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Thursday, October 30, 2014
Northern Star
815-753-5606 H @NIUNorthernStar H NorthernStar.info/Opinion
Perspective
Some costumes shouldn’t be sexualized
Campus Life Building, Room 130 545 Lucinda Ave. DeKalb, Ill., 60115 Web: www.NorthernStar.info Fax: 815-753-0708 Editorial Board Editorials reflect the majority opinion of the Editorial Board; columns reflect the opinion of the author alone. Editor in Chief & Publisher: Kelly Bauer Editor@NorthernStar.info 815-753-0105 Campus Editor: Jackie Nevarez Editor@NorthernStar.info 815-753-9643 City Editor: Rachel Scaman Editor@NorthernStar.info 815-753-9644 Day Editor: Keith Hernandez Editor@NorthernStar.info 815-753-9637 Sports Editor: Frank Gogola Sports@NorthernStar.info 815-753-9637 Scene Editor: Kevin Bartelt Editor@NorthernStar.info 815-753-5606 Perspective Editor: Carl Nadig Editor@NorthernStar.info 815-753-9637
Chelsea Ortiz | Northern Star
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DeKalb writers discuss their plans for National Novel Writing Month during a kickoff party Oct. 28, 2012. Participants challenge themselves to complete a 50,000-word novel before Dec. 1.
Nick Smith | Northern Star File Photo
Lauren Manfrin, of Esmond, performs for the first time in front of people Oct. 20 at Open Mic Night at The House Cafe, 263 E. Lincoln Highway. She performed a variety of folk music covers.
See what’s a pass and what’s a fail as judged by Perspective Editor Carl Nadig.
Pass
Fail
Novel writing month kicks off Saturday
Cafes host open mic night simultaneously
Creative minds can participate in a global writing marathon beginning Saturday and lasting until the end of November. National Novel Writing Month is a drawn-out project as participants write a 50,000-word novel before Dec. 1. The project provides resources for tracking the draft’s word count and offers discussion forums on social media where writers share tips for helping others finish their work before the deadline.
There shouldn’t be multiple open mic nights on the same evenings in DeKalb. Mondays, The House Cafe and The College Grind host their open mic nights and force musicians to choose one venue over the other. If the cafes want to increase the number of performers then the businesses should hold their events on separate days, providing musicians more opportunities to share their music with various populations around DeKalb.
National Novel Writing Month is a great time to take a creative spin on improving practical skills like time management. Even if students aren’t comfortable sharing their novels, the creative project is a challenging task. Out of the 138 DeKalb writers registered for the event in 2013, the average number of words written per novelist was 28,343, according to National Novel Writing Month’s website, NaNoWriMo.org.
The Northern Star is hiring columnists, reporters and sports writers. • All work is paid. • All majors may apply. • You can work at the Northern Star as an internship for class credit.
Each cafe caters to a different population: The House Cafe caters more to the people living in the city, while The College Grind caters to students. Each cafe should provide musicians the opportunity to showcase their talents to both groups. Instead of thinking of the businesses as competing for patrons, the cafes should advertise each other’s open mic nights and build a communiversity by supporting each other.