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THURSDAY, APRIL 5

VOLUME 114, ISSUE 42

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15 VOLUME 115, ISSUE 24 CEDAR FALLS, IA INSIDE THIS ISSUE Graphic design artist tribute 2 Election recounts 3 ‘The Mod Squad’ 5 Wrestling at Grand View Open 6

Cedar Valley gets a ‘Taste of Culture’ LEZIGA BARIKOR/Northern Iowan

LEZIGA BARIKOR Staff Writer

Rod Library was teeming with UNI students, faculty and Cedar Valley community members at the International Students and Scholars Office (ISSO) “Taste of Culture” event on Monday, Nov. 11. “It’s not what I expected at all,” said Alexa Lloyd, a junior leisure, youth and human services major. The event featured tables from around 23 countries according to Isabela Varela, director of ISSO. At each table, students from their respective nations had their

LEZIGA BARIKOR/Northern Iowan

traditional culture on display through food, clothing and various other artifacts. At the Japan table, there was traditional artwork and traditional clothing available to be worn by attendees. “I’m studying international cultures in my country,” said Yuri Murata, an international student from Osaka, Japan in her first semester at UNI. “I want to re-learn Japanese culture myself.” Murata said her favorite items on display were the Japanese artwork. “They’re very beautiful,” Murata said.

Students got a stamp in their “passports” for each country they visited, which gave them a chance to win a prize. They were also able to sample food and performances from different cultures. “I really like whoever put noodles and potatoes together,” said freshman deciding major Riley Elenz, regarding pierogies, a dumpling filled with mashed potatoes originating from Europe.

Event coordinators made an effort to have all the food come from a different continent, according to Varela. They had originally ordered enough food for 300 people, but ran out halfway through the event, which ran from 4 to 6 p.m. As they ate their food, attendees also enjoyed cultural showcases. These included a bagpipes performance as well as a set by UNI’s International

Dance Theatre (IDT) Dance Company covering folk dances from Romania, Mexico, Israel and other countries. In the final hour of the event, there was a ukulele lesson. Students were given ukuleles to practice and soon were playing Top 40 hits together, such as Adele’s “Send My Love (To Your New Lover).”

times all it takes is the spoken word to bring them to life. On Nov. 12 at 7:30 p.m., members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association shared their stories with an audience in Bartlett Hall.

To start the event off, English professor Vince Gotera informed the audience that November had been declared as Speculative Poetry Month. When describing speculative poetry, Gotera stated that it’s not too far from

other forms of poetry with which people may be familiar. “The difference has to do with topic,” Gotera said. “Speculative poetry incorporates magic, science or the supernatural. Actually, though, speculative poetry has been written as long

as poetry has existed. For example, the medieval poem ‘Beowulf ’ that you might have read in high school portrays encounters with monsters and dragons. When people think of ‘Literature’ with a big L, lots of that poetry includes speculative elements. So speculative poetry is not that different from regular poetry; it’s all poetry.” Once Gotera had finished introducing the genre, several guest readers shared their tales of mystery, technology and horror. The featured reader of the night was Bryan Thao Worra, a Lao-American poet and president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association. Wearing steampunk goggles around his neck and a green scarf, Thao Worra approached the podium in order to read his poems and explain what poetry meant to him.

See CULTURE, page 5

Poetry speculates fantasy, myth, science COLBY WEBER Staff Writer

Imagine a world filled with vampires, cyborgs and pufferfish mermaids. While worlds like these are normally stored away in the depths of our imaginations, some-

GABRIELLE LEITNER/Northern Iowan

GABRIELLE LEITNER/Northern Iowan

See POETRY, page 2


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