The Argosy, March 9, Vol. 146, Iss. 17

THE ARG OSY

NEWS

ARTS & CULTURE

SPORTS

OPINIONS

Students organize feminist conference (Pg. 2)

PERFform duo visits T&L (Pg. 12)

Mt. A hosts basketball championships (Pg. 7)

Students share reflections on the MASU (Pg. 14)

Demanding a bookstore café in Sackville since 1872

Mount Allison’s Independent Student Newspaper

COVER: LOUIS SOBOL, HAND OF GOD, 2017.

March 9, 2017 Vol. 146, Iss. 17

02 NEWS Students organize third annual Feminist Leadership conference

EDITORS: CATHERINE TURNBULL & NAOMI GOLDBERG | MARCH 9, 2017 | ARGOSY@MTA.CA

FEMINISM

First-year students make up more than 40 per cent of participants

CATHERINE TURNBULL & NAOMI GOLDBERG News Editors The Feminist Leadership conference, which took place on March 3 and 4, offered space for members of the Mount Allison community to explore and cultivate conceptions of feminism.

Formerly the Women in Leadership conference, the organizers rebranded the annual event in an attempt to create a more inclusive understanding of feminism.

“To move away from how corporate-focused [the conference] was two years ago, we needed something to change,” Meghan McCracken, a conference coorganizer, said. “We don’t want women to fit into the current structure, we want the structure to change.”

Maggie McGraw, another organizer, said she thought the name change reached out to people who would not have attended the conference otherwise.

“A lot of responsibility comes with attaching the word “feminist” to the conference,” McCracken said. “When we were looking at who we are bringing in for speakers, we wanted people to be represented and have their voices heard. It’s not always easy within the Mt. A community to do that because a lot of the people who were here were white women, and

we wanted to be hearing about the experiences of marginalized people.”

Rania El Mugammar, an antioppression consultant, opened the conference on Friday night by talking about the basics of anti-oppression as well as her personal experience as a Canadian-Sudanese woman of colour “growing up in the hood” outside of Toronto.

According to El Mugammar, antioppression “teaches us that privilege and oppression are two sides of the same coin.” She said that we tend to think of anti-oppression as “this big academic thing,” but that “it doesn’t have to look like that.”

While she has an academic background, El Mugammar said her lived experiences have been most useful to her work in the field of antioppression. “The reality is, a lot of the knowledge that I know I got from my trans women friends, I got from my sex worker friends, I got from my aunties in their kitchen, I got from the people in my community.”

Her presentation outlined the principles of intersectionality, positionality and allyship. Before beginning, El Mugammar told the audience that her goal was to make them uncomfortable.

“I am here as an agitator, an instigator to make you uncomfortable, to hopefully challenge you, to inspire you, to stretch your capacity for empathy just a little bit,” she said. “I will be successful if I manage to do

STUDENTS PARTICIPATE IN MENTAL HEALTH PANEL EMILIE GATCHELL/SUBMITTED

that.”

One student’s response suggested that El Mugammar accomplished her goal.

“I felt kind of drowning in the information, there was so much,” Everett Patterson, a first-year student, said. “I was kind of writing tidbits down, but I felt overwhelmed by that.

I think that’s a good thing.”

On Saturday, after opening remarks from Mt. A Indigenous Affairs coordinator Lorise Simon and professors Leslie Kern and Tasia Alexopoulos, participants were divided into two groups to take part in workshops.

The first workshop was led by Kaleigh Trace, a sex educator and writer.

Trace said she first became exposed to feminism when she moved to Halifax from rural Ontario to attend Dalhousie University. Trace later began working at Venus Envy, a sex shop and bookstore in Halifax, after looking for a job at a bookstore.

“It’s impossible to spend 30 hours a week for eight years talking to people about sex without really thinking a lot about how sex informs our bodies and our identities and without becoming a feminist,” Trace said.

Trace organized two activities.

First, she asked participants to think of and write down a word that they wanted to embody. She suggested that this word could act to reclaim something that had been ascribed to

participants.

Next, she offered a set of prompting images and asked participants to write down a short story. The stories were placed into a bag and participants could draw, at random, to read aloud someone else’s story. Participants discussed the different ways in which sex and story have manifested in their lives.

The second workshop was led by Nikita Moriarity, a Mt. A graduate.

Moriarity is currently the executive director at Chimo Helpline, a suicide helpline that covers New Brunswick and parts of Quebec.

Moriarity discussed her personal experiences since leaving Mt. A. She recalled feeling pressured to apply to graduate school, finding jobs in numerous fields related to social work and finally discovering her passion for mental health work.

Moriarity told participants that “it was important to be passionate about what [they] do” and that they should try out all of the opportunities they were offered, “even though they may make you uncomfortable.”

Audience engagement was not a part of this workshop.

Students also attended a panel discussion on mental health, followed by a breakout discussion. To end the conference, participants took part in a “feminist patch-making workshop,” in which they were provided with felt, needles and thread as well as simple designs they could choose to follow.

One first-year student said her appreciation for the feminist community at Mt. A grew during the conference. “I didn’t realize how big [the feminist community] was at Mount Allison,” she said.

“I think any time you put a lot of strong-minded women in the same room, you’re going to learn something,” Shaelyn Sampson, a fourth-year student, said. “I think this was a huge opportunity for people to learn from each other and learn from experts.”

Over 40 per cent of attendees were in their first year at Mt. A. Two Tantramar middle school students also attended the conference after winning their science fair with a project on feminism.

“I feel like every year we learn from this conference,” McCracken said.

McCracken and other organizers said they were happy with the implementation of a quiet room – which participants were told they could use at any point during the day, and that was equipped with tissues, paper and markers – and having people present with mental health first-aid training.

“This is the third year of the conference, and every year it has been a completely new exec[utive],” Tierra Stokes, a conference co-organizer, said. “Every year it gets to partially reinvent itself.”

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KEYNOTE SPEAKER SAYS HER MOTTO IS “COLD HEART, WARM PUSSY” EMILIE GATCHELL/SUBMITTED

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COMMUNITY

03

Intergenerational women’s circle inspires conversation, action

First-year students compose more than 40 per cent of participants Compiled by WILL BALSER News Reporter 2017-18 NB BUDGET 2017-18 INCREASES POST-SECONDARY FUNDING The provincial government recently announced that spending on postsecondary education will increase by $7 million in the 2017-18 academic year.

Several changes will also be made to the Student Employment Experience Development (SEED) program. Following suggestions by the New Brunswick Student Alliance (NBSA), SEED now has an earlier application start-date (December), will acquire an additional 400 positions and will focus on increasing awareness of the program. 1,600 applicants will be accepted into the program this year, primarily working in tourism and libraries. In a CBC interview, NBSA Executive Director Robert Burroughs said that the tuition grants will likely be made available through a sliding-scale, rather than a rigid, income-based boundary. This would allow a more individualized assessment of funding applicants and hopefully increase the number of funding recipients.

HALIFAX TAXI DRIVER FOUND NOT GUILTY OF SEXUAL ASSAULT Following a ruling on March 1, a Nova Scotian judge found Bassam Al-Rawi, a Halifax taxi driver, not guilty of assaulting a woman in his cab in May 2015, when a police officer had found the woman unconscious and intoxicated in the back of Al-Rawi’s cab. Al-Rawi had his pants down and was holding the complainant’s pants and underwear. According to Judge Gregory E. Lenehan, it is specified under Canadian law that someone “who is unconscious or is so intoxicated … as to be incapable of understanding or perceiving the situation that presents itself” is not able to provide consent. “This does not mean, however, that an intoxicated person cannot give consent to sexual activity,” Lenehan added.

“Clearly, a drunk can consent.” On March 7, Nova Scotia’s Public Prosecution Service announced that it is appealing the decision.

COAL MINE OPENS IN CAPE BRETON More than 15 years after the closing of the Prince Colliery mine in Point Aconi, N.S., coal is once again being mined as of Feb. 28 in Cape Breton, now at the Donkin Mine. With a projected 500,000 tonnes of coal to be mined within the first year of production and an expanding workforce of 64, the mine is expected to facilitate significant economic development in the region. However, the investment in continuing the extraction of coal may prove counterproductive toward the provincial goal of a coal power phase-out by 2042.

JILL MACINTYRE News Reporter On Monday night at the Sackville Commons, women and people of all genders gathered to discuss womanhood and its impact on mental health. Organized by Julia Feltham, executive director of the Sackville Commons, the conversation circle sought to provide a supportive space for women to discuss their personal experiences and guidance on how to use our passions in actions.

Roughly 20 people were in attendance, most of whom identified as women, and every age, from toddlers to retired Sackville residents, was represented.

Elizabeth Copeland, a writer and mature student at Mount Allison, attended the event.

“I think we have to get together, get out of our little echo chambers, and come together with all of our differences, fears and hopes,” Copeland said.

Copeland, who moved to Sackville in July, said it was an important event to form an intergenerational sense of community in the town.

The conversation circle covered a variety of topics, from the socialization of young girls to the difficulties women face in taking on leadership roles.

Motherhood was a central topic of discussion for the many mothers who attended the event, including the value and necessity of raising feminist children, how to talk to daughters about sexism and finding value in motherhood beyond economic productivity.

Hanna Longard, a third-year biology student, emphasized the importance of the intergenerational element of this event relative to many

of the events hosted at Mt. A. “We like to think [at Mt. A] that we’re super progressive and diverse, but we’re pretty homogenous in the grand scheme of things. It’s nice to ground yourself in a community of people who have lived here their whole lives, as community connections are really important to my mental health.”

Many survivors of sexual violence were also in attendance and discussed

“I THINK WE HAVE TO GET TOGETHER, GET OUT OF OUR LITTLE ECHO CHAMBERS, AND COME TOGETHER WITH ALL OF OUR DIFFERENCES, FEARS AND HOPES” how trauma and living in cultures that promote sexual violence can impact the mental health of survivors.

Some older women also discussed how heartbroken they have been to see progress in their lifetime only to see drastic setbacks in the past few years. Discussions surrounding the election of Donald Trump, a man who has bragged about sexual assault in the past, were particularly emotional.

A petition created by the Women’s and Gender Studies Society circulated. The petition asked for an investigation into Judge Gregory Lenehan’s statement that a “drunk

can consent” in a recent rape case in Halifax.

Sharon Strong, a long-time Sackville resident, said she “came to see what was [available] to support women, to get more support and to feel included in women’s issues.

“Growing up and coming from a poor family, none of that was really discussed, so this is all a new platform even for me,” she said.

Participants were also encouraged to brainstorm actions that could be taken in the Sackville community to support feminist goals. Participants said that having educational feminist conversations, fighting for traumainformed sexual violence response services and advocating for improved mental health services for survivors were all necessary actions.

Feltham said that her goal was to create a toolkit for parents and educators to talk to their children about women’s issues, provide support for women and discuss how feminism has changed throughout the participants’ lifetimes in an accessible, gender-inclusive way.

According to Feltham, women supporting women is itself a radical action.

Feltham also said that there would likely be follow-up events in the future to provide ongoing support for women in the community. There will also be a conversation circle on the topic of masculinity and mental health at the Commons on March 27 at 3 p.m.

Whether a third-generation feminist, a recent immigrant who wishes to form a sense of community in Sackville or a grandmother who wants a better future for her granddaughter, all participants expressed the value and importance of the conversation circle.

MALICIOUS EMAILS SENT TO U DE M CAMPUS The RCMP is investigating an ongoing series of cyberattacks on the Université de Moncton email servers. As of Mar. 2, nine malicious emails have been sent to U de M students. The sender, who is working through a server outside of Canada to send explicit photos of a female student, said that the messages he is sending are retaliation for his ex-girlfriend’s suspected cheating. University representatives have stated that they refuse to close the email system and that their IT services employees are working non-stop to block and track the messages.

WOMEN FROM A DIVERSE RANGE OF AGES GATHERED AT THE COMMONS IZZY FRANCOLINI/ARGOSY

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NEWS

MARCH 9, 2017 | ARGOSY@MTA.CA

MENTAL HEALTH

Focus group on mental health accommodations held on campus

Mount Allison collects student input on services KAVANA WA KILELE News Reporter Last week, several students, in collaboration with the Meighen Centre, organized a focus group to ask for student input on mental health accommodations at Mount Allison.

Matt Maston, disability services advisor for the Meighen Centre, said that students, faculty and staff have been asking questions about the support offered to students with mental health challenges and illness.

“There are some concerns about the strategies of how to support these people and what that looks like. For those reasons, we thought it made sense to speak to students,” Maston said. “They also have a perspective that is unique from faculty and staff, and it is important to tap into that resource.”

Melissa Baxter, Mount Allison’s mental health educator, said that she wanted to hear what students are saying and find out how to best work with students, faculty and staff to offer better support.

“Whether you have a diagnosed mental illness or not, or if you’re just having a bad day, we all need to understand that we can be experiencing varying degrees of mental health, depending on what we are going through,” Baxter said.

Baxter said that although the community is making progress and there is more awareness about mental health issues and illness on campus, we still need to work on creating a campus community where we can talk as openly about mental health as we do about physical health.

Caroline Kovesi, fifth-year sociology student and facilitator at the focus group, said that she generally finds she has to prove that

her mental illness is really bad in order to get accommodations.

“I feel that I have to go to a professor’s office when I am in tears and in a lot of distress in order for them to see that I really need an accommodation. That puts me in a really vulnerable position and it is not comfortable,” she said. “I do not enjoy it, but I feel when I email and say I am very anxious and having trouble with an assignment, I don’t really tend to receive accommodations.

“I am, for the most part, able to go see my profs, but a lot of people aren’t, and receiving accommodations for mental health shouldn’t be dependent on that [ability],” Kovesi continued.

Maston said other initiatives were in the works to offer better support to students with mental health issues.

“We are looking at having a workshop or discussion with faculty and staff and using some of the general data we received from students,” Maston said. He added that the Meighen Centre is also looking at putting out a student survey that will offer more data.

There will also be a panel on March 8, with representation from students, faculty and staff. Maston said panelists will discuss mental health issues, illness and accommodations.

The information gathered at the focus group will be used to help educate professors on how to create more inclusive courses and classrooms and better accommodate and support students with mental health issues and illness.

According to the details posted on the Facebook event, the focus group held this past week was confidential. All answers and experiences shared will be kept anonymous and confidential if used in the development of resources for professors.

TOP LEFT: CONFERENCE ARTWORK EMMA HASSENCAHL/SUBMITTED LEFT: PARTICIPANTS ATTEND FEMINIST LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE EMILIE GATCHELL/SUBMITTED

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ACADEMIC TALK

Nuclear disarmament and other existential threats: issues of our time

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Harries addresses social issues in a talk at Mt. A NADIYA SAFONOVA Politics Reporter On March 2, David Harries spoke at Mount Allison about nuclear disarmament and the Canadian Pugwash Group (CPG). After outlining the purpose of the Group, a team of scholars that addresses existential threats to humanity, CPG Chair Harries presented the progress that has been made worldwide on nuclear disarmament. While progress being made is evident, Harries emphasized that there are many more pressing issues today that require our attention, and many of these

problems are connected.

Harries served as a NATO officer in the Canadian military for several decades. He was also a UN peacekeeper and a professor of engineering, humanitarian aid and post-conflict/post-disaster response and recovery at the Royal Military College of Canada. He has also been an active member in the mission for nuclear disarmament through his extensive involvement with the CPG. Harries asked the audience what they believed to be the most pressing issue of our time. Responses varied from climate change and antibiotic resistance to the use of computer

viruses as weapons and North Korea.

According to Harries, climate change is the most pressing problem and the disagreements surrounding this issue are part of what make it so important.

Climate change deniers argue that the climate has always been changing, so we should not consider it an urgent issue, but Harries said that climate change is affecting us all and will continue to do so with increasing severity if we do not take action.

Referring to the sheer number of social problems that the world is facing today, Harries said that we need to be doing a lot more. He said that the starting point for solving

social problems is coming together, discussing them and creating teams to work on them.

One of the ways to decide which issues to tackle first, according to Harries, is by ranking risk. In 2017 alone, there have been over 30 news articles ranking what are referred to as “existential risks.” Some have argued that the India-Pakistan conflict is the most pressing, while others cite the Trump administration.

On the topic of how students can be actively involved in tackling social issues, Harries said that “universities are a good place to start to get together, not necessarily in a

formal setting, but to get together and to talk about these things.”

Using the internet and contacting government departments are just some of the ways to learn more about existing problems, and to let people know that you are interested in helping, organizing and advocating for change. Harries also said that some Mt. A student groups, such as Divest MTA, are already doing a good job of this. This group’s actions are an example of how students can effectively act on social justice issues.

CALLING ALL ASPIRING LOIS LANES CONTRIBUTE TO THE ARGOSY

DROP IN TUESDAYS AT 6, STUDENT CENTRE, 3RD FLOOR Mitchell Richard is a 21-year-old from Oxford, N.S. who was a student at Mount Allison University from 2013-2015. He lived in Edwards and Bigelow residences and played for the men’s rugby team in addition to nearly every intramural sport. Mitch is a kind and considerate friend to all, always making jokes and deeply loving those around him.

In Spring 2016, Mitchell was diagnosed with what was thought to be a benign tumour growing toward his spine. His symptoms worsened, and in November he was diagnosed with a rare peripheral nerve sheath sarcoma. He underwent a 16-hour surgery to remove the tumour which involved the removal of three vertebrae, several ribs, part of the chest wall, severing nerves and reconstructing his spine. Two subsequent surgeries were required for internal bleeding. In December, he began rehabilitation to improve

strength and mobility. On Dec. 31, he and his parents flew to Toronto for an oncological consultation, where it was decided that he will begin radiation.

As part of treatment, Mitchell received 17 blood transfusions. We are asking the Mt. A and Sackville communities to come together to donate blood in Mitchell’s honour on March 21 at the Tantramar Civic Centre. Join the Facebook event.

Financial donations can also be made to Mitchell’s medical fund on GoFundMe. Mitchell’s spirits have not wavered for a second through this ordeal, and his strength has been an inspiration to his loved ones.

We look forward to the day that his cancer will be a memory, and that Mitch can get back to spending time outdoors and playing sports. Thank you in advance for your support!

06 SPORTS & HEALTH

EDITOR: DAVID TAPLIN MARCH 9, 2017 | ARGOSY@MTA.CA

WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL

Season ends after a series of ups and downs

Regular season finish sees volleyball team overcome a mid-season slump in time for playoffs

IN HER FIRST YEAR WITH THE MOUNTIES FRESHMEN RACHEL MCDOUGALL EARNED ACAA AND CCAA ALL-STAR HONOURS. PAUL LYNCH/MOUNT ALLISON ATHLETTICS

HAMZA MUNAWAR Sports Reporter After storming out of the gates with a 7-2 first-semester record, Mount Allison’s women’s volleyball overcame second-half adversity, finishing the regular season with a 12-9 record and setting themselves up as the third seed for the ACAA

championship playoffs.

Mt. A ended the season with two Mounties receiving ACAA All-Star honours. Freshman Rachel McDougall made the First Team All Conference and sophomore Rachel Van Gestel was named to the Second Team. In addition to these honours, McDougall received the ACAA league Rookie of the Year award,

along with being named an AllCanadian. McDougall led the league in kills and points scored.

The women’s volleyball team served up a regular season to build on for future years. The team had a fiery start: after dropping their first game, the team adopted a “‘let’s-go-in-andlet’s-get-this-done’ attitude,” Van Gestel said.

The Mounties went on to win seven straight games, ending the first half of the season with a 7-2 record.

In the second half of the season, the team’s form dropped, as they had five wins and seven losses in the months of January and Febrary. This included dropping a match against Université de Saint-Anne, who finished the season sixth in the league. The Mounties were able to turn their mid-season slump around, finishing the regular season with a two-game winning streak.

The Mounties entered the ACAA playoffs, hosted at Dalhousie Agricultural Campus from Feb. 24-26, as the third seed, where they got the chance to play Université de Saint-Anne once again.

This time the Mounties made a statement, sweeping them three sets to zero and putting themselves into the semifinals with the ambitions of qualifying for nationals. In the semifinals, the Mounties came up short against Holland College, losing in three straight sets.

Head Coach Paul Settle was more than impressed by what this young team has accomplished this season, especially going forward to next season. “Another standout for this season was the play of our libero Melissa McAnsh, who in my opinion was one of the best liberos in our league,” Settle said.

It should be no surprise that the Mounties will be contending for the championship next year.

“As coach, I am already excited about next year,” Settle said. “With all but one of our girls potentially returning, along with the addition of several new recruits, we should have the strongest line-up that I have ever coached here at Mount Allison.”

With everyone returning, McDougall will look to continue her dominance in the league. “We’ll be a stronger team next year,” she said.

A key factor that will help out the Mounties next season is experience.

“With the number-one ranked team for the last several years, Mount Saint Vincent, losing all but one of their starters, I believe that first place is very attainable this upcoming season,” Settle said.

Looking ahead into next season, the Mounties now have both youth and experience. It is clear that this season has solidified the Mounties as a top team in this league. It’ll be no surprise that they will be contenders this upcoming season.

The Mounties will enter the 2017-18 ACAA season guided by Settle’s motto, “Sports being much the same as everything in life: the more you put into it, the better it gets.”

RESIDENCE HOCKEY

Wampbell Cup returns to the Civic Center Campbell Hall holds three-year win streak after beating Windsor Hall at Wampbell Cup WILL PELLETIER Contributor There are few times in the academic year when spirits are as high as during the week of Wampbell Cup. For the past three years, two of the university’s largest residences, Windsor and Campbell, have assembled hockey teams that face off in the rink at the Tantramar Veterans’ Memorial Civic Centre, attracting a huge crowd to revel in the rivalry.

This year, the third annual Wampbell Cup was no different both in terms of turnout and victor.

The game flew off to a rapid start, as Campbell pulled away with a 2-0 lead in the first six minutes, setting the tone for the rest of the night.

The pressure on Windsor goaltender Max Landry and the rest of the team would continue for the remaining 54 minutes, with a final score of 5-2.

The scene was awash with desperate cheers as throngs of students congregated in the cold arena.

“You could taste the salt coming from the Windsor crowd,” Evan Matthews, a second-year Windsor resident, said. “People were drunk, so that certainly didn’t help, and with the atmosphere being so energetic everyone was just hollering. Totally

wild. Although, sometimes the crosstalk was more entertaining than the game.”

Fan participation is essential for Wampbell. House leadership organized sign creation in advance of the game and some used megaphones to rally the fans with cheers and house chants.

“To an outsider it might have looked pretty hostile, but it was really more like lighthearted fun,” Matthews said. “Everyone was enjoying themselves despite the difference of score. People were talking and chatting and keeping up the energy even until the last few seconds.”

While the occasional jeer or

“SOMETIMES THE CROSSTALK WAS MORE ENTERTAING THAN THE GAME” suspicious check riled up spectators, the players themselves took both in stride, even when Campbell led by a significant (almost dispiriting) margin. Like drunken giants, the crowd swayed to and fro with the passing of the puck and the

scratching of skated feet.

James Nanos scored both of Windsor’s two goals in the game.

“Campbell had a great game. They got a few early goals and we were basically playing catch-up for the remainder of the game, but I’m glad I can say we still tried our best even at the end of the third,” he said. “I’m happy to pass the torch to the next group of [players] playing next year.

Next time I hope we can shake our losing streak, since Campbell has won all three years so far.”

My own Wampbell experience was also exciting. Campbell Hall had a great showing, which was emphasized by the win, although I did eventually turn coat and sit in the Windsor stands for the last period. It was, in a word, therapeutic – there’s something about being a part of a crowd that makes you forget your immediate problems and focus on the rah-rah excitement of competition, no matter which side you’re on.

Although, booze does that too, so maybe that was it. Either way, Wampbell was fantastic, and has me (and no doubt others) anticipating next year’s stand-off.

THE PUCK WAS DROPPED FOR THE THIRD ANNUAL WAMPBELL CUP AT THE TANTRAMAR CIVIC CENTER . HANNAH SHOLTZ/SUBMITTED

CAMPBELL PLAYERS CELEBRATING THEIR THIRD STRAIGHT WIN. HANNAH SHOLTZ/ SUBMITTED

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BASKETBALL

Mount Allison hosts conference playoffs

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Mens and womens basketball chase championship on homecourt in front of hundreds of fans DAVID TAPLIN Sports and Health Editor

For the first time since 2009, the Mount Allison Athletic Centre hosted the ACAA basketball playoff tournaments with as many as 700 people packed into the stands for the marquee matchups of the weekend.

Mt. A’s men’s and women’s teams came into the playoffs as the second and third seeds, respectively, and expectations were high, with both teams in contention for not only an ACAA title but also a spot at nationals.

Coming in as the 11th-ranked team in the nation, the women’s team started the tournament on Friday against the sixth-seeded UNBSJ Seadogs in the quarterfinals.

The Mounties took the lead with the game’s very first basket, and never looked back, cruising to a victory against a team that had three wins over the course of the regular season.

The win set up a matchup against the sixth-best team in the nation, the Mount Saint Vincent Mystics, with a spot in the ACAA finals and the national championships at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in Edmonton on the line.

Coming into the game, the Mounties had lost twice to the Mystics earlier in the season, before getting a win at MSVU in the last game of the regular season.

Third-year small-forward Erin Steeves emphasized both teams’ familiarity with each other going into the game.

“We prepared in pretty much every way that we could. We knew what they were going to do,” Steeves said.

The Mounties, spurred by the raucous home crowd at the Athletic Centre, jumped off to a 14-4 lead in the first quarter.

The Mystics, led by the experience of their seven senior players, responded in the second quarter, grinding their way back into the game with a combination of half-court and full-court defences that put pressure on the Mounties’ ball handlers.

At halftime, the score was 26-29 for the Mystics.

The Mounties struggled to find their scoring touch throughout the game while the Mystics maintained pressure, capitalizing on any and all Mt. A mistakes.

Going into the final quarter with a 43-40 lead, the Mystics once

again pressed the Mounties in the frontcourt, this time to great effect, forcing the Mounties to play at a high tempo.

It was in these circumstances, in front of packed crowd, that the Mystics showed their experience and poise. As the Mounties were plagued by a string of poor shots, MSVU started to build a lead that saw them through to the final.

The Mounties shot 1-15 from behind the three-point line in the game and ultimately could not get the ball to fall amid a 18-4 run by the Mystics.

“I think those small gaps where we had little drops in play, it did come down to experience,” Steeves said.

Final score: 65-53, Mystics.

With only one player graduating, the women’s team will look back on this experience as a building block for the future. With ACAA First Team All-Conference players Kiersten Mangold and Sarah McGeachy and ACAA Rookie of the Year, Jill Harris, the future is bright for a team that will look to return to nationals for the second time in four years in the 20172018 season.

“We are going to take what we need to do individually and work on that for when we come back together in the fall,” Steeves said.

In the men’s tournament, the Mounties earned a bye to the semifinals, where they faced off against the Crandall University Chargers on Saturday night with a spot at nationals and the ACAA championship game on the line.

The Chargers, led by league MVP Tomarcus Nix and defensive player of the year Brandon Fields, defeated STU in a tightly contested quarterfinal matchup the night before.

With somewhere between 700800 spectators in attendance, the Mounties stifled a Chargers offence that had caused them troubles in their regular season matchups.

“I’ve never seen the gym nearly at that level. It was just such a great atmosphere to be in,” fifth-year forward Alex Chisholm said.

Led by ACAA Rookie of the Year Thomas LeGaillis, the team set a level of intensity that the Chargers, having played the night before, were unable to match.

The Mounties pulled away in the second half, much to the delight of the hometown crowd, with an 83-59 win, advancing to their first nationals

tournament in 20 years and setting up a championship match with the hosts of the national tournament, the Holland College Hurricanes.

The Hurricanes were in search of their fifth-straight ACAA championship and had beaten the Mounties in all three regular-season meetings with the last game being a 124-79 blowout.

Against the Hurricanes, whose roster was filled out by international and ex-CIS players, the Mounties would need to play a near-perfect 40 minutes of basketball if they wanted to have a chance at their first ACAA title.

The gym was once again filled to capacity, and despite early foul trouble for LeGaillis, the Mounties were able to hang tough with the Hurricanes in the first half.

Thanks to the scoring efforts of seniors Alex Chisholm and Brad Fuller, the physical presence of fourth-year Rodreke Joseph in the paint and the poise of senior Jesse Balser and rookie Seongwoo Park in the guard position, the Hurricanes held only a slim 38-37 lead at halftime.

In the third quarter, the Hurricanes’ athleticism and shooting touch was on full display, fast-breaking off of turnovers and knocking down open shots with deadly precision.

Going into the fourth and final quarter, the score was 66-50, but the Mounties in their home gym refused to fold. “You can never quit in a basketball game, especially in that environment – there was not a chance we were going to back down,” Chisholm said.

Led by LeGaillis, the Mounties’ offence started to roll, closing the gap to within nine points, a run which was punctuated by a break-away pull-up three-pointer by the rookie of the year that brought the crowd to its feet.

The comeback proved to be too late in the making, with the Hurricanes taking the game 81-70, and with it, the championship.

The tournament as a whole was a huge success with large crowds in attendance for the entire weekend.

“The joint was alive and electric,” said Mounties commentator Steve Ridlington. “It was tremendous to see that level of support, something we don’t see everyday.”

With the performance against Holland in the final, the Mounties proved that they can compete with

THE MOUNT ALLISON MASCOT MADE APPEARANCES AT GAMES THROUGHOUT THE WEEKEND. PAUL LYNCH/MOUNT ALLISON ATHLETICS

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR THOMAS LEGAILLIS EN ROUTE TO TWO OF HIS 18 POINTS AGAINST CRANDALL. PAUL LYNCH/MOUNT ALLISON ATHLETICS

KIERSTEN MANGOLDS’S 15 POINTS WERE NOT ENOUGH TO PROPELL THE MOUNTIES PAST THE MYSTICS. PAUL LYNCH/MOUNT ALLISON ATHLETICS the kind of competition they will face at nationals from March 16-18.

Going into the tournament as the eighth seed, the Mounties will face the number-one team in the country, the Sheridan Bruins. “Nobody expects

us to win,” Chisholm said. “We’ve got nothing to lose. We go out there, play our hearts out and anything can happen.”

SWIMMING

Mount Allison Swim Team place strong at USport Nationals DYLAN WOOLEY-BERRY Contributor During the last week of February, swimmers Allison Loewen, Geraint Berger and Olivia Feschuk traveled with head coach John Peters to Sherbrooke, QC, for the USport National Championships.

This marks a significant moment for Mount Allison’s varsity swim team

as it has been over a decade since the Mounties have had three swimmers qualify for USport Nationals, formerly called CIS Nationals.

All together, Loewen, Berger and Feschuk swam 10 individual races in which they achieved five top 25 finishes. All three swimmers had notable performances with strong finishes.

Feschuck had the best overall

placement of the three athletes finishing 12th in the 200 back.

“It was an exceptional end to a great season. I was really happy with how my teammates and I performed,” she said.

The USport Nationals marked the last competitive swim meet for Loewen, a four-year veteran.

“I had an amazing experience this year! The women’s team came second

at AUS [championships], which was a huge accomplishment, and I had a great time at USport Nationals,” Loewen said. “Although I didn’t get any best times at the competition, it was incredible to compete with athletes of Olympic calibre.”

With both Berger and Feschuck only being in their third year, they will have the opportunity to requalify for the USports Nationals again next

year.

With a healthy sized returning roster and a number of promising recruits, the varsity swim team’s prospect are possibly better than ever.

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FINE ARTS STUDENTS GO SOLO

START hosts series of first-time shows from Mt. A’s BFA graduating class JEFF MANN

Demonstrating how objectification shapes our readings of nature, fourth-year fine arts student Jeff Mann constructs interior landscapes using human-made objects such as wood posts, potted plants, styrofoam rocks and paper reams.

“My work is about the natural world and how our perceptions are pre-mediated through objects,” Mann said. “[For example], the whole idea of building materials [demonstrates] how a tree is considered a resource rather than just a tree.”

Suspending potted plants in between wood posts, Mann’s first solo show, In Between the Trees, highlights the often-overlooked similarities between decorative foliage and structural fixtures.

To enhance his landscape with audio, Mann repurposes buckets, tools traditionally used for hauling water, as speakers to transport Waterfowl Park’s howling winds and whistling highway sounds into the gallery’s space.

“To me, [the bucket] is kind of like a portal,” Mann said. “It’s this idea [where] you can take one thing from one place to another place. So I’m using [buckets] as speakers.”

Built into a portable wall, an animation screen depicts a wilting house plant atop a defunct deep-freeze.

Melted ice oozes from beneath the appliance at a pace imperceptible to the casual observer, gradually creating a larger, more formidable puddle.

“It’s supposed to be incredibly boring,” Mann said, commenting on the animation’s darkly humorous banality and stagnancy. “Boring because there’s a subtle violence to it.”

In the background a window or painting – Mann leaves its nature ambiguous – depicts a sublime mountainscape, a scene evocative of the Rockies, which have come to represent Canadian nationhood. Arousing a chilling dissonance, the romantic scene accents an interior landscape that suffers from the creeping effects of human neglect and violence.

“It’s about how our perception of nature is premediated by, in this case, [an image] from the Canadian history of landscape painting – romanticism, basically,” Mann said. “Then there’s an interior that’s been abandoned and makes up its own landscape.”

ALI LOUWAGIE

In her first solo show, This, The Way Nothing Stays, fourth-year fine arts student Ali Louwagie installs tangible representations of her personal experiences in a public, outdoor space.

Using Christmas lights, Louwagie strings excerpts from a heartfelt poem she wrote along the exterior wall of the Struts gallery.

From 7-10 p.m. each evening, Struts’ patrons and passersby will encounter sculptures of illuminated poetry and participate in a visual representation of making the private public.

“I’m using these words as a visual artist,” Louwagie said, explaining the distinction between her form of visual art and traditional poetic practice, “which is part of the materiality of the Christmas lights, the whole gesture.”

Anticipating that acquaintances and strangers will encounter her artwork, Louwagie recognizes the inherent interpretative gap that exists between her and those who read her raw, artistic expressions.

“These personal, intimate, heartfelt words that I’ve written have meaning to me and meaning to people who know me,” Louwagie said, “But other people encounter them without explanation – there’s kind of a gap between [us].”

Inside the gallery, Louwagie’s light display will be accompanied by a video installation that explores a similar theme of externalizing the internal.

Surrounded by darkness, a light pulses to the sound of a heartbeat, externalizing the biological process that underpins life. Louwagie explains that the light’s pulse behaves as a kind of morse code, a communicative act that declares its owner’s existence.

“I’m signalling the rhythm of my pulse through the flash light, as if it’s morse code,” Louwagie said. “[Which] links with the biology of the heartbeat, but also the soul.”

MIRELLE NAUD | THE ARGOSY | WWW.ARGOSY.CA

CENTREFOLD

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KEVIN MELANSON

In a compilation of over 1,500 line drawings, Kevin Melanson’s first solo show, Studies, documents an eclectic collection of found objects, beer bottles and Sackville houses.

Outlined in black ink on 5x5 cards, Melanson’s found objects shed their original scales and colourations.

“The things that are special about them – their colours and their weights – you don’t get any of that with [line] drawing [because] it sort of disconnects,” Melanson said, reflecting on how his medium defamiliarizes its subjects.

Some of the objects have already undergone alterations – modified by copper wire, plastic wrap, alcohol and fire – prior to their portraitures, and appear almost unrecognizable in Melanson’s inked representations. “[Modification] makes [the object] a weird thing; you can’t actually see what it is,” Melanson said, pointing out an ambiguous-looking object, a shell filled with wood glue. “But I like the effect that you can sort of [see] recognizable parts [in] them.”

Although he cannot explicitly identify the unifying traits among the many found objects that intrigue him, Melanson believes that their presence in his show offers viewers an indirect reflection of himself.

“A lot of what I actually do [can be considered] selfportraiture,” Melanson said. “Considering [the drawn objects] interesting and presenting them as interesting is sort of a reflection of me.”

Yet, Melanson hesitates to supply a single interpretative answer to his work, desiring instead that people see their own interpretations as just as valid as the opinions of learned art critics.

“I’m more interested in normal people coming in and looking at art and liking it instead of people who have studied the contexts of how things were made,” Melanson said. “Accessibility is a really big part of how I work.”

THERE WILL BE A CLOSING RECEPTION FOR ALL THREE SHOWS ON MARCH 17, 2017 FROM 8-10 PM. THE EXHIBITIONS WILL BE OPEN FOR VIEW AT STRUTS GALLERY (7 LORNE STREET) UNTIL THEN.

ANDREA WILSON

Fine arts student Andrea Wilson sews clothing made of glass, metals and wood. In the closing ceremony on March 17, from 8-10 p.m., Wilson will display garments that portray their models’ unique personalities through their unconventional materials.

Prior to her enrollment in Mount Allison’s fine arts program, Wilson was familiar with costumemaking for the theatre. Today, her practice extends beyond traditional costumery into the realm of wearable art.

“I’m really interested in wearable art – essentially what I call sculptural, wearable art,” Wilson said. “[The show] is not a performance, although it’s been called that. [The models] don’t have any roles, lines or choreography.”

Through collaboration with the models, Wilson decided to use embossed metals to portray a gentle, Athena-like inner strength, wood to pay homage to a model’s Indigenous identity and mirror shards to reflect a complex, multi-faceted nature.

“When I started thinking of alternative materials to sew garments with, [the project] just came together,” Wilson said. “I don’t even know which came first: the choice of the girl or the material – it happened simultaneously.”

In addition to their sheer impracticality, the garments depart from functioning merely as costumes through their intentions to reflect the person within them.

“It will be different for how people who know [the models] read [the apparel] and [for those] who don’t know them,” Wilson said. “If they don’t know them, then probably [the apparel] will just be seen as an object, like a costume … [but] I’d like to think that it’s gone beyond costume.”

Wilson remains aware that her garments project her own ideas of the models, but she nonetheless hopes that the models will be at home in their personalized apparel.

“It will be interesting to see how they feel in them,” Wilson said. “They should feel at home in them … but [the garments] are only my perceptions of them.”

10 ARTS & CULTURE

EDITORS: MIRELLE NAUD MALLORY BURNSIDE-HOLMES MARCH 9, 2017 | ARGOSY@MTA.CA

PERFORMANCE ART

PERForm 17 art duo visits Sackville

Bowling alley meets chocolate, paper bags and rope in offbeat performance art series

MARISSA CRUZ Arts and Culture Reporter

EXPLORING AN UNCONVENTIONAL STAGE, LINDA DORNAN AND MATHIEU LÉGER MANIPULATE SPACE AND PROPS. MARISSA CRUZ/THE ARGOSY

On Feb. 28, Sackville’s Thunder & Lightning bowling alley became the unlikely venue for PERFform 17’s eighth stop on its New Brunswick tour. The travelling series of performance pieces were enacted by visual artist duo Linda Rae Dornan of Sackville and Mathieu Léger of Moncton, in partnership with Moncton’s artist-run gallery Galerie Sans Nom. Dornan and Léger performed four pieces. The first one was done by Léger, who whispered to a two-byfour, then picked it up and tapped at it, dropping it to the floor and whittling away its centre. Dornan’s piece followed – with a basket attached to her stomach, she clapped in morse code and pulled braided rope from the basket.

Léger’s next performance involved a rope; with his hands behind his back, he carried its tangled fibres in his mouth. He inflated paper bags and dropped the rope onto them. The last piece featured Dornan cutting out squares from a long garment, which she donned as she licked chocolate with razor blades embedded into it.

Performance art doesn’t have much of a recent history in Sackville, so for many audience members, this was their first experience with art of this kind.

Opening with a disclaimer, the artists asked the audience to excuse the cameras present, as they were not part of the performances, but were there solely for documentation.

Due to the ephemeral nature of performance, the group relies on video documentation to archive their work. But this can become an issue, as the ephemeral nature of the work is a property that amplifies it. With this medium of art, the work is physically present, then gone when it is finished, making it difficult to record.

During a discussion period led by the artists, an audience member raised concerns about the process of documentation, questioning the importance of an act that changed the quality of the work.

The audience member brought up

questions like: Does the production of video and photographs create the potential for the experience to be refabricated? Is the act of documentation creating permanence in something regarded for its transience? Such questions invited a discussion of the commodification of art.

“It is the nature of the beast nowadays….Living in an art world and market, it is like you have to continuously prove yourself over and over again with your documentation that people can buy,” Dornan said.

“LIVING IN AN ART WORLD AND MARKET, IT IS LIKE YOU HAVE TO CONTINUOUSLY PROVE YOURSELF OVER AND OVER AGAIN WITH YOUR DOCUMENTATION THAT PEOPLE CAN BUY” Both Dornan and Léger have sold components of their performance work in the past.

Documentation can be an intrusive presence in a performance piece, as it obstructs an artist’s intentions and inhibits viewers from fully immersing themselves in a work.

Selling artwork like Dornan’s artist book or Léger’s photographs of performance work is an artist’s primary method of making profit.

PERFform 17’s tour was made possible by various sponsors. As artists are not shielded from the effects of the capitalist society we live in, it is important to consider the creation of visual art as a valid occupation.

A particularly fascinating part of

the performances was the exploration of the bowling alley. As a travelling tour, the duo have performed in their share of unconventional spaces, but the bowling alley was a first.

“An ideal setting would be a white cube so that you are completely free of everything else around you, kind of like an exhibition. But [on tour] that is often not the case,” Léger said. “We are adaptable.”

Space is an important aspect of performance art. For example, it was hard to ignore the creaking of the wood floor in relationship to Léger’s piece when he whittled away at a twoby-four’s wood fibres.

Dornan and Léger accentuated the vertical depth of the bowling alley by moving up and down the lanes. “We hope people [concentrated] on the actions and the gestures,” Dornan said.

To ask a viewer to disengage from an artist’s environment is specifically challenging in performance work.

The occurrence of the unlikely events on this temporary “stage” required reconsideration of spaces designed for recreation and entertainment.

Transforming the intended purpose of a space to change the way we navigate ourselves within it acknowledged the absurdity of the performativity and also the environment itself.

The audience-performer dynamic was an important component of the work. Léger prompted the audience to relax alongside himself and Dornan at the conclusion of each work. In doing so, he acknowledged that audience members may have been experiencing discomfort.

Supporting local artists is important for Sackville’s art scene, and this show allowed residents to practise genuine support. Sackville provides the right environment for the art form, but the local performance art scene has room to grow. Hopefully there will be a PERFform 18 that will challenge audiences and experiment with intriguing new ways of visual representations.

ARTS & CULTURE

THE ARGOSY | WWW.ARGOSY.CA

FOOD

Unsettling the table ALEX LEPIANKA Contributor

When the news spread last week that Mel’s Tea Room was at risk of being sold, numerous responses poured onto Facebook. I read most: Some were short notes – a handful of them charged with racist overtones accusing the owners of Song’s Chopsticks of trying to buy out the building – and others were wistful comments chronicling first dates, after-school snacks, first jobs and an amicable wait staff at the Sackville landmark.

The news prompted me to recall my first time eating at Mel’s. I had

ordered a blueberry milkshake on a warm Saturday in 2013 – it was the day of the Fall Fair. The fact that I remembered this surprised me, but the comment thread was full of these kinds of memories – the kind often held for decades.

Yet, there is something worth noticing about the way Mel’s was experienced by its multitude of patrons, which the owners appreciated, when, in a CBC News interview, they mentioned that “Mel’s isn’t really ours, it’s everyone’s. We’re just maintaining it.” The events of the past week had thrown a light onto Mel’s as a public good and something worth a public expression of support.

Mel’s is most meaningful to me when I am walking home, eastward along Bridge Street. My classes end just in time for me to catch a winter sunset along the way. Oriented east, the slice of dusk visible between the buildings is a greenish orange, whitening and then darkening with higher altitudes. Then, I notice Mel’s’ neon sign, illuminated well before the streetlamps turn on. By the time I enter my apartment just across the street, the daylight is dimmer and my street-facing bedroom glows in shades of red and blue.

If food writing deserves any space in public media, it ought to help us recognize the meaningfulness

of restaurants for public life. The restaurant is where older women take lunches and chat away the morning, where couples celebrate, families earn their living and parents treat their kids. The meaningfulness is not to be found in any particular purpose or activity, but rather as a whole – as a place where we can eat together.

The experiences, set among our small businesses, are too complex and numerous to be categorized. The value of Mel’s is not just in its historic location or traditions. If a restaurant like Mel’s ought to be protected, it is not just for the sake of preserving a familiar venue. Even after Saturday’s announcement, that the owners of

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Mel’s will be buying the building, work must continue to be done to defend our restaurants and their patrons from the kinds of violence and aggression that flared up this past week, for these are equally as threatening to our public spaces as any buy-out.

No restaurant is worth saving if its patrons are not held to account for their attitudes of aggression, if its proprietors do not hold themselves responsible for the violence they engender. It is in a more abstract sense – that is, as a safe gathering place for the public – that a restaurant is worth defending.

MUSIC

Tesla Quartet creates stirring contrasts Sackville’s quartet-in-residence portrays a diversity of moods in engaging program

ISAIAH YANKECH Contributor The Monday following reading week, the Tesla Quartet performed its third recital of the school year, showcasing again why it is a highly acclaimed chamber ensemble. The program featured string quartets by landmark composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Jean Sibelius, as well as American composer Kevin Puts’s Dark Vigil, which offered a striking contrast to Mozart’s tonal approach and Sibelius’s Finnish style.

The program’s opener, Mozart’s String Quartet in D Minor, K. 421, presented a variety of musical atmospheres in each movement. The first movement, “Allegro moderato,” displayed the ensemble’s delicate playing, with a fine pace, a warm tone and well-thought-out phrasing.

This movement had a consistent drive of energy, and the quartet did an excellent job of bringing new intensities to each repetition of the frequently recurring opening motif.

With effective use of eye contact and visual gestures, the ensemble demonstrated its knowledge of which instrument had the important lines.

“It is amazing how four amazing solo individuals can come together and perform as one sound,” first-year violinist Sannu Lawt said.

The gentle nature in the second movement, “Andante,” contrasted with the more spirited energy of the third movement, “Menuetto allegretto.” In the fourth movement, “Allegro ma non troppo – piu allegro,” the cello offered a nice foundation to support a swifter tempo. The ensemble’s precise bow strokes created a clean sound, and the movement ended with a full texture.

Puts’s contemporary composition Dark Vigil offered the audience a wide range of emotional experiences.

Composed in 1999, it was written in response to the violent shootings that happened in elementary and secondary schools in the United States.

“I was generally astounded by how haunting the Dark Vigil piece

was,” first-year oboe student Maggie Pitman said. “The cello in particular had an eeriness that gave me chills.

They captured the essence of the piece perfectly.”

The ensemble elicited the fear and darkness associated with the tragic events in response to which the piece was written. In the opening, the audience could feel a sense of uneasiness conveyed using techniques such as glissandos, which created a feeling of urgency. The ensemble’s playing displayed control and discipline, as often one voice had a chaotic and hectic line while another had a softer and thinner texture. They incorporated moments of stillness

and delicacy, making the composition the most intriguing, intimate and engaging work of the program.

Sibelius’s String Quartet in D Minor, Opus 56, “Voces Intimae,” ended the program, highlighting the ensemble’s cohesiveness. This string quartet, featuring folk elements, contrasted significantly in style to the Mozart string quartet.

The first movement opened conversationally between the first violinist and the cellist, with lush, long, arching melodies and was followed by a light and quick moving second movement. The third movement demonstrated the “Voces Intimae” (inner voices) with a

prominently reflective atmosphere, capped with a stunning ending.

Driven by fast passages of lively,

“[DARK VIGIL] BROUGHT A NEW PERSPECTIVE TO WHAT A CONTEMPORARY COMPOSITION IS LIKE” rhythmic figures, the rigorously active fourth movement contrasted with the middle one. The final movement possessed the most momentum,

although the quartet maintained a steady pulse throughout.

“They made a good selection of pieces, opening with a marvelous Mozart string quartet,” Lawt said.

“Dark Vigil was an interesting touch, and surprised me as being modern. It brought a new perspective to what a contemporary composition is like.

And the Sibelius string quartet was heavenly.”

The Tesla Quartet will perform the final recital of its residency at Mt. A on Saturday, April 1, with works by George Gershwin, William Bolcom, Lev Ljova and a freshly composed commissioned work.

ACCLAIMED CHAMBER ENSEMBLE TESLA QUARTET EVOKES A VARIETY OF MUSICAL ATMOSPHERES IN ITS THIRD RECITAL AT MT. A. JEFF MANN/ARGOSY

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ARTS & CULTURE

MARCH 9, 2017 | ARGOSY@MTA.CA

THEATRE

Award-winning playwright visits Mt. A Canadian playwright Meiko Ouchi shares her visions of inclusion for the theatre world

MULTI-TALENTED MIEKO OUCHI SPOKE TO LUCKY SACKVILLE COMMUNITY MEMBERS AND MT. A STUDENTS ON MARCH 1. LOUIS SOBOL/THE ARGOSY

EMMA BUSH Arts and Culture Reporter Playwright, actor, director and filmmaker Mieko Ouchi spoke last Wednesday in the Motyer Fancy theatre. A multi-talented gift to the Canadian arts world, Ouchi spoke on her journey to success in theatre, offering words of encouragement to aspiring drama students. She presented at Mount Allison as part of a week of guest lecturing in New Brunswick.

“I love to talk to people who are

just starting drama studies. I hope my story can inspire you to reach out [because] you never know where your passions may lead you,” Ouchi said.

Ouchi did not always know she wanted to work in theatre. In fact, she initially studied genetics, but within a year learned that drama and the arts compelled her more. She went on to study in a classical acting training program at the University of Alberta.

“I was really on the road to becoming a professional actor,” she said. “But I felt the walls and ceiling of what it was to be an actor; I would

be seen [in only] one way; I was discovering the limits [of acting].”

Her first experience with writing and directing was through a collaboration with a film school friend. Together, they produced a short documentary about her grandfather.

“That first film was such a gift because it showed me that I had something to offer as a creator,” Ouchi said. The film, Shepherd’s Pie and Sushi, was co-produced by the National Film Board of Canada and aired on CBC.

Soon after, Edmonton’s Catalyst Theatre commissioned her to write a six-minute play, which eventually became the beginning of her first play, The Red Priest.

“I started with six minutes, so I hope that inspires you….Six minutes can blossom into something,” Ouchi said. “I had no formal writing training, but I’ve always enjoyed jumping in, and I think that that has served me well. I didn’t know the rules, so I was unafraid to break them.”

“If you want to make a job in theatre, embrace it all; these strange

jobs may spark something in you,” Ouchi encouraged. “Try all the jobs – you will find the right fit. Or wear many hats; that’s what I do.”

Ouchi read from her play The Blue Light, based on the true-life story of Hollywood studio executive Leni Riefenstahl, who produced propaganda for the Nazis. She wowed audience members with her ability to act out the characters in her reading.

University President Robert Campbell commented on Ouchi’s ability to act through her reading during an open question period. He asked if she felt that her background in acting shapes the way she writes. “I love actors. I want [my] plays to live and breathe in the 3D,” she replied.

The talk concluded with a reading from the early draft of Ouchi’s newest play, which tells the story of her mother dealing with her husband’s death. At the excerpt’s conclusion, the room filled with resounding, emotion-filled silence, broken only by uproarious applause.

Ouchi believes that important work needs to be done to diversify theatre in terms of race, class, ability and their intersections. “Theatre has to change; we are an ever-changing art form. We need to be more diverse, and I am working for this in my casting.”

“It’s going to require much more outreach,” she continued. “Inclusivity is important and needs to find a way onto the stage.” To this extent, Ouchi put on a deaf opera in Edmonton this February.

“I want [my works] to be pieces of art, but I also want them to mean something. I believe art is one of the best teachers that we have and is the best [tool] to get beyond surface labels,” Ouchi said in closing. “This is the best gift theatre has given me and I hope that I can pass this along … [but] it’s up to you what you take from it.”

Ouchi has written several plays, most notably The Red Priest (Eight Ways to Say Goodbye) and The Blue Light. Her work has been translated into various languages, including French, Japanese and Russian. She has received several award nominations for her work.

FLUENT IN MORE THAN ONE LANGUAGE? SUBMIT YOUR MULTILINGUAL POETRY TO THE UPCOMING JOURNAL, ELLIPSIS!

Ellipsis is an online journal that provides multilingual writers a platform to express their unique linguistic identities. An experiment in the process of translation, the journal seeks to explore the nuances and complexities of language by translating works from one language to another.

Also seeking graphic artists and multilingual editors.

All languages accepted. Please provide an English translation. Direct submissions and inquiries to the Underbridge Press at underbridge@mta.ca.

ARTS & CULTURE

THE ARGOSY | WWW.ARGOSY.CA

MUSIC

Szabó presents breathtaking recital

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Mezzo-soprano gifts Brunton with spellbinding performance and powerful stage presence

KRIZSTINA SZABÓ EMANATES TALENT, PASSION AND MUSIC FROM BRUNTON STAGE. BRYENTON INNES/CONTRIBUTOR

ISAIAH YANKECH Contributor Last week, Mount Allison voice majors had the opportunity to learn from established mezzo-soprano Krizstina Szabó. The event included an inspiring and impressive recital, as well as an informative masterclass.

The class offered six voice students the opportunities to sing for her and receive insightful advice on stage presence, effective breathing and interpretation techniques.

“It was such a treat to hear such an expressive, powerful and professional

voice in Brunton, but it was also an honour to work with her in the masterclass she held,” third-year voice student Morgan Reid said.

Szabó’s recital exposed voice students to a hand-picked repertoire that ranged from Baroque works, French songs and songs connected to her Hungarian heritage, to more contemporary works such as cabaret songs. “[Szabó] has such an amazing interpretation of character, atmosphere and expression in her performances that anyone could learn a multitude of things from

FRIDAY, MARCH 10

Street. 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Quelques Arpents de Neige (to Saturday, March 11) PCCA Crit Room. 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM Erink Wunker: Feminist Kill Joy Talk Library Theatre 12:00 PM Fine Arts Show and Sale. The Pond.

9:00 AM Presently Engaged: Soc Sci Discussions. Avard Dixon 117. 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM

TUESDAY, MARCH 14 Dr. Faustus (to March 18 @ 8:00 PM). Moyter-Fancy Theatre. 5:00 PM Stress Support Session. Student Centre. 12:00 PM Meeting of Senate. Tweedie Hall.

4:00

SATURDAY, MARCH 11

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 15

Student Recital Featuring: Madelin Duffy, Dakota Scott-Digout, Morgan Reid and Jaime Hunter

Growing Through Grief. Chapel Manning Room. 7:00 PM

Collegium Musicum. Brunton Auditorium. 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Obscured: An Evening with Pink Floyd. Ducky’s Bar.

Gwynne Dyer Public Lecture.

Crabtree Auditorium. 7:30 PM 10:30 PM

SUNDAY, MARCH 12

Egg Timer Writing Club. Thunder and Lightning. 8:00 PM

Sackville Farmers Market. Bridge

stellar vocal production,”Duffy said.

The second half featured more modern works, with compositions

by Xavier Montsalvatge and Arnold Schoenberg. During the songs from Montsalvatge’s Cinco canciones negras, Szabó often hummed along.

In these moments, audience members witnessed her passionate intensity and her amazing ability to storytell.

The recital concluded in a fun and humorous way, with four songs from Schoenberg’s set of eight cabaret songs, Brettl-Lieder. Szabó’s talent for storytelling and acting was highlighted in the concluding aria from The Mirror of Arcadia. Her exuberant acting entailed running out of breath and jumping and clapping on stage, and resulted in a well-deserved standing ovation from the audience.

“The audience was both laughing [at] her humour and having their heartstrings tugged by the beauty of her voice,” Reid said. “Despite her powerful presence and obvious star status in the opera world, she was incredibly kind, humble and thankful to be at Mt. A.” “I loved every second of it – the tremendous diversity of repertoire and the skillfulness with which she sang everything,” second-year voice student Emily Steers said. “She was a powerhouse and I feel so incredibly lucky that we at Mt. A were able to host such a high-calibre musician.”

Student Recital Featuring: Emma Soldaat, Lynn Johson and Megan Watt

Jayme Stone Lomax Project. Brunton Auditorium. 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM

Mental Health Summit. Sir James Dunn Building. 10:00 AM

attending,” Reid said. “She captured every moment both in the expressive tone in her voice and her physicality.

She embodied every character and text she performed, regardless of era or genre.”

The program began with two beautiful works by Henry Purcell, “If Music Be the Food of Love” and “Sweeter than Rose (from Pausanias),” arranged by Benjamin Britten. Szabó’s effortless tone complemented her expressive phrasing.

Following the Purcell works, Szabó performed Poulenc’s Miroirs

brûlants, which consisted of two different songs. Calm and relaxed, the first song, “Tu Vois le feu du soir,” contrasted with the more agitated, second song, “Je Nommerai ton front.”

To close the first half of the show, Szabó performed eight songs from Johannes Brahms’ Zigeunnerlieder, Opus 103, a set of 11 Romani songs. Exceptionally showcasing her versatility as a singer, Szabó’s performance switched from dark and sombre to light-hearted and playful as she depicted different characters for each song.

Through an attentive piano accompaniment, music department head Stephen Runge remarkably supported the differences of each movement. In this set, it was clear that text is of foremost importance in her singing, naturally making every song she sang engaging.

“What made the entire performance was the fact that she perfectly portrayed every single word that she sang. No matter what language she was singing in, she used her facial and bodily expressions to make sure every person in the audience understood what the words meant,” third-year voice student Madeline Duffy said.

“I was impressed with her ability to move her body around for expression – from waving her arms to jumping up and down – while maintaining

SOCIETY OF ANONYMOUS DRAWERS/SUBMITTED

14 OPINIONS

THE ARGOSY w w w. a r g o s y. c a

Independent Student Newspaper of Mount Allison University Thursday, March 9, 2017 volume 146 issue 17 Circulation 1,000 Since 1872

on Unceded Mi’kmaq Land 62 York Street W. McCain Student Centre Mount Allison University Sackville, New Brunswick

506.364.2236

E4L 1H3

Email argosy@mta.ca

THE ARGOSY is published by Argosy Publications, Inc., a student run, autonomous, apolitical not-for-profit organization operated in accordance with the province of New Brunswick.

THE ARGOSY is a member of the Canadian University Press, a national co-operative of student newspapers.

ISSN 0837-1024

The Underbridge Press is a student-run publishing organization at Mount Allison University.

EDITORIAL staff EDITORS-IN-CHIEF | Sylvan Hamburger, Tyler Stuart MANAGING EDITOR | Cecilia Stuart NEWS EDITORS | Naomi Goldberg, Catherine Turnbull ARTS & CULTURE EDITORS | Mallory Burnside-Holmes, Mirelle Naud SPORTS & HEALTH EDITOR | David Taplin

EDITOR: SHANNON POWER | MARCH 9, 2017 | ARGOSY@MTA.CA

DISCUSSION CORNER

What are your thoughts on the MASU?

Students were asked: What do you expect from your students’ union?

How has the Mount Allison Students’ Union met or failed to meet your expectations?

Working for the MASU has been a really valuable experience and one of the highlights of my Mt. A career. I have had the pleasure of working with some incredibly dedicated and hard-working students. Sometimes the job is thankless and stressful, and it is always underpaid. This is a flawed organization that requires serious evaluation of practices and governance, and I have sometimes left the office frustrated or hurt. At the end of the day, however, I am always content knowing that the hours I’m putting in are going towards bettering the life of Mt. A students, connecting them to opportunities that provide valuable career skills.

- Cydney Kane Having graduated, I’ve left Mt. A and Sackville and am still upset about the actions of the MASU – and I think that in itself says something. A students’ union should first and foremost stand by and support all students, not just preserve the status quo. Current status-quo conditions are further marginalizing already marginalized students. Watching the MASU fail to support one of its own executive members this year really made me question what they are actually doing to support students.

- Zoe Luba

OPINIONS EDITOR | Shannon Power HUMOUR EDITOR | Mark Cruz COPY EDITOR | Claire Henderson-Hamilton

PRODUCTION staff PRODUCTION MANAGER | Hailey Guzik PHOTO EDITOR | Savannah Harris PHOTOGRAPHERS | Savannah Forsey, Ryan MacRae ILLUSTRATION EDITOR | Jeff Mann ILLUSTRATORS | Izzy Francolini, Louis Sobol

There have been numerous times over the course of my four years when I have felt let down by the MASU. One thing that has continuously been a point of disappointment for me has been the tendency for infighting on council. I have personally seen infighting and cases where our elected representatives on council have actively sabotaged initiatives that, in my opinion, were in the interest of all students for their own political gain. For years, our students’ union has lacked leadership – I include myself in this – that is capable of building solidarity in the executive, in council and amongst all students.

- Dylan Wooley-Berry

ONLINE EDITOR | Monica Zahl

REPORTING staff NEWS REPORTERS | Will Balser, Kavana Wa Kilele, Jill MacIntryre POLITICS REPORTER | Nadiya Safonova SPORTS REPORTER | Hamza Munawar ARTS & CULTURE REPORTERS | Emma Bush, Marissa Cruz, Will Pelletier

OPERATIONS staff

If part of the students’ union’s mission is taking a stand on student issues, it must do so even if the interests of students are at odds with those of the administration. The MASU should vocally and consistently advocate for the university’s divestment from fossil fuels, recognizing that speculative damage to a small percentage of Mount Allison’s endowment fund is fundamentally less important than the concrete, ongoing destruction of humans and the environment those investments enable.

- Sebastian Carrera

BUSINESS MANAGER | Tessa Dixon AD MANAGER | James Lantz CIRCULATIONS | Katharyn Stevenson

CONTRIBUTORS James Beirne, Rebecca Butler, Cydney Cane, Sebastian Carrera, Emily Gatchell, Bryenton Innes, Alex Lepianka, Zoe Luba, Paul Lynch, Willa McCaffrey-Noviss, Garrett Muir, Hannah Sholtz, Dylan Wooley-Berry, Isaiah Yankech, Emma Hassencahl COVER | Louis Sobol

PUBLICATION board Leslie Kern, Owen Griffiths, Mark Nicol, Lili Falk

DISCLAIMERS & COPYRIGHT The Argosy is the official independent student journal of news, opinion, and the arts, written, edited and funded by the students of Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick. The opinions expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of The Argosy’s staff or its Board of Directors.

The Argosy is published weekly throughout the academic year by Argosy Publications Inc. Student contributions in the form of letters, articles, photography, graphic design and comics are welcome. The Argosy reserves the right to edit or refuse all materials deemed sexist, racist, homophobic, or otherwise unfit for print, as determined by the Editor-in-Chief. Articles or other contributions can be sent to argosy@mta.ca or directly to a section editor.

The Argosy will print unsolicited materials at its own discretion. Letters to the editor must be signed, though names may be withheld at the sender’s request and at The Argosy’s discretion. Anonymous letters will not be printed.

Comments , concerns, or complaints about The Argosy’s content or operations should be first sent to the Editor-in-Chief at the address above.

If the Editor-in-Chief is unable to resolve a complaint, it may be taken to the Argosy Publications, Inc. Board of Directors. The chairs of the Board of Directors can be reached at the address above.

All materials appearing in The Argosy bear the copyright of Argosy Publications, Inc. Material cannot be reprinted without the consent of the Editor-in-Chief.

MOUNT ALLISON STUDENT SENATORS FROM ALL PROGRAMS SIT ON UNIVERSITY SENATE. ARGOSY ARCHIVES

THE MOUNT ALLISON STUDENTS’ UNION PLANS VARIOUS EVENTS ON CAMPUS, INCLUDING SHINE DAY ARGOSY ARCHIVES I think recently the MASU has done a great job improving the flow of information it sends out to students, but the current exchange of information between the union and community seems non-reciprocal, as student-feedback has never been more unheard. When students tell you that your organization fosters systemic racism and discrimination, it’s your obligation to listen and absorb this feedback, not deny and save face with deflective press releases.

- Rebecca Butler MASU committees are the behind-the-scenes workhorses of the union.

Regularly meeting to discuss student consultation, write policy and plan events, committees are a great way to focus on specific issues that would take up too much time in council. They are a great way to hash out ideas and decisions, and they allow people with different insights to contribute to the discussion and come up with the best possible solutions. They have given me experience with policy planning and writing, which provides me with insight into the requirements for getting things done in the senate and student council. As well, on the entertainment committee, I have not only gained amazing experience but also have had an amazing time helping organize performances at Mount Allison.

- Garrett Muir As a former MASU counsellor, the most defining feature I see in the organization is its radical lack of imagination and the value it places on imitating a corporate boardroom over fighting the many struggles faced by students. This is no one person’s fault: Every year’s executive goes in thinking it will be the team to finally turn things around. It never does, and until it radically rethinks its purpose, structure and relationship to students, it never will. We live in fast-changing times, and Mt. A is an active campus. Students deserve a union that can keep up with them.

-James Beirne

OPINIONS

THE ARGOSY | WWW.ARGOSY.CA

VOLUNTOURISM

15

On Global Charades

Voluntourism is a $2-billion dollar industry that perpetuates racism and global inequality

SEBASTIAN CARRERA Contributor Over the years, I’ve heard a multitude of critiques leveled at global volunteer organizations, also known as voluntourism. Some make claims that it attracts narcissists keen on acquiring the social capital that white-saviour imagery affords; others recognize that voluntourists are on the whole the most unqualified people their organizations can legally send abroad to do development work. While largely true, these critiques only skim the surface of an ongoing and centuries-long story that constitutes Canada’s relationship with the “developing” world.

When we consider a problem like global volunteering, we must ask why the countries visited are struggling. Do they struggle because they are slower or less capable than we are? Or is global poverty largely the result of asymmetrical

socioeconomic relationships between them and the “developed” world?

If we look at Canada’s economic role internationally, we’re a leading investor in global resource extraction, especially mining operations that transfer enormous volumes of capital to corporate investors and make negligible returns to workers and supplying countries.

Extraction is often accompanied by the forcible displacement of communities, the destruction of ecosystems, the poisoning of water sources and the murder of protesters opposed to projects. Canada obstructs policy changes that might curb this looting by signing Foreign Investor Protection Agreements as well as documents like the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

So what does this all have to with a bunch of charitable students? After all, voluntourists are not as such directly associated with any level of government and are rarely investors themselves. The answer lies at the origin of the voluntourist impetus – not “goodwill,” but an industry.

Voluntourism is a $2-billion business that capitalizes on altruism to rake in members and expand profits for investors. Their programs make tremendous progress in the way of

MT. A HAS HOSTED EVENTS DISCUSSING THE PROBLEMS OF VOLUNTOURISM. ADRIAN KIVA /ARCHIVES lining resumes and alleviating the guilt one might feel for having so much at the expense of so many.

More importantly, they make students feel useful and good. One would be forgiven to consider that non-profit organizations are a less egregious option, but the fact remains that all voluntourism operates not on the explicit recognition or handling of underlying causes of “underdevelopment,” but the implicit

acceptance of their perpetuity.

Considering this organizing principle, we are also confronted with the problem that as voluntourism does not deal with real problems in practice, it also obscures those problems in the discourse surrounding them. The act of engaging in voluntourism repeats to students, their families and the public the old refrain in which we characterize the global poor not as

active subjects, but as passive objects.

It reminds us that we get to determine the origin, treatment and outcomes of poverty, and insulates from public understanding those who are affected the most by neocolonial violence and do the most to shed light on the real issues – mainly, black and Indigenous peoples.

This phenomenon is so prevalent and so useful to business interests that one of the Canadian Conservative Party’s main axioms in foreign policy making is the framing of “developing” countries as freeloaders to the Canadian coffer as opposed to the exploited producers they are.

If we truly want to make our efforts count toward helping those who struggle abroad, our engagement must take the shape of actively recognizing and challenging the institutions and narratives driving those struggles – beginning with the removal of our participation with organizations that fundamentally abet these racialized structures. If we fail to do so, our altruism can be coopted by repression. As Sara Ahmed writes, “anti-racism may even provide the conditions for a new discourse of white pride.”

BODY IMAGE

101 Ways to Exist for Men: A review of the March 2017 issue of Cosmopolitan magazine

WILLA MCAFFREY-NOVISS

Contributor

Since high school, too much of my time has been spent repairing relationships with my body and reshaping my thoughts about what it is to be a woman. This process largely entailed ignoring the propaganda that partially created the damage in the first place. However, this month’s edition of Cosmopolitan brought me down memory lane and left me reminiscing over the many misconceptions that weighed down my 13-year-old mind.

I remember thinking that striving for male attention, being ashamed of having a period and being unhappy unless you were skinny, youthful and loved by others was normal. One of the main culprits for the formation of these harmful ideas is the “biggest women’s magazine brand in the world.”

The overarching theme in Cosmopolitan’s language is

normalized in many settings, and it continues to reinforce harmful gender roles. Cosmo’s pages are riddled with phrases advising all women on how to please the men of the world, in and out of the bedroom.

In one article titled “Keeping the Lust Alive,” women are encouraged to compliment their boyfriend, sneak into his place of work to watch him in action and playfully flirt with him.

This one-directional call to action not only dispels any expectation of a focus on female happiness and pleasure, but also uses pronouns assuming heterosexuality as a means to create an exclusive and heteronormative box.

One particular article boasted that 55 per cent of guys think periods are “natural” or “awesome,” as if male validation is necessary in order for women to make peace with our bodies. From stories of staining a pair of pants at school to interpreting spotting as a sign of impending death, first-period stories often range from embarrassing to sad. Many women experience a damaged relationship to their period because of the shaming involved in their initial experience.

These relationships cannot heal from a foundation rooted in male encouragement and acceptance, or in assumptions that all people who get periods are cisgender women.

Another article titled “Steak

and Potatoes for your Boyfriend” provides a script for making the perfect dinner date. The problem isn’t that it encourages doing something nice for someone you care about, it’s that it shows us where the priorities lie for the most popular women’s magazine.

With cover stories like “The #1 Way to Tell if He’s Truly into You,” Cosmo is demonstrating that these are normal things to be worrying about. Obsessing over the thoughts of others and putting their pleasure above yours is not what young girls should be encouraged to do.

In university, I am surrounded by women who defy body-shaming norms, embrace non-heterosexual identities, are interested in their own pleasure and celebrate their periods.

Just last month, a group of Mount Allison students got on stage to perform monologues about broken relationships with the female body, discoveries of female pleasure and the targeting of trans women.

Every year, I am in awe of my peers who participate in the Vagina Monologues and feel blessed to have them to look up to. I only wish my 13-year-old self had the same opportunity. In short, future 13-year-olds would be better off if the Vagina Monologues became the most popular reading material for women.

THE MARCH 2017 ISSUE OF COSMOPOLITAN MAGAZINE. HEARST COMMUNICATIONS, INC.

16 HUMOUR

EDITOR: MARK CRUZ | MARCH 9, 2017 | ARGOSY@MTA.CA

KEVIN MELANSON

“Why does my heart feel so bad?

Why does my soul feel so bad?”

SYLVAN HAMBURGER

MARINA MAVRIDIS

MARISSA CRUZ