02/17/14 Issue

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2014

HENDERSON STATE UNIVERSITY

VOLUME 15, ISSUE 21

In The Fold

Student groups bring bachata to campus J. Scott McKinnon Staff Writer

The Garrison Center Ballroom was filled with music, dancing, and fun last Wednesday night as the Henderson League of Latinos and the Henderson Gentlemen’s League hosted Bachata Night.

Following the success of last spring’s Salsa Night, the League of Latinos invited dance instructor Leah Patterson to return and teach Henderson students some new dance moves.

Patterson described the bachata as a simpler version of salsa dancing that is a great introduction to Latin dancing. It is especially inviting because the bachata can be danced to more contemporary R&B music. Erikka Dominguez, president of the Henderson League of Latinos, put it in even simpler terms.

“It’s another way to shake your hips,” she said.

The event was also the first time that the League of Latinos and the Gentlemen’s League had co-sponsored an event together.

“All of the guys were really excited to learn the dance and try it out,” Leroy James, president of the Henderson Gentlemen’s League, said.

Bachata Night also welcomed local high school students to partake in the dancing. Erin Watson, Gurdon High School Spanish teacher, brought her students as a fun and educational activity outside of her classroom. Patterson, who has been teaching and dancing for over 15 years, was glad that the League of Latinos called her to come back for her second event at Henderson.

“Patterson’s dancing has often been described as sophisticated, sharp, precise, imaginative, and even spiritual,” her official website said.

She had been a featured dancer in the dance company Descarga Caribe for several years, and she danced in countries such as Spain, Italy, England, and China. In 2006, she helped Descarga Caribe achieve a top ten world ranking at the 2006 ESPN Salsa World Championships. Patterson eased the students into the bachata. The lesson began by lining the 40 students up in rows, so

Sarah Miller will play Tilly in the student theatre performance “Melancholy” written

by Sarah Ruhl. It will premiere at HSU on Thursday, Feb. 20, in the Arkansas Hall Studio Theatre at 7:30 p.m. The show will replay Saturday at the same time.

DANCE IF YOU WANT TO The League of Latinos and the Gentleman’s League came together to help the community learn the bachata dancing style. they could learn the three basic steps of the dance while watching Patterson and her assistants. After a few stumbles, the room became comfortable with the steps, and dancers paired off. Following a humorous reminder that there were high school students in the room, the pairs learned the final touches to the bachata then spent the next hour putting their new skills to practice to the rhythm of popular music.

As the dancing came to an end, Patterson thanked all of the students for their enthusiasm. She was also pleased that everyone had such a great time and was so willing to get into the dancing.

“I loved seeing so many energetic dancers. It was a great turnout,” Robert Blount, one of Patterson’s regular students and assistants for the evening, said. “Henderson definitely brought a better crowd than when we did an event at UALR.” The participants also enjoyed the evening.

“It was a great learning experience,

and it really brought these two groups together in a fun way,” said DeAndra Jones, sophomore human resources management major.

Ashley “Suzie Que” Bryant, sophomore accounting major, enjoyed the lesson for a more practical reason.

“I really don’t know how to dance, so I was glad to learn some real moves,” she said.

Dominguez, a senior marketing major, said that the League of Latinos’ campus events don’t end with Bachata Night. The date for their main fundraiser, “Tacos 4 Texts,” will be announced soon. “Tacos 4 Texts” raises money for Hispanics in the Clark County area and provides textbooks for them. As a sneak peek for “Tacos 4 Texts,” they will be offering “Taco Tuesday” in a few weeks. They decided to create the event because students were constantly asking League of Latino members when tacos would be available and they wanted to start building excitement for the “Tacos 4 Texts” fundraiser.

Elevators continue to trap students, pose safety risk Kiana Waits Staff Writer

Starting on Feb. 10, Smith Hall elevators became less of reliability. There were multiple incidents reported to maintenance about students being trapped on the elevators. At first, only one elevator worked, but later both of them were out of order. Maintenance workers have made several trips back and forth to Smith Hall to fix them.

This past Saturday they were working on the elevators all day. Afterwards, only one elevator was still active, and students were still advised to take the stairs for safety. With the elevators out of order, using the stairs became a hassle for most residents.

“Since I live on the eighth floor, it’s always a burden for me to take the stairs everyday,” Marissa Jackson junior

Sports

*Photo by Ryan Klare

education major, said. “I don’t leave my room unless I have to.”

On the other hand, other residents find that using the stairs is not a problem to them at all.

“It doesn’t bother me to take the stairs every day,” junior Kaitlin Stubbs, social science major, said.

Later on that week, three ladies got trapped inside the elevator.

“I was on my way down to the laundry room, and all of a sudden the elevator started to shake,” an anonymous freshman mass media major said. “It would shake first and then drop.”

Thankfully, a resident assistant was there and reported it to the hall director and to maintenance. Maintenance workers had to ply the doors open in order for the girls to get out. About thirty minutes later, all three ladies were released.

“I was very nervous when the eleva-

tor dropped, and I didn’t think that I was going to get off anytime soon,” the freshman said.

No one was hurt during this incident. However, anything could have happened.

“I’m glad that I did not get stuck in the elevators, because it would have been an uncomfortable situation for me,” freshman Ayanna Willis, psychology major, said. “Hopefully the elevators will be fixed on Monday. Otherwise, I wouldn’t leave my room except for class.”

The broken elevators can cause many students not to want to leave their rooms for any reason besides class. This could cause a lack in participation, students being late for class, and possibly less attendance.

Maintenance workers are trying their best to fix the problem and hope to have both elevators working soon.

Reddie baseball, which kicked off the beginning of the month, played a home tournament this past weekend against Southeatern Oklahoma.

The Reddies walked away from Clyde Berry Field victorious over the Savage Storm.

>Page 4

Features

The student organization, Gay-Straight Alliance/GAIT, hosted the second annual drag ball in Arkansas Hall. Several men from the community dressed up and paraded across the stage.

>Page 2

Diversions

Student creators of MiSSiLE discuss a self prison and being alone through Shakespeare’s play references.

>Page 3

Find more news and information online at WWW.HSUORACLE.COM Monday

Tuesday

68

61

43

45

Wednesday

68

55

Thursday

72

37

INDEX Features: page 2 | Diversions: page 3 | Sports: page 4

Friday

68

46

Saturday

Sunday

70

64

34

36

FEATURES

PAGE 2 February 17, 2014

Gay-Straight Alliance/GAIT hosts Drag Ball Zach Burnett Staff Writer

What do you get when you combine the sound of heels, the sparkle of rhinestones on a dress, and a fierce attitude?

You get a drag queen.

Arkansas Hall was full of comedy and good times this Saturday while hosting the second annual Drag Ball.

The Drag Ball was sponsored by Henderson’s Gay/Straight Alliance, or GAIT. GAIT hosts the Drag Ball every year on Henderson’s campus to raise awareness of the LGBT culture and promote equality through understanding.

Senior theater major and GAIT president Sarah Miller was in charge of organizing the event.

“The first time we held the Drag Ball, it was such a success,” Miller said. “We got a lot of good feedback from those who came.”

The Drag Ball first stated as a fundraiser, but after receiving such good feedback, GAIT decided to host the event every year.

Last year’s theme was “winter wonderland,” and this year’s theme was “love conquers all.”

Female impersonator Karma Kouture was one of the performers featured at Saturday’s show.

“I love doing drag,” Kouture said.

“It’s always a very fun experience!”

Saturday was the first time that Kouture had performed in Henderson’s Drag Ball.

“The show was a great success,” Kouture said. “All our performers were very dedicated and made every song count!”

Kouture, who lives and performs in Hot Springs, was joined by drag

*Photo by Jeff Gilmore

DUDE LOOKS LIKE A LADY Diamond Rose took the stage during the second annual Drag Show, held in Arkansas Hall. queens and drag kings from all over the state.

Some of the featured performers were Diamond Rose, Gigi Galore, Gino Murano, Joshua Micheals, and Melody Braxton-Galore.

These men and women worked the stage with fierce attitudes and devilish humor that can only found in a drag performer.

“Everyone was really entertained,” Haden Ainsworth, sales associate, said. “It’s good to see people

Tuba show inspires students Kenison Holmes Staff Writer

Students waited in the hallways of the Russell Fine Arts Center as the sound of a lone tuba billowed through the closed doors of the Harwood Recital Hall on Wednesday night. The excitement of the soon-to-start performance by “Sotto Voce,” a tuba quartet, was growing.

The quartet consists of four visiting music instructors from colleges in Wis. and Maine. Their names are Mike Forbes, Nat McIntosh, Mark Carlson and Demondrae Thurman.

They visit other colleges and hold master classes where music students perform and are critiqued.

Many of the students in the audience took part in a master class.

“It was inspirational. They gave us a different perspective of music we had never seen before,” Aaron Schaefer, a junior music education, said before the start of the performance.

“Sotto Voce” is a tuba quartet, but only one tuba is played during the music sets. A tuba is a large brass horn.

“The tuba is often used as a base but is capable of playing a beautiful melody as an instrument,” Dr. Jamie Lipton, assistant professor of low brass, said.

In the first half of the performance, the tuba was accompanied by three euphoniums, another brass horn that resembles the tuba but slightly smaller. The selections played were some of the quartet’s own pieces, composed by Forbes.

They also played some popular tunes composed by other artists.

The music was loud in the tiny recital hall, and the exertion of playing the large horns was evident. Often, the audience could catch the sound of the musicians taking deep breaths, and in between songs, the musicians would wipe the sweat from their foreheads. After each piece, a member of the quartet would stand up and quickly announce the next song

and give a little background about its inspiration or origin.

The second half of the performance followed an intermission, and during the break, students anticipated what would come next.

Carlson had promised that the second half was going to be very different.

The quartet came out for the second half and played a short song.

Then, Thurman stood up and announced that it was “time to put on your club hats.”

What followed was a song composed by John Stevens named “Diversions.” It was a combination of blues, jazz, salsa and rock.

Next, three of the quartet members left the stage, leaving Forbes alone with his tuba. He started playing a solo.

Then, the sound of a trombone could be heard from the back of the stage behind the curtains. The other three members paraded back out on stage all playing trombones.

The quartet was playing a song called “St. James Infirmary,” a blues song of a deep and soulful rhythm, composed by Joe Primrose. It was a song that might bring a vision of a band playing in an old blues club from the 1930s.

The quartet ended with “Ars Moriendi” (The Art of Dying), a song filled with the sounds of thumping on their instruments and vocal mixing. It was a fusion of all the extremes that could be performed with the three euphoniums and tuba.

At the end of the performance, the tuba quartet was given a standing ovation with shouts and whistles from the audience. Forbes thanked Henderson for the invitation to visit and announced the quartet’s plan to visit Norway on tour in the near future.

Many of the students were impressed with the performance.

“After hearing everything they said in the master class and now seeing it in practical application really brings it all together,” Tyler Kelly, a junior music education major, said.

experiencing drag for the first time and having so much fun with it.”

Among those who were seeing a drag performance for the first time was freshman education major Justin Beaty.

“I had always wanted to see a drag show, but never got the chance too,” Beaty said. “When I saw the flyer on campus I got really excited.”

Beaty got a front row seat and got to experience the queens and kings up close.

“I had such a good time seeing the performers,” Beaty said. “I will definitely be coming back next year to see the show again.”

After the first round of professional performers, the contest portion of the night, “So You Think You can Drag,” kicked off.

There was only one contestant, but that didn’t stop the show. The constant performed to one song and was judged by an “all-star panel” of judges.

These judges were female impersonator Gigi Galore, sales associate Haden Ainsworth, and professor of theater arts William Henshaw.

After the performance, the judges gave their critiques and opinions.

The contestant won a prize for her efforts.

Female impersonator Diamond Rose told several jokes in the second portion of the show.

The room grew louder and louder with every joke Rose told.

“The jokes were absolutely hilarious,” server Jackie May said. “There weren’t many people, but it sounded like there were.”

Female impersonator Melody Braxton-Galore presented the final performance. Galore performed to the song “Beautiful” by musical artist Christina Aguilera.

As she performed, Galore took off her wig, jewelry, and eyelashes and began to write hurtful words on her arms.

“The performance made me cry,” Ainsworth said. “It was a very powerful message about not letting words get you down and to love yourself.”

Henderson’s second Drag Ball was full of laughter and even tears.

Though the message was clear: love conquers all.

SUDOKU

DIVERSIONS

PAGE 3 February 17, 2014

SPORTS

PAGE 4 February 17, 2014

Reddies sweep the Savage Storm in two games Troy Mitchell Sports Information

Tadarious Hawkins’ sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 11th inning lifted Henderson State to a 5-4 win over Southeastern Oklahoma and sparked a double-header sweep of the Savage Storm on Saturday in Arkadelphia, Ark. The Reddies followed with an 8-1 win over the Savage Storm to win the series.

The win snapped a seven-game losing skid for Henderson State as the Reddies improved to 2-7 overall and 2-1 in the Great American Conference.

Trailing 4-1 in the bottom of the ninth inning of game one, the Reddies put together a three-run rally that started off when Andy Kovarik was hit by a Mathew Benedict pitch.

Ashton Roberts then reached on error to put runners on first and sec*Photo by Jeff GIlmore ond with no outs.

TAKING THE WIN Third baseman, Will Powel, slides in to get a Southeastern Oklahoma player out in After Benedict struck out Hawkins the game against the Savage Storm. The Reddies won 5-4 to Southeastern Oklahoma after trailing 4-1 in and forced Carlos Rodriguez to fly the bottom of the ninth inning but came back to take the win. out to left field, Joseph Gary doubled down the left field line to score the Luke Tebbetts pitched the final loaded the base before Andrew Reyn- over the left field fence to make the first run of the inning. two innings for Henderson State to olds smashed a single up the middle score 7-1.

Lee Richardson then tied the game pick up his first win of his college ca- to score two more runs and increase Colton Lorance picked up his first with a two-run single to right field. reer. the Henderson State lead to 4-0. win of the season as the junior leftIn the Reddie 11th, Luke McGuire In the final game of the series, After SOSU scored a run in the hander pitched six innings, scattering led off the inning with a single to cen- Henderson State scored two runs in top of the fourth, the Reddies an- six hits and striking out three batters. ter field and advanced to second on a the first and third innings to build a swered with three runs in the bottom Gary had a huge day offensively balk by Nick Johnson.

4-0 lead. half as Gary reached on an infield sin- for the Reddies as the junior from Johnson then delivered a wild Singles by Evans and Hawkins set gle to advance Hawkins to third after Rowlett, Texas had five hits with a pitch that advanced McGuire to third. the stage for Gary in the first inning he led off the inning with a walk and pair of doubles and three RBI. Hawkins provided the Reddies as he blasted his second double of the a stolen base.

Henderson State will next travel with what they needed when he hit a afternoon to plate a pair of runs and Hawkins scored on a ground out to Russellville for a non-conference line drive to left field that was deep put Henderson on top 2-0.

by Ashton Roberts before Carlos Ro- game against Arkansas Tech on Tuesenough to score McGuire with the In the third frame, the Reddies driguez blasted a two-run home run day with the first pitch set for 6 p.m. game-winning run.

Reddies sign 60 recruits on signing day, 30 from Texas Hunter Lively Staff Writer

After an 11-1 regular season and perfect 10-0 conference record in 2013, the Reddie football team is looking for continued success next season.

One of the most important parts in establishing a powerhouse football team is recruiting.

Scott Maxfield, head coach, and his staff know this and have hit the recruiting road hard the last two seasons. Feb. 5 was National Signing Day across the nation, and the Reddies inked 60 incoming recruits. Thirty players signed from Texas, a state that has produced Reddie stars such as Kevin Rodgers, Darius Davis and

Keaton Stigger. Arkansas saw 12 players sign with Henderson, and Louisiana saw seven.

Two of the biggest holes that needed to be filled were on the offensive line and at the linebacker positions. Offensively, the Reddies had one of the most prolific scoring offenses in all of college football last season, and the offensive line was a major part of that success.

Four seniors anchored that line including All-American center Kelton Hays who started for the last two seasons. Filling that void is going to be a challenge for the Reddies next season, but Maxfield is confident in his staff.

“We wanted to sign eight to ten offensive linemen,” Maxfield said. “We feel like we restocked there and got

some bigger guys that can be really good players for us.”

Notable signees include John Guerra, a 6-foot-4-inch, 300-pound transfer from Texas Tech, and Tucker Cross, a 6-foot-3-inch, 315-pound lineman from Mobile, Ala. On the defense, linebacker was a key position that had to be addressed in this year’s recruiting class due to the departure of All-American senior Keaton Stigger and starter Ricardo Mendez.

“We brought in several linebackers and I feel we did a great job signing some very talented players that will have an immediate impact,” Maxfield said.

Maxfield was also pleased that he and his staff were able to sign a hand-

ful of players from the Florida area.

Kendrick Calixte, a 5-foot-11inch, 174-pound defensive back from St. Cloud, Fla., and Richard Darius, a 6-foot-1-inch, 190-pound athlete from Plantation, Fla., are two of those players.

“This has been one of the greatest days of my life,” Justin Peters, a safety from Rockwall, Texas, tweeted after signing his national letter of intent.

There’s no question that Henderson has become a hot spot for in-state and out-of-state talent.

The question is, can this team build on last year’s success and fight for a national championship next season?

Stay tuned and find out, Reddie Nation.

Lady Reddies couldn’t bridge gap against Tech Troy Mitchell Sports Information

Henderson State’s second-half rally fell short as the Lady Reddies lost to Arkansas Tech 91-85 on Saturday in Russellville, Ark. The Lady Reddies, 12-10 overall and 8-8 in the Great American Conference, trailed by as many as 18 points midway through the second half but rallied to tie the score 84-84 with 1:28 remaining.

In the first half, Henderson State had a 26-23 lead with 10:07 to play, but the Lady Reddies struggled over the remainder of the half making just three field goals.

The Golden Suns, 12-9 overall and 8-7 in the GAC, finished the half on a 22-9 run to go into the locker room with a 45-35 lead.

In the second half, Arkansas Tech pushed its lead to 66-48 with 12:03 to play, but the Lady Reddies got a spark from Krystal Beachum as Henderson State rallied to cut the deficit to 70-62 with 7:45 to play.

Beachum scored 10 points during the run before fouling out with 4:22 to play in the game. Despite playing without Beachum, Henderson State was able to tie the game at 84-84 with 1:28 to play as Dulincia Keener split a pair of free throws.

However the Golden Suns were

able to regain the lead when Anissa Pounds hit a huge three-pointer and then converted a three-point play with 37 seconds left that gave them a 90-85 lead. Henderson State would not recover and the Lady Reddies would lose their fifth straight game.

Beachum led the Lady Reddies with 24 points going 9-for-9 from the field while Vanessa Pieper scored 17 points including five three-point field goals.

A total of five Lady Reddies scored in double figures with Jasmine Settles and Aungelique Sledge having 15 points each. Keener finished with 11 points and a team-best seven rebounds.

The Lady Reddies finished the game shooting 42 percent from the field making 27-of-64 attempts. ATU was 31-of-54 for 57 percent shooting including 8-of-15 from three-point range.

Arkansas Tech held a 42-26 advantage in points in the paint, and a 24-3 advantage in bench points. The Golden Suns also had a 40-35 rebounding advantage. Arkansas Tech’s Anissa Pounds scored 24 points, going 5-of9 from long range, while Caroline Eubanks turned in a 21-point effort.

Henderson State will next play host to Southwestern Oklahoma, Thursday at the Duke Wells Center with tipoff set for 5:30 p.m.

*Photo by Christine Moore

PUSH IT Lady Reddie Dulincia Keener, a guard from Texarkana, Ark., runs the ball down the court to score. The Lady Reddies lost to Arkansas Tech but not without a fight. Keener was able to tie the game up with a pair of free throws but it did not stop the Golden Suns.