LH Feature Magazine

T h e k i d s a r e a l r i g h t : t h e h i s to r y o f t e e n a g e a c t i v i s m i n a m e r i c a | pa g e 1 0

letter from the editors dear readers, Welcome to the last feature magazine of the year! Throughout the year we have enjoyed finding important people and stories to cover and localize, as well as designing this magazine and creating fun fashion editorials and food features. In this final issue, we cover a range of topics which include student activism, the drag queen culture, being biracial in America, and we take a look at prom styles throughout the decades. This issue is unique as it is all black and white. This brings a new perspective to the magazine and challenged us as designers. Our goal this year was to find important issues and localize them while remaining unbiased by reporting factual information from all angles. We hope you enjoy reading this final issue. We have loved putting together five features magazines for you this year, and we hope you have enjoyed them as much as we have. As always, let us know what you think, and have a great rest of the year.

Mina Takahashi

2 little hawk features

&

Maya Durham

table of contents

On the Cover: 10-13 | The Kids Are Alright: The History of Teenage Activism In America by Maya Durham

4-7 | A Date to Remember by Lottie Gidal and Lindy Rublaitus 8-9 | A Tale of Two Cities by Nina Lavezzo-Stecopoulos 14-17 | Mixed America by Olivia Lusala 18-21 | This Is Me by Mina Takahashi 22-23 | Meet Anna Basile by Liam Nicholson may 4, 2018 3

A Date to Remember

A Date to Remember By lottie gidal and lindy rublaitus

Photo Credit : Lottie Gidal and Lindy Rublaitus Special thanks to Veronica Abreu

1940/1950

pictured: amadou sanogo, lindy rublaitus

1960/1970

pictured: Shawna o’malley, anders lie 6 Little Hawk Features

1980

pictured: eric thomas, amelia morrow

1990

pictured: alejandra revelez, tommy brands

May 4, 2018 7

“as far as capitalism goes the focus is too much on the economic gain of consumers and producers.

There’s not enough equality. ” - patrick mcmillan ‘18

8 Little hawk features

Art by nina lavezzo-stecopoulos

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ndrew Usachev ‘18’s parents escaped from the Soviet Union before he was born.

Though he tries not to get political, Usachev isn’t very fond of communism.

Contrastly, John Bounds ‘20 proudly walks the halls of City High dressed in Russian garb with a communist flag flowing behind him. Even though the ideology has decreased in popularity with the fall of the Soviet Union throughout the world, Bounds finds it appealing.

“There are too many people that are extremely rich who say that the workers below them are just lazier than they are even though they are people that are working extremely hard but getting nothing for what they are doing,” Bounds said. “I think that’s one of the major problems capitalism has.”

As Bounds has been educated throughout his school years, he has noticed more and more problems in the United States, mostly economic but varying in theme, and believes the cause of these issues is capitalism.

“I don’t like the things that are going on in this world. Specifically European-American politics because that affects how the rest of the world is and it’s not affecting it in a good way at all,” said Bounds.

The issues Bounds has noticed aren’t only in the present day, he sees many problems in the United States’ past as well. Even though Bounds realizes other changes need to happen before the ideology is implemented, he feels as though socialism, eventually leading to communism in Karl Marx’s theories, would alone solve these problems.

“If you look at Iowa right now the average salary for a teacher is 50,000 dollars and in other nations it’s more that even though the GDP, the total wealth accumulation, is different,” said Bounds.

Though

Bounds wants to solve these problems in the way he sees best, implementing Marxist socialism, he believes it would be extremely hard to accomplish. Socialism, in Karl Marx’s theories, is an organizational theory about economics and politics that strives towards communism. These theories’ purpose is to unite the working class and achieve a society without class. As a result of that, communism and capitalism (the ideology followed by the United States) have often clashed throughout history because of their different values. Some say that capitalism is more focused on the consumer rather than the producer. These theories have many differences, one of them is the way the ideology is placed into the government.

“I believe in the end we do need to have a revolution to achieve [socialism] — especially with the U.S.’s laws to reform a state into a social-

ist state,” said Bounds. “I think one of the biggest problems that people don’t realize is that you need to have a lot of people on board to start socialism. You need to have the workers on board in the cities and in the country and at least 75% of the population.”

This possibility is unlikely to Bounds because the “almost failing” education system due to the lack of funding. Bounds is not alone in his beliefs about socialism. In fact some say the theory of socialism is favored among Millenials.

In a survey done by YouGov in the age group of Americans above the age of 65, only 15% viewed communism favorably. Between the ages 18-29 however, 36% of those surveyed said they viewed communism favorably and 39% said the same about capitalism.

“Research shows that young people are much more likely than older people to support socialism,” said NPR. But not all students feel this way at City, there’s a wide range of opinions. Andrew Usa-

“I believe, in the end, we do need to have a revolution to achieve socialism.”

- John Bounds ‘20 chev is on the unfavorable side.

“True socialism doesn’t actually work there’s always going to be people that want more than others,” said Usachev. When asked if he thought socialism would work if it was established and executed how Karl Marx

imagined, Usachev replied, “I don’t think it would because then competition wouldn’t be a factor, everyone would have the same thing and people wouldn’t be able to compete to then grow as a whole society.”

Although Usachev finds the ideology more appealing than socialism, he finds faults within capitalism as well. Usachev believes a capitalist leader is corrupt and that tampers with the societies true function.

“I’m trying not to be political right now but if there’s not a corrupt leader than capitalism works but if not I guess it doesn’t,” said Usachev.

When a corrupt leader is in control their unfavorable interests affect the economy badly according to Usachev.

“Presently, Donald trump is in power. Now he wants to shut down Amazon because he was offended by Jeff Bezos,” said Usachev. “Ideal capitalism is where all the profits go to corpora-

tions instead of the government. If someone that powerful gets offended by ‘bad coverage’ by the Washington Post and wants to shut down one of the biggest companies in America just to get back at someone, there is obviously more to the situation. But the gist is that corrupt leaders will take their own interests before everyone else’s.”

Usachev acknowledges that he has a biased standpoint when it comes to his opinion on this matter. His parents are from the Soviet Union, present day Ukraine.

“They escaped communism, so I’m naturally not gonna be a fan of it,” said the Senior.

But Usachev has seen the ideology’s unpopularity in school in addition to his home life. He’s seen teacher’s favoring capitalism but he realizes that the teacher’s are teacher the textbook, what they are told to teach. “[Textbooks have] emphasized that communism isn’t a very effective strategy.”

Though opinions on the matter vary from student to student, many agree that the representation of communism and socialism throughout their time in the school district has been negative.

“I just learned that communism is bad I guess,” said Quan Vo ‘18. “Just from in class and in public, people talking about it.”

Bounds noticed this pattern as well.

“There is a lot of U.S. anti-communist propaganda still going around today even though most people don’t really know what marxism is what socialism is,” said Bounds. “They just see it(the propaganda)

as the government wanted them to see it during the cold war which was a totalitarian dictatorship(in Russia) which obviously is not the case in marxist socialism or communism.”

Many students’ parents and teachers grew up during the Cold War, which may have affected the representation of capitalism and communism shown to these students.

“We’re just saying [communism is bad] because we see how bad Russia is,” said Vo. Vo thinks that Communism would be better if correctly executed, without a dictator and without too many rights taken away. Although many students’ opinions on socialism are mostly affected by the type of representation they see, others opinions arose from the economic effects of the ideologies.

“As far as capitalism goes the focus is too much on the economic gain of consumers and producers,” said Patrick McMillan ’18. “There’s not enough equality.”

May 4, 2018 9

the kids are alright The history of teenage activism in america

By Maya Durham

10 Little hawk features

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n recent years, teenagers have been expressing their outrage through public protests… but adolescent activism is not new. The United States has a decades-long history of youth effecting social change.

Today, Generation Z is at the forefront of activism across the country. After the Parkland shooting, America became more aware of the adolescent activist epidemic as the victims of the February 14 school shooting sprang to action almost immediately, planning national school walkouts, March for Our Lives, and a benefit concert that’s in the works. Their proactive energy inspired teens across the country, including Students Against Social Shootings, to organize local marches, town halls, and voter registration drives.

In Iowa City, the days leading up to April 20, 2018, were nerve-wracking for the members of SASS. They had big plans that seemed to keep getting more and more tumultuous.

“A lot of us were really scared going up. It was kind of frightening to be performing the die in right in front of the store. We saw everybody — customers, the store manager watching us the whole time,” said Zoë Butler ’19. “I really just had to focus on the fact that I was with nine of my classmates, nine of my friends and that we were all in it together.”

Butler, a core member of SASS was one of 10 high school students who went to Brownells Gun Supply store in Grinnell, Iowa to stage a die-in. The group planned the die-in to coincide with the national walkout, in which over 2,000

schools across the United States participated.

At 10:00 am the group lay down on the ground in front of the store’s entrance for six minutes and 20 seconds, the amount of time that Nikolas Cruz was an active shooter in the Parkland, Florida shooting two months ago.

“That six minutes and twenty seconds felt like six hours,” said Ameen Taha ‘18. “Laying there, I was scared about what would happen when the police came. I was there, linked arms with everyone else and I knew that nothing would happen. I want to do this again for every anniversary until something changes.”

When the protesters arrived in Grinnell, they gathered their things in a Kum n Go parking lot across the street from Brownells, tying price tags to their ankles — mimicking toe-tags on corps-

Photos by Maya Durham SASS members stage a die in at Brownells, Inc. April 20, 2018 10:00 am Grinnell, Iowa

May 4, 2018 11

es. The price tags were inspired by the students of Never Again, the national movement that arose out of Parkland, Florida following the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018. They calculated the “price” of each student in every state based on how local and federal government officials — such as Senators — accepted money from the NRA. In Iowa, that price is $6.47.

“I was a member of the NRA long before the NRA knew of Joni Ernst, private citizen of Iowa,” said Joni Ernst, one of Iowa’s Senators, in response to a question on Face the Nation. “I appreciate the fact that [protesters] have the right to peacefully protest and inform the government of what they believe is the right path forward.”

SASS staged a simultaneous die in

“THAT SIX MINUTES AND TWENTY SECONDS FELT LIKE SIX HOURS.”

John Lewis, now a Representative in the US House of Representatives, was only 17 years old when he was first arrested. A Civil Rights Activist at the forefront of the movement, Lewis remembers the planning around the march at Selma.

“My own organization, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, objected to the march in Selma. We had an all-night discussion, a debate whether we should march. It’s clear to me that I should march. And I said, ‘I’ve been to Selma many many times, I’ve stood in line at the courthouse, I’ve been arrested, I’ve been to jail there. The local people want to march, and I’m going to march.’” he recalled in an interview with Sarah Jaffe of In These Times. “So I jumped in the car with two of the young people, and I drove to Selma, late at night, got there at three or four in the morning, got our sleeping bags out, got up the next morning, got dressed, went to the church, and we lined up and we marched. The rest is history. Sometimes you just have to do what your spirit says to do. Go for it.”

In the same interview, Lewis recounted the way students rallied in 1960.

“On April the 19, 1960, the attorney for the Nashville movement who had defended the students, his home was bombed around 6:00 a.m.

And by 6:30 or 6:45 we were in a meeting. Students came from all over the city and we made a decision—it was a consensus—that we would have a march from the heart of the student community down to city hall,” he said. “We sent the mayor of the city a telegram to meet us at high noon.

There were more than 4,000 students saying, “Mr. Mayor, do you favor desegregation of the lunch counters?”

And the next day, the banner headline in the local paper read that the Mayor said Yes to the integration of the lunch counters.

It was that sense that we had to act, we had to do something, we

- AMEEN TAHA ‘18

at Van Allen Hall on the University of Iowa campus, the site of a shooting in 1991 which left five dead. Die-ins have been used as a method of political protest for years, including during the AIDS epidemic, the Iraq war, and most recently as a protest of gun violence in America.

Teenage activism was a key factor in the Civil Rights Movement. The NAACP had Youth Councils in many communities, and these children and teenagers participated in marches, sit-ins, and protests. Some of the most important names in Civil Rights history are those of teenagers and children: Emmett Till, Ruby Bridges, Claudette Colvin.

“SOMETIMES YOU JUST HAVE TO DO WHAT YOUR SPIRIT SAYS TO DO. GO FOR IT.”

- REP. JOHN LEWIS

couldn’t wait.”

Fast forward a decade to April 1967 — the Vietnam War is in full swing and Maurice Isserman was a junior in high school. He went from a small town in Connecticut to the Sheep Meadow in Central Park to protest the war with a group called “the Spring Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam”.

“Nobody in my high school or community was vocally opposed to the Vietnam War — except, it seemed, me (my parents had their doubts, but kept them to themselves),” Isserman wrote in a New York Times article. “Which, up to that Saturday morning, left me feeling a bit lonely in my growing conviction that the war represented a moral disaster and a stain on the national honor. But when I reached the Sheep Meadow, suddenly I found I was lonely no longer.”

Isserman wrote that The New York Times put the story of the march on its front page the following day, “complete with a picture of neatly dressed students picketing the White House.”

“The article noted, accurately, that many of those who

turned out were newcomers to antiwar protest,” he said. “The reporter, or perhaps his editor, could not help adding, however, ‘and some had only a hazy idea of how they might go about ending the fighting in Vietnam.’”

He wrote that the representation of newcomers, many teenagers and young adults, was representative of the climate — that in this war, the number of young people dispatched to fight was rising every year.

“Cut off from any personal involvement in the movement by age and geography, I still felt increasingly drawn to the young protesters, just as I had felt about heroic young civil rights workers earlier in the decade, from the Freedom Rides of 1961 through Freedom Summer of 1964,” he said. “The movements overlapped in constituencies, style, and leaders.”

In 2013, following the death of Trayvon Martin, Black Lives Matter formed. Protesting the disproportionate violence that black people face in America, groups of activists — many of whom are teenagers — organized rallies, marches, and meetings to address the problem. However, some see the

movement as being pushed aside.

Charlene Carruthers, national director of Black Youth Project 100, one of the groups involved in the 2014 protests following Michael Brown’s death, tweeted, “I promise Y’all. I’m happy for these young people. I just know how so many young people have put their lives on the line over the past five years. We’re rarely compared to Freedom Riders and recipients of such public support. I shouldn’t be bothered, but I am.”

When Mariam Keita ‘20 participated in the die-in on April 20, 2018, the members of the Civil Rights Movement and Black Lives Matter were close to her heart. As she lay down for six minutes and twenty seconds, she held Malcolm X’s autobiography against her chest.

“Malcolm X ultimately became a martyr. That kind of violence against a black body really incentivized me to participate. I’m in no more danger walking lying on the ground in front of a gun provider than I am walking around the streets in the wrong neighborhood. It wasn’t as much of a fear for me,” said Keita. “While I was lying on that sidewalk I kept thinking of Renisha McBride of Dearborn Heights, Michigan who went to go knock on a door when her car broke down and ended up getting shot through that door. I was at no more risk lying on that sidewalk than Renisha McBride was asking for help.”

“I’M IN NO MORE DANGER WALKING LYING ON THE GROUND IN FRONT OF A GUN PROVIDER THAN I AM WALKING AROUND THE STREETS IN THE WRONG NEIGHBORHOOD.”

- MARIAM KEITA ‘20

Photos by Maya Durham

Mixed America by olivia lusala For many biracial people, understanding where they fit in can be both elusive and arbitrary. From checking boxes on forms to being profiled, race is used to define and control so many aspects of everyday life, leaving biracial people to drift between cultures and races.

“When it comes to my culture I’m mixed; my father is from [the] Congo and my mother was born and raised in Iowa. But when we talk about racism, I’m black. When Ferguson happened, I was black. When Stephon Clark was shot and killed in his own backyard, I was black,” Sophia Lusala ‘22 said.

Racial ideology runs deep in America’s culture and history, and we don’t talk about race in mixed company. As a result, unconscious bias is everywhere, with large consequences for mixed people. Racial bullying is nothing new and, of course, directly tied to the racist experience African-Americans have had historically.

“There are phrases I’ve heard ever since elementary school. ‘You talk white.’ ‘You’re the whitest black girl I’ve ever met.’ ‘You definitely don’t act like you’re black.’ These comments came from girls I considered my friends, which ultimately contributed to me never standing up for myself,” said Lusala. “In fact, I didn’t even know that I should’ve been sticking up for myself.”

Growing up with one white parent and one black parent sometimes means two different cultures from which to pick and choose, making a biracial person’s identity confusing and blurred.

“I feel like when you’re mixed you’re in the middle of everything, I feel like I don’t always fit in with a black group or the white group,” said Samiya Batie ‘18. “I feel like I’m just in the middle.”

Often biracial people feel that they have to choose between their races, that they have to choose a race and be one. This is especially anxiety-provoking to some.

“I definitely have relatives that are racially prejudiced against black people, and it was something I never thought about until more recently, that that can exist in my own family,” said Ava Otoadese ‘18.

According to The Australian Research Council Future Fellowship, being categorized for diversity quotas or being perceived as belonging or not belonging to any particular group can greatly affect someone’s well-being. For example, people tend to perceive those of mixed races as belonging to the racial category of their minority parent, effectively removing their identity as someone of more than one race.

“In 2008 when Obama was elected, everyone was referring to him as black and I didn’t. For me, I always identified as biracial until I understood that everyone else just sees me as black,” said Otoadese.

From checking boxes on forms to being profiled, race impacts almost every area of life. According to a study by Townsend, when biracial or multiracial people are forced to categorize themselves into one particu-

lar race, or when they feel there is a conflict between the way they categorize themselves and society’s categorization of them, there can be lifelong psychological consequences including lower performance, lower self-esteem, and lower motivation.

“I’ve never been bullied for being mixed but I’ve definitely felt excluded from both communities,” said Otoadese. “The question, ‘What are you?’ bothers me. It’s almost dehumanizing, it’s like I’m not a person, a human being.”

Additionally, the study found that when biracial or multiracial people are free to choose their own identities, they can have a level of self-esteem that is even higher than someone who is one race.

“I’ve always been brought up with both and just embraced both sides. I’ve always tried to just make a name for myself and get to where I am today because of just being myself,” said Rose Nkumu ‘20.

Having a complex identity leaves biracial people with a huge amount of room to choose what to embrace and what to reject.

“There’s a certain freedom in not quite belonging to the white or black race and picking little pieces from each side,” Lusala said.

Being biracial in America comes with boosts and drawbacks, incredible opportunities and blatant discrimination.

Olivia Lusala explores how City students walk that line in their mixed America.

May 4, 2018 15

“THERE’S A CER FREEDOM IN NO BELONGING TO OR BLACK RAC PICKING LITTLE FROM EACH SID - Sophia Lusala '22 16 Little hawk features

RTAIN OT QUITE O THE WHITE CE AND E PIECES DE.” May 4, 2018 17

18 Little Hawk Features

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ver since he was nine years old, Bubba Perez has been intrigued by drag culture. He has always loved performing and grew up watching “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” Over time, drag culture has flourished and through television and social media has gained popularity and support. City High’s annual Film Fest lets students dress up in a costume of their choice. This year, Perez decided to dress up as a drag queen.

“It’s a lot, it takes a couple hours to get into drag,” Perez said. “You have to put on makeup, put on a wig, and then you have to find clothes that fit your body because the shapes for men are different than for women.”

Perez first dressed up as a drag queen for a film he was in for last year’s Film Fest.

“I was in a film that was all men as women and we dressed up in drag. It was just a joke film but it was a lot of fun,” Perez said.

However, although fun, it’s also costly and time-consuming to do drag.

“It’s a lot of work and it costs a lot of money to do drag,” Perez said. “I don’t do it that often because I don’t have the makeup skills or anything like that but I really admire all of the work and how these artists create these completely different personalities.”

Two professionals who are experienced in creating different personalities are AJ Adorien and King Robinson.

AJ Adorien, whose drag persona is Hollywood Hope, first got into drag in high school.

There was a little bar and grill in Cedar Rapids called Hamburger Mary’s and it was family friendly. My friends and I used to go out every weekend and watch their drag shows,” Adorien said. “One of my best friends at the time said that I should give it a try, and she invited me to have my first drag performance at her sweet sixteen. After that I did open stages at Mary’s, where I eventually became Miss Teen Hamburger Mary’s and from then on I was hooked and the rest was history.”

King Robinson is a dance instructor and bartender by day and The Queen Fantasia Wood, a drag queen, at night.

“I got into drag through ‘Drag U,’ a competition held at Studio 13 that gives any Average Joe the opportunity to be paired with a Queen and get the full drag experience,” Robinson said. “They dress you, do your makeup, hair, accessories, and everything else. All I had to do was invite people and perform for them. From there I fell in love and continued to do it until I became a booked performer at Studio 13 and other bars in the Midwest.”

One quality all three share is their love for performing.

Robinson, who has been doing drag for two years now, graduated from college with a theater degree.

Drag just came as another outlet to use my voice and talents to express not only who I was but also the need for our country to change,” Robinson said. “My drag aesthetic tends to lean towards the political as much as she leans towards the sensual.”

Similarly, Perez has been involved in many musical and theatrical activities.

“I think I first dressed up when I was in second grade for a musical. I was dressed in a dress and that was when I first got introduced. I realized, ‘Wow, this is actually something that people do,’ and it was a lot of fun,” Perez said.

“But I love performing and I’ve been doing choir and show choir and things like that my entire life.”

Similarly, throughout high school, Adorien was heavily involved in performing arts activities.

“In high school I was involved in a lot of after-school activities like show choir, band, football, and musicals, so performing was always in my blood. Drag for me is just another way to express myself in an artistic way,” Adorien said.

“As far as dressing up, I never really experienced it until my first drag performance. I enjoy the transformation from a handsome male to a drop-dead gorgeous female.”

Even as an experienced drag performer, something Adorien still struggles with is walking in heels.

“I envy a person that can walk all day in heels,” Adorien said. “I wear a size 13 in women’s shoes and as soon as I put on heels on I instantly regret it.”

Adorien chose Hollywood Hope as his drag persona because of the name’s sentimental value.

“My first name Hollywood was given to me by a coworker in high school. Hollywood is the name of a character from the movie Mannequin,” Adorien said. “My last name Hope came from myself. In high school I dealt with a lot of depression and mental illness, although I was popular and actually the first openly gay male to become homecoming king in the state of Iowa. It was still really hard to accept myself for who I really was, so I picked Hope to be my last name to remind myself to stay hopeful for a brighter future.”

Although Perez currently does not have a drag persona, he hopes she will be a funny, sassy dancer.

Robinson’s drag persona is an outgoing, confident queen.

“While I love who I am as King, Queen adds another dimension to my already outgoing personality. The Queen can be as sexy as she wants, as vocal as she wants, and as unapologetically fierce as she wants,” Robinson said. “I wish I could be more like her in that respect. Able to just call out wrongs and stomp my ground without the fear of consequences or opposition.”

Creating a drag persona was a long process, combining aspects of Robinson’s childhood, interests, and past negative experiences.

“I enjoy the transformation from a handsome male to a drop-dead gorgeous female.”

-AJ Adorien, “Hollywood Hope”

may 4, 2018 19

Creating a drag persona was a long process, combining aspects of Robinson’s childhood, interests, and past negative experiences.

“My name The Queen Fantasia Wood came from a couple things; when

“The Queen can be as sexy as she wants, as vocal as she wants, and as unapologetically fierce as she wants.”

-King robinson, “the queen fantasia wood” I was young, people called me Queen as a slur because of my more feminine tendencies. I adopted the name The Queen as an effort to reclaim a term that gave me so much pain growing up. Why should it be negative to be a Queen? The name Fantasia came from my extreme interest in K-pop and Asian culture in general. As for Wood, I grew up on Wood Street in Chicago and it’s also sort of a double entendre,” Robinson said. “At the end of the day, I needed my name to be unique, reflect the past, look towards the future, and be something fun and extra. So there you have it, The Queen Fantasia Wood, but you can just call me Queen.”

For Robinson, the performing and dancing aspects of drag come naturally. The most difficult part of doing drag is the preparation and avoiding negative labels.

“All the behind the scenes work to get to that point is the real challenge.

Being a great makeup artist, being fashionable, and being able to articulate yourself well in front of an audience are all equally weighted on the scales of drag,” Robinson said. “In drag terms you can be a fierce performer and still be known as a ‘busted’ queen, meaning your makeup is trash, a ‘crafty’ or ‘cheap’ queen, meaning you shop at Forever 21 for all your clothes or tend to look a little homemade. While most queens avoid looking like a kindergarten art project, escaping these labels is hard once they are attached to you.”

Another difficult part about drag is creating a unique look.

“A lot of it is just learning your face and what looks good on your face.

Because when you first start out, you want to copy everything you see or copy makeup artists that you see on YouTube, but just because that works for them doesn’t mean that it will work for you,” Robinson said. “You really have to know who you are. It’s a process. It’s still a process. I still find little things every time I do my makeup where I think ‘I want to change that, I want to look a little different.’ For me, it’s easily the hardest part about drag.”

A big part of drag is having thick skin and being able to communicate with other queens.

“A big part of the culture is “throwing shade” not in a manner that is mean-spirited exactly and tears other queens down, but as playful banter meant to help them face a harsh world full of criticism, gender binaries, and stereotypes,” Robinson said. “If you can’t read your sisters, how in the world can you read somebody else?”

Drag requires a lot of time. For Robinson, it usually takes two and a half hours to fully get ready for a show. It’s not ideal, but over the years he has learned to do his makeup in only 30 minutes, so he has enough time for everything else.

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“A typical night is me taking a shower, preparing myself mentally, picking songs, and then getting dressed, and all of that takes a few hours. Then I come here, doing the final touch-ups which is doing lashes and lips usually or I’ll get dressed here if I’m doing social. After that, we put our names on the list, get our songs in, go perform, change, and perform again, and we drink a little,” Robinson said. “A lot of time is also just interacting with people, taking pictures, things like that, just having a good time. Because drag is all about fun at the end of the day.”

Robinson performs up to three times a week, which is a lot, especially when he does shows in different cities.

Besides Iowa City, I love performing in Chicago. The audience is just super hype and they’re really passionate about drag queens so that’s beautiful to see. Not to say that they’re not passionate here, but it’s just a different type of energy, different types of people. They’re a little more vocal during the show,” Robinson said.

In Chicago, the audience is usually around 300 people. Comparatively, Iowa City shows tend to be around 150. Regardless of the number of people, Robinson always performs the same way.

Robinson’s biggest advice for people wanting to get into drag is to shop at thrift stores, become active on social media, specifically Instagram and YouTube, and keep finding opportunities to perform and do drag.

“If drag is really something you want to do, you’ll do it. You’ll find a way. I actually love to do this, I love to perform, so it was just a matter of, ‘You’re gonna perform no matter what, so you’re gonna find a way to look good,’” Robinson said. “It’s definitely harder for young people who

“At the end of the day, I needed my name to be unique, reflect the past, look towards the future, and be something fun and extra. So there you have it, The Queen Fantasia Wood, but you can just call me Queen.”

-king robinson, “the queen fantasia wood” aren’t of age because a lot of time, drag happens in bars. However, here at Studio 13, you can be nineteen and perform. YouTube is also your friend if you love performing. Like, somebody out there will watch it. Create Instagram accounts. People love drag these days as you can see in ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race,’ for example, which has really taken off even more the last couple years. So there’s a lot more doors opening for people wanting to do drag.”

may 4, 2018 21

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- Anna Basile

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typical day at City High School is incomplete until you’ve heard the nasally voice of one Ms. Basile permeating through the halls. Anna Basile has been a teacher here at City High since 2016, when she decided to leave South East Junior High School. This year she is teaching English 9, and US Literature, and spends a lot of her time trying to keep up with her grading.

The goals she sets while teaching are what sets her apart from other teachers. “[I hope my students] can better use language to make positive impressions on others, understand more about life and how we live it, and advocate for themselves,” Basile said. “I want to help people assemble tools to be happy and fulfilled in their life beyond high school, and I think reading and writing well is pretty important in making these things possible.”

Basile’s inspiration for teaching comes from helping kids as a camp counselor and volunteering for nonprofit organizations. She went to college in Boston, Massachusetts for politics, but found herself writing about education that aimed to help schools. Her interest in English comes from her experience in high school and wanting to prepare people for their futures.

“I teach English because I’ve always enjoyed it, and it was never ‘work’ for me in school,” she said. “I think inviting kids to know about culture through sharing stories but also how to be wiser citizens through critical reading and persuasive writing paves the way for being better able to advocate for themselves and their families in the future.”

Basile is a prime example of how life gets better after high school.

She often says that she is a 14-year old girl in the body of an adult. This helps her create strong connections with many of her students which make her their favorite teacher. “‘I like you either way’ is something I tell kids a lot. At the end of the day, yes, I hope you’re performing well in my class and improving on your skills, but if your choices don’t get you there, I still care about you as a person,” said Basile. “Not everyone likes English, but that’s not a prerequisite for me liking you.”

Eight months pregnant, Basile is finagling the ups and downs of her pregnancy. Her baby is due shortly after school gets out this year and she is incredibly excited for the arrival of her new family member. Her pregnancy has caused a lot of cravings, she said.

“Because I’m pregnant, I feel like every food is my favorite food, but my top three favorite things to eat are a Portillo’s hot dog available in and around Chicago, a cannoli from Mike’s Bakery in Boston, and raw East Coast oysters with a classic mignonette sauce that I get to share with my husband,” Basile said.

Basile has been teaching for years, but she says there are still things she thinks she can improve on as an educator.

“I really need to improve how I balance my time between planning for class and grading student work…I tend to leave my grading for the mornings...I wake up around 4:45 and work for an hour and a half before my family wakes up,” said Ms. Basile. “Getting quicker feedback returned to students is definitely at the top of my list of things I could improve about my work.”

She also tries to keep students engaged and off their phone as much as possible. If she sees someone with their phone, she will give them a warning, then put the phone in a fanny-pack until the end of class.

“I think students typically understand [my rules], but sometimes don’t prioritize well or lack self-control,” she said. “Cell phone rules exist because society needs the next generation to be fully-functioning, contributing members of society who have skills beyond the few that Instagram requires.”

She sees working at City High as a core part of her future, but she also sees herself going on to teach aspiring teachers or working with other teachers to help them learn ways to use technology in the classroom. “[I’m going to] keep on keepin’ on,” she said. “I really like my job.”

May 4, 2018 23

Features magazine