TECHNICIAN
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xcvi cxvii issue
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IN BRIEF Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon Brings Thousands to Raleigh
In its third year, the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon has turned into an annual weekend event in Raleigh, drawing 7,700 runners this year. The run, which includes a 5k on Saturday and a marathon and half-marathon on Sunday, drew runners from all 50 states and eight different countries. Roads from Fayetteville Street in downtown to Centennial Campus were closed for the event. Raleigh saw an estimated $8.5 million in direct visitor spending and rented out more than 11,000 hotel rooms. Source: The News & Observer
Willett wins Master’s after Speith’s Collapse
Hessa Al Maghlouth Correspondent
Ashleigh Polisky Correspondent
A dozen NC State students protested House Bill 2 Friday in front of a bathroom on the third f loor of Talley Student Union. This event was a sitin, one of many protests organized by students across North Carolina universities in response to HB2, which was signed into law on March 23. Students across the UNC System chose central, highly trafficked bathrooms to show their solidarity with the transgender community and bring attention to their opposition
of HB2. News stations and papers from across the state covered the event, such as ABC 11 and WNCN. Lea h Block, a f reshma n studying business administration who participated in the sit-in, said protests can accomplish many important advancements for this issue, such as starting a conversation and providing visibility for the LGBT community. “Sit-ins are great for creating momentum, so if other [schools] see that we’re doing this, it will be more likely for them to join the movement and mobilize,” Block said. “I think a lot of people have
Saturday, high winds kept a flight from landing at the RaleighDurham International Airport. Although scheduled to land at 10:47, the plane flying from Dallas-Fort Worth did not land until around 1 p.m. A cold front in the Triangle caused the high winds, which knocked down trees throughout southeast Raleigh. Roughly 700 Duke Energy customers experienced power outages as a result. Source: WRAL
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Raleigh, North Carolina
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KAYDEE GAWLIK/TECHNICIAN
Leah Block, a freshman studying exploratory studies, is interviewed by News 14 Carolina and several other local news stations during a bathroom sit-in in Talley Student Union Friday. The bathroom sit-in was in protest of the recently passed House Bill 2, which opponents say discriminates against transgender people by mandating that they use the bathroom that matches the sex listed on their birth certificate.
Businesses and musicians threaten NC over HB2 Staff Report
Duke sit-in ends after a week
Wind delays airplane landing
11
12 protest HB2 with bathroom sit-in
In a shocking turn of events Sunday, Danny Willett became the first Englishman to win the Master’s since 1996. Jordan Speith, who was trying for a fourth backto-back win, was five shots ahead on the 10th tee and three shots behind when he walked to the 13th tee. Willett hit it home with a shot into the 14th to about 4 feet and a tee shot on the par-3 16th to 7 feet for a birdie that stretched his lead, clenching the title. Source: ESPN
After seven days of occupying the Allen Building at Duke University, the Duke Students and Workers in Solidarity protesters voluntarily emerged from the building on Friday citing the administration’s “obstinance” and threats to revoke amnesty, according to the protesters’ press release. The sit-in began last Friday to protest the systemic discrimination on campus, in particular an incident where a top-level administrator hit a parking attendant and allegedly yelled a racial slur at her. The DSWS plans to maintain its tent camp outside the Allen Building called “Abele-ville” and “continue to fight for the fulfillment of demands.” Source: ABC 11
monday april
BEN SALAMA/TECHNICIAN
IHOP operates smoothly on its first day in the new location at Stanhope Student Apartments on Hillsborough Street on Sunday, after the IHOP located just 1.5 miles down the road closed Saturday.
Goodbye and hello, Hillsborough IHOP Hessa Al Maghlouth Correspondent
The IHOP location at 1313 Hillsborough St. closed its doors for a final time Saturday. The 24-hour restaurant moved to its new location on the corner of Hillsborough Street and Dixie Trail, under Stanhope Student Apartments. This renovation is one of many taking place on Hillsborough as more businesses on the street are modernizing. Since it first opened in 1968, the old IHOP, with its classic blue roof and A-frame style, has served NC State students and families for almost 48 years.
Many of them paid the restaurant a final visit on its last days to say goodbye. Customers shared their nostalgia and memories as they waited for their tables. Mary Allen Mashburn and her husband of 11 years, Ross Stit, had a special reason for saying their goodbyes to the restaurant. “We have been together for 11 years, and when we first started dating we went to the Long Branch dancing, and we came here afterwards at midnight or whatever and ate,” Mashburn said. “So, we started coming here every
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New repercussions may result from House Bill 2 as more businesses express disagreement with the law. HB2 was passed March 23 and has been criticized as discriminatory against the LGBT community. More than 100 business leaders and CEOs, including those of Starbucks, Bank of America, Facebook and Apple, have publicly denounced the law, signing their names to a letter sent to Gov. Pat McCrory in hopes that the legislation will be repealed, according to a Human Rights Campaign press release. The HRC and Equality NC teamed up to help write the letter, hoping that business leaders would sign it, proving to North Carolina that this bill is against what many companies believe in. “Discr i mi nat ion is bad for North Carolina, bad for America and bad for business,” said Chad Grif f in, president of the HRC, in its press release. The HRC is a national civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality.
“Discrimination is wrong, and we believe it has no place in North Carolina or anywhere in our country,” the letter read. “The business community, by and large, has consistently communicated to lawmakers at every level that such laws are bad for our employees and bad for business.” In addition to the many companies and organizations voicing their disagreement with the recent state law, a few celebrities have joined the cause, some of whom are boycotting the state entirely. Music icon Bruce Springsteen canceled his show in Greensboro that was scheduled for Sunday, citing HB2 as his reason. According to The News & Obser ver, Spr i ngsteen announced to his fans via Facebook that he was canceling the event and expressed his support for the advocacy groups fighting for the repeal of the law. “Some things are more important than a rock show,” Springsteen said in the Facebook message. “And this fight
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Pulitzer prize winner judges, recites poetry Ravi K. Chittilla Contributor
FEATURES A lost tape and finding the poetry in MLK’s speeches See page 5.
SPORTS Offense shines in spring game See page 8.
Yusef Komunyakaa, the 1994 Pulitzer Prize Winner of Poetry, visited NC State to deliver a poetry reading Thursday evening in the Withers Lecture Hall. More than 100 people gathered in the auditorium to listen to Komunyakaa’s performance, which was the culmination of the annual NC State Poetry Contest. Komunyakaa served as this year’s celebrity judge and read through the more than 600 submissions to the contest. Komunyakaa read from among a dozen of his own works, which covered topics ranging from civil
rights, black experience, as well as his own experiences during the Vietnam War, where he served as a reporter with a U.S. military publication, the Southern Cross. He received a Bronze Star for these efforts. After reading from a selection of his works, Komunyakaa was asked about how his poetry could be interpreted with regard to the current political landscape and global events, to which he responded by reading another one of his poems, “Envoy to Palestine.” For Maria Rouphail, a senior lecturer who teaches in the English department, this poem was one of the most powerful and memorable moments of the night. “Komunyakaa makes vivid the
interconnections across time and space among the histories of oppression, exile, servitude and occupation to which poetry can and ought to give voice,” Rouphail said in an email. “Whether in Ramallah, or in the Middle Passage or on the Great Plains, the poet is present with his acute eye, his powerful picture-making words and his conscience.” While Komunyakaa did open up for more questions, members of the audience seemed to be wrestling with their own emotions from the psychological and spiritual weight cast onto them by Komunyakaa through his readings. Threa A lmontaser, a senior study ing creative w riting and winner of the 2016 undergradu-
COURTESY OF DAVID SHANKBONE
Yusef Komunyakaa, the 1994 Pulitzer Prize Winner of Poetry
ate poetry prize, said that listening to Komunyakaa caused her to revisit certain sights and experiences, calling him an especially
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