2-20-20

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THURSDAY, APRIL 5

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20

VOLUME 114, ISSUE 42

VOLUME 116, ISSUE 37

DEBATE

FILM REVIEW

SOFTBALL

Opinion PAGE 2

CAMPUS LIFE PAGE 5

SPORTS PAGE 6

Elle and Rachel talk platform, take questions.

Film Critic Hunter Friesen reviews “Sonic the Hedgehog.”

The Panthers go 1-4 in Hillenbrand Invitational.

‘Black and Educated’ calls for change ELIZABETH KELSEY News Editor

At 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 18, Black Student Union (BSU) hosted a “Black and Educated” panel in the Maucker Union Ballroom. Five UNI faculty of color shared their educational journeys and answered audience questions about the struggles of being a Black educator, calling for change and concrete action both at UNI and throughout the entire field of academia. Panelists included Ieshia Brown, academic advisor for Student Support Services; Dr. Mickye Johnson, director of the Upward Bound program; Dr. Irenea Walker, assistant professor of elementary education, Dr. Shuaib Meacham, associate professor of literacy, and Dr. Robert Welch, director of academic advising in the College of Education. After each panelist introduced himself or herself, the

floor was opened to audience questions. Shannon Jones, a senior choral music education major, asked panelists about a challenge they had faced as Black educators and how they had navigated that challenge. Panelists mentioned the struggle of overcoming stereotypes and preconceived notions about their race. “One of the roadblocks for me has been being a Black man — being a 6’6’’ black man,” said Welch. “I can walk into a room and be the most knowledgeable person in the room, [but] nobody sees that. They see my size, they see my stature and they hear my voice. The word I hear a lot is ‘intimidation.’ I intimidate white people. Why? I don’t know. I’ve had to learn how to circumvent that.” Walker said that in her role as an elementary teacher, she had to work to convince parents of her

TONI FORTMANN/Northern Iowan

qualifications for the job. “One of the challenges that I encountered as a new teacher was […] my white parents not taking me seriously, [not] understanding that I was placed in this position, I am competent and I can teach your child,” she said.

Brown and Johnson addressed the challenge of not only convincing others to believe in Black teachers and students, but also convincing the Black students themselves of their own potential. “I limited myself,” Brown said. “I didn’t apply for things that I could’ve. Don’t settle

for less; push and pursue.” “The hardest thing is to get somebody that don’t believe that they’re intelligent, don’t believe that they can achieve, to believe that and then to achieve it,” Johnson added.

“My emphasis on the festival has always been on education,” said UNI Director of Jazz Studies Christopher Merz. “While it is judged and points are awarded, one of the innovations that I brought in, maybe about 12 or 14 years ago, was to ramp up the educational opportunities. Each band, in addition to the performance slot, goes off into a room with a professional jazz musician who has heard their set. That person works with the band for 25 minutes, so they get a full-length clinic as well as the written and recorded comments from the panel of judges.” For the songs that the high school bands play, it is expected that they do one song in the traditional swing rhythm style. Besides that, the bands are free to choose whatever repertoire they would like. Even with this creative freedom, Merz has noticed a pattern among the performances.

After they play a swing tune, the bands will usually play something slow followed by a Latin tune. However, Merz said he enjoys it when their performances are taken in a different direction. To add variety to each year’s festival, a guest artist is brought in to perform and teach the students more about jazz music performance. This year’s artist is Myra Melford. “Every year we bring a guest,” said Merz. “Things were different long ago so I can’t really speak to that, I’ve only been here 20 years. The guest artist provides a clinic workshop for the students and an evening concert where that person solos with Jazz Band One. I have tried to get people who are composers, people who will play their own music. Myra teaches at U.C. Berkeley and she has won a Guggenheim Fellowship which is kind of a big deal. I first encoun-

tered her music on a recording, she has a band called ‘Be Bread.’ I was so taken by her compositions that I listened to her album ‘The Image of Your Body’ for like, a month.” For his role in the show, Merz works as a faculty advisor with the fraternity that puts on the show, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia. He picks the guest artist for the show and takes input from students. In addition to problem solving, he considers one of his biggest responsibilities to be institutional memory. This means that he provides continuity and historical background from one festival to the next, which allows them to tweak the system. Senior composition major Isaac Smith is managing the show and Merz expressed gratitude for his contribution to it.

See BAE PANEL, page 2

UNI to host Tallcorn Jazz Festival COLBY WEBER Staff Writer

Between Thursday, Feb. 20 and Friday, Feb. 21, over 60 jazz bands will be competing for points to earn a spot within the Iowa Jazz Championships during the 65th Tallcorn Jazz Festival, which is put on by the local Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia chapter. NI Archives

The Tallcorn Jazz Festival consists of two parts. There is a competition between the high school bands and there are concerts from UNI Jazz Bands One and Two titled “Sinfonian Dimensions in Jazz.” Each jazz band in the high school area consists of 17-25 players. From there, the competitors are further broken up into school divisions.

See TALLCORN, page 5


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