The Burr Magazine Fall 2016

Fall 2016

gun control

straight edge

social media anxiety

black hair

Cover by Jacqueline Stofsick

on the

COVER

T

he Burr pays homage to the retro revival of television, film, fashion and culture. The magazine looks to celebrate the nostalgia of driving up to a favorite local hangout in a past decade.

3

table of CONTENTS THE INSTITUTE

Photo by Amani Williams

12 gaining perspective

from the EDITOR

I

grew up in a house full of music. Being the youngest of five, my ears flooded with the sounds of Weezer, Green Day and the Red

Whatever the reason, these things are too important to let go of entirely. In this issue, The tions. A profile on Rayne Blakeman, a straight

day is the result of what I was exposed to when

edge student at Kent State, kicks off the retro

I was younger.

package on page 18. Our friends at A Magazine

miliar to my childhood and a correlation to pop culture. In 2014, Coca-Cola resurrected Surge soda by popular demand after a 11-year hiatus.

Notorious pop-punkers Blink-182 released a

make a special appearance by commenting on vintage fashion on page 22 and art director Jacqueline Stofsick compiles items making a comeback on page 28.

Those stories are juxtaposed with hard-hitting

new album in July. Training Pokemon became

and earnest storytelling. Senior editor Kelly

even more accessible through the use of cell

Powell weighs social media use and its ability

phones when the “Pokemon Go” app launched

to cause anxiety on page 36 while managing

in the same month.

editor Samantha Ickes tackles the issue of con-

We are hopelessly obsessed with nostalgia. We

18 living on the edge 22 fashion flashback 24 nostalgia and chill 28 retro resurgence

THE FEED 34 harder than goodbye

34

36 stress on screen

THE CURRENT 40 black hair magic 44 redefining beauty

THE FEATURES 48 flowers vs. bullets

cealed carry invading campus on page 48.

54 i done signed my name 58 international affair

hang onto the things from our childhood be-

Thanks for picking up The Burr. I hope you

cause moving on often means forgetting. And

enjoy diving into the retro issue as much as we

sometimes we enjoy being stuck in the past.

enjoyed putting it together. Cheers!

61 the art of getting by

Because we can’t name the greatest musician of this generation. Because media such as television and film are just now producing original

4 | The Burr Magazine

18

Burr explores retrospectives across genera-

Hot Chili Peppers. My interest in pop-punk to-

As years passed, I saw the return of items fa-

12

RETRO

content instead of franchising and rebooting

Neville Hardman

old programs.

Editor-in-chief

64 the equalizer 66 the last shot

40

48

Photo by Eslah Attar

The Burr Magazine is Kent State’s first student-produced magazine made for Kent State University, the city of Kent, Ohio, and any other person looking for strong, journalistic storytelling. The Burr strives to provide its readers with interesting, humorous and hardhitting stories that tap into current events, trends and the lives of those who have made a home in Kent.

Neville Hardman

Samantha Ickes

Jacqueline Stofsick

Brianna Deckert

Kelly Powell

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

MANAGING EDITOR

ART DIRECTOR

ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR

SENIOR EDITOR

Amani Williams

Benjamin VanHoose

Jacob Derwin

Molly Spillman

Sam Sale

PHOTO EDITOR

COPY DESK CHIEF

VIDEO & AUDIO EDITOR

WEB EDITOR

PROMOTIONS DIRECTOR

writers

copy editors

photographers

illustrators

designers

JAMIE BRIAN

MEG AYSCUE

ESLAH ATTAR

MAHLON RHODES

SARA KOUBEK

COLLIN CUNNINGHAM

ALEXANDRIA KOBRYN

TALIA HODGE

ALEXIS SCRANTON

ANNE MARIE GALLAGHER

REBECCA DAWIDZIAK

ITZEL LEÓN

SAMANTHA KARAM

MARK TABAR

MAHLON RHODES

MARCUS DONALDSON

ADRIAN LEUTHAUSER

ITZEL LEON

JANA LIFE

KAYLA STURM

ANDREA NOALL

video & audio

promotions

bloggers

ANGELO ANGEL

ANTHONY PHAM

MEG AYSCUE

YISHAN LI

HANNAH WAGNER

ZACHARY BREITBACH

MAGGIE SUGG

KIANA DUNCAN MATT POE

6 | The Burr Magazine

ALEXIS SCRANTON

STEPHANIE LAWRENCE adviser KEVIN DILLEY director of student media KATIE BARNES EVANS media specialist NORMA YOUNG business manager Tami Bongiorni advertising manager

Published with support of Kent State and the Kent Community. Also published with support from Generation Progress/Center for American Progress (online at genprogress.org).

No part of The Burr Magazine may be reprinted or published without permission. © 2016 The Burr Magazine.

330-672-2572 theburrmagazine@gmail.com

Photo by Amani Williams

through THE LENS W The Chestnut Burr was Kent State’s student-produced yearbook, published from 1914 to 1985. In 1986, students Lauren Buterbaugh and Thomas Lewis transformed the yearbook into The Chestnut Burr Magazine, which was shortened to The Burr in 1988.

8 | The Burr Magazine

ith signs reading phrases such as “Ohio for Kennedy” and “Klean Up With Kennedy,” Kent State’s first mock political convention took place inside Wills Gymnasium on an April day in 1960.

The New York Times called the election a “narrow victory” for Kennedy as he collected more than 100,000 popular votes over Republican nominee Richard Nixon and a total of 303 electoral votes.

“Delegates spent weeks acquainting themselves with nominees, campaign issues and views of the states they were to represent … Robert E. Cook, congressman from the Ohio 11th district, presided as permanent chairman, while Wayne L. Hayes, Ohio 18th district representative, began activities with the keynote address,” according to the 1961 issue of the Chestnut Burr.

The 2016 Presidential Election followed a similar pattern. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were two unconventional candidates to claim a major party ticket. Trump, a businessman, and Clinton, whose husband served as president in 1992, stirred skepticism within communities as the two vied for votes. While Clinton won the popular vote, Trump captured the presidency with electoral votes.

John F. Kennedy was considered an unconventional candidate because of his Catholic background. Previously, New York Gov. Alfred E. Smith was the only Catholic presidential nominee belonging to a major party. At the time, Americans feared the pope would feed direct instructions to the White House and separation between church and state would cease to exist.

state OF THE UNIVERSITY

PARTA launches an app to make bus routes more predictable called SPOT PARTA.

SALSA paints the rock to honor the organization after hearing a “build that wall” chant directed toward the group during the Homecoming parade on Oct 1.

The latest happenings around Kent

Prentice Café opens the first certified gluten-free dining hall in the United States.

the good Hillary Clinton speaks at the Student Recreation and Wellness Center rallying students to get out and vote.

the bad The Indians lose the World Series by one run in a 8-7 loss, devastating Kent State students and the community.

Photo courtesy of Gina DeSimone

The Stone Tavern closes its doors on July 5, moving west on Main Street to a new location.

10 | The Burr Magazine

11

THE INSTITUTE

Lucas Cassi teaches yoga at the Student Recreation and Wellness Center twice a week.

When he is not teaching yoga, he spends a lot of his time studying and reading so he is ready to enroll in classes in the spring.

gaining perspective After losing his sight, Lucas Cassi uses yoga as a way to feel in control of his life again.

WORDS BY JAMIE BRIAN PHOTOS BY JANA LIFE

L

ucas Cassi sits cross-legged on his black yoga mat and greets students with a broad smile as they enter the studio.

“Good evening, everyone,” he says. “I’d like to blame my lack of athletic shorts on my blindness, but I just couldn’t find them.”

His good-natured humor erases any tension in the room over exams, relationships or workday drama. Then, he asks everyone in the room to describe how they are feeling in one word.

“Tired,” one woman says and lets out a sigh as she adjusts her yoga mat. “Sore.” “Relaxed.”

“Excited!” exclaims another, shifting her weight from one leg to the other in anticipation.

By the end of the class, whatever negative words the students chose have been forgotten for the moment, and the positive ones are a little more present. Cassi seems to have made a second home in the Student Recreation and Wellness Center studio. If he hadn’t lost his vision when he was 18 years old, he might never have set foot there.

In high school, Cassi was a do-it-all athlete, participating in soccer, cross-country, track, wrestling and rugby. He could dart across the field

12 | The Burr Magazine

and run a mile in under five minutes. He was a perfectly healthy kid. His diagnosis of Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy in January 2006 came as a surprise.

The six months leading up to his diagnosis were a blur of doctor’s waiting rooms and tests. Life became a series of MRIs, spinal taps, blood work and four different eye specialists. The disease is hereditary, but it was unexpected because no one else in his family had ever had it. While he was going through the tests, doctors believed there was a chance his loss of vision was because of a brain tumor. Blindness didn’t seem like such a big deal afterward.

“Living and having the little vision that I have is definitely a lot better than not living,” Cassi says.

“When I was told that I was blind, I was happy.”

Even though he embraces his diagnosis with optimism, adjusting still wasn’t an easy task.

“It was like ripping a Band-Aid off,” Cassi says. “It happened all of a sudden, and I was in a lot of emotional pain.”

The world he knew became a different place. To be considered legally blind, a person’s vision must be 20/200. This is the point where vision

can’t be corrected. A blind person’s vision would stop at 20 feet, whereas a sighted person’s would continue to 200 feet. After 20/800, vision loss isn’t labeled in numbers anymore. It’s classified as hand motion or mobility vision, and then the most severe stage is light perception vision.

Cassi, now 29 years old, is considered to have hand motion vision. He has no central vision or depth perception. He does have some cloudy peripheral vision, but he can’t tell the detail of an object.

“If someone were to raise their hand, I couldn’t tell you how many fingers they were holding up, but I might be able to tell you that there was motion,” he says.

There has to be enough contrast between the object and the background color for him to make out its shape.

Things he had taken for granted such as going to the grocery store became uncharted territory. He had to ask for customer service to navigate the grocery store, and he no longer had the independence of just jumping in a car and going wherever he wanted.

While his vision is gone, Cassi finds his other

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THE INSTITUTE

senses are ready to help him through the day. “At first, I got it wrong,” Cassi says. “I guessed my Through an intensive nine-month training pro- cane, and it was the stick. After hearing that gram at the Louisiana Center for the Blind, Cassi sound, I knew what to listen for.” took courses on cane travel, cooking, home maintenance and Braille.

Blindness has altered small bonding moments like this. It has also changed the course of Cassi’s In the cane travel class, students were required professional life. Before he was diagnosed, he to wear a Mindfold mask over their eyes to train was happy getting by with a roofing job and as if everyone were completely blind. Once they didn’t see college in his future. Now, he will start had learned proper cane gripping technique, at Kent State this spring to seek an undergraduthey learned how to navigate within the center. ate degree in interpersonal communication. His From there, they progressed to a series of three ultimate goal is to earn a master’s degree in oriout-of-town trips and three drop-off routes. entation and mobility, which will allow him to teach the blind to travel and orient themselves One of the graduation requirements was a 5.2- to new surroundings. mile walk from Ruston, Louisiana to Grambling, Louisiana. Successfully arriving in Grambling, “This has allowed me to develop myself as a students ordered burgers at the local Sonic and person a little bit faster and more in-depth,” snagged a few business cards to prove they’d Cassi says. been there.

He found a place where he can do just that: the The out-of-town trips built confidence, but the yoga studio. drop-off routes were the true tests. Up until this point, students were allowed to ask for help or “I wanted to find more contentment in everyday directions. Now, they were on their own. life,” Cassi says. “I think a sighted person can look at something and be entertained, whereas “They’d take you to a parking lot, drive around in myself, I don’t have that.” circles and drop you off,” Cassi says.

At first, he tried to learn through YouTube videos, He would walk until he found a familiar cue, but they weren’t descriptive enough. The phrase duced to a new pose. Yoga became a way for such as the whir of a train or the smell of fast “downward dog” alone doesn’t exactly give a good Cassi to find stability in his life. food. One of the drop routes took him seven visual picture of how the body should be posihours to complete. But he always made it back. tioned. He still wanted to practice yoga, but he “You can see progress, and that progress is noticewasn’t making enough progress on his own. So, able,” Cassi says. “You’ll start to be more obserThe center showed students how to prepare a Cassi decided to enroll in classes at Centerpeace, vant of the subtle aspects of your life.” meal for 40 people and build a grandfather clock, a yoga studio in Kent. but its true purpose was to teach students how According to the National Federation of the to be an independent blind person and to live “I felt like I could grow right away,” Cassi says. “I Blind, there are an estimated 7,327,800 people without fear. felt almost as if people were just as eager to teach in the United States with a visual disability. Yet, a blind person as I was eager to learn.” many people have never met a blind person and Students went rock climbing, horseback riding don’t know how to respond to one. and whitewater rafting—all while wearing the He had found the one-on-one training he eye mask. During his training, Cassi practiced needed to make sense of abstract yoga terms. During the 2015-2016 school year at Kent State, using his other senses to do the things he had After describing a yoga position, the instructor there were 20 students who were registered with always relied on sight to accomplish. would use descriptive cues to help explain align- Student Accessibility Services at Kent State as ment. Statements such as, “Press into your mat having a visual impairment, according to direcHe continues to practice. His seven-year-old with your pinky toe edge” would help students tor Amy Quillin. daughter, Madison, often comes up with creative understand proper alignment. ways to hone her dad’s skills. They recently Student Accessibility Services provides accomplayed a game where she ran a stick and his cane Yoga isn’t something Cassi does. It’s something modations such as electronic text and extended on a chain link fence and asked, “What sound is he feels. He learned what proper alignment of time for exams to help those students succeed in the body should feel like each time he was intro- their courses. SAS also offers a door-to-door bus this one?”

14 | The Burr Magazine

Cassi practices yoga in his home studio, where he often starts out every morning doing what he calls “Sun Salutations,” something he also incorporates into his classes at the Student Recreation and Wellness Center.

service from PARTA that can pick students up at one building and bring them to another.

Students with vision loss may face the occasional challenge of having their usual pathway blocked by construction, but blindness is just a circumstance. It doesn’t define them.

“People have a wide array of abilities despite the fact that they have a disability,” Quillin says. “The idea of focusing on the disability may do a disservice to the myriad range of abilities that students have to offer.”

Cassi stands at the front of the studio with his fiery blue eyes closed and his suntanned hands reaching toward the ceiling in a tree pose. He has a strong presence, but what Cassi enjoys most about yoga is the chance to forget about the world for a while. He tries to go inward in his practice through pratyahara, or the removal of the senses.

“I’m not relying on my hearing or my taste or my touch,” he says. “I’m going to a place where the external world is distant.”

The program paid off. Now, he can inspire others through yoga in the same way that he was inspired. Even though things are looking up for Cassi, he still has to deal with discrimination.

Yoga is an outlet for Cassi to find calmness and “To hear people say that I’m not blind and to wave to forget about the cues that help him maneuver their hands in my face is probably the toughest through the day. Instead of listening for traffic thing that I deal with,” Cassi says. “The majority or feeling for the edge of the street with his cane, of the time, it’s just sad.” B he can just be still. He decided to become an instructor in order to give people the chance to find this tranquility, too.

He was at the studio one day when he heard a conversation about instructor training classes.

In 200 hours of training, he could be the one to make stress disappear. The training course was life-changing. During the year-long training program, he met with the teacher and 16 other pupils in his class, putting in 17 hours the second weekend of the month to learn about yoga positions, philosophy, anatomy and teaching techniques.

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fr Travel back in time with The Burr as we reflect on trends, pop culture and fashion that sparks nostalgia within the last few decades.

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RETRO

living on the edge Around 35 years ago, straight edge was coined by hardcore punk band Minor Threat. Now, Kent hones in on the culture.

WORDS BY NEVILLE HARDMAN PHOTOS BY SAMANTHA KARAM

S

ipping from a mug of Earl Grey tea, a blonde wades through the crowds. Even though Rayne Blakeman hasn’t swallowed alcohol since she was 13 years old because the rum tasted like nail polish remover, she ends up at a party. People see holes and patches on her black jeans and think she does drugs. They see her septum piercing and think she’s one of them, despite her hand never reaching for a bottle.

“Do you know what year it is?” a man shouts at her teasingly, spotting her beverage that would better suit an evening with Netflix than a room of buzzed college students.

often portray it. Her parents will never worry about her sneaking alcohol from the liquor cabinet even though she has access. Her friends won’t ever see her boot crush the butt of a cigarette into the ground. She couldn’t because smoke bothers her, making her throat close up or causing hives to form around her eyes if she’s near it. (Her asthma contributes to this.) She won’t wake up to a stranger because she’s been dating the same person since she was 14, the year she officially became “straight edge.”

Coined by the hardcore punk band Minor Threat, straight edge simply means she follows a stricter lifestyle than others, choosing not to drink, smoke or experiment with drugs. Most of all, it translates to safe living, shying away from the self-destructive behavior and physical altercations that often follow addictive substance.

She doesn’t mind, though. She couldn’t imagine putting herself in this situation if she did because the anxiety would eat away at her. While others might believe she’s out of her element, immersed in the objects she’s chosen to ignore, she’s just being herself.

“WE’RE JUST A MINOR THREAT”

Blakeman, a second-year studying political science, doesn’t experience college in the way classic comedies such as “Animal House” or “Old School”

It began when frontman Ian MacKaye and drummer Jeff Nelson collected members Brian Baker and Lyle Preslar to fill the hole left by the breakup

18 | The Burr Magazine

of their last band, Teen Idles. The songs were short, direct and fed on a desire for sobriety.

In December 1980, those four men performed in Washington, D.C., opening for Bad Brains, The Untouchables, Black Market Baby and S.O.A. At the time, the area was transforming into a stomping ground for hardcore punk, opening the door for the youth crew era, which gave birth to straight edge bands such as Youth of Today and Gorilla Biscuits. During this time, straight edge culture thrived.

By June 1981, the band released its first self-titled EP, which included the song “Straight Edge.” In less than a minute, Minor Threat accentuated the advantages of staying sober with quick, vehement lyrics, contrasting the punk movement with intentions of promoting clean living.

Those 45 seconds challenged the hedonism of punk rock, which oozed with drug experimentation, objectifying women and proclamations of fighting authority. It became an anthem for the way people started living.

RETRO One of Blakeman’s many tattoos. It’s written in her handwriting and includes the symbol for air and the symbol for friends.

someone has a drink in their hand. They think she’ll judge them, but what they don’t know is she doesn’t care if they don’t follow the same values as she does or that she’s even in favor of legalizing marijuana.

“It’s all about the intention for me,” Blakeman says. “Am I doing something good for myself or am I just hurting myself?”

pels the band into motion.

“Oppression is violence in all forms,” McMaster speaks. “To aggressively control is a violent action. War is violence. Racism is violence.

Sexism is violence. Homophobia is violence.”

The tapping acts as a backdrop for his words, complementing his pacing and gradually picking up as Greitzer joins in on bass.

WELCOME TO THE WORKSHOPPE

At 2:30 p.m. on a Saturday, people gather in the basement of 140 E. Williams St. in Kent.

Rayne Blakeman performs as SAP at The Workshoppe in Kent on Oct. 15, 2016.

Later the band released a second EP dubbed “In My Eyes” in the same year and eventually took to a full-length album. While Minor Threat disbanded in 1983, its influence stretched for years to come. To this day, hardcore culture still exists in Washington, D.C. STRAIGHT EDGE OR HATE EDGE?

Blakeman stands observing the scene in front of her. People toss back alcohol and talk in groups, but she’s comfortable watching or else she would have left. A man approaches, offering her a drink after noticing she has nothing in her hands.

“Oh, no,” she politely declines. “I’m straight edge.”

“Are you straight edge or hate edge?” the stranger asks.

20 | The Burr Magazine

At first, Blakeman was confused. What did he mean by “hate edge?” How could he even offer that alternative when she’d already identified as straight edge?

When the straight edge lifestyle emerged, a smaller subculture broke out called hardline, or hate edge. Those people were viewed as extremists, following straight edge values but implementing sexism and racism as well as using violence to express their views. Smacking beer cans out of a person’s hand or jumping someone for smoking a cigarette on the street was accepted to force others to conform.

Even though she’s never been asked if she associated with hardline before that interaction, she knew it was a backhanded question. To Blakeman, no one who believes in hardline values

actually admits it because of how outdated its concepts are during a time where progressive spaces continue to pop up.

At least in Kent, Blakeman hopes, hardline doesn’t exist.

There are people, however, who adhere to more rules. Some don’t drink coffee or take prescription medicine, but she does. Others don’t have promiscuous sex. She doesn’t eat meat, and it’s only because of a deal she made with her longterm partner, Scotty McMaster. But the standards she lives by aren’t rules. She could break them if she wanted to, but she never has. The

For McMaster, it’s simply ignoring that he doesn’t always fit in with the people he’s around and moving forward.

“The only goal [breaking edge] would really help me achieve is winning the acceptance of certain people, and I don’t really want to have that mindset,” McMaster says.

Blakeman would never march up to someone eating a hamburger and berate them on why they shouldn’t eat meat. In fact, policing people is a concept she can’t stand because the way she lives isn’t based on telling people what they should do or that they’re wrong. It’s about making sure people are safe.

idea of vomiting or getting mouth cancer is too much to fathom. It would go against her personal revolution.

One of the biggest misconceptions people mistake about her lifestyle is that she’s offended if

“Resistance is peace,” he continues as the audience joins his chant. “Resistance is peace. Resistance is peace.”

Entering means agreeing to its terms, which are Blakeman throws her head back and closes her spelled out in graffiti on the walls and on hang- eyes as she chants, taking over vocals once the ing pieces of paper. The Workshoppe is a safe band launches into the second song. Despite her space, an area forbidding drugs and alcohol so thin, 5-foot-4 inch frame, the screech she directs all ages can attend shows. Additionally, there’s into the microphone is enough to throw the no racism, sexism or homophobia allowed, most skeptical person in the room into a trance. either and anyone caught using slurs will be asked to leave. The space embodies “do it your- “I will make you pay!” she wails. “I will make you self,” or DIY, an ethic that MacKaye set out to pay! I will make you pay!” create.

The scream that rips from her throat allows This event in particular is organized differently every emotion to rush to the surface. The judgfrom the shows normally hosted at The Work- ment she receives from society. The distrust she shoppe. It’s meant to resemble a hardcore mati- feels from her stepfather who doesn’t truly nee show, such as the ones at ABC No Rio in New believe she’s straight edge. The annoyance of not York in the 1980s. always fitting in. The love she has for McMaster, who plays right beside her. It all rings in the ears At the urge of McMaster, who has put together of the people watching, who salute her cries by this event, people begin to form a half-circle in bouncing into each other and flailing their arms front of the equipment set up where bands will in the center of the room. Kratcoski rises from play later. The Industrial Workers of the World his seat and towers over his kit while continuing present themselves, speaking of labor unions to hit the sticks, smacking sections until it all and sharing personal stories. Mostly, it’s about knocks over. In this moment, she mimics her how much they hate their boss. Despite all the heroes, such as MacKaye. In this moment, she distractions—the graffiti covered walls, the twin- wears straight edge on her sleeve. B kling Christmas lights behind the drum kit, the half-eaten vegan food—it’s hard not to be compelled by their persistence to fight the power.

After a short intermission, members of SAP, an anarcho punk band, prepare for their set. Garet Greitzer, owner of The Workshoppe, belongs to this act along with Blakeman, McMaster and drummer Peter Kratcoski. While there’s no actual stage, McMaster encourages everyone to come close. The light tapping of the drums pro-

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RETRO

DENIM JACKET Your vintage denim jacket has been through it all and will continue to be at the forefront of your closet for years. From the faded collars to the snags and tears, denim jackets may be one of the only items of clothing that gets better with age. This outerwear is a closet staple, a serious musthave. If you want to go the extra mile, adorn your jacket with some pins or vintage patches.

BELL-BOTTOM JEANS

HEADSCARF

fashion FLASHBACK

What is a girl supposed to do when a threeday-old blowout won’t sit right, or your gorgeous locks are just not on your side? Take a headscarf for a spin. You will instantly channel your inner Brigitte Bardot with this timeless piece. The essence of mastering this 1960s look is in the silk. Say goodbye to chunky cotton bandanas and hello to the delicate silk square. You will look both chic and retro at the same time.

This season is all about the flare and how far we can push it. Luckily for all of us, bell-bottoms are flattering on any body type. Travel back to the ’70s with this retro trend. When styling your look, take inspiration from the Stevies, the Jane Birkins and the Pam Griers of the groovy era. Don’t forget, the bolder the better.

CHOKERS Asking a fashionista if she owns a choker is like asking Beyoncé if she has hot sauce in her bag. The answer is always yes. We are all about this essential ’90s trend. Chokers have done a bit of growing up though, transitioning from the tattoo pattern to now bold and unique necklaces that can tie any outfit together. Adorn your neck in contrasting fabrics, such as velvet, metal, mesh and lace.

WORDS BY HANNAH WRIGHT PHOTOS BY JACQUELINE STOFSICK

To keep up with the current trends, we must look to the past. A Magazine is teaming up with The Burr to give readers a guide to familiarizing and mastering retro fashion this season. Here we will take a look at fashion essentials that have all made a serious comeback.

From the ’50s to the ’90s, all these past pieces have been too good not to make a return.

22 | The Burr Magazine

CAT-EYE GLASSES Rising out of a similar decade as the headscarf, this next ’50s-’60s trend is a classic piece, and thanks to Ohio’s indecisive weather, still wearable. As the sun starts peaking through on gloomy days, pull out a pair of cat-eye glasses. The soul of these specs is in the angular shape, adding a lifting effect. Try a pair in nude or tortoise to complement all your looks.

HEELED LOAFERS Any style queen (or king) is more than familiar with the iconic Gucci loafer. Unfortunately, our college budget does not support our dreams of owning couture shoes, but don’t lose hope in rocking loafers just yet. This 1980s trend has made a serious comeback, evolving from preppy to sleek. Adding a pair of patterned socks to a chunky-heeled loafer offers a quirky twist.

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RETRO

multitask but that never works. [Binge watching] also takes away from socializing and exercise.”

nostalgia and chill

And it’s not a trend exclusive to younger generations, either. The Deloitte Survey also found 35 percent of binge-watchers aged 50-68 consumed four episodes at a time.

A look at television consumption pre- and post-internet, and why audiences can’t seem to let go of the past.

“My grandpa even binge-watches TV,” Gibbons says.

To put into perspective the time required to binge-watch one series from start to finish, take fan-favorite dramedy “Gilmore Girls” as an example. Prior to its Netflix revival, the series ran for seven seasons. Not counting the new content, multiply 154 episodes by 45 minutes each. That’s 115.5 hours—nearly five full days of a life—spent eyeing a screen.

WORDS BY BENJAMIN VANHOOSE ILLUSTRATIONS BY MARK TABAR

I

t’s just after 8 p.m. when Candice Harris sets her laptop on a table in a Koonce Hall lounge area. She had a stressful day of work and classes, and the last thing on her mind is the accumulating homework that she’ll have to tackle eventually.

Just not right now.

Some shows are less subtle with its targeting of audience childhood memories. Here’s a look at some of the recent and upcoming shows that blatantly play to millennial nostalgia.

“Fuller House” (2016) There’s no way you missed “Full House” reruns on ABC Family growing up. Netflix revived the long-running series earlier this year with a majority of the cast reprising their roles. Although it is amusing to see the well-known characters as adults, it only ever amounts to a carbon-copy of the original.

ies, is one of millions who participate in bingewatching, or the act of marathon-viewing a TV series multiple hours at a time. Long-form, serialized television content has never been more accessible or readily-available, thanks to modern technology.

The number of Netflix streaming subscribers skyrocketed quickly. According to Netflix’s earning reports, total subscribers grew from roughly 21 million in 2011 to more than 86 million global accounts in 2016. But it’s not only Netflix getting in on the streaming game; Hulu holds 12 million subscriptions, more than 63 million are with Amazon Instant Video and there are 1 million paying subscribers at HBO Now.

“When I really want to watch something, it’s all I can think about,” Harris says. “I can’t focus on a After taking a moment to get comfortable, lecture or studying—I just can’t wait to get back “Before, when I just had regular TV, I was limto watching my show.” ited on the time that I could watch my shows; it Harris puts on a pair of bulky headphones and would be a certain time slot set aside for them,” exults in the fact that she finally has a few hours Just because it is easy, though, doesn’t mean it is Harris says. “But having Netflix and Hulu, you to relax. She checks her phone one last time harmless. Some studies link binge-watching to can pull it up on your phone, so any free time for any urgent emails or pressing assignments. depression, and even deem the viewing trend a that I have—even if it’s like 15 minutes—I need Harris scrolls through her inbox one thumb public health concern on par with other addicto watch part of an episode, just so I can get to swipe at a time when, out of the corner of her eye, tions. the next one.” she witnesses a stone-faced woman decapitate a trio of figures with the swing of a sword.

REWIND Forget about DVD box sets. All it takes is the tap of an app icon on an electronic device with interNo one was hurt, of course. The now-headless While today it seems like a Netflix account is net connectivity to invest in a long-term binge. beings were just visual effect trickery, and the a given in every household, the entertainment weapon-wielding woman was merely an actress. giant didn’t launch its instant streaming service PLAY Harris is simply catching up on her latest televi- until 2007. At the time, the online component to a Netflix subscription was like a novelty add-on, According to Deloitte’s Digital Democracy sion binge: “The Walking Dead.” something to toy with but never a replacement Survey, 70 percent of Americans claim they With a gasp, then a chuckle, Harris laughs off to the mailed out DVDs. binge-watch on a regular basis. her moment of shock, slightly embarrassed with her concern for the characters she has come to As little as 10 years ago, the world had to either Katelyn Gibbons, a junior studying geology, says rent or buy physical copies of a series, or wait for care for over the course of several seasons. She binge-watching has taken over parts of her colthe almighty broadcasting gods to air a desired sets her phone aside, losing herself in the bright lege life. program on TV. Either option is sure to sound computer screen. equally as archaic to today’s tech-savvy youth, “After work, I prefer to watch TV instead of doing Harris, a junior studying communication stud- spoiled by high-speed Wi-Fi and On Demand. homework,” she says. “I have told myself I can

24 | The Burr Magazine

hopelessly nostalgic

PAUSE Beside the obvious side effects that come with sedentary TV consumption, binge-watching is believed to be closely related to negative social and mental implications.

Researchers from the University of Toledo polled self-identifying binge-watchers and people who claimed to have normal viewing habits. The former group reported more signs of depression, anxiety and stress than the latter.

“Girl Meets World” (2014) Also thanks to ABC Family’s lineup of syndication, many can say they recall watching Cory and Topanga’s budding romance over the course of seven “Boy Meets World” seasons. This Disney Channel sequel series follows the couple’s oldest daughter as she learns life lessons. While some may find value watching it as a standalone, it fails to capture the familiar, sometimes edgy feel to its ’90s predecessor.

“Untitled That’s So Raven Sequel” (TBA) “We found some mental side effects associated with binge-watching in adults, such as adults reporting higher levels of stress, anxiety and depression when binge-watching, and similar results were found in college students,” says Jessica Sloan Kruger, a doctoral health education student involved in the study. “Because of our study design, we cannot say these are ‘side effects’ of binge-watching, but we know there are associations between the two.”

If binge-watching is so unhealthy, why are millions paying to be able to do it?

“Because TV is widely available, it is that much more tempting,” Harris says. “I believe it is human nature to want to do things in excess, and as long as it is easily available, people will overuse it.”

The team of University of Toledo researchers are now exploring the effects of binge-watching on young adults.

Oh snap! Raven-Symoné announced her Disney Channel show will get the “Fuller House” reboot treatment soon. While it’s not clear yet just how much of the original cast will return, Symoné will revisit her character as a single mother whose child is starting to have psychic visions just like her.

“Tales from the Crypt” (2017) If for some reason your parents let you watch this horror anthology series back in the day, let’s hope you’ve recovered by now. M. Night Shyamalan is set to bring back the Crypt Keeper for more campy, terrifying stories on TNT.

“Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie” (2017) Everyone’s favorite football head is set to hit the TV screen in the near future. The long rumored Nickelodeon original movie is said to explore the story behind Arnold’s parents, and expected to have the original voice cast.

25

RETRO

“The current study is examining the relation ships between binge TV-watching and mental health, sleep and physical activity and diet in college students,” Kruger says. “We are still analyzing the data to further investigate the effects of this behavior.”

FAST-FORWARD Will society’s craving for constant television consumption forever be a staple in everyone’s lives?

As of right now, binge-watching looks like it’s here to stay, for better or for worse.

“It has negatively impacted interpersonal communications and harmed society,” Harris says.

“But I think it will be here to stay—at least until the next big thing comes out.”

Television doesn’t have to be a scary thing, though. Like any other guilty pleasure, it can be consumed in moderation.

“Watching TV for long periods of time can cause students to run out of time to complete other important tasks such as coursework,” Kruger says. “Be sure to take a break, complete your work and continue to be physically active.”

Look at it in terms of something everyone is familiar with: food. One could either binge-eat an entire pantry of pastries and reap the regrettable aftereffects, or just indulge in a single doughnut for now and delve back later.

But a junk food analogy may not be the best in this case as some studies show correlations between binge-watching and poor eating choices.

responsibilities are fulfilled. It’s when the fate of Walter White or Olivia Pope become more important than a research paper that bingewatching becomes an issue.

REPLAY

And it’s not only the oldies that give audiences a nostalgia fix. Studios have found ways to play into As binge-watching establishes itself as a bank- our nostalgic side within their original content. able business, streaming services need to find the Netflix’s “Stranger Things” perfectly illustrates key influencer in viewing activity. The nostalgia this; although the sci-fi series is not a remake, factor is proving to be the secret ingredient to reboot or adaptation, at times it bares striking viral sensations. resemblance to “The Goonies,” “E.T.” and other ’80s fare. That callback to vintage cinema spoke Classic TV shows have been the subject of many to viewers and paid off for Netflix since the combidding wars, major platforms eager to add a pany partially attributed “Stranger Things” to its series of high pedigree to their catalog. In 2015, 31.7 percent revenue increase last quarter. There Hulu dropped an estimated $180 million for the are, of course, other releases that more blatantly exclusive streaming rights to ’90s sitcom “Sein- capitalize on nostalgic value. feld.” But why are retro series licensing deals so important to Netflix, Hulu and competing giants? But as it currently looks, the desire to revisit childhood favorites isn’t detrimental.

“I feel like people go back and watch shows to feel young again,” Harris says. “I’m at that age where “I can’t think of a reason why if you’re going to I’m getting older [and] not really digging most binge-watch it shouldn’t be a show from your of the new shows, so I just go back to bring up childhood,” Shields says. “I don’t think anyone good memories.” should give it up altogether.”

For Harris, those go-to shows that transport her to her former TV-consuming days are “That’s So Raven” and “Family Matters.”

Alison Shields earned her doctorate at Kent State and now works as an assistant professor of marketing at Ithaca College in New York. Her previous research focused on how nostalgia impacts consumer decision-making, and she recently began a paper on the correlations between binge-watching and nostalgia.

“Other studies have examined TV-watching and “We know that nostalgia is something people do diet and found a negative relationship,” Kruger to make themselves feel better,” she says. “When says. “We might recommend taking breaks you’re stressed, you go to the familiar things between episodes and doing something active, or that you used to love to watch when you were monitoring the amount and types of food you eat.” younger.”

For now, there’s no real need to cut ties with For college students, this longing for the past streaming services and abandon favorite char- tends to heighten. acters. Consensus points at an acceptable fill of one to three episodes per day, as long as other “It’s a very big period in a college student’s life:

26 | The Burr Magazine

you’re leaving your parents’ home, you’re becoming an independent adult—that can be scary,” Shields says. “Going back and re-watching those old shows reminds you of easier times.”

At this point, it’s practically impossible to put the remote down. B

retro

RE SURGENCE

WORDS BY NEVILLE HARDMAN PHOTOS BY JACQUELINE STOFSICK

T 260%

hroughout the years, people have imitated trends and attitudes of past decades. Television shows and film have been around long enough for people to feel nostalgia and musicians continue to be influenced by their predecessors. Compiled below are popular novelties whose influence is too important to forget.

28 | The Burr Magazine

Vinyl

Blink-182

Gone are the days of downloading music from peer-to-peer file sharing services such as LimeWire or Napster. Annual events such as Record Store Day give the vinyl revival the push it needs by providing an opportunity to collect special releases.

According to a 2015 Nielsen report, vinyl sales increased 260 percent since 2009, reaching to 9.2 million in 2014 just in the United States.

When Tom DeLonge exited the famous, often naked poppunk band known as Blink-182, fans thought it was the group’s demise. Things changed when Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker brought in Alkaline Trio guitarist Matt Skiba to kick out a new album, the latest since 2011’s “Neighborhoods.” “California” addresses adulthood and gives perspective from an older, wiser Blink. Pitchfork only scored the album a 5.5 out of 10.

Tom DeLonge

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1992

RETRO

Crystal Pepsi This year, PepsiCo relaunched Crystal Pepsi for a short period. A “clear alternative” to caramel colored syrups and caffeine, Crystal Pepsi only produced from 1992 to 1993, vanishing from shelves completely by 1994. Unlike the ’90s product, the new version actually contains caffeine.

Surge

30 | The Burr Magazine

Doritos

69 mg

Walking down the aisle of the grocery store, one can spot Doritos taco flavored tortilla chips tossed in with modern flavors, such as ranch dipped hot wing and spicy sweet chili. The bag even sports the old school Doritos logo from the ’70s.

taco

Back in the day, Coca-Cola created Surge, a citrus flavored soda, in attempt to rival Mountain Dew. It even mirrored its red and green color scheme. Now, it returns to shelves and is available for purchase through Amazon. The soda, which contains 69 milligrams of caffeine per 16 fluid ounces, was banned from several school vending machines. The kicker? Mountain Dew contains about 4.5 milligrams of caffeine per fluid ounce, which means at 16 fluid ounces it’s actually more potent than Surge. Despite this, production halted in 2003. It’s the first discontinued Coca-Cola brand to make a comeback, according to the company’s website.

“Star Wars” “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” hit theaters Dec. 18, 2015. The last time viewers were graced with a “Star Wars” film was in 2005 with the installation of “Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith.”

Captain Phasma

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give a little. help a lot.

Instant Cameras In 2008, The Impossible Project purchased the last Polaroid factory after the company declared bankruptcy, concluding a 61-year stint of producing instant film cameras. With machines no longer standing and zero formulas or supply chains to follow, The Impossible Project reinvented instant film eight years later, its website says.

Featured is the Fujifilm Instax Mini 8 Instant Camera. Whether one is using a refurbished Polaroid or a new Instax, the rise of film photos is back again and here to stay.

“Pokemon Go” “Pokemon Go,” a location-based augmented reality game, launched July 6 via smartphones. After creating a character, users can roam catching Pokemon and replenishing supplies at Pokestops, located copiously around Kent State’s campus and downtown. The app brought childhood back to life with the touch of a button for those who hadn’t played the game in years.

PROVIDING AWARD-WINNING JOURNALISM SINCE 1986 DONATE OR SHOP NOW Check out our website www.theburr.com

32 | The Burr Magazine

THE FEED

friends with me, but he should have explained himself.”

Though the relationship was strictly friends, Coursen says she would have felt less insulted if he had just said he didn’t want to be friends anymore.

Jacquelyn Kulish, a senior studying zoology, experienced ghosting her junior year of high school when she attended St. Ursula Academy, an all girls school in Toledo, Ohio.

Students from her high school went on a trip with the students from her brother’s school to Washington, D.C. While in D.C., Kulish met an attractive guy who was “everything you thought you wanted in high school.” He had an irresistible smile. He was funny, charming and sweet. She immediately hit it off with him and they began dating.

harder than goodbye Kent State students share experiences with ghosting, a widespread trend where a person leaves a relationship by refusing to communicate through call, text or social media.

WORDS BY REBECCA DAWIDZIAK ILLUSTRATION BY ALEXIS SCRANTON

M

allory Roman feels her heart leap into her chest as she walks away from her crush. “Will you go to prom with me?” he asked her moments ago.

“We had a relationship before, but not romantic,” says Roman, a senior studying fashion merchandising. “We were just friends. I was taken aback.

I had feelings for him but didn’t know he felt the same way.”

34 | The Burr Magazine

When the date finally arrived, Roman’s prom experience was less than she anticipated. Prom is supposed to be one of the most memorable nights of high school, but for Roman, her experience was memorable for a different reason.

Roman experienced ghosting.

Ghosting occurs when one person disappears from a relationship without explanation.

All texts, calls, social media interactions or

He never offered an explanation, and he avoided her after the dance despite their lockers being right beside one another.

It wasn’t as if Roman expected a relationship to form after the dance. She only wanted to have a good time. Though Roman was a little upset by the way he treated her, she quickly got over it.

She wonders why he acted the way he did, and he never gave her the chance to find out.

Kenneth Hanson, a graduate student from the Department of Sociology, says this trend has taken off in the last few years.

responses of any kind suddenly stop. The trend most commonly occurs between the ages of 18 and 44, which includes the generation most active online.

At the prom, Roman spent most of her time with her friends—her date nowhere to be found. He kept disappearing and reappearing until the end of the night when he disappeared for good without warning.

“Ghosting became much more common when people started being able to use social media on their phones,” he says.

Hanson says it’s that opportunity for a better relationship that causes some people to stay distant from their budding relationships, making it easier to walk away without a word if something better presents itself.

Mint Coursen, a sophomore studying prenursing, met a guy on Instagram when she was a freshman. Though they never met in person, Coursen said they messaged regularly for about a month before he stopped communicating with her entirely. She messaged him to ask what was up, but he never contacted her again.

Hanson says ghosting typically occurs when the person doing the ghosting does not care too much or has not invested in the relationship.

Two blissful weeks into the relationship, Kulish felt comfortable around her new boyfriend, and she began to think the relationship would last a long time. She saw potential in him, and all her friends told her they were “the perfect match.”

Then week three took a turn for the worst. Days and then weeks passed with no word from Kulish’s boyfriend. One minute everything was going great, then nothing. No texts. No calls. No messages on Facebook or mentions on Twitter.

After a few weeks of nothing, Kulish realized it was over.

“I blamed myself,” Kulish says. “It seemed as if I wasn’t enough for him. Maybe I wasn’t pretty enough or smart enough.”

Kulish struggles with depression, and when she thought it could have been her fault her boyfriend ghosted her, it was a blow to her selfesteem.

Though she vividly remembers how she felt when her ex-boyfriend cut her off, she no longer blames herself. For Kulish, the hardest part of the breakup was not knowing what happened or why he suddenly disappeared.

According to an online article by The New York When people get involved with online relation- Times, many people who have ghosted someone ships, they often become less invested in the rela- say it is because of “their own fear, insecurity and “If someone tells you straight up, you can accept tionship, Hanson says. Access to social media immaturity.” or reject the criticism,” Hanson says. “When has allowed people to form wider networks and you’re ghosted you don’t know what people think contact more people, which creates more options “I was a little insulted and annoyed,” Coursen says. of you. It creates a space of uncertainty.” B for relationships.

“I was fine with it if he no longer wanted to be

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THE FEED

“You hear a lot of people hypothesize that your self-worth and affirmation in large part is coming from other people’s reactions to how you present yourself on social media.”

—Andrew Lepp

A

mother and her children, a 9-year-old boy and 6-year-old girl, sit around the dinner table. The kids’ attention is focused on the meal in front of them. But the mother’s attention remains on the phone in front of her—Facebook begs for her focus, instant gratification being found in status updates, relationship notifications and photos of others’ kids.

She regrets every scroll, but minus stopping to show her children a cute photo or two, she is silent.

“I should have been asking them how their day went,” says Lindsay Rice, a University Communications and Marketing graphic designer.

stress on screen When virtual reality invades reality, anxiety often rears its ugly head.

WORDS BY KELLY POWELL ILLUSTRATION BY MARK TABAR 36 | The Burr Magazine

In this battle between social media and face-toface sociality, only one can win. No matter which side one stands on, the playing field is the same.

Studies show that mere placement of an inactive phone between two people suggests divided attention. When this occurs, cell phone usage, and more specifically, social media participation, can become dangerous.

Mady Mehler, a sophomore studying fashion design, recognizes this trap.

as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, more millennials are finding themselves logging in, but, in turn, they are checking out. According to a Kent State study completed by associate professors Jacob Barkley and Andrew Lepp, students who used a cell phone more often scored significantly higher on the Beck Anxiety Inventory, a clinical measure of apprehension.

types out a caption, remembering the best things about her pet, and hits upload, ready to let her friend list know about the upsetting incident.

The next time she logs in, she is notified that not only did her ex-wife comment on it, but her ex’s new wife has replied as well. Rice hasn’t spoken to her ex in more than two years. Her mood instantly shifts. Just seeing the names online changes the trajectory of her day.

Barkley and Lepp asked more than 500 students surveyed the purpose of their smartphone usage, “I want to be happy for everybody, but sometimes and the top two answers they received were bore- it’s hard,” she says. “Especially if their life is dom relief and maintenance of social connec- abbreviated—they’re only showing the good stuff, tions. Lepp says it’s a “which came first” scenario. even though you know there is bad stuff.”

“Either spending time on the phone is creating this relationship,” he says, “or it’s the other way around—maybe people who are already not feeling good about themselves are turning to the phone for relief out of desperation that it might make them feel better.”

For Rice, time on her phone can mean surveillance of the past when the present isn’t enough.

And sometimes, she’s not the one to seek it out.

“I know I use [social media] differently if I’m happy,” she says. “Everything seems to be happy “When you meet friends, and they have these and upbeat, but when I get depressed, it adds to beautiful Instagram pages, you’re kind of intim- it because I’m looking at pictures of old relationidated,” she says. “You’re like, ‘Oh my goodness, ships or their new relationships. It just comthey have this beautiful, sparkling life—can I live pounds it.” up to that?’”

Taking a couple of minutes, she posts a photo of her dog that just passed away on Facebook. She With the ever-growing popularity of apps such

This phenomenon can be explained by the study completed by Lepp and Barkley. The team measured subjective well-being and quality of life in correlation with screen time, and their results were the same across the board. People who were constantly plugged in felt dissatisfied with their off-screen lives.

In early interviews, researchers asked students how they felt after using their devices for long periods of leisure time. The most popular response was a scratch of the chin, a tilt of the head and the phrase, “When I think about it, I feel kind of stressed.” That makes 80 percent of interviewed students. Meanwhile, those who sought proactivity—practicing a sport, learning an instrument, perfecting a life skill—felt positivity at the end of their leisure time.

Mehler sits in her residence hall on a Saturday

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THE FEED

night, switching between different tabs on her- scenarios of how she, too, can produce, incorpo- the setting where one opens their apps. Barkley computer. She spends some time on Pinterest says if one is sitting in class or meant to be studyrate and engage in the same ways. Her business describing a new trend in the fashion industry, is always up for shaping. ing, lower academic performance is almost a given. What may seem like multitasking can clicking through every photo in the gallery, soak“[This engagement] worries me,” Lepp says. “You actually be a strong predictor of anxiety. One of ing up as much information as she can. hear a lot of people hypothesize that your self- the strongest indicators of them all is one putting Although she has been formally sewing since the worth and affirmation in large part is coming their smartphone next to their pillow, able to be seventh grade, constructing her own Homecom- from other people’s reactions to how you present pulled out of a deep sleep by a simple ‘ping’ from ing dresses as a high schooler, she feels a quick yourself on social media.” a text or tweet. pang of insecurity. Her train of thought tells her she can always better herself. She runs through Timing is everything. There are consequences to “It’s an extension of you,” Barkley says. “It’s pos-

38 | The Burr Magazine

sible that people who are more naturally anxious “I’m always creating stuff, and I’m always selling,” their friends and parents. Those who embraced feel compelled to check their phone more often. she says of her company, Sultrie Fashion. “But I the virtual world neglected the physical world think, ‘Should I be doing more? Should I be join- and therefore, scored lower on the test. Digital They need to know what everybody’s doing.” ing clubs? Should I be doing fashion shows?’ nativism has a part in that—the “uncritical acBarkley also mentioned stories of disengage- Maybe [the project I see] is the only thing the ceptance of most technological and scientific ment similar to Rice’s dinner table scenario. person has ever worked on, but I don’t know that. advancements” seems to create more problems than solutions.

From social media, we see this pristine lens into “You see this scenario of people out at Ray’s at a people’s lives, and it’s hard to tell what’s real.” four top,” he says. “Everyone’s got their cell But despite all of the downfalls, there are some phone out and they’re checking that. What Maintaining a presence on those websites is a instances where positivity wins. Attention to the should be a relaxing environment, sitting down perks—communication, sharing, creativity—alconstant upkeep, and it has shown to take a toll with your friends to have a beer, can be stressful low wiggle room for joy. on most. Not only do students feel obligated to because you worry about what you’re not doing project an image of themselves, they feel entitled “I genuinely want to share my experiences,” instead of getting that little burst of relaxation to receive positive feedback from their peers that Mehler says. “I use [my Instagram] as a minithat you need.” they feel is reflective of their efforts. portfolio. I don’t really care so much about the That’s where FOMO, or fear of missing out, “Students would mention that they would feel selfies and the likes. It feels good, but I think it’s comes into play. Interfering with face-to-face upset if somebody didn’t like their post or if ultimately secondary.” social interactions, those who spend time mon- somebody said something negative about what Lepp agrees. A thorough reflection of one’s itoring alternate options have a difficult time they posted,” Barkley says. “There’s such a sheer screen time is helpful for everyone, especially maintaining a full presence. By splitting time volume of tweets and posts and texts and Snapthose that tend to be locked in for greater peribetween apps and acquaintances, the likelihood chats and all of that other stuff—in order to keep ods of time. As long as usage is spaced out, he of depression increases. Constant attention to up with that, it can feel overwhelming.” says, there is plenty of room for life to happen in social media platforms paints a desperate picbetween the likes. B Rice makes the decision to get a new tattoo. She ture of anticipation of something better. feels uncertain about the rest of the weekend, For Mehler, sometimes the pressure mounts but she knows this is something she wants to do. within the first couple of posts.

Some moments later, “everything was beautiful and nothing hurt” from Kurt Vonnegut’s She sits on a PARTA bus on the way from Twin “Slaughterhouse-Five” is inked onto her right Towers to Starbucks and pulls out her cell phone. arm. Her mind slows down a bit, revelling in the Her thumb scrolls over the screen as she brings way it turned out. The tattoo lifts her spirits, and up Instagram and begins to travel down a long she wants people to know. She snaps a photo of line of captured experiences. When she encounthe artwork. Her social media post is almost imters photos of her boyfriend’s tattoo work, she mediately met with a text. A friend asks her how feels proud, double-tapping it in affirmation.

Rice dares to get that tattoo when she was well But when a stream of photos of classmates aware that was her idea. Rice’s heart sinks. She abroad make its way into her feed, although she’s wanted it for her own well-being, deliberately been able to drop a pin in Austria, Germany and having it face inward on her arm so she can take Spain, she still feels a wave of anxiety. Her mind refuge in it. tells her she should be out there studying, too.

Because of the innovative nature of her major, Lepp says this type of usage of the device strips Mehler feels a tendency to compare not just her- away face-to-face social relations. In a recent self, but her products, to those who others post study he and Barkley conducted, they monitored about. the perception of how close participants felt to

39

THE CURRENT

black hair

MAGIC PHOTOS AND INTERVIEWS BY AMANI WILLIAMS

40 | The Burr Magazine

T

he versatility of black hair is unlike any other. From natural to relaxed, and weaves to box braids, the options are seemingly endless. Besides being a form of expression, many different styles also serve a functional purpose, which have deep cultural roots. For years, European standards of beauty have dominated the Western world making those who didn’t fit those standards feel like they have to alter the way they look in order to be accepted. Despite years of ridicule that continue to this day, African-Americans like myself have learned to love their hair no matter how they decide to wear it. It serves as a way to stand proudly in our blackness and let the world know we will not be forced to fit in. Although hairstyles change, it still means something different to everyone.

THE CURRENT

MICHELLE CARR

SAVANNA McCARTHY

“I’m proud of my hair because growing up with it was kind of a struggle. With being mixed on my Filipino side of the family, a lot my family was like, ‘Oh you should have straight hair because you’re Asian and Asians have straight hair.’ But then on my black side of the family it was different. I got teased for my hair too, because it wasn’t kinky. I guess I’m proud of my hair because it shows both sides of my heritage. I love both sides of my heritage equally. Also growing up, I went to private schools that were PWIs and a lot of the white kids who I grew up with always had straight hair. They always made fun of me for my hair because it was curly and I always wanted to have straight hair like on the Asian side of my family. I always wished I was fully Asian so I could have straight hair, but I grew to love my hair so now I really like it. I love kiny hair; I love curly hair.

I never straighten my hair anymore. I didn’t straighten my hair that much when I was younger because my dad wouldn’t let me, but now I don’t do it by choice because I love curly hair.”

DAIJAH-MONAI WILLIAMS “[I have] these locks so that I don’t have to touch my own hair because I’m lazy, and it’s a lot of work. It keeps my hair healthy and so I won’t manipulate it or damage it. I keep it protected. So in many ways, me keeping it protected is kind of like self-expression. They say it’s your crown so I keep it protected and maintained and clean and I nourish it. I’m proud of my hair because I learned how to handle it, and I know what to do with it and what not to do with it. A lot of girls don’t know what to do with their hair. They’re struggling or stuck. That’s why I’m proud of my hair, because we have a relationship with each other.”

“I am proud of it because it has come a long way from damage and heat struggles to it now being semi-healthy. [I’m] still struggling with heat damage, and color because it’s the first time I ever put any type of chemical in my hair, so I’m super excited because the color in my hair is my actual physical embodiment of the change that I’ve been through in the past year and a half as a far as growing up and being a different person.

I got sick of looking at the same old Savanna while feeling different and changed my hair, so now I feel like the person I say that I am to everyone else. I think my hair fits into my culture and my being black because it is a piece of me that makes me just like a lot of other people ... but it also defines me and sets me apart in a room full of people who don’t look like me. I don’t usually wear it straight.

It’s usually curly or twisted or something of the sort underneath a headwrap and that allows me to stand out and be different in communities where I am the majority. It allows me to feel at home.”

COURION WILLIAMS “I am proud of my hair because I am the only one with my hair and I believe that with my locks, if you can’t love me at my three months then you don’t deserve me at my three years.”

QUIERSTON BYERS “To me, hair is nothing. You can chop it all off, you can grow it out, you can dye it. It’s just on your head. It doesn’t matter. I think it’s like a growth and expression of myself, but I can change that whenever the f **k I want to. I think the world has a definition of black that doesn’t exist and I can be whoever I want to be when I want to be. Black doesn’t define me just like my hair doesn’t define me.”

42 | The Burr Magazine

43

THE CURRENT

redefining

BEAUTY By going a week without wearing makeup, Kayla Sturm learns cosmetics don’t define a woman or make her beautiful.

WORDS BY KAYLA STURM PHOTOS BY TALIA HODGE

A

t 7:30 a.m., I wake to the sound of my alarm, squint at the bright light on my iPhone and slide my finger to unlock the screen after hitting snooze four, five or six times. I toss off the blankets and step onto the cold ground. Next, I reach for a pink beautyblender in my makeup collection before heading upstairs. Once I make it to the kitchen, I grab a decorative ceramic mug and place it under the Keurig, selecting the strongest coffee option to help get me through my 9:15 a.m. ethics class.

The morning isn’t the best part of the day for me; I am usually rushing to get ready because I oversleep and feel the need to maintain a certain image. In my mind, I’m obligated to this image because I am a fashion student and feel better overall if I look presentable.

I head to the bathroom to dampen the beautyblender and wash my face, trying to wake myself up.

Turning off the bright yellow bathroom lights, I walk back to the kitchen, balance my coffee and breakfast in both hands and carefully head back downstairs. After grabbing a fluffy eyeshadow brush, I reach for my Morphe 350 palette. I mix the light brown matte shades and work it into the crease of my eyelid, then with a flat eyeshadow brush I apply a shimmery metallic shade. While indulging in hot coffee during the process, I dig for a lipstick that will go with my outfit, usually a bold, dark color.

Kayla Sturm poses outside of Franklin Hall at Kent State without any makeup.

“I don’t feel like I look fine, though.

I feel boring and nervous.”

Makeup is a way for women to feel empowered and comfortable in their own skin, which is one of the reasons why I do it. Even though inner beauty is much more important and makeup doesn’t define a woman, it’s still hard to stop applying products on my face to make me look capable. I was asked to change my routine and complete a daunting task: go makeup-free for an entire week.

I’m not the only woman who is inspired by makeup and sees the creative side to it. Suzy Q. Campbell, an associate professor of costume design, appreciates makeup as art, too. Campbell understands wearing makeup enhances natural features, but mentions women need to consider what products they use on their face.

“Women still have to be very careful about wearing makeup on a daily basis,” Campbell says.

“Red lipstick means one thing, pink lipstick means one thing, and can be misinterpreted.”

the surface. Even though I don’t know anyone in this area, it still feels strange going into a restaurant with a bareface.

In my world, a dab of mascara, bronzer and a cute outfit showed I could look put together.

The unsettling feeling exists until we head inside the restaurant. I remember that I will never see these people again and need to care less about what they think.

The following day, I show up to Texas Roadhouse with butterflies in my stomach because it’s the first day my coworkers will see me without makeup. I walk through the noisy kitchen, say hello to a few coworkers and clock in. To my surprise, no one says anything to me about being without makeup. Almost anyone I encounter will say something about my makeup, so this seems out of the ordinary.

Williams says. “Even if they just put on some concealer and mascara to look presentable. It’s because the message from the environment around us is to fit in.”

By the time another Monday of early classes rolls around, I am just becoming confident in myself until a couple of zits appear on my chin. I can’t stop looking at them as I splash water onto my face to get ready for class, especially knowing I can’t apply any concealer or powder. My fingers trail across my face throughout the day, poking at a large bump, knowingly making it worse.

I write in a text message to my friend, “I have a zit the size of a planet on my face” while I wait between classes at Starbucks, feeling like everyone notices my breakout.

I head to my fashion class next, feeling out of place in the halls of Rockwell as students with immaculate outfits, complete with full makeup and accessories, pass me. Just being inside the building feels like a fashion show because of all the well-dressed people.

Only an hour into my shift, one of my coworkers, On my first day of wearing zero makeup, my best Alyssa Schueller, and I talk as my body leans friend Lindsay Miraglia and I travel to a sun- against the wood of the hostess stand. flower field in Avon, Ohio. She parks her car in my driveway, and I hop in.

“Does it feel weird not wearing makeup?” she My class eventually ends and I walk across asks. campus to my car to go to work. Once there, I walk inside, trying not to fall on the slippery “How do I look?” I ask. kitchen floor, plates and bowls rattling as a hor“Yeah, extremely weird,” I admit.

“You look fine,” she replies, looking directly in my rible stench of soap, prime rib and bread fills the face. “I’ve seen you without makeup before.”

As a woman, I feel there are certain standards I air. I speak to my coworker and friend Amy Timmerman by the sweet tea jugs that sit on the need to live up to. I know makeup doesn’t make me beautiful and can’t change my personality, counter at the beverage station.

I don’t feel like I look fine, though. I feel boring and nervous. An hour later, we make it to the but that doesn’t mean a little bit of glam hurts. field, walking around in the humidity and wind It makes me feel empowered and presentable.

“Are you OK?” she asks. “You look really tired.” while snapping photos. As we take pictures together, I don’t like half of them. My eyes lock Gail Williams, a doctoral candidate in clinical I laugh because this is a rare time where a on my face immediately, which looks plain with- psychology at Kent State, is an expert on the coworker notices something different about my subject. out highlighted cheeks and colorful lips. appearance.

Deciding to eat, we locate a Winking Lizard close by and a fresh wave of nerves come rushing to

“Women often feel that they have to look a cer- “Yeah, I’m OK,” I reply. “I’m just not wearing any tain way even if they just go to the grocery store,” makeup.”

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THE CURRENT

lipsticks because I miss them. It sounds crazy to miss makeup, but when one does it every day, it’s hard to be away from the products. Sighing with frustration, I close the MAC lipstick tubes and place them back in the drawer, deciding I shouldn’t watch any more makeup tutorials until the week is over.

Before I know it, it’s Sunday and I successfully made it through the week without putting makeup on my face. I don’t work until 2 p.m. today, but I allow myself extra time to get ready.

It takes me a while to figure out what kind of look I want to do, but I know it has to be dramatic.

Browsing through my makeup collection of 10-plus eyeshadow palettes, I eventually choose two to work with. I grab my contour and highlight palettes, one of the most important parts of my makeup routine, and begin to work on my face. Eventually, I figure out the look I want to do: full face dewy coverage with extra highlight on the cheekbones and deep contour, bronzed golden eyeshadow with a vampy purple lip. I feel reunited with my makeup, appreciating it even more now because I feel comfortable in my naked skin.

A small piece of Sturm’s collection of makeup sprawled across her desk. She has brushes and lip colors to spare.

Luckily, I didn’t encounter many guests this night at work. When I finally do get home, I feel relieved people didn’t see the breakouts on my chin. I can hide from the world for the rest of the night.

Even though makeup can’t hide insecurities, it can enhance natural beauty and make a statement. Makeup can boost confidence, especially if the person researches and learns new techniques to achieve the talent.

“Makeup is an art,” Campbell says. “[If] most little girls or young women find that enhancement

46 | The Burr Magazine

adds confidence, then yes they should wear makeup. Women need to feel powerful. Women have to find a way to be powerful, but not to be too glam to the point that nobody takes you seriously.”

Some aspiring makeup artists out there transform their face into a completely different person when they are getting ready for a normal day.

Even though this is considered a talent, it shouldn’t take away from natural features.

Schoolwork keeps me busy throughout the week,

which makes for a good distraction. That is until one night, the fifth day of being makeup-free, I decide to procrastinate from assignments and watch videos on YouTube. Since I got into the makeup craze, I’ve subscribed to more than 100 beauty gurus. While watching the videos my immediate thought is, “I want to recreate this, or at least try to.” Then I remember I can’t play with my makeup for another two days, causing the corners of my lips to pull into a frown.

I walk to my desk where my makeup drawers are.

I open them and look at the different colored

That week tested the waters for me because I have always struggled with self-confidence.

Growing up, I never felt like the prettiest girl in school, and even now as a 24-year-old woman I still struggle with it. It isn’t a bad thing because when I do something like go without makeup for a week I learn more about myself. I learned inner beauty is more important and it doesn’t have to be expected of me to wear makeup every day. Since this experiment I have worn more natural makeup and it has helped my confidence.

I’m never going to be perfect and makeup can’t hide insecurities. I’ve always known this, but I think part of me wore makeup because it’s what people expected of my age. When I walk into work with makeup again, a few coworkers comment how nice I look. I feel empowered and confident because the person I am becoming is still in the making. B

THE FEATURES

flowers vs. guns

Concealed carry laws currently prohibits weapons on campus, but new legislation is underway.

WORDS BY SAMANTHA ICKES PHOTOS BY ESLAH ATTAR ILLUSTRATION BY MAHLON RHODES

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small group of protestors stand within the four pillars of the memorial that marks the location where more than 46 years earlier, National Guardsmen shot Allison Krause in the left side of her chest, killing her.

The protesters reflect the words Krause said more than 45 years earlier. “Flowers are better than bullets,” Krause had said as she placed a flower on a National Guardsmen rifle. A poem was written in memorial of Krause titled “Flowers and Bullets”

by Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko in December 1970.

Goldenrod flowers decorate the pavement between the pillars with specks of yellow at the feet of the protestors. They hold signs written One of the men openly carrying a gun looks on white poster board in black and red marker: behind his shoulder at the protesters as he walks “What if you knew her? And found her dead on past. the ground? How can you run when you know;” “Peace > Dogma;” “If your bullets are made for “Flowers and bullets can coexist,” he says. people, they don’t belong at school.”

He continues through the parking lot behind As a group of 20 men and women walk past Taylor Hall to the May 4 Memorial. this memorial, bearing rifles across their chests and boldly displaying the handguns strapped A line of pro-gun supporters shuffle into the on their hips, the protesters begin to chant: memorial and sit on the granite benches in “Flowers are better than bullets. Flowers are front of Taylor Hall. Guns are propped between better than bullets. Not on my campus. Not on their knees as they listen to emeritus professor my campus.”

Jerry Lewis recount the events of May 4. Lewis witnessed the events firsthand when he worked

48 | The Burr Magazine

as a faculty marshall on campus.

The open-carry demonstration began Sept. 24, and the event, organized by pro-gun activist Jeffry Smith, sparked controversy among students.

Smith led the group around campus, sporting a straw hat and pink shirt with a Tavor long rifle hanging across his chest and two Glocks strapped in a black belt around his waist. The university sent out an email informing students, faculty and staff about the open-carry demonstration at 10 a.m. the day before the event.

The hashtag #NoGunsAtKentState emerges for the second time on Twitter following the email.

The hashtag first began in March when Austin Bashore, a student studying teaching English as a second language, tweets using the hashtag, “We’ve already had a bad history of guns on campus. Let’s not repeat it.”

According to the Ohio Attorney General Concealed Carry Laws Manual, Ohio’s gun laws

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THE FEATURES

“College is a place for intellectualism and growth for people—not savagery and bloodshed.”

—Austin Bashore According to the Ohio Attorney General Concealed Carry Laws Manual, Ohio’s gun laws currently allow individuals to openly carry firearms.

The manual also warns gun owners to “use caution” when openly carrying. Smith and the progun advocates exercised their right to carry as they walked down the Esplanade through the center of campus.

Kent State’s policy previously conflicted with Ohio’s concealed carry laws because the policy prohibited concealed weapons on campus and in parking lots—meaning an individual with a CCW permit would be violating the law if he or she concealed a weapon in his or her car.

After the open-carry demonstration, the Kent State Board of Trustees met Sept. 30 to discuss and change the university’s deadly weapon policy because of the confliction with Ohio state law.

“What that basically states is that deadly weapons are prohibited on campus unless otherwise permitted by Ohio law,” says Kent State Police Chief Dean Tondiglia. “We wanted to make the language a little cleaner so we could really specify the prohibitions, which were defined as within our facilities and outside.”

bill, says if the new law passes it would leave it up to the college or university to decide if individuals can carry concealed on campus rather than the current “blanket ban on all campuses.”

30 at UT Austin. However, the legalization of concealed carry on campuses is still new. The law went into effect in August, according to Armedcampuses.org.

If the law were to pass, Tondiglia said it would be up to the Board of Trustees to determine if the policy would be revised to allow concealed carry. If the Board does not address the new law, the current policy would remain in effect. University policies do not automatically change if House Bill 48 passes. The campus would need to actively work to change its policy.

Sophia Witt, a senior studying communication studies, received her concealed carry permit a week after an incident encounter with a man outside her Province apartment in 2015.

At the April 27 Undergraduate Student Government meeting, USG passed a resolution against House Bill 48. USG conducted a Twitter poll, which resulted in a slight lean toward keeping concealed carry off campus. The student-run organization believes the opinion of the students and the USG resolution will help influence the decision if concealed carry would be permitted on campus grounds.

The air is chilly as Witt gets out of her car to take the short walk to her apartment door. It is already pitch-black out at 9 p.m. as winter approaches rapidly. Witt freezes as she notices a tall man in a black trench coat waiting outside of the apartment complex. His pants are unzipped, exposing himself, and he begins to talk to her, inviting her toward him.

In this moment, Witt fears for her life. She knows there is no way she can take on this fullgrown man who easily reaches over 6 feet when she herself only weighs 120 pounds at 5-feet-4 inches. She drops the books she’s carrying and makes a run for it. She slams the door behind her, closing the distance between herself and the man. Her heart races as she calls the police to report the incident.

Though students who support concealed carry believe lifting the ban would give them the opportunity to protect themselves when faced with immediate danger, Bashore counters this by saying people don’t carry around fire extinTondiglia says deadly weapons are prohibited in guishers waiting for fires to happen.

“The one thing I was thinking was why don’t I all buildings on campus, but individuals can have something to protect myself, and, in this openly carry weapons on the grounds because it “Colleges are a place of intellectualism and particular incident, it wasn’t a matter of pepper is a public university. growth for people—not savagery and bloodshed,” spray or a handheld taser,” Witt says. “Those are he says. not always the best options. Your life flashes by However, citizens may soon be able to exercise in a matter of seconds, and you have seconds to concealed carry on campus grounds. House Bill Though students such as Bashore are concerned respond.”

48 was introduced in February 2015. This bill about the ramifications allowing weapons on would amend the concealed carry laws to allow campus could have, Smith says none of the Witt applies to get her concealed carry license those with permits to carry in vulnerable areas immediately after the incident, but the process voiced concerns have happened on campuses including day-care facilities, police stations, where concealed carry is legal. He cites the Uni- is much more in-depth than she imagines. After a 12-hour class and a cleared extensive backpublic areas of airports and higher education versity of Texas as an example. institutions. ground check, Witt receives her concealed carry “Look at the evidence of where this is legal in permit in a much shorter time than it would The house passed the law in November 2015, other states,” he says. “I’m not dismissing their typically take. concerns, but what I’m saying is it doesn’t come and the law is currently under revision in the Senate. It was referred to committee in Decem- to fruition.”

Though the process of getting a license can take ber 2015. As of right now, no progress has been more than a month, Witt obtains hers after a made on the law since.

The University of Texas hasn’t had a mass shoot- week due to a cancellation at the sheriff ’s departing since 1966 when student Charles Joseph ment. When Witt hears about the cancellation Representative Ron Maag, who sponsored the Whitman killed 14 people and injured at least she immediately jumps at the chance. Otherwise,

50 | The Burr Magazine

THE FEATURES

she may have waited up to three months to receive her license because of the waitlist to see the sheriff.

Witt’s experience outside of her apartment emotionally scarred her, and today she considers her gun, a Taurus M380 revolver, her “most sacred mechanism of defense.”

Smith’s views are similar to that of Witt. He organized the open-carry demonstration after touring the campus two years prior. Smith knew of Kent State’s history regarding May 4 and wanted to know more information about the events surrounding it.

and serious and painful issues. I think that’s what a university needs to be and bringing weapons on a campus quells that ability.”

She doesn’t try to start an argument with the activists. She doesn’t ask questions or voice her disapproval for the guns they bear across their chests and on their hips. She says hello as they walk past and offers them a flower as they leave the memorial. She smiles as she pulls a goldenrod out of a white plastic bag.

Smith argues concealed carry shouldn’t be treated any differently on public college and uniThough she recognizes many people don’t agree versity campuses than it is in any other public with her, Witt says she would prefer to be space. He suggests individuals and students who allowed to carry on campus. If Witt ever found have their concealed carry licenses are law-abidherself in a similar situation, she hopes she ing citizens who should be allowed to exercise “I really feel that if we’re really going to remember would have her gun with her for protection. their Second Amendment right regardless of the students who died here, if we’re really going to take meaning from what happened here in location.

“You can protest. You can form your opinions, but 1970, then the one thing we need to remember the overall say is within the state and the federal “It boils down, in my mind, to essentially not is that when you bring a weapon into a conflict, government,” Witt says. “It’s the law. I’m not treating students differently because they cross you completely eliminate the possibility of gengoing to say that I like it or I don’t like it because, the property boundary,” Smith says. “Both [the uine and peaceful dialogue,” Schmidt says. “Now truthfully, I don’t have a say in it. As a gun owner students] and anyone else who has a concealed you’ve brought in a threat, and a threat is essenand a CCW carrier, I have to follow the rules just carry license is not a different person just tially violence. It’s just violence that hasn’t been like every other citizen.” because they’ve crossed the property boundary used yet.” B from public space to the university property.”

Buildings throughout campus display “No Guns” signs on entrances, which Witt believes only Elizabeth Schmidt, a junior studying internaprevents law-abiding citizens from bringing tional relations and vice president of Students guns into campus buildings. In the case of a Against Sexual Assault, passes out tiny purple mass shooting, an individual who wishes to flowers and yellow goldenrods to the pro-gun cause harm to others would not pay attention to activists who toured the campus during the eduthe signs prohibiting guns or even consider the cation walk. legality of the situation. The signs only prevent responsible citizens from having the opportunity As the activists walk through the marked spaces in the parking lot behind Taylor Hall, Schmidt to protect themselves. stands calmly at the side of the group.

“Guns really aren’t to kill the person, but to disable them from harming you,” Witt says. “You “I think it’s disrespectful to the students who died here,” Schmidt says. “[May 4] is a part of our don’t shoot with the intent to kill someone. You campus’ identity, and I think following that shoot with the intent to defend. If it’s a matter event Kent State definitely committed to mainof your life and someone that’s violently trying taining open, peaceful dialogue about difficult to kill you, I’m going to choose my life every time.”

THE FEATURES

I

remember waking up at 5 a.m. every Wednesday in high school to attend prayer circle before class. We would meet in the foyer of Matthews’ Auditorium, and I’d listen to my peers give thanks for the gift of life, for the greatest act of love, for the blood of Jesus whose sacrifice was to cleanse us of our wrongdoing.

It took two years to realize the Lamb’s blood was staining me.

I wasn’t going to be washed clean. I was in love with a boy.

Some Sundays I felt filthy, like I was lying, as if I might implode from the guilt.

Could anyone tell I met a boy at the movies last night? Does anyone else in here have drippy palms? Surely, I couldn’t be the only one, but I wanted to be. I needed, perhaps, to think I was the only one. We all can’t be going to hell, right? I wouldn’t have wished these feelings of shame and self-contempt on the most pompous peacock among us.

I remember the summer my grandfather noticed my voice changed. He asked me if I could sing, my emerging manhood resting on the number of women I could acquire with my voice.

I told him I sang at school, but I knew why he asked. I wasn’t about to be the Michael to his Joe Jackson.

If my voice wasn’t going to win budding women, it was going to be my body. That summer, and the three following, he made me do sets of push-ups. I probably got stronger, but I was still skinny. His plan failed.

I was proud to sing in my school’s a cappella choir, and begrudgingly sang in the church youth choir.

“Only what you do for Christ will last,” my mother says.

My mother would often guilt my sister and I into participating in the creative parts of the monthly children-led services. We would have much preferred to greet visitors, and sometimes we did. But mostly, we danced.

i done signed my name Marcus Donaldson questions religion as a black, queer man.

WORDS BY MARCUS DONALDSON PHOTO BY AMANI WILLIAMS

54 | The Burr Magazine

Most of the time, I was the only boy in the liturgical dance ministry. Dancing never made me uncomfortable, but being the only boy always felt odd. I’d been taught about Alvin Ailey and the dance company he started, but everyone left out details of his life. During dance rehearsal one Saturday morning, I overheard a conversation between our instructor and my mother.

“Girl, I don’t know what I would do if my son came home talking about how he likes boys,” our instructor says.

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THE FEATURES

“‘No sin is greater than any other,’ they tell less well-meaning Christians.

Which is to say, for queer folk, to exist is to sin. To love is to sin. I was told this whole thing was rooted in love.”

“Child, me either,” my mother replies.

I didn’t know if I liked boys at the time, but I knew I shouldn’t.

I remember taking pride in dressing up for church, and receiving compliments on my shirt and tie pairings. That feeling drastically differed from being mocked by my boy cousins for wearing similar ensembles when I’d visit my grandparents during summers in Media, Pennsylvania.

I’d seen queer boys disappear in church before.

They, too, were beloved for their talents. They, too, came back from college different. I now wonder if they began attending less frequently for reasons similar to mine. Did they also feel they had to be the church’s version of themselves? I’ve learned about trying to be multiple people at once. Eventually, my selves would have to duke it out. This wasn’t a street fight; we weren’t fighting for bragging rights. We weren’t all going to make it out of this brawl alive.

In December 2015, I went to church with my parents for the first time in just under a year. I had been away for college, and I did my best not to look uncomfortable. But I’m sure my mother felt me shifting beside her. I tried to hide my rolling eyes during the reading of scripture, during the offering and during the sermon. I’m still unsure if I succeeded. I played my part, though. I smiled, shook hands and hugged folks. I even answered intrusive questions about my ex-girlfriend.

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Being there, a reformed peacock among peacocks, reminded me how I got here. I used to think my posturing was giving God my best. I had more questions the longer we sat in service.

How might my black queer body be used for His plan? And what would be the lesson? What’s the takeaway? What was the truth?

crawl when that syncopation hits my left hip bone. My body has always known how to groove.

My body has always known how to praise. It’s always known worship, but I couldn’t help the feelings of guilt that made me uncomfortable during the preaching.

The summer after my freshman year of college, The reality is well-meaning Christians are cul- I asked my dad why he’s a Christian. pable in our deaths in the rhetoric used to defend the abomination of our love. “No sin is greater “I gotta hang my hat on something,” he says. than any other,” they tell less well-meaning I knew then this wasn’t good enough for me.

Christians. Which is to say, for queer folk, to exist Now, I know why. For my father, his faith will is to sin. To love is to sin. I was told this whole grant him deliverance. His faith will bring him thing was rooted in love. freedom. I heard Jesus doesn’t grant my kind of I learned my truth wouldn’t shame my grand- freedom. I heard I have to sign my own freedom papers. B mother’s devil, nor the church’s. I’d been taught to be ashamed of my truth, even if indirectly.

Calling my truth an abomination with no more weight than any other sin is still calling my truth an abomination. We pray away my kind of truth.

I learned that here, in the church. I also learned how to worship, even if my worship now took place outside the sanctuary, outside the fellowship hall, outside the vestibule. My worship takes place in my bedroom, on sidewalks, in the bar.

My soul gets happy when I hear second altos running up and down scales. My hand gets to flailing when the bassist hits a lick. I shout because it’s what I know. I twirl, spin, drop and

M

erchants weave in and out of groups trying to sell umbrellas to protesting teachers as they march down one of the busiest streets in Oaxaca de Juárez, Mexico.

Exchanges are made between money and umbrellas as the hot, stinging sun gets replaced by a small circle of shade.

I was only in Mexico two days before joining the thousands of teachers occupying the city of Oaxaca since mid-May along with my tía (aunt) Olga, tío (uncle) Berna and my two cousins, Juanito and Brandon. We spent hours in the hot sun with thousands of teachers, students and supporters chanting “El pueblo, unido, jamas sera vencido.”

The people united will never be defeated.

I walked behind the same man throughout the whole march with a shirt that read “Si no hay justicia para el pueblo, que no haya paz para el gobierno.”

If there is no justice for the people, then there should be no peace for the government.

affair

international By spending a summer in Mexico, Itzel León discovers truth and corruption within her own culture.

WORDS BY ITZEL LEÓN PHOTO BY ADRIAN LEUTHAUSER

58 | The Burr Magazine

Oaxaca has always been considered home to me. Although the giant mountains gave me carsickness, I have always felt at ease there. When I was younger, my parents took my sister and I to their hometown, Tepejillo. It’s a small town whose first language, Mixteco, is my parent’s native language. The population is fewer than 2,000 and more than half of the residents come from the indigenous tribe of Mixtecs, my family included.

My first time in the capital of Oaxaca was when I was 9 years old. We visited the more touristdriven areas for a day or two and then left the city. We never spent more than a week there, and I never experienced how different the city of Oaxaca was to Tepejillo.

Over the summer I spent two months with my family while completing my internship at NOTICIAS Voz e Imagen de Oaxaca, a newspaper in Oaxaca. While I was there, teachers occu-

pied downtown Oaxaca and set up barricades in protest of the Mexican government and its new education reform.

Growing up in a small town and moving to Kent, Ohio wasn’t a big difference. The population increased by 10,000, but I never noticed it. But going to a city with more than a quarter million people was overwhelming. Everyone always rushed, pushing and shoving their way through just to get groceries or hop on the bus.

My stress level rose, and I became irritated the longer I was there.

My love for Oaxaca slowly decreased.

Walking downtown was the closest feeling to being in Kent; it was Americanized for the tourists and the “safest” place in the city. But when I would forget I was surrounded by poverty, a familiar face would look me straight in the eyes and ask for food or money. It wasn’t just one face, or two or three—it was multiple people, the same people every day in the same location. It was as if they all respected each other’s space enough to make sure no one was asking for money at the same spot.

It was miserable seeing how defeated many of the people were.

Children as young as 6 years old come up to the table where my family and I eat and hold out wooden combs or clothing made by their mothers, selling them for as little as 10 pesos, which is equivalent to 54 U.S. cents.

Walking on the main tourist street, I see adults, but mostly children, with boxes hanging from their shoulders, selling candy and cigarettes for a living while a white family with their own 6 year old enters tourist shops.

I thought back to the kids in my hometown, including myself, and how most of them grow up with a nice family in a nice neighborhood playing games and having a childhood while the children of Mexico beg for money on the side of the streets. Seeing tourists try not to look at them made my stomach churn because it was like developed countries trying not to see what’s actually going on in the rest of the world.

An ice cream place stands in the middle of Santo Domingo, a huge church with an interior covered in gold that attracts many tourists. Two flavors are my favorite, pitaya (a cactus fruit) and lime. The pitaya is a bright red with black speckles. It looks delicious next to the bright lime green. I already took two bites when a little boy standing next to his older brother, playing the accordion for money, runs up to me and points to my cup.

It was the same mother playing the accordion while her two kids played around in the dirt next to a church covered in gold. It was the same lady wearing the Institutional Revolutionary Party shirt. It was the same guy going into Domino’s singing a song for as little as two pesos—about 10 U.S. cents, and it was the same woman with a daughter’s head on her lap, tired “Me das?”–Will you give me some? and begging for my pizza.

Living in such a privileged society in the U.S. made me angry and depressed. My anger built up and my hatred for the city of Oaxaca grew.

Everything frustrated me. The heavy traffic was unbearable and the honking was incessant.

The second the light turned green, all one could hear was loud beeping noises and the zooming of motorcycles weaving in and out of traffic as the people riding them risked their lives to get to a job that paid them $4 per day.

Confusion came over me as I say, “Pero ya le mordi”—I already took a bite.

He shrugs his shoulders and says “no importa”— it doesn’t matter.

Every day was the same thing. I woke up, ate breakfast with my family, took a shower, got ready and left for a taxi to take me to El Parque del Amor where I took a bus to a street called La Constitución and walked to my internship.

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THE FEATURES

My showers weren’t regular showers. I heated water in a bucket and mixed it with cold water.

Then I used a bowl to pour water over myself.

My family didn’t have running water at their home. I got used to it after about a week. I even got used to showering with spiders next to me.

Looking back and remembering all the animosity I had for the city wasn’t because of the city. It wasn’t the people I was mad at. It wasn’t their fault. I knew I always hated the government in Mexico.

On Father’s Day I call my dad around 9 a.m. and speak to him for about 15 minutes before I eat breakfast with my family. The typical Father’s Day that I was used to was as far away as I was physically to my dad. My aunt’s exhusband took his children out while she went downtown to protest the Mexican government.

Berna didn’t want to celebrate while his staff was protesting, so he also left for downtown as soon as he was done eating. I wish I knew when they left was when the state of Oaxaca was going to mourn.

Eight protesters were killed and 108 people were injured in Nochixtlán, Oaxaca that day.

More were injured downtown as riots erupted and tear gas dropped from helicopters. Federal police targeted anyone who was running, but if someone being tear-gassed was a non-protester, they would still run.

Berna was the first to arrive home. He was tired and covered in sweat and Coca-Cola. Soda helps with the tear gas in the eyes. My aunt came back about an hour later. She expresses sadness about the teachers who were killed but also anger at the president of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto.

The city of Oaxaca went black that night. The government shut off the electricity downtown to keep people out of the streets, but many will say it’s to keep people off social media from spreading the truth.

I see clips of protesters attacking police, but how was I supposed to believe that when my aunt and uncle were right in front of me telling me what happened? Telling me they ran down streets trying to escape the helicopters continuously dropping tear gas on them just because they were teachers. Telling me a child and his mother were tear gassed because they were near the teachers but had nothing to do with the protests. Telling me a lady let them into their home before Olga passed out. And all my aunt had to say to me was, “no vayas a tu servicio social mañana, va estar peligroso”—don’t go to your internship tomorrow, it’s going to be dangerous.

the love everyone had for those teachers and the support.

Going downtown piles of burnt materials reside on every street. Graffiti done by anarchists hindering the teacher movement covers the walls with the infamous “A.” But others read “43” in reference to the missing 43 students Nieto has unwillingly tried to find after federal police fired at the students going to protest the National System for Integral Family Development conference.

All of my hatred stems from the Mexican government who took my family’s indigenous culture and turned it into a tourist attraction, La Guelaguetza. All that money made from native cultures goes straight into the government’s pocket while the indigenous people of today beg for money on the streets, and their children leave school to sell candy bars.

I will always love Oaxaca and its people, even when its own government doesn’t. B

the art of getting by

The story of Kent gallery owner Frederick John Kluth

The following day the teachers hold another march. I arrive early in the morning before my internship and experience unity. I experience

WORDS BY COLLIN CUNNINGHAM PHOTOS BY ANDREA NOALL

León readjusts to Kent State after interning in Mexico.

W

hen artist Frederick John Kluth arrived in Kent in 1977, he thought he would find more success.

Photo courtesy of Itzel León

Kluth is the owner of the FJKluth Art Gallery, located at 300 N. Water St. in Kent. The gallery is old and crowded with paintings, sculptures and knickknacks he has either made or purchased over the years.

Itzel León’s family neighborhood in Colonia Monte Bell, Santa Cruz Xoxocotian, Oaxaca, Mexico

Depictions of Greek tragedy, Kluth’s favorite subject, adorn the entirety of one of the old gallery’s white brick walls, stylistically juxtaposed against a variety of traditional eastern paintings, rural landscape scenes and impressionist swatches of color. Some of the paintings are large canvas deals with ornate wooden frames and price tags ranging into $1,200, while others are lying in stacks on the floor or Kluth’s desk.

The building that houses the gallery is dusty and

60 | The Burr Magazine

old, playing host to another art gallery and a gym. executive director of Standing Rock Cultural Arts The floors are wooden and the ceilings are high. next door to Kluth agrees, while also highlighting some of the distracting factors in FJKluth.

Some corners of the store are difficult to access due to the sheer amount of items that crowd the “Because he dabbles in antiques, his space is reroom across from the collection of paintings. ally a multipurpose space instead of just focusing Brightly painted wooden statues are the gallery on artwork,” Ingram says. “It’s hard to focus on owner’s latest project, and they cover a table erthe art when there’s so many other cool things ratically placed in the middle of the shop. going on in his space. I really like his space but, in terms of displaying art, I think it’s a really busy Kluth’s originals are crowded in stacks on the space and doesn’t give enough focus just to the floor or proudly occupying large easels. A piece art.” commissioned for an event commemorating the May 4 shooting contains a small flagbearer, a ref- Perhaps this is one of the reasons Kluth expresserence to Joan of Arc. Other Kluth originals de- es concern over the gallery’s financial longevity. pict a large Minotaur and fields of sunflowers, all of them colorful and containing a deeper histori- Customers will occasionally flit into Kluth’s store, taking cursory glances at the art and walking the cal meaning. length of the antique shelves, but between the The gallery has charm, the way only an old, high price tags on many of the pieces and the lack crammed exhibition space can, and Jeff Ingram, of foot traffic, it’s rare someone buys something.

61

THE FEATURES But beneath Kluth’s worries lies an air of passionate optimism and consistent drive to succeed.

“They need me here,” Kluth says. “They actually need me here. We need to overcome this problem.”

The problem he is referring to, in his own words, is a “lack of integration between the university and the community of the town.”

“They need me here. They actually need me here. We need to overcome this problem.”

—Frederick J. Kluth

as a surprise given the whimsical setup of his gallery and his history in a creative medium, but it also means he has knowledge about a wide variety of subjects.

A job in computer education is what brought him to Northeast Ohio in the first place in 1977. This is where Kluth began to develop his financial woes. Kluth taught at Theodore Roosevelt High School for six months before deciding he wanted to pursue art fully. His wife’s job at the University of Akron’s library became the couple’s primary source of income while Kluth considered what to do next.

Kluth is 83, and his great knowledge of art and experience in the community means he has no shortage of stories to tell. Discussions with Kluth yield everything from anecdotes about the origins of the words “hillbilly” and “redneck,” to a lesson about what constitutes an antique in China. Klu- “When I came to Kent,” Kluth says, “I found that th’s personal story is also worth a listen. people weren’t interested in antiques, or at least weren’t interested in the same kind of antiques Kluth’s art career began in St. Louis, where he as they were in Missouri.” made woodcuts and wooden jewelry based on the demands of local residents.

This is something Kluth initially attributed to a “I had people asking for my autograph, and they thought I was gonna be famous,” he says.

higher density of artists in Kent, and Ingram agrees.

Ingram, who has directed Standing Rock since it However, Kluth feels he lost some of his fame opened in the same building as Kluth’s gallery in when he migrated away from the city, where he 1992, considers Kluth’s emphasis on antiques to found people were more interested in antiques, be a factor. which he bought and sold out of a shop in Columbia, Missouri.

“Antiques have gone the way a lot of businesses are: online,” Ingram says. “It’s a struggle for someKluth left the art world for a time, studying educaone that wants to have a storefront.” tion before receiving a teaching job at NASA in Cleveland, instructing other employees on new Kluth took over management of a public perforforms of technology. Kluth’s job at NASA can come mance gallery in Kent called Open Space in 1999,

where he started to integrate his art with music.

Open Space remained in operation for six months before funding ran out and the site was replaced by the Sheetz on the corner of Fairchild Avenue and state Route 43.

Kluth had to move and he decided to stay in the art business, but it proved less than kind to him in subsequent years. He took over his current gallery in August 2001.

“It’s a very odd experience to actually find a landlord that wants someone like me,” Kluth says.

His landlord at the time was looking for someone to occupy a large, open commercial space.

In the years since he’s arrived at Kent, Kluth has identified two major factors that contribute to the challenge of art culture in Kent. The first is the May 4 shooting, which he says “was more important to the Vietnam War than the Battle of Gettysburg was to the Civil War.” The shooting, Kluth believes, caused the residents of Kent to lose confidence in the university to support their art.

In the wake of tragedy, a rift was created between the community of Kent and the university. Kent State’s art department is, according to Kluth, “very serious about training artists,” but on May 4, and for a while after, there were bigger issues to deal with.

With that connection between the university and

the town severed, Kent’s citizens had nothing to sell more often. base their tastes in art on, since that was a role the university’s art department used to fill. At the Ingram, on the other hand, thinks Kent is a great same time, Kent State’s art department lost con- place to cultivate art. fidence in the people of Kent to support its art “It’s a great place for emerging artists because you while the college was occupied with controlling get to see so many different styles of art and deconditions on campus. velop your own kind of art,” Ingram says. “So, if you With fewer new artists and ideas entering into the area, Kent’s citizens didn’t know where to turn for their tastes in art. When people lack direction, Kluth says, they look to what’s around them, and what surrounded Kent at the time was an air of doubt and a lack of emphasis on community.

People in Kent began seeking art on a more national scale, and local artisans now suffer.

look at success in terms of a creative place to grow, Kent’s a great place and there’s a lot of people that appreciate art. They just can’t afford art.”

But a constant source of art sales and income is what Kluth needs now, not a place to grow. He’ll occasionally do custom framing for customers, but those jobs aren’t coming in fast enough.

While Kluth can keep his gallery open for the

The second factor Kluth thinks affects the art foreseeable future, he feels he could be receiving community in Kent is the compartmentalization far more recognition for his work. With that recof the university’s various programs—specifically ognition, profit would come, allowing Kluth to art and history. Kent State keeps its departments better advertise the gallery and lead to financial finely separated in order to better focus on each, security. but Kluth believes more could be accomplished if they collaborated to generate more interest in “People come in,” Kluth says, “they’ll look at the Kent’s art scene. situation and say, ‘Why haven’t you done better?’

Art, Kluth says, is more effective when there is context connected to it, but it’s difficult to determine the stories that a lot of locally produced art pieces tell since they haven’t been examined by a large group of people. Kluth believes that, with the history department’s resources, he could identify the origin and meaning of the pieces in his collection, so they would be more interesting and

They say, ‘Oh, you gotta get a grant from Ohio.

Oh, you gotta show your stuff in more national shows.’ Every one of those activities takes me away from the art, and I don’t want to do that. I want to focus on the art, and if the art is good enough to go to New York, well, somebody will say, ‘Let’s do it.’ If it’s not good enough, to heck with it. So what you do is you keep trying.”

B

THE EQUALIZER

the price of REPUTATION

When the culture of sports dominates institutional integrity WORDS BY MATT POE

B

aylor University established itself as one of the most successful athletic departments in the country over the past decade. The school once served as the receiving end of many jokes for its on field performances in the Big 12 conference, absorbing beat down after beat down from historically great programs such as Texas and Oklahoma.

That all began to change when Art Briles took the head coaching job for the Baylor football team in 2008. Soon enough, the program found itself playing in major bowl games, winning conference titles and touting its own Heisman Trophy winner, Robert Griffin III. Anyone who lived in Waco, Texas or had ever associated themselves with the university felt some sense of pride foreign to them and presumably had the same line of thought: We’re one of the big boys now. This is what it’s like to win.

As quickly as the program Briles helped build to incredible success, just as quickly did it come undone in a blaze of scandal.

Alleged rapes, gang rapes and other incidents of sexual assault painted a portrait of a program willing to do anything to keep its best football players on the field, no matter the price. Briles was fired in May 2016 and more evidence and allegations of a culture that willingly ignored sexual assault continues to be reported. Now, Baylor’s athletic program resides in the ugliest purgatory in both life and sports: negligence and dismissal to sexual assault.

Kent State athletics is not Baylor athletics. Anyone who has ever been to a sporting event on Kent State’s campus knows this. There is a distinct difference in the product you see on the field at Baylor compared to Kent State; as they say in sports, it simply doesn’t pass the eye test.

However, there is one similarity between the two

64 | The Burr Magazine

university’s athletic programs, but one won’t find them at Dix Stadium or at the MAC. In February 2016, former softball player and Kent State student Lauren Kesterson filed a civil lawsuit claiming that she was raped by the son of former softball head coach Karen Linder. In the lawsuit, Kesterson claims her Title IX rights were violated, according to reports filed by Kesterson against Kent State in a U.S. District Court on Feb. 9.

The landmark legislation from 1972 states no person on the basis of sex be denied or subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.

Kesterson and her attorneys also allege Kent State didn’t comply with public records requests and documentation in a timely manner. And Linder, who resigned in August 2015, walked away with 25 percent of her annual $85,000 salary, a direct violation of the language in her contract regarding termination.

On Aug. 5., the case was referred to mediation and the state of Ohio will now serve as the third party to settle the disputes of the lawsuit, according to documents by the Ohio Supreme Court.

The magnitude of the Kesterson case pales in comparison to Baylor’s alarming recent history of sexual assault in athletics and Title IX violations. No documentaries or front-page stories in national newspapers have been produced on Kent State’s handling of the Kesterson case.

However, both universities allegedly turned a blind eye or did not do everything in its power to protect its student-athletes and allegedly violated their Title IX rights.

Kent State’s office of student conduct states the following on its website in regards to sexual misconduct: “Kent State University is committed to

establishing and maintaining an environment free from discrimination, gender/sexual harassment, sexual misconduct, stalking and intimate partner violence.”

Under that same passage, the university states the importance of “appropriate due process.”

However, the examination of what Kesterson alleges in her lawsuit and the handling of it by university officials does not coincide with these messages on Kent State’s website.

As aforementioned, reputation is at the top of the pecking order in sports. In both Baylor and Kent State’s respective cases, the perceived notion to protect athletic reputation trumped the virtue of protecting its reputation and identity as not just a school, but a culture. Coaches such as Briles and Linder were awarded large monetary payouts while student-athletes and victims of sexual assault were left unchecked and untreated.

It is unfair and untrue to imply that Kent State athletics is a soon-to-be hotbed of sexual assaults concerning students and student-athletes.

But the mishandling of one rape or sexual assault case can be all it takes to set a dangerous precedent and Baylor’s allegations are proof.

What started as one incident at Baylor soon turned into a culture of protecting athletes who committed sexual assault rather than protecting and treating the victims of the alleged crimes. The Kesterson case here at Kent State is hopefully not that.

When 60 Minutes Sports interviewed about the history of allegations at Baylor, Title IX coordinator Patty Crawford says, “What drives a culture?

It’s the top.” Ultimately, when the desire to maintain a winning reputation or brand overpowers the protection of students fundamental rights, everyone loses.

NATIONAL AWARDS AEJMC STUDENT MAGAZINE CONTEST 2014 SECOND PLACE First-Person Consumer Magazine Article Nick Shook, “Head Games” (May 2014) ASSOCIATED COLLEGIATE PRESS 2014 DESIGN OF THE YEAR AWARD SECOND PLACE Yearbook/Magazine Page Spread Rachel Mullenax, “Kent’s Flashiest Cocktails” (April 2014) AEJMC STUDENT MAGAZINE CONTEST 2015 THIRD PLACE Chrissy Suttles, “Two Seconds in Cudell” (April 2015) HONORABLE MENTION Chrissy Suttles, “Nightfall” (November 2014) 2015 NATIONAL COLLEGE MEDIA CONVENTION SIXTH PLACE Best of Show for a Feature Magazine AEJMC STUDENT MAGAZINE CONTEST 2016

the

FIRST PLACE Blythe Alspaugh, “Can’t Fix What Isn’t Broken” (April 2016) THIRD PLACE Online Magazine

LAST SHOT WORDS AND PHOTO BY SAMANTHA KARAM

N

o more than 5 feet from her, water is rushing with enough force to thrust Rosie’s small body off the edge. However, she climbs right past the timid adults and up the slippery rocks with the confidence and ease of an experienced cliff diver. She gets to the top of the waterfall and pauses for a moment only to make sure I’m watching from below.

The air is filled with giddy giggles and happy screams, but my world goes silent as I watch a fearless little girl about to jump without hesitation. Then she gives me a big smile and takes the leap she’s taken many times before. In perfect straight form, her body slices through the air and she lands with a crisp, tiny splash. She surfaces with her dark skin sparkling from the droplets and wades down the stream to greet me.

66 | The Burr Magazine

Multiple times a week, across the world from us, Rosie and her friends hike through the dense Fijian rainforest to this unnamed waterfall, which is about a 20-minute walk from their small village called Lutu. For Rosie and the other Lutu villagers, this activity is the greatest relief from the heavy humidity.

After she sees this picture, she gives me a big hug, thanks me for taking her picture and climbs back up to do it all again. Rosie doesn’t have much and, yet, all she asked of me was that I would take her picture so she could see herself.

Well, now you can see her, too.

SECOND PLACE Single Issue of an Ongoing Magazine-Design

REGIONAL AWARDS SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS REGION 4 MARK OF EXCELLENCE AWARDS FINALIST Feature Photography Leah Klafczynski, “Unbreakable Bond” (May 2014) FINALIST Nonfiction Magazine Article Carley Hull, “Don’t Sweat the Small Things” (May 2014) FINALIST Nonfiction Magazine Article Chrissy Suttles, “Nightfall” (November 2014) Chrissy Suttles, “Two Seconds in Cudell” (April 2015) FINALIST General News Photography Jacob Byk FINALIST Feature Writing Top 20 Matthew Merchant, “Shelter Realities” (February 2015) 67