who hold that flame. This is Mack McHone.

WORDS & PHOTOS NATALIE HARDWICKE 16 | ETHOS | Spring 2017

‘

Story

PHOTO After graduating high school Mack moved out to North Dakota to start logging long hours as a welder. “I worked 24 to 48 hour shifts. All I did was work.”

Spring 2017 | ETHOS | 17

PHOTO Mack and Sharon look at old family photos together in the spare bedroom. The trucks that line the walls were the trucks of Mack’s grandfather. He collected them for years, and then built his own.

18 | ETHOS | Spring 2017

O su w

PHOTO Mack laughs as his Nana Sharon tells him about the trouble his late grandfather Dick used to get in.

She reflects on how every vehicle Dick owned “needed exhaust. Even the motorhome had to have exhaust.”

PHOTO Mack McHone is a 22-year-old welder in Bend, Oregon. Today, McHone runs a successful welding business. He works from his late grandfathers shop to be closer to his Nana who he calls his best friend.

PHOTO Mack drives his 1959 red Ford wrecker into Bend.

“I get a lot of stares driving this thing,” laughs Mack.

Spring 2017 | ETHOS | 19

PHOTO Mack welds a cracked metal bar at a gym in Bend. He uses gas metal arc welding for its strength and durability on this project.

20 | ETHOS | Spring 2017

PHOTO Mack has one sleeve of tattoos on his left arm.

He has his mother’s name, Michele, written across his forearm. When he said that he wanted to get his Nana’s name right along side of it, Sharon cut him off and said, “Oh don’t do that, I don’t want that to hurt you.”

IN JUNE 2015, ALI BECAME THE FIRST SYRIAN REFUGEE TO ARRIVE IN EUGENE.

PHOTO Mack fixes a piece of equipment for a friend who owns a gym in Bend. “I won’t make him pay me,” Mack says, “he hangs my poster up in the gym as promotion instead.”

Spring 2017 | ETHOS | 21

Black

-listed

The Fight For Freedom part two of the free speech series

WORDS BY MORGAN KRAKOW PHOTOS BY TY BOESPFLUG

F

rom floor to ceiling, John Bellamy Foster’s walls are lined with books. The sociology professor’s library of society, philosophy, and environment reading is extensive, passed down and collected over decades. Foster has taught at the University of Oregon since 1985, and until recently, has maintained a fairly private life. However, in December 2016, his name was added to a list of perceived radical professors by the national conservative nonprofit Turning Point USA, which has a University of Oregon chapter.

Across the nation, universities are grappling with protests, bias reports, and cancelled speakers as they deal with academic freedom. Conservative students have publicly stated that campuses are too liberal and that they don’t feel free to express their ideas inside and outside of the classroom. To reconcile this, students have brought controversial speakers that represent dissenting viewpoints, like conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos.

Often, other students protest and disrupt these speakers, creating a cycle where either side uses academic freedom to ground their actions. Reactions are extreme and sometimes violent, adding to an ideologically charged environment on campus, and a heightened national rhetoric. Academic freedom isn’t just a hot-button topic right now. The button has melted, and everything around it is on fire, entrenched in a war of ideas about what’s permitted in a university classroom.

In Eugene, the story of academic freedom is more tame. University of Oregon has avoided shouting matches and massive protests with the ASUO permitting Yiannopoulos to speak on campus in March 2016 before he entered headlines nationally. But the university hasn’t stayed out of the news completely. In a Huffington Post article written

by Greg Lukianoff, founder of the nonprofit Foundation For Individual Rights in Education (F.I.R.E), the University of Oregon was listed as one of the top 10 worst schools for freedom of speech. F.I.R.E. says it advocates on behalf of university students’ right to free expression. Turning Point USA’s watchlist is another reaction showing the intensity of the national conversation that reaches campus.

On the Watchlist This isn’t the first time that Foster, who considers himself a Marxist and a socialist, had his views come under fire nationally. He was previously included in conservative author David Horowitz’s 2006 book The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America. Foster didn’t think much of one person’s perspective, but today, he says there’s growing pressure to silence professors and is more willing to speak out.

The Professor Watchlist stems from what Matt Lamb, the Director of Campus Integrity at Turning Point USA’s national headquarters, calls issues of bias and free speech on campuses nationally. The list, comprised of 170 professors, demonstrates a belief held by some within the country: that university faculty are radical and unwilling to engage with conservative students’ perspectives. But in the case of Foster, his placement on the list 22 | ETHOS | Spring 2017

PHOTO “I believe in a radical egalitarian democracy,” Foster says. “I believe in a society where you have democracy not only politically but economically.”

Spring 2017 | ETHOS | 23

“

IT’S JUST A FACT THAT THE MAJORITY OF CAMPUS TENDS TO VIEW THINGS FROM ONE SIDE...

”

watchlist isn’t for a hostile or offensive classroom, like others on the list including Arthur Butz, a Northwestern University professor. Butz is cited as a Holocaust denier. Rather, it’s Foster’s position as editor of the Monthly Review, a global socialist magazine, which in its first issue published in 1949 included an article by Albert Einstein. Lamb says a professor’s work in and out of the classroom go into their consideration for placement on the list.

“It’s generally something that a professor says or does where we feel like it would lead to students in the class feeling like they couldn’t share their opinions on a particular subject,” Lamb says.

The Professor Watchlist is not a function of the government, but to Foster, the practice of publicly listing professors to watch is reminiscent of other points in history. Foster draws comparisons to the McCarthy Era and Germany in the 1930s, when universities also came under fire publically. He sees the popularity of branding certain professors rising, as the politics of today are changing. Foster views Horowitz’s newest book, Big Agenda: Trump’s Plan To Save America, as the most worrisome because Horowitz claims the Trump administration will try to dismantle public service unions. Foster believes that includes university faculty as targets. The David Horowitz Freedom Center is listed as a partner organization on the Turning Point USA national website. According to Foster, the public intimidation disturbs him, because he feels it could make his colleagues feel unsafe to teach openly. It could poison a university environment that’s based on openness to ideas and theories.

“It’s not a threat to people like me because I’m going to speak out no matter what,” Foster says. “Because my views are clear and because I’m tenured.”

The University of Oregon’s public academic freedom policy does make room for free expression in both the classroom and outside of it, stating that “members of the UO community have autonomous freedom to conduct research and produce creative work, and to publish and disseminate that work.”

According to Lamb, no one is put on the list without a link to a previously published article about them. Some of the stories link to right wing websites like Breitbart. Others link to sites that provide broader coverage like the Huffington Post and the Chicago Tribune. Foster’s page on the Professor Watchlist contains a link to David Horowitz’s website “Discover The Networks, A Guide To The Political Left.” The article focuses 24 | ETHOS | Spring 2017

on Foster’s editorial role at the Monthly Review, and his writings about the natural environment becoming increasingly commodified.

Foster tells students on the first day of his environmental sociology classes that he’s on the list, and hasn’t had any complaints or concerns about it. An open classroom with a rich discussion is important to him. He encourages comments and conversation throughout his lectures, and during break-off groups. For him, it’s not about opinions, but rather educated arguments formed from the readings and class materials.

“My belief is that if you give a lot of that kind of intellectual freedom to people and you let them sort out their own ideas, you really do see people grow,” Foster says. “You really do see solutions emerge.”

Foster doesn’t see all campuses as extremely leftist, and often actually feels like an outlier in his beliefs and ideas. “There’s sort of this tendency to say ‘well, the universities are controlled by people like me,” Foster says. “But actually, I’m a very isolated figure. When I retire, they probably won’t replace me with anybody like me.”

An Engagement To Argue Outside of the Lillis Business Complex on Feb. 23, cardboard posters read “Big Government Silences” and “Big Government Lies.” Students pass by, some stopping to ask questions. The conversations that ensue are what the university’s Turning Point USA chapter president Adam Sharf is hoping for. The junior public relations major says that they are trying to start a healthy debate rather than negatively spotlight professors. He says that even within the club, the Professor Watchlist is often debated. At the time of the interview, he was not aware that any University of Oregon professors were on the watchlist.

“The individuals in our chapter at the University of Oregon don’t all have to and don’t all agree with everything that the national organization does,” Sharf says.

Sharf seeks to engage students in a diverse range of ideas and not shut down discussions. He’s using this group for materials and support to screen films and plans to hold a panel discussion on styles of government spring term. As someone who believes in free market ideals and ascribes to a more conservative and libertarian ideology, Sharf feels like a political minority on campus. This is a trend that he cites as common across the nation. He sees the majority of universities and professors as liberal.

PHOTO “Personally, I don’t plan to put anyone on the watchlist,” Sharf says, “I’d prefer to engage with in open dialogue with that professor which I’ve done on multiple occasions.”

“I’m not saying that’s evil and that I’m against it,” Sharf says. “It’s just a fact that the majority of campus tends to view things from one side, and I think that it’s just really positive to bring this other perspective to campus.”

At a table outside of the Erb Memorial Union, “Make America Great Again” hats shield the February downpour for Trent Capurro and Ted Yanez, members of the College Republicans club. Capurro says he hasn’t been silenced in the classroom, rather the opposite; his professors have asked him to speak up and share his perspectives.

Yanez echoes a similar sentiment. He says that in his classes, his professors have been inclusive. He says that he doesn’t think the Professor Watchlist is an appropriate response to issues of bias. “I think it’s a little ridiculous,” he says. “Just because if you really do advocate for free speech, you should be against that sort of thing.”

Agreeing To Disagree The discussions surrounding academic freedom at UO often end up at Johnson Hall. Administrators are tasked with upholding the university’s free expression policies, while protecting students from harassment and harm within the classroom.

For President Michael Schill, the Professor Watchlist reflects a national trend and rhetoric that is not limited to Turning Point USA, but he says most of it “is on the right wing of politics.” Schill says that such groups do not offer helpful ways to achieve their objectives. “I think there are some national groups whose sole purpose is to try to humiliate universities,” Schill says. “That’s their political slant.”

The academic freedom to express certain beliefs can sometimes border on harassment, as with the recent incident of Law Professor Nancy Shurtz who donned blackface to dress as a book character at a Halloween party students had been invited to. “Most people think there is a line,” Schill says. “Because you end up with – as we did with regard to the incident at the law school – a line between two rights coming into conflict with each other, right to be free from harassment and the right to be able to state your views and engage in free speech. So, where that line is, is very difficult.”

Looking forward, Schill notes that academic freedom often means engaging in discussions and disagreements. He says these conversations are at the core of universities and are where students can experience the most growth. “The challenge is to do that in a way that’s respectful,” Schill says, “and that leads to dialogue rather than to monologue.”

Spring 2017 | ETHOS | 25

as you

LIKE IT

Educating the community as a sex coach.

WORDS BY SARAH HOVET PHOTOS BY PHILLIP QUINN

Like any adult store, As You Like It in Eugene, Oregon, carries body butter, leather, and libido enhancers. But at this adult store, the body butter is organic and local, the leather is either recycled or vegan, and the libido enhancers contain botanicals that would fit in on the shelves of Sundance Natural Foods. The store also contains a bookshop, featuring titles such as Women’s Anatomy of Arousal to Healing Sex: A Mind Body Approach and a coloring book that invites the reader to “Color My Boobs.”

“The effort to medicalize sex is insanity,” employee Jane Steckbeck says.

Steckbeck wears a small vibrator around her neck as she walks around the store shelves of genderplay-friendly lingerie and locally made sensationplay items from Spanky’s Toy Box. She is a part-time employee at As You Like It, a member of the board of Southwestern Planned Parenthood, and a certified sex coach. Kim Marks, owner of As You Like It, only hires sexual educators to work in the store. She hired Steckbeck in autumn of 2016.

Steckbeck gains joy by helping others find pleasure in sex. She tells the story of 60 sorority women renting the store for a private party. Each wrote a question they wanted to ask on a piece of paper, crumpled it into a ball, and threw it to the front of the room, at which point Steckbeck and Marks answered each question, which expressed concerns and curiosities from “Why can’t I orgasm when I’m on top?” to “How can I add kink to my relationship?” Some girls left the shop with matching vibrators. She talks about the Hot Octopus Pulse Two, a male vibrator the store carries which can be used with a cock ring to keep the penis erect without resorting to Viagra. She talks about an 80-year-old woman who visited the shop recently to find products that would help with her kegel exercises, so she could maintain her sexual activity. These are just a few of the situations Steckbeck often finds herself in at her job.

Trigger warning: This story contains material relating to sexual violence.

26 | ETHOS | Spring 2017

WORDS SARAH HOVET | PHOTOS PHILLIP QUINN

Jane Steckbeck, part-time As You Like It employee, is a certified sex coach. After overcoming an abusive past, Steckbeck now teaches others how to safely and confidently sexually express themselves.

Spring 2017 | ETHOS | 27

For Steckbeck, sexual intimacy was revealed to her early, though not in the same way she understands it now. When Steckbeck was 9 years old, she was sexually assaulted when a teenage boy took her away from a neighborhood game of kick-the-can, and put his hand down her pants and fondled her. This was the first time. When she was 12, she visited an older boy, the son of family friends, to ask for a motorcycle ride, which she had done many time before. This time he called her into his bedroom, where he lay naked on the bed, and held her hand to his penis while he masturbated.

When she was 15, a 21-year-old family friend asked her on a date and then threatened to kill himself if she left him, blackmailing her into a six-month sexual relationship. At the age of 18, a man date-raped her while she was unconscious.

At 21, she was pressured into a partnership with her college professor who she felt powerless to say no to because she wanted to work on his research team.

“Cumulatively, this added up to a perception that sex was what other people wanted to do to me, whether I wanted it or not,” Steckbeck says.

During this time, she attended a second workshop with her husband and engaged in an exercise aimed at helping men and women understand each other better. Men and women showed each other their genitals and talked about what it’s like to live in a man’s body and to live in a woman’s body.

“You take a confidentiality vow, so you don’t talk about workshop content because people who don’t do this work will get freaked out,” Steckbeck explains. “They’re very safely, expertly conducted. There’s zero sexual energy in the room.”

When it came time for Steckbeck and her husband to do the exercise, At first, she found herself poking fun at it. When she later felt as if she were f loating outside her body, she opted out of the exercise. Then a f lashback of the encounter with the neighbor hit her, and she knew she had to repeat the genitalia exercise. Months later, she signed up for the same workshop.

Her second time there, she approached a man lying nude, penis exposed. She fell to her knees and began sobbing. She

“

OFTENTIMES WHAT I END UP DOING AS A SEX COACH IS ASSURING PEOPLE THAT THEY’RE PERFECTLY NORMAL AS THEY ARE.

”

For her, the path to rediscovering the joy and empowerment in sex began with an intimacy workshop like the ones she now leads. She had always known she had suffered abuse in the past, but, like many women who have faced this, she considered it something from which she had moved on. But she found herself pushing her husband away more and more often. So when he asked her to attend an intimacy workshop with him, she “felt like she had been handed a lifeline.”

She describes her healing process as gradual because she had to heal on five different levels of mind, body, emotion, energy, and spirit. When using the tools available to those in need of sexual healing, she engaged in somatic work. This practice involves mind-body healing, in which participants release stored memories from their muscles and tissues. This allows people to work past their triggers. “We might go into a room and see someone and disassociate because they look like our abuser.” This is an example of a visual trigger.

28 | ETHOS | Spring 2017

could feel the other participants supporting her. “The value of learning to sit across from another human being and hear about their life story is humbling and grounding and connecting,” she says.

“It’s scary out there,” Steckbeck says of the current climate toward sex.

As You Like It sells products that contain medical-grade stainless silicon, stainless steel, and glass. But other sex shops sell products containing artificial f lavors and dyes that contain known endocrine disruptors. “This industry gets away with a lot,” Marks says.

Growing up in the Bay area, Marks enjoyed the sexpositive pleasure shop Good Vibrations and found that lacking when she moved to the Pacific Northwest in 1994. She decided to start As You Like It after she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2003 and refuses to sell anything carcinogenic.

PHOTO Unlike ordinary sex shops, As You Like It prides itself on being a gender-inclusive, bodysafe, and eco- conscious store that provides customers with a healthy sex life.

“We should be as careful with our intimate products as we are with the food we eat,” says Marks. “If you’re putting something in your vagina, it’s equivalent to putting it in your mouth. It’s the same mucus membranes.”

Carcinogens are not the only scary things in today’s sex culture. Marks says the lack of education is alarming and sex ed needs to happen earlier in life. It needs to happen in retirement homes, where STIs are on the rise. It needs to happen so that young people know how to use a condom. But it needs to be more than fear-based, she says.

“You get an education in the store as well as shopping experience,” customer Sadie Dressekie says. She began shopping at As You Like It while it was still an online store.

She attended a jealousy workshop there and found what she learned applicable to her everyday life. She explains the range of people in the shop on a given day can range from a mother with her 18-year-old daughter to seniors.

“It’s all about relationships,” she says.

Marks and Steckbeck have consolidated their educational resources into a Facebook page for the Eugene Intimate Health Center. This allows people to like the page and share from it without directly tying themselves to a sex toy shop.

Steckbeck is currently facilitating a series of workshops on intimacy after 50, with experience from teaching Planned Parenthood’s class for seniors “The Heart Has No Wrinkles,” and looking forward to publishing her memoir. Additionally, she is designing a seven-week webinar for women about reconnecting with their sexuality. On her website, a PhD candidate from Pacific University has blurbed, “I’ve never [before] heard anyone talk about past sexual trauma without at least some internalized victim-blaming. It was wonderful to hear someone tell her truth without any overlay of cultural shame.”

Steckbeck loves her work. “Oftentimes what I end up doing as a sex coach is assuring people that they’re perfectly normal as they are.”

Spring 2017 | ETHOS | 29

American Qur’an Cultural Understanding Through Art WORDS IAGO BOJCZUK PHOTO WILL NIELSEN

I

n recent months, Islamophobia and hate crimes against muslims in the United States have soared to their highest levels since the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City in 2001. Mosques across the country have been attacked, Muslim women wearing the hijab have suffered abuse, and the central text of Islam — the Qur’an,— has been defaced and ridiculed by many.

A recent exhibit at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art (JSMA), however, presented a quite unusual approach to Allah’s words to humanity, revealing how the universal principles of Islam might be compelling to Americans who have never had contact with the religion beyond general media.

By juxtaposing images from American popular culture in relation to each sura — the name given to each chapter in the Qur’an — Birk’s attempt is not to illustrate Islam’s most sacred book; instead, in describing the 114 chapters of the Qur’an by hand using a type of contemporary calligraphy positioned with images, the artist’s intent is to demonstrate Islam’s universal message to

welcome back to ETHOS WORLD

humankind and how it relates to everyday life across the United States. The works display life in farms and war zones, as well as the dramatic relationship between American life and technology.

Over the past year, the museum has scheduled three action teams to bring students, faculty, and community members together to learn about the project and brainstorm relevant programs. These groups included Muslim students and faculty who worked with the museum to create a series of public dialogues that would both present the diversity of Muslim experiences and perspectives, and give non-Muslims opportunities to learn more, ask questions, and build respect and friendship.

“When our Humanities Conversation program was cancelled due to funding, we turned to our Muslim student organizations, and they welcomed the chance to organize a program which they would share their experiences and responses to today’s political environment with both fellow Muslims and nonMuslims,” says Jill Hartz, executive director of the JSMA. Birk, who is not a Muslim himself, said during a panel that American Qur’an was born out of a deep desire to understand the aftermath of 9/11. Taking nearly a decade to complete the project, Birk’s vision is not only to introduce Islam’s holy book to non-Muslim audiences, but also to value the richness of Islamic culture and religion around the world.

However, this exhibit is not taken without controversy.

The project received negative reactions when it first started in Los Angeles and San Francisco. “Galleries got a handful

of anonymous emails from people saying that Americans should not waste their time reading the Qur’an and we should not be teaching people about Islam,” says Birk.

For more conservative Muslims, the exhibit could be seen as problematic since the Qur’an is only considered holy when written in Arabic. It can even be considered a blasphemous act to include the depiction of human figures and “American way of life” in connection with the sacred texts. From this perspective, Birk’s art is cultural or religious appropriation.

But for Awab Rawi, a student from Baghdad, Iraq who is part of the Arab Student Union at the University of Oregon, the exhibit does a good job linking two seemingly distant cultures for people who do not have much background on Islam or the Qur’an.

“It is nice to show the Qur’an from a modern artistic angle,” he says, “However, people who do not know much about Islam will not necessarily learn anything new just by looking at the show. So an extra artistic approach would be quoting specific verses from the Qur’an and quotes from Islam that reflect the values and nature of the religion and the adherent populations to it.”

Kearney Newman, a 20-year old student, decided to visit the American Qur’an exhibit in part because she had never seen or read the Qur’an and also because she was curious as to what exactly would make a religious text specifically “American.”

“

“THE EXHIBIT REALLY REAFFIRMED MY BELIEF IN THE BEAUTY AND VALUE OF RELIGION IN OUR WORLD. ”

”

“I was really impressed by the artist’s attention to detail and his purposeful inclusion of a vast variety of regions in the U.S. as well as his representation of various day-today struggles and happenings that most Americans can relate to,” says Newman. “The exhibit really reaffirmed my belief in the beauty and value of religion in our world. ” During his visit to the University of Oregon in October of last year, world-renowned religious scholar Reza Aslan spoke about religion, identity, and America’s future. A lot changed in the four months that followed his visit to Eugene: Trump was elected president of the United States, an entry ban was imposed on visitors from seven Muslim countries, and the JSMA brought the American Qur’an exhibit to campus. While somewhat controversial in form, this exhibit aims to provide a visual experience to bridge the relationship between East and West. As Aslan wrote on the diversity of this religion that has over a billion and a half followers: “Religion is water and culture is the vessel; Islam takes the shape for whatever culture it encounters.”

Spring 2017 | ETHOS | 31

Q&A

Feministe;

The Art of Being “Selfish”

with the founder of France’s first women and trans open mic.

WORDS HANNAH STEINKOPF-FRANK

For 26-year-old Eiram*, it was being called “selfish” by a middle-aged White man that inspired her to start France’s first women and trans open mic, aptly named Self-ish. Eiram, who grew up in Singapore and France, first became interested in feminism while studying at Swarthmore College. After moving back to Paris, she began performing songs and poems at open mics, but found the sexism she dealt with to be so oppressive that she and other artists did not feel comfortable baring their souls in front of a crowd.

Since the first Self-ish open mic nine months ago, the events have grown from crowds of a few dozens to a few hundred. This is possibly because, compared to their American counterparts, France’s queer and feminist communities do not have as many opportunities to come together. There are gathering places, whether that’s a hole-in-the-wall lesbian bar blasting American pop music or monthly dance parties at the Moulin Rouge Machine, where people of all genders and sexualities get down until the sun comes up, literally. But Self-ish has provided a new space for marginalized groups to let their voices be heard. For Eiram, it is a safe place for people to both escape and share the sexism and racism they deal with in France on a daily basis.

Below, she discusses her own journey of becoming a feminist, the unique sexism women in France deal with, and her dreams for the future of Self-ish. *Eiram prefers to use her stage name in coverage of Self-ish.

Q: How were you first introduced to feminism?

A: That's a big question right there. It was actually really funny because when I got in college, I had absolutely no interest in gender or sexuality or feminism, whatsoever. In high school, I was one of those really gender normative teens and went shopping with my friends and was subscribed to two different women's magazines. That's how deep I was in the patriarchy.

I discovered feminism when I was in college. I went to a small liberal arts college, and my friend said, "Oh there's this gender course,” which was called Comparative Perspectives on the Body, “and you should take it. It's really great." So I did, and that was my first insight into feminism. I started questioning all these norms that I was brought up in, in terms of my behavior, in terms of my appearance. Like all baby feminists, I became very angry because I realized that a lot of the things that I did 32 | ETHOS | Spring 2017

were actually being imposed on me. I realized that a lot of them were actually making me very unhappy. That was what really got me going on feminism.

Q: Is there something specific about open mics, that there's so much sexism or is it just general sexism that's found in many cultures?

A: I don't know. I think both. I think the patriarchy, in general.

But I think it's also just sadly in the realm of the arts as well.

Men have had a lot of control. You still see it even in other industries. I'm really into comics, and in terms of comics, most comic publishers are men. The world of the arts also has a long way to go not in terms of the visual arts or writing. With any kind of artistic endeavor, men still have the upper hand. Sadly, that's also totally mirrored by a lot of the open mic scene, where it's mostly men who start these open mics and then they're in control. Often, they abuse their power. That's how these places become unsafe for people who are not as privileged.

Q: Do you think that the sexism women deal with in France is different than in the U.S.?

A: Yeah, totally. I think in France, people think the patriarchy isn't a thing. I think in the U.S. there's way more talk about gender and sexuality, and so on and so forth. Even the people who don't really understand what feminism is or aren't friendly towards feminism, know that it somehow has some kind of bearing in culture. I think people understand its legitimacy in some way, even if they’re not necessarily friendly towards it in the U.S. Whereas I feel in France, people are in complete denial.

They're oblivious. So I think to me, that's the main difference: There’s some kind of awareness that's lacking in France, and there's still a long way to go in that regard.

Q: Why do you think Self-ish has grown so much?

A: Well it's interesting. Every time I talk to people about it or every time people come up to me, they always say the same thing: "You know this was clearly lacking.” This is why it's so successful because clearly, people had this need to express themselves and to really bare their souls, but they didn't really have a space to do that. Especially when you identify as a woman or as trans, you are subjected to certain types of

discrimination in society at large. It's really hard to get up onstage and talk about these things to an audience that doesn't necessarily understand what you're talking about or isn't necessarily friendly towards expressing the discriminations that you are experiencing. So I think that's why people like Self-ish so much, because they can actually be their true selves.

Q: Has there been a particular Self-ish performance that has stuck with you?

A: We have a really young ‘slammer’ who's a slam poetry artist called Helen, who's now part of the Self-ish team. When she first came on stage, she prefaced her slam by saying that she had been to Self-ish a few times and that she had been really inspired by the people going on stage. That’s how she had written her piece. In her piece, she talked about finding herself and coming into her own as a queer-identified person and as a feminist. Just hearing that, hearing that Self-ish had a real concrete impact on someone, especially someone so young, was really moving. You put on these events and people come, and then they go home. You have no way of knowing exactly how they're impacted unless they tell you. So hearing that was amazing.

Q: Can you talk about how racism is different in France?

A: There's no PC [politically correct] culture here. People just say things. They refer to certain ethnicities with certain terms that are clearly derogatory, and they actually see nothing wrong with it. It's so steeped in French culture. I don't really know how to explain it, but there's definitely no awareness of race, and there's definitely less awareness of racism. I think in France, there's way less of a conversation around race because France has been very adamant about basing the whole French identity around being French. You're either French or you're not, and there's actually no space for other types of identities. Whereas in the US, you can be Asian-American or you can be African-

American. You can combine those two different identifies. I feel that's very limited, and it erases a lot of the diversity that exists in France.

Q: What do you like about hosting Self-ish?

A: It's so much fun. It's also very stressful, but I love being able to show that I care. I think I've cared for a long time about feminism, gender and sexuality, and the patriarchy, but I've never been able to be very open about that in a public forum.

To be able to go onstage and just be myself and be very visible as a feminist and as a queer person, and also being recognized as such [is validating]. I'm not going to lie, there is a pleasant aspect to being recognized as an activist. That's been very rewarding.

Q: I know French language is a lot more gendered, something possibly related to sexism in France. Does gender neutral language exist in French like it does in English?

A: Oh my god yes, because that was definitely one of the things that I had to work with in terms of starting to host Self-ish in French. I think maybe that was something I was trying to avoid by hosting it in English [at first]. In French it's a lot harder to be gender neutral. It was a learning curve, but I learned quite fast.

There's one gender neutral pronoun in French, which is 'iel" or "ielle.” It’s a combination of "il" and "elle," – "he" and "she" in French. So I started using that and also writing with gender neutral language for all of our social media, for our online presence. I think that the biggest challenge was hosting in French and using gender neutral language. Because in French, for adjectives that are gendered, the only way to be gender neutral is just to say both. So you end up having to be very careful about using adjectives that are not gendered or using both the feminine and masculine of the adjectives. That's been a challenge, but I'm happy that's something I've learned to do.

Q: Why do you think creating these safe spaces is particularly important now, given the fears some have about rising conservatism in France with the far right political party le Front National?

A: The more people that experience oppression, the more their need to communicate about that oppression becomes essential to their survival. I think it really does help people to speak out.

It helps people to surmount adversity if they can at least talk about the discrimination and all of the problems that they're faced with. I do feel like language and speech and expression are such crucial tools for survival. So I'm hoping spaces like Self-ish help people "survive" with their ambitions and their hopes and their dreams and what they wish to accomplish.

PHOTO Mécistée Rhéa, who describes herself as an artist, model, and actress read a 1965 letter from artist Sol LeWitt to sculptor Eva Hesse that explores how to overcome barriers in the creative process. “Learn to say “Fuck You” to the world once in a while. You have every right to,” writes LeWitt.

Spring 2017 | ETHOS | 33

A love letter to Mumbai A calming chaos. An oxymoron. A voice. A faded memory.

WORDS BY SRUSHTI KAMAT ILLUSTRATIONS BY DOROTHY HOEFTO

I

have always been amazed at the ability of people to survive and thrive. I was born into a city of color, and then whisked away to a place where not everyone looked like me or spoke like me. I was born in the city of Mumbai. My parents decided to move to the burgeoning island nation of Singapore when I was five years old, leaving everything they knew behind. So I struggled to consider Mumbai my home. As a place that carried an unforgiving air to those who failed, it was daunting and distant. I resembled the people, but it did not feel familiar. I spoke the languages, but my voice was not heard. I rejected the core of the city, as I found myself joining in on complaints about traffic issues, education systems, and housemaids with extended relatives. Little did I realize, I had been raised with the mindset of Mumbai all my life. When your parents grow up in countries that are starkly different from yours, they try to compensate. To fill the void of your lived experience.

Imagine crowded roads, fierce mothers, and smells of an unfathomable kind. Old and new buildings surround a dense population of 18.4 million people. On the street, women wear bright colors. From red and yellow to blue and gold, the layers of the traditional outfits of Saris and Salwar Kameez, both traditional outfits along with with shiny jewelry pairings stand out as they adorn the streets, buses, and alleys. A place of dreamers, workers, and slackers, Mumbai has a captivating charm. It provides a lure into the deepest, darkest, and most interesting parts of a person. In a race to the top, everyone is determined to move forward and conquer new territory. There is nothing like the buzz that is created. A fighting spirit. To be the

best. To succeed. To live a fruitful life. The southern shoreline is filled with friends, runners, and visitors who are ever so keen to take selfies and photos of the fading sunset. But Mumbai is not a stopover destination. For many, it is the only destination. It is made for those who know how to push their way to the front.

A cup of chai fixes all. At least that is what I grew up knowing, but perceptions of a place are always determined by immediate experiences. The people you meet, the memories you create, and the alleys through which you wander can make or break the images you conjure. I believe that a person’s memory of a city is determined by a moment in time that helps them associate sights, sounds, and smells. My defining moment occurred in a car ride to the airport. On the way back to Eugene, I was sitting in the back seat, watching a city that is filled with noise, movement, and a deep soul. Mumbai echoes the cries of dreams forgotten and communities interwoven.

Somewhere in the trajectory of that ride, I realized that my love for the city was a reflection of the love I feel for my parents.

Walking in their shoes and living the moments they lived made me appreciate the trips down memory lane even more. This was the city that made the people I consider to be my entire world, who they are today. Concerned eyes watched as they grew from innocent children and flawed youth into compassionate adults.

What I now know, is that decked with a skyline of growing construction, Mumbai is a metropolis on the rise filled with incredible people. I see a hope, a sparkle of positivity like no other place. In Mumbai, things go wrong. Plans may not be met as they are made. But the fabric of the society is made to last.

The grit of the people is real.

P S a b “

34 | ETHOS | Spring 2017

PHOTO: Isla Vo, age 7, is a student at Edison Elementary School who is a part of the weekly chess club. “I like that there’s strategies and things you need to solve,” says Vo.

ChildrenWho

Checkmate

The silent sport enrapturing Eugene’s youth WORDS BY TESS NOVOTNY PHOTOS BY MEGHAN JACINTO

PHOTO: From left to right, Zack Shao, Tomas Serrano, and Kerek Kato are a part of the chess club at Edison Elementary School. “I like that you have to be aware of all the pieces on the board,” says Shao.

“It involves some strategy.”

PHOTO: From left to right, Tomas Serrano, age 10, and Miles Rodrigues, age 7, enjoy a competitive game of chess at the Edison Elementary School library. “I like that it’s a thinking game,” says Serrano.

Spring 2017 | ETHOS | 35

O

regon state chess champion Ian Vo reads a book titled Russian Chess as he simultaneously plays six games of chess against his fellow club members. He flips pages and walks slowly from one board to another, pausing at each for a few seconds to quietly contemplate his next move. Vo is 10 years old and in fifth grade.

“I’ve been playing since I was four, but I only got really serious once I was seven,” he says.

To outsiders, competitive chess is an obscure section of youth sports. But to the parents and kids who participate in chess clubs, teams and tournaments, it is a community driven by unique camaraderie and sharp intellect for the 1,500-year-old game.

Competitive chess players can compete in tournaments as individuals and teams at the city, regional, state, and national levels. They have electronic ratings that increase or decrease based on the outcomes of every tournament game they play.

At the Chess for Success regional tournament, which qualifies individuals and teams for the Oregon State Championship, seventh grader and state champion Victor Dossin, age 12, laughs with his chess buddies between matches. Sometimes they are even paired against each other in the competition.

Dossin wishes people would get excited for the World Chess Championship the way they do for the Superbowl.

“They think it’s only a board game, but I think it’s more than that,” he says.

“It’s like a society with lots of members that just love playing the game. There are so many different ways you can play it, it’s kind of amazing.”

This tournament is run by Jerry Ramey through his organization Southside Chess.

Ramey also runs Edison Elementary chess club, three other elementary school clubs, one middle school club, and one high school club in Eugene. Ramey became interested in chess when his now grown son, Forrest, wanted to learn the game in elementary school. He taught him and helped out at his school’s chess club. When Forrest went to middle school, he started a club there. As more kids and parents became interested in learning from Ramey, he decided to make it his full time job. Over the 25 years since he began teaching chess, Ramey has coached two individuals and one team to winning national championships, not to mention about 80 state champions. Forrest won multiple state championships, and now coaches chess as well.

Ramey believes that playing chess while young fosters brain development and important life skills. “My theory is that if you work the brain a lot during that time, then you’re gonna have more brain cells,” he says. “I’m always impressed with my former students who have grown up and gone onto great careers.

Most of the ones who stuck with chess through school are very successful people and students in college.”

Competitive team chess player and coach Sophia Dossin, 17, runs a weekly all-girls club in Ramey’s home chess studio.

Competitive chess is heavily male dominated, so she designed this club to empower girls to learn about chess in a safe, supportive atmosphere of peers.

The high school senior and state champion says she experienced discrimination from boy players as one of few girls in her clubs and teams as a kid. One time, she sat down across from her male opponent at a tournament and he asked, “What are you doing here? Girls don’t play chess.” She remembers another incident when a male opponent scoffed and laughed with his friend when she got to the board. “It was fun because I creamed him,” she says.

“One of my big motivators for starting this girls class is I recognize how hard it is to put yourself out there,” Sophia says.

“Chess is all about taking a risk; if you don’t have a lot of people around you that are similar to you, or if you’re not in a place where you know you are supported, it can be hard to come out of your shell.”

The club is growing by the week – she started with just a few girls, and now there are nine regular members. During the hour-long class, young girls alternate between absorbing every lesson with rapt attention and exploding with questions and excited laughter.

Sophia says she is constantly moved by girls encouraging other girls to play. A few weeks ago, she overheard a conversation between two club-members about an upcoming tournament: “If you’re gonna play, I’ll play,” one whispered.

“Chess was kind of a heavy door for me to open, and I feel so privileged and honored that I get to hold open this door for a bunch of young girls,” says Sophia. She hopes to continue growing the club and someday build a team of passionate, strong female players to compete in tournaments.

Ian, Victor, and Sophia agree that competitive chess is rewarding. Ian plans to continue competing through middle and high school, as does Victor. Victor says he doesn’t think he’ll go professional as an adult, but believes his love for the game will remain strong for the rest of his life. Sophia is waiting on acceptance letters from colleges before she plans her next move as a coach. If she stays in Eugene and attends the University of Oregon, she will continue to grow the girls club here. If she leaves, she wants to start another girls club wherever she ends up. They have all grown strong friendships in the sport and confidence in themselves under Ramey’s coaching. Even when they lose, they find strength to push forward and play a better game next time. As Jerry once told Sophia when she felt low, “you either win or you learn.”

“

THEY THINK IT’S ONLY A BOARD GAME, BUT I THINK IT’S MORE THAN THAT.

36 | ETHOS | Spring 2017

M

ost coming out stories don’t require a second act, in which the person coming out has to do it again two years later. Normally, people want to have the bare minimum number of awkward interactions, and treat it like ripping off a Band-Aid: as quick and painless as possible, even though the adhesive pulls out all the tiny, sensitive hairs.

My coming out story, however, needed multiple attempts — not because my family couldn’t handle it, but because of the misunderstandings regarding sexual orientation and stigmas attached to them in our society, as well as a lack of communication on the topic of bisexuality.

According to the 2016 “Where We Are On TV Report”

by GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation), of the 895 broadcast primetime characters, 4.8% identify as LGBTQ. Bisexual representation has risen to 33%, as 21 of those characters identify as bisexual (16 women and 5 men).

The representation has increased dramatically in comparison to previous years, such as in 2012 (when I first came out), when only 2.9% of characters identified as LGBT. While the numbers show improvement, the representation of these bisexual characters still stick to harmful tropes that stigmatize bisexual people: “untrustworthy, lacking a sense of morality, and/or as duplicitous manipulators,” according to the GLAAD report.

“Creators overwhelmingly choose to portray bisexuality as a villainous trait rather than a lived identity. This trend of inaccurate portrayals undermines how people understand bisexuality, which has real life consequences for bi people and their wellbeing,” wrote Alexander Bolles, senior strategist, GLAAD and bisexual advocate.

In my five years of being out, I have been told that my sexuality is “just a phase” or that I’m “experimenting.” I have been asked multiple times by men on Tinder if I would be interested in three-ways and have been told by men that they could never date a bisexual woman for fear of her being unfaithful. I have been told by society that bisexuality is just a ploy to get a man’s attention, that I have to “choose a side eventually,” and that lesbians may not take a chance on me because I’m really just straight.

All of these associations come from the mainstream media’s

portrayal of bisexuality. Amy Zimmerman, Entertainment Correspondent for The Daily Beast, explains this perfectly in her article: “It Ain’t Easy Being Bisexual on TV.” “Our mainstream media reinforces the notion that bisexuality is either a fun, voluntary act of experimentation or a mere myth through two tried and true tactics: misrepresenting and oversimplifying bisexual characters until they are either punchlines or wet dream fodder, or simply refusing to portray bisexual characters in the first place.”

When I first came out in 2012 I didn’t have a frame of reference for bisexuality, and even if I had, statistically the representation would still have been stereotypical and problematic. I grew up under the assumption that I had to be straight because I had always been interested in males. But growing up as a femme cisfemale in a primarily conservative community, nobody — not even myself knew that I was secretly falling for the feminine wiles warned about since the day Eve seduced Adam into taking the apple in the Garden of Eden. My first hint probably should have been when I had the overwhelming urge to kiss a female friend of mine during the middle of casual conversation.

Homosexual

TENDENCIES A Coming Out Saga WORDS BY ALIYA HALL ILLUSTRATIONS BY DOROTHY HOEFTO Spring 2017 | ETHOS | 37

“Our mainstream media reinforces the notion that bisexuality is either a fun, voluntary act of experimentation or a mere myth through two tried and true tactics: misrepresenting and oversimplifying bisexual characters until they are either punchlines or wet dream fodder, or simply refusing to portray bisexual characters in the first place.”

It wasn’t until I was 16 that I began to open myself to the idea that those thoughts weren’t “weird” and needed to be brushed off, but rather should be embraced because why limit myself to one attractive gender, when I could be with all of them?

As I was coming to terms with my sexuality, I became confident enough to tell a gay friend of mine about my selfdiscovery. The timing could have been better, as my family and family friends had all gotten together for our annual camping trip at Richardson Park, but I needed to tell somebody. Hiding in our family trailer and, making sure nobody was around, I called my friend and told him everything. Unfortunately for me, there was a lack of insulation between the trailer walls and the outside world, and my younger brother overheard my conversation. He then took it upon himself to tell my mother, who was in official camping mode, meaning she had a nice beer buzz going and zero desire to have an intense, personal conversation about her teenage daughter’s sexuality but, being the mom she is, she did.

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outed before you were even remotely ready to be out.

My parents both sat down to have a conversation with me, that went along the lines of: Until you wake up in the arms of a man and a woman, can you really know how you feel? While this is now a question I easily refute, my younger self didn’t have the words. After that conversation, none of us ever brought up my sexuality again. I had assumed the worst was behind me. I was headed toward college, I was hopeful to have an opportunity to explore all of my options.

Officially identifying as bisexual to the new friends I had met, I wasn’t concerned telling my mother about a lunch date I had planned later that week with a cute, queer girl from one of my classes. As I chattered on about how I was both excited and nervous, she broke in with the question, “Why are you so nervous? It’s just lunch.” This “just lunch,” I told her, was going to be my first casual date with a woman. The phone went silent.

My self-doubt started to creep in and I felt like I was sixteen again. I told her that we had already had this conversation, but in her eyes this was new information.

Though the phone call ended shortly after that, the conversation about my sexuality did not. My mother and I continued to have open dialogues where she expressed her concern for my life being harder as a bisexual woman if I pursued a relationship outside of the heteronorm, and how people wouldn’t take my sexuality seriously. While I couldn’t promise her the world would treat me fairly or respectfully, I told her I wasn’t going to hide any longer. We even talked more about the women I was seeing or speaking to on dating apps. Eventually, my father asked her if I had “homosexual tendencies,” and my mother had to clarify for him again as well, seeing as he missed my second coming out. While our conversations about it are less frequent, I know he won’t care if I marry a girl one day.

With the lack of positive bisexual representations in the media, and few “out” bisexuals in the public eye, I want to go into my journalism career being open and honest about who I really am. I hope this honesty can help other LGBTQA people accept and love who they are too, and that I can use my journalism to highlight these marginalized and often unrecognized voices.

At this point, most of the people in my life know that I’m bisexual, but there are still some family members and high school acquaintances who don’t. So, to Grandpa Barry and Grandma Sonia, Aunt Dawn and Uncle Richard, Aunt Laura and Dakota, Uncle John, and anyone from Elmira High School who could be reading this: We need to talk.

WARMING D through WINTER Providing cold weather shelter for the unhoused.

WORDS SARAH HOVET PHOTOS KENDRA SIEBERT

PHOTO The kitchen and sleeping area are separated by a single wall, while mats and blankets crowd the surrounding space.

ecember storms hit Eugene with power outages, sleet, and ice-encrusted trees like bending popsicles. This cold has severe consequences for the unhoused. Egan Warming Center mitigates those consequences by providing sleeping spaces and meals on cold nights for free, fueled by donations and volunteers.

The center includes nine emergency activation sites in Eugene and Springfield. Between November 15 and March 31, the sites open when the temperature drops below 30 degrees fahrenheit. The center is named after Thomas Egan, a veteran and unhoused man who died on the street in 2008. In the 2016 to 2017 season, the center has seen an unprecedented 25 activations.

Director Shelley Corteville calls the unhoused “our neighbors without addresses.” When they stay at the center, she calls them guests. This center’s lifeblood comes from the effort of Egan employees like Corteville, community partners like Food For Lane County and Cahoots, and hundreds of volunteers. When the center activates, it’s often for several nights at a time, and up to 300 volunteers can be required each night if all sites activate.

Corteville has served as director of Egan Warming Center for two years. At 28, while in Nevada, she spent six months homeless. Working two jobs, she managed to get off the streets, but did not forget the experience. She moved to Oregon and enrolled in Lane Community College. She took internship classes, through which she began volunteering for Egan. She loved it and advanced to site lead, volunteering for five years before she was offered the director position in 2015. “I was shocked when they offered me the director position,” she says “It’s an honor.”

Spring 2017 | ETHOS | 39

PHOTO Director Shelley Corteville prepares for the night ahead, giving directions to other volunteers in the parking lot outside of Eugene’s First Christian Church on Friday night, Feb. 24th.

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“When you volunteer with Egan Warming Center, you better be able to do just about everything that needs to be done,” says Made Marcoe, who has been a volunteer since 2008. In 2005, Marcoe moved to Eugene from Bali, where he was a painter. He lined up a Eugene job that fell through and spent three weeks living by the Willamette River. As he began a telemarketing job, he also volunteered as a dishwasher at Food For Lane County. For seven years, he worked there as the safety and hospitality director.

Marcoe knew Thomas Egan from Food For Lane County. “I can look over my garden wall and see the spot where he passed away,” he says. “It’s a constant reminder in my life.”

Egan opened again on Friday, February 24. The days leading up to the activation found Corteville continuously opening her laptop to check the temperature. On Friday around 6 p.m. at the First Christian Church site, she recited the night’s predicted low from memory: 26.5 degrees.

In the basement, volunteers bustle to set up the space. The kitchen simmers with the smell of coffee and bacon. Corteville reminds the staff that they can only legally serve guests decaf.

Volunteer Chai West piles pineapple and cantaloupe into a bowl. She first heard of the Egan Warming Center in 2008 when she was homeless and in the emergency room with pneumonia. The staff referred her and her now-husband to the youth site, and they walked down Monroe Street from the hospital in the snow to find warm beds. Later, a volunteer who she refers to as Big John encouraged her to volunteer too. Five years later, she is now kitchen lead.

Outside, shuttles hum into the parking lot, carrying guests from other parts of Eugene. First Christian is crowded.

Although Egan has nine sites, one church basement is flooded and another occupied for a memorial service. The guests wait, some on scooters or in wheelchairs, some sipping coffee, their breath creating white plumes in the air. Church bells chime the progress toward opening the doors.

The first guest to enter when the site opens at 8 p.m. is a regular, a woman with a wheelchair who has a special cot. The smell of hand sanitizer suffuses the air as the volunteers wait to check in guests.

Guests check in items such as a purple umbrella and a Beavers blanket. Two female guests cross paths after checking in and call out, “Hi, hun!” Some guests exchange high-fives with volunteers as they check in; one tucks her crossword puzzle book under her arm.

In the sleeping area, some guests immediately crawl under the donated Egan blankets. One man lying on his mattress undoes his leg brace. Musical notes rise from a piano; one of the guests is playing.

On the other side of the basement, kennels are set up for pets. In the past, the center has offered shelter to a rabbit, a bird, and a snake among the more common cats and dogs.

Corteville reminds community members that the center always needs more volunteers and that there’s plenty to do in the off-season. The Egan needs more sites in downtown Eugene and Springfield. Fundraising and community efforts in the offseason can help secure these needs, she explains.

"Egan saves lives. We can do things like give new socks.

We see early medical problems. It’s a multi-faceted program,” Marcoe says. During some activations this year, the total guest count approached 500, and only eight sites were open on those nights. Eight years after Tom Egan’s death, there is still work to do.

A DAY AT

OCCUPY MEDICAL WORDS CLAIRE RISCHIOTTO PHOTOS HETTA HANSEN

n an overcast Sunday afternoon, Sue Sierralupé begins her volunteer shift by checking on a patient whose yellow and white skin is peeling off his right leg. She is the clinic manager and co-founder of Occupy Medical, a clinic that provides free medical and mental health services in Eugene, Oregon. The patient’s name is John and he is a 54-year-old man living on the streets of Eugene.

Today, John, who prefers to not share his last name, sits in a metal chair and soaks his feet in two white buckets full of yellow water. Below his red discolored right knee is a layer of hanging skin and open red ulcers, ranging from 1 centimeter to about 5 centimeters. One ulcer is shaped like an upside down red-veined fish.

Surrounding him in the rectangle shaped room is a team of three nurses inspecting the red ulcers on his right leg. Pam Garrison, one of the wound care nurses, explains that the white buckets are the tallest her team has access to. So Garrison has to improvise; she cups her hands in the yellow water and pours the liquid over John’s wounds to wash off the dead skin.

Spring 2017 | ETHOS | 41

In the middle of February, John’s right leg was acting up again because of his disorder, called chronic venous stasis insufficiency — an ulcer condition. When John went to PeaceHealth Hospital in Springfield he was given standard wound care: his leg was cleaned and bandaged. Then he was discharged and sent back outside at around two in the morning.

With no transportation accommodation from the hospital, he says, he had to walk back to Eugene. He explains that he would have only received more medical care if his leg was septic — meaning if it was infected.

“He knows what to do. But he can’t do it. That’s the frustrating part for us,” Garrison says. “This is a common thread here, that people come out of hospitals and they know what to do and they can’t do it because of the way the system is set up. When they go to the overnight shelters they have to be out of there at seven in the morning and they don’t open until six in the evening. And all day they have to wander.”

This lack of adequate and affordable healthcare is the very reason Occupy Medical Clinic opened five years ago in downtown Eugene.

Every Sunday, from noon to 4 p.m., Occupy Medical, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, operates out of a school bus-turned-clinic on wheels and a grey and red square building at 509 E. 13th ave. The clinic runs solely on the physical and monetary donations from the local community. The staff is made up of volunteers, registered nurses, physicians, medical students, mental health counselors, herbalists, and lunch servers. This allows Occupy Medical to treat any walk-in patient regardless of insurance or income. Though the clinic is open to anyone, many of the patients are homeless.

In Eugene, according to the Lane County Human Services Annual Homeless Point in Time Count, there are at least 1,451 homeless people in Lane County. That is 1,451 people who likely need access to healthcare. The clinic is set up to demonstrate what a single-payer healthcare system could look like, Sierralupé explains. This is where the state government provides the funds through taxes rather than insurance companies covering medical and mental health costs according to the American Medical Student Association, a student physicians in-training activism organization.

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For Sierralupé, it’s straightforward as to why she does this work through Occupy Medical. “There is a need,” Sierralupé says. “I am tired of watching people die or suffer when I know that the problem is the way that we are doing billing.”

According to Sierralupé, the issue is that capitalism and

“

THE IDEA IS WE ARE SHOWING A PATIENT WHAT IT’S LIKE TO JUST COME IN AND GET CARE BECAUSE YOU NEED IT; NOT BECAUSE YOU CAN AFFORD IT

”

healthcare don’t work well together. Instead, it results in an unfair medical treatment toward the poor. “Patients should not be treated like commodities and when they are that’s when you have that cost analysis of what it takes to treat people and they shouldn’t be guinea pigs,” she says.“I mean these are my neighbors. These are my friends. Why wouldn’t I do it.” This is why Sierralupé leads by example for the change she wants to see. This is the only way she knows how to change the system.

John’s story about having to wait until Sunday to go to Occupy Medical Clinic for more care for his leg is not an uncommon medical experience among the homeless in Eugene. And it is not the worst Sierralupé or Garrison have seen at Occupy Medical. In late December of 2016, in the same room where John is being treated, a young homeless man rolled around on the ground screaming in pain. The young man, whose name Occupy staff do not have permission to share, was suffering from frostbite.

“He was in so much pain that some of our staff was crying,” Garrison says. “We, at the time, knew he was going to lose his toes and part of his feet. He didn’t [know this].

It’s not a common thing unless you are taking care of the homeless.”

On January 23, 2017, Sierralupé shared this young man’s story at a Eugene City Council public forum. In the winter of 2017, the young homeless man was kicked out of

PHOTO Occupy Medical Manager Sue Sierralupé greets a long-time patient, Cydni McBride. Sierraplupé and McBride exchange lively conversation outside Occupy Medical’s front porch where the mobile herbal unit is housed on a bus. McBride keeps the spirit up around the clinic with her positive and optimistic attitude.

a Riverside camp by Eugene Police in the middle of the night.

After packing his backpack and leaving the campsite, he made it to the bike trail and then started to seize. While seizing on the ground, his poorly tied shoes came off and his feet remained exposed, until he was found the next morning. After he was sent to the hospital, all ten of his toes were amputated. He was given antibiotics and sent back to the streets.

“It took one night to do that,” Sierralupé says.

This March, Occupy Medical will have to relocate, yet again.

With or without a building, Occupy Medical will continue to operate. The volunteer staff is dedicated to their patients and

their fellow community members. Sierralupé and fellow Occupy Medical volunteers say they will continue to fight to make sure their patients receive basic needs of care. Sierralupé points out that the local Eugene community recognizes there is a need to provide basic services and resources to the homeless in Eugene.

It’s because of Eugeneans’ donations that anyone can come to Occupy Medical and not have to pay for the care.

“The idea is we are showing a patient what it’s like to just come in and get care because you need it; not because you can afford it,” Sierralupé says. “It’s a different way to do healthcare.”

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MOVIE REVIEW

| PATERSON

WORDS | PATRICK DUNHAM ILLUSTRATION | ERICK WONDERLY

T

he latest feature from Jim Jarmusch, “Paterson”, is about a man named Paterson who grew up and lives in Paterson, New Jersey.

He is a city bus driver and is played by an actor with the last name of Driver. These strange synchronicities do not stop here: motifs ranging from waterfalls to twins continually emerge throughout the film, and in tonguein-cheek Jarmuschian routine, there are well-known actors cast in momentary roles in a sly nod to the previous characters they played. In this case, it is the post-adolescent Sam and Suzy from “Moonrise Kingdom,” who fleetingly talk of Italian anarchists during Paterson’s shift, but if you look for their credits you will only find “Male Student” and “Female Student.”

In addition to being a bus driver, Paterson is a poet and lives an analog lifestyle in the 21st century: no phone, no computer, no iPad. In no way a self-righteous Luddite dignitary, he never admonishes others for their use of technology, but rather sees the burden of gadgets as unnecessary. He worships the legendary poet, William

“

PATERSON BEAUTIFULLY SHOWS THAT THE CYCLICAL AND SIMPLISITIC DOESN’T HAVE TO CORRESPOND WITH THE DOOM OF MONOTONY, BOREDOM, AND THE PLAUGES THAT A COSTANTLY SEEKING LIFE SUMMONS FORTH.

”

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Carlos Williams, just as the Beats did, and his bookshelf is stocked with Frank O’Hara, Wallace Stevens, Kenneth Koch, and many other mid-century virtuosi of the medium. All of this characterization seems like it would equate to a motormouth who wants to tell every new passenger how great his latest poem is, but Paterson is the very antithesis of this poetic stereotype. Instead of verbally and boisterously wielding his influences on his sleeve, he chooses his wristwatch instead, as it is his only way to ensure that he naturally wakes up around 6:15 every day.

Following in a contemplative poet/civic employee’s routine, it becomes clear that he wakes up, goes to work, has dinner, goes for a walk with his groany English bulldog, Marvin, and stops at the bar for a beer. Although this sounds far from a riveting plotline, there is some variation via his sprightly wife, Laura (Golshifteh Farahani), who is always encouraging him to submit his poems and keep writing. She has the lovely, enthusiastic temperament of Butch’s girlfriend Fabienne from “Pulp Fiction”, always doting on her husband and trying to make him happy with her cheerfulness. On Saturdays, she sells cupcakes at the farmer’s market, and in her free time she learns the guitar and designs the whole house’s aesthetic around her cyclical, monochrome patterns.

As the film’s calm rhythm chugs along, the soft hum of Paterson’s quotidian cycles becomes a welcome rhythm within this narrative structure, which isn’t often seen in contemporary films. The daily banter of his passengers infuses into his constant swirl of being, tinging his steady reflection on the ever-dynamic dance of life. On his surprisingly pleasant walks through the city’s industrial sector, he meets several other poets, not one inhabiting the sneering, fussy aura of pedigree we might have been conditioned to expect of poets. One is a young girl who admires Emily Dickinson and rainfall; another is a Method Man, playing himself, rapping to the hum and drum of washing machines. The third is a kindhearted Japanese man who happens to pull out a translation of a poem collection by WCW which Paterson was reading earlier.

Out of all three influences during Paterson’s short week, the Japanese man near the end of the film shows him the simplicity and importance of constantly experiencing

those a-ha moments perceived as rare and decidedly unbanal. In other words, to look at something seen everyday in a different way, or just to take in the quiet splendor of the constantly shifting world around us. Poetry, or even just a sense of wonder, can be wrought out of the simplest conditions of immediate surroundings, and doesn’t have to be in this haughty, inaccessible form that people feel intimidated by. When Patterson is softly asked by his new friend the thorny question “Are you a poet?”, he respectfully declines without the edge which the question unfortunately bestows.

This is a quiet, simple, and deeply accessible film, and even though it doesn’t have the most bombastic plotline or astounding premise, its form absolutely fits its function.

Scenes where he is driving the bus go by in layered edits that feel like careening thoughts and sights slipping by in the slow progression of his steady life. His relationship with

Laura is another beloved element of the film; despite being complete opposites, they understand each other perfectly, always building the other one up. Poetic homage peppers the film in little moments, as when Paterson odes to Keats (his epitaph reads Here lies One Whose Name was writ in Water) and takes a deep breath after a mishap with his dog Marvin (who won the best dog award at Cannes last year).

This main conflict of the film exemplifies Paterson’s calm attitude and unbreachable pace despite experiencing what would be daunting to even the most seasoned of writers.

“Paterson” beautifully shows that the cyclical and simplistic doesn’t have to correspond with the doom of monotony, boredom, and the plagues that a constantly seeking life summons forth. The film imparts a gentle mantra that we would be wise to consider in this age of tethered digitality and constant, blinding focus on our daily duties and obligations instead of what surrounds us.

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