The Towerlight (Feb. 28, 2017)

Towson’s campus and community news source

TheTowerlight.com

February 28, 2017

Take a Hike The Towerlight’s take on some local trails. Pgs.12,13

Photo by Marcus Dieterle, Photo Illustration by Jordan Stephenson /The Towerlight

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February 28, 2017

NATIONAL NUTRITION Focus on MONTH

your health this month!

FREE NUTRITION SERVICES: Nutrition counseling with a registered dietician Nutrition facts for food on campus available • for Glen, Newell, and West Village • Visit towson.edu/dining Dining location health tours •

Join the Nutrition Club View Facebook page for meetings and events.

Towerlight biweekly nutrition articles: Nourish TU Follow us on Twitter @TUNutrition Email kballek@towson.edu for additional information or appointment times.

EVENTS:

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March 1-13:

Veggie Challenge!

Look for peer educators and health science students wearing a vegetable hat/costume and take picture with them, then take a picture of yourself eating vegetables.

Post on social medi with the hashtags: #StriveForFive #LettuceEatWell.

See Facebook.com/wellnesstu for details.

March 6:

Nutrition Fair University Union, 2nd Floor, 11am - 1pm Nutrition Fair with numerous student groups and vendors showcasing a variety of nutrition topics. Free samples, giveaways and prizes!

March 29:

Whole Grain Sampling Day Discover the taste of healthy whole grains in the dining halls!

R E AD ABOUT A L L T H E H EA LT H Y O P T I O N S O N C A MPU S A N D O U R VE G E TA R I A N PRO G R A M AT

TOWSON.EDU /DINING

Social

February 28, 2017

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Week of 2/28-2/4

WEEKLY

Editor-in-Chief Cody Boteler Senior Editor Sam Shelton

CALENDAR

News Editor Sarah Rowan Asst. News Editors Bailey Hendricks Marcus Dieterle Assoc. Arts Editors Taylor DeVille Kristin Helf

Sports Editor Jordan Cope Asst. Sports Editor Karuga Koinange Staff Writers Lauren Cosca Nick Mason Sydney Douglass

Feb

28

Desmond Boyle Alaina Tepper McKenna Graham Theresa Schempp Mary-Ellen Davis Jessica Ricks Sarah Van Wie Amanda Carrol

Bikini Body: Every Body is a Bikini Body Paws, 4 to 7 p.m.

Participate in National Eating Disorder Awareness Week by playing trivia and competing in the chance to win prizes.

Have fun while getting informed on how the media impacts body image.

Nicole Shakhnazarova Rohan Mattu Photo Editor Alex Best

March

1

Staff Photographers Cody Boteler Mark Dragon Sam Shelton Stephanie Ranque Jordan Cope Video Producer Stacey Coles

Color-Blind Justice: Race and Cognitive Bias in the Forensic Sciences Liberal Arts 4150, 12 to 1:15 p.m.

Forensic science is a tricky buisness. Hear from Dr. Jeff Kukucka from the Department of Psychology on how a suspects race may effect the way a scientist interprets information and analyzes evidence.

March

Sip and Paint

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Paws, 8 to 11 p.m.

Follow along with a talented, yet-to-benamed, Towson artist, and create your own art, while drinking mocktails with fellow Towson students.

March

Dark Humor Film Series

Art Lecture Hall, CA 2032, 3 p.m.

Proofreaders Kayla Baines Alex Best Tyisha Henderson Stephanie Ranque Sarah Rowan

March

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Alaina Tepper

Healthy, Safe, Sexy Relationships, featuring Laci Green

University Union Potomac lounge, 7 p.m.

Hear from Laci Green, Youtube star and one of Time Magazine’s Most Influential People of 2016, on creating and maintaining healthy relationships.

General Manager Mike Raymond Art Director Jordan Stephenson

TOWSON

Webmaster Lola Akinleye Circulation Staff Shawn Halerz Nilo Exar Abubakary Kaba

TRENDING

Alicia DePasquale

Mr Eazi Comes to Towson

8000 York Road University Union Room 309 Towson, MD 21252 (410) 704-5153 editor@thetowerlight.com thetowerlight.com The Towerlight print edition is published by students of Towson University on Tuesdays.

The Towerlight is owned by nonprofit Baltimore Student Media Inc., BaltimoreStudentMedia.com.

The Towerlight’s advertising deadlines are firm: Wednesday noon for space; Friday noon for art.

Classifieds appear online and in print and are self-service at TheTowerlight.com/classifieds.

We encourage letters to the editor and online feedback.

Commentaries, letters to the editor, editorial cartoons and other editorials express the opinions of their authors and not necessarily the views of the newspaper.

The Towerlight does not discriminate based on age, color, condition of handicap, marital status, national origin, race, religion, gender or sexual orientation. ©2017 by The Towerlight, 8000 York Rd, Towson, MD 21252. All rights reserved.

Please Recycle!

This weeks movie is “I’m Gonna Git You Sucka,” which originally came out in 1988.

Learn about the racist stereotypes many hold in their minds towards the black community.

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Towson was toooo lit last night! S/O to @mreazi & @Legendary_Mikee

@__vickayy

@mreazi concert today at Towson University was so lit.

Such a humble guy. Keep up with the good work. #zagadat @SharpenKyoto

Was an experience to play with @mreazi tonight. We really killed the show! S/O to Towson university and @Legendary_Mikee #Zagadat #NextLevel @OyaKissMyArmpit

@mreazi concert was amazing !

Come back to Towson

@BRE_4short

4

Opinion

February 28, 2017

Take a hike

You don’t know my fears

It’s only been a few months, Trans women are welcome to share my restroom but I’m already tired of 2017

Cody Boteler/ The Towerlight

This week’s issue of The Towerlight focuses on some of our favorite places to be active.

It’s the end of February and I’m already exhausted by 2017. We’ve already seen so much (maybe too much?) happen.

President Trump has lost a national security advisor and a couple other cabinet nominees, all-but-declared war on the media and seen one of his biggest and boldest executive orders halted by the courts.

North Korea tested some missiles and a member of the Kim family was assassinated. President Obama went on (what looks like) an amazing vacation, Jewish cemeteries have been vandalized, and Bill Paxton died.

There was a gigantic and historic screw-up at the Academy Awards, a blinking white guy took over Twitter, and a Navy SEAL raid in Yemen ended with dead civilians, a destroyed aircraft and a killed service member.

But I’m not going to talk about any of that stuff. I’m just too tired.

Instead, I’m going to talk about this issue. A week ago, we didn’t know what to make the cover story. We were talking about how it was uncharacteristically warm for February—and we decided that, yeah, there had to be some way to run with that.

Instead of just one big story on the gloom and doom of climate change and how we’re all gonna die (which we will, if we don’t take care of this), we decided to go with a more positive angle – how to enjoy the pleasant weather while we had it.

We picked a few local or local-ish parks and divvied it up among the

editorial board.

We’d go to the park, walk around and then write about the place we had just left our footprints.

And, yeah, as you’ll see in the resurgence of Climate Corner, I did talk about the doom and gloom a little bit because, and I cannot ever say this enough: The global climate is changing. It’s our fault, and it will get worse unless we act. Now. But that’s not what this editorial is for. I want these column inches (or pixels, depending on where you read this) to be about hiking. About being outside and moving and experiencing the natural environment.

I don’t know when or why I started to have such an affinity for being outside, surrounded by trees and a little bit winded from climbing up a steep hill. But I do.

Nothing, to me, is more invigorating than a good hike, either solo or with a small group. Nothing is more refreshing.

We’ve built up cities and suburbs to keep ourselves sheltered from the threat of exposure (and yeah OK, bears). Our built environments aren’t something that I hate – cities are, in some ways, more sustainable than other ways for humans to live – but they’re something I need to get away from.

We crawled out of the ocean and then walked around the plains and swung through the trees. It’s been said that humans were born to run – it was one of our tools for survival, since we could sweat and outlast anything we wanted to hunt.

I’ll go a step further. We were born to hike.

Sam Shelton/ The Towerlight

Some lawmakers have argued that allowing transgendered women to use women’s restrooms would endanger cisgender women and children who use those facilities.

@MeganFemmily

You know what’s really been grinding my gears lately? Well, a lot.

But, currently, my gears are being ground by 1) the fact that trans people are being denied the right to use the bathroom that makes them the most comfortable and 2) the fact that the biggest argument used to “justify” this denial is that if transgender women (women whose sense of identity does not correspond with their birth sex) use the same bathroom as cisgender women (women whose sense of identity corresponds with their birth sex), it would put cis women and children in danger.

First of all, y’all, trans women are women. This isn’t up for debate.

Forcing a person to use a bathroom they do not feel comfortable using denies their identity, and who the hell are we to deny anyone’s identity?

Secondly, a woman literally just trying to use the bathroom in peace is not a threat to other women and children. Forcing a woman to use the men’s bathroom won’t make anyone “safer.” In fact, doing so puts that woman at risk, makes her uncomfortable and denies who she is -- who she may have gone through hell to proudly be.

If our government really want to keep women safe, how about we stop letting rapists get away with little to no punishment? How about we make

women’s healthcare (including abortion) safer and more accessible? How about we stop treating trans women like they aren’t women?

Here’s what I have to say to any member of our government who thinks letting all women share one bathroom is a threat to women and children: Stop using your “concern” for my “safety” to propel your hateful agenda.

You weren’t concerned for my safety when you let Brock Turner, found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman behind a dumpster, go back to living his life after just three months in jail.

You weren’t concerned for my safety when David Becker, charged with sexually assaulting two girls, was only sentenced to two years of probation. You weren’t concerned for my safety when you allowed him to “look forward to a productive life without being burdened with the stigma of having to register as a sex offender” because you didn’t want to “impede this individual from graduating high school and [going] onto the next step of his life,” as described by Thomas Rooke, Becker’s lawyer.

You weren’t concerned for the safety of women when you cut off funding to other countries’ healthcare facilities because they provided or discussed abortion.

You weren’t concerned for the safety of women when you -- ahem, Oklahoma -- moved a bill forward that would require women to get written permission from men in

order to obtain abortions.

And don’t tell me that women trying to use the damn bathroom are a threat to the safety of children, because you weren’t concerned for the safety of children when you let then 16-year-old Kraigen Grooms serve only two years and four months in jail after pleading guilty to “engaging in a lascivious act with a child.”

You weren’t concerned for the safety of women and children then, and you sure as hell aren’t concerned for the safety of women and children now.

I will never worry about who uses the stall next to me, who shares a mirror with me, or who laughs at me when I can’t get the automatic paper towel dispenser to work. No. Instead, I worry about who gets near my friend’s drinks when we go out. I worry about whether walking with my keys tucked between my fingers will actually help me fend off a predator if I need to. I worry about what healthcare will be accessible to me next year. I worry about who will believe me if I’m sexually assaulted.

None of my fears stem from trans women. My fears stem from governmental systems and agencies that perpetuate real threats to women’s safety time and time again.

As a cis woman, I refuse to be spoken for as a means to catalyze transphobia. Trans rights are women’s rights, and we won’t let hate win.

Opinion

February 28, 2017

5

Yes, free speech for fascists: a confession HOWARD BAETJER JR. Lecturer, Dept. of Economics

Last week, when one of my students caught sight of me approaching on a campus walk, he pulled out his smartphone to show me a picture he had taken.

“Look at this,” he said, disgusted, “It was in the Liberal Arts Building.”

The picture showed a hand-lettered sign, hung over an atrium railing, that Advertising

read, “No free speech for fascists.”

Because I care intensely about free speech, especially in a university, and more especially still in my university, I was sorry and angry to see the sign. It pained me that shutting down the opinions of others, even fascists, should be publicly advocated.

“I tore it down,” my student said.

“Good for you,” said I. Was I right to say that? Was my

student right to tear down the sign? I don’t think so. I’m ashamed of it now.

The lights came on for me when I told a colleague of the incident a couple of days later. Something in his tone when he asked, “He tore it down?” gave me pause.

For the first time, I questioned the act. I saw myself in a contradiction.

The sign had urged silencing fascists.

I hold fascism to be contemptible and

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of opposition to free expression. The proper response to bad speech is better speech, not shutting it down.

So what should my student have done? Next to that sign that read, “No free speech for fascists,” he should have posted another with an arrow toward the first, saying, “Free speech for all, even those who are wrong, like fascists and the person who posted this sign.” February 17, 2015 11

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wrong, but I believe fascists should be allowed to express their mistaken ideas as freely as anyone else. And that sign was attacking freedom of expression.

The sign’s message was wrong.

But the sign was expression. And my student had silenced it. And I had approved. We were both wrong to do so.

Free expression is so important that we must tolerate even the expression

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February 28, 2017

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News

February 28, 2017

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Author sets out to reclaim Muslim narrative Ever since Sept. 11, 2001, author and journalist Moustafa Bayoumi says, the U.S. government and mediaat-large have widely branded Muslims at home and abroad as terrorists.

During a Feb. 23 talk on campus -- wherein he set out to reclaim and reshape the narrative of Muslim American life, Bayoumi said Muslims are primarily portrayed as one of two extremes: villains or victims.

And, when seemingly positive portrayals do exist, they are presented as if they are shattering a stereotype.

Bayoumi said coverage like this can be just as dangerous because that story becomes the exception to the rule, thus reinforcing that rule.

“I think it’s really not about giving people more information; it’s about addressing this question on the level of what it’s being used for politically instead,” he said. “I think we need to have more upfront conversation, more honest conversations about the ways in which people are used for political conversations, for political discussions.”

As an alternative to politically-charged representations, Bayoumi, an English professor at Brooklyn College, City University of New York and columnist for The Guardian, would like to see more nuanced

stories about Muslims living their day-to-day lives, such as how Muslim Americans struggle to send money overseas when their families are caught in a war zone.

After President Donald Trump signed an executive order temporarily banning entry to the U.S. from seven Muslim-majority countries, people protested at the travel ban at airports and lawyers offered counsel to those affected by the order.

Those protesters were not just Muslims, Bayoumi said, but people of all backgrounds.

“To fight for the rights of Muslim Americans today is not to fight just for the rights of Muslims,” he said.

“It’s to fight for the soul of this country. It’s to fight for the rights of the republic itself.”

Bayoumi said the ban is not just about Muslims or refugees, but rather about any marginalized people, including undocumented immigrants. He stressed the importance of approaching such issues with an intersectional lens.

“You have to fight for your rights to be guaranteed,” he said. “You are not free until everyone else is free in this society. Whether that is a woman, whether that is the disabled, whether that’s undocumented, whether it is LGBT, whether it is the indigenous rights of the people of this country, we have to fight for all of it and we have to fight for it all together.”

Bayoumi said that the informa-

Marcus Dieterle/ The Towerlight Author and journalist Moustafa Bayoumi speaks about reshaping the narrative of Muslim-American life Feb. 23 in the Union. Bayoumi stressed the importance of approaching issues with intersectionality. tion about how refugees are already vetted is available for people who want to find it. He said it is now more important to focus on how misinformation about Muslims and refugees in general is being used to propel political discourse.

Sophomore Emma Jarvis wants people to have more honest conversations and be more open to learning about Muslims.

Jarvis, an anthropology major, said the speech taught her more about what Muslim Americans go through.

“It definitely enhanced my perspective of thinking that this is something important that people need to learn about and that what is happening isn’t the best,” Jarvis said.

For those who are fighting for the fair treatment of Muslims and other Americans, Bayoumi said this is a time

for communal action like the kind seen at the airport demonstrations.

“In those friendships that we create at those moments – those moments of solidarity, those moments of communion, those moments of really coming together – we’re actually creating the very society that we’re dreaming about,” he said. “And it’s beginning to happen. So that’s why I still have … a lot of hope.”

Towson Barnes & Noble closing More Marylanders

Next closest location is in White Marsh support legal weed ROHAN MATTU Staff Writer

The Barnes & Noble on Joppa Road at Towson Circle will close its doors at the end of May in order to make way for a proposed redevelopment project in the area.

One level of the two-level store was expected to stay open, but the announcement of the full closure came in a statement by Retail Properties of America Inc. last month.

“The property is going through a major re-development, which would not allow for us to remain in place during the construction,” Barnes & Noble Vice President of Development David Deason said in a statement.

“We have enjoyed serving our customers in Towson and we look forward to continuing to serve them at the nearby Pikesville, White Marsh and Power Plant stores,” the statement continues.

The closing will affect a number of Towson students, who go there for books, a quiet place to study or just to pass time.

“That’s where I got a lot of my school supplies, I rented some books for class from there, and that’s where I buy books in general,” freshman Makya Kreamer said.

Sophomore Brendan Brady sees the closing as a blow to his own personal education.

“A lot of what school teaches you is how to learn,” Brady said.

“So going to Barnes & Noble is amazing because I’m surrounded

by this wealth of knowledge, and I know how to absorb it and what I want to learn.”

To sophomore Rachael Jette, the Barnes & Noble was a peaceful place she could learn.

“It was a quiet place besides the library,” Jette said. “There were these tables by a window on the top floor I used to go to to study.”

No new retail tenant has been secured for the property at this time.

Neighboring retailer Trader Joe’s will close March 16 and reopen March 17 at a new location in The Shops at Kenilworth.

Following the Towson closure, the closest Barnes & Noble locations will be located at The Avenue at White Marsh and at the Inner Harbor in downtown Baltimore.

Gov. Larry Hogan’s popularity has dipped, support for legalized recreational marijuana is up, and 60 percent of Marylanders support a $15 minimum wage, according to results from a new Goucher poll.

The poll results, released Monday, show Hogan with 63 percent approval and 17 percent disapproval. Thirty percent of respondents said that Hogan hasn’t spent enough time addressing national issues. According to the Goucher poll, Hogan’s approval ratings are “identical” to this time last year and “slightly lower” than their Fall 2016 poll.

“Speculation over a ‘Trump effect’ on Governor Hogan’s approval ratings

and reelection efforts has certainly ramped up over the last month,” Mileah Kromer, director of the Sarah T. Hughes Field Politics Center, said in a statement. “Although there have been direct efforts to attach Governor Hogan to President Trump and the majority of Maryland voters say that their views toward President Trump will influence their vote in 2018, the governor remains largely unaffected by national politics.”

Fifty-eight percent of Marylander support legalizing recreational marijuana. According to Kate Bell of the Marijuana Policy Project, this is up from 52 percent in 2016. Bell said she was “very” optimistic about recreational marijuana being legalized in the Old Line State.

-To read the rest of this article online, visit thetowerlight.com.

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February 28, 2017

News

Feb. 23: At the Union Garage, an unknown person damaged the vehicle of a commuter student.

Feb. 20: At West Village Commons, a contract employee had their phone taken after leaving it unattended.

Feb. 20: At the Lecture Hall, a commuter student was referred to OSCCE for a false ID. Feb. 19: In West Village, a resident student was assaulted by her boyfriend in her dorm room.

Feb. 17: At the Glen Complex, a window was damaged by unknown means.

Feb. 15: At Burdick Hall, a resident student was served with a criminal summons for numerous thefts on campus.

Feb. 15: At Millennium Hall, TUPD is investigating a theft from a dorm room.

Feb. 13: At Glen Garage, a commuter student was cited for leaving the scene of an accident and referred to OSCCE for CDS violation.

Feb. 11: At Marshall Hall, a resident student damaged a dorm door.

Feb. 10: At the 7800 building, a commuter student threatened another commuter student during school hours.

Feb. 9: At Newell Den, a contract employee was assaulted by another contract employee during an argument.

Feb. 7: At the Union, a resident student punched another resident student after an argument.

Feb. 6: At the Union, a resident student was cited for shoplifting at the bookstore.

Feb. 3: At Stephens Hall, a window was destroyed by unknown means.

Feb. 1: At Scarborough Hall, several residents were cited for CDS violation.

Feb. 1: At the Liberal Arts building, a faculty member received unwanted phone calls from an unknown person.

Jan. 31: At West Village Garage, TUPD is investigating a destruction of TU property.

Jan. 28: At Tower D, a resident student was cited for CDS violation.

The Towerlight’s “Police Blotter” is a representative sample of crimes occurring on and off campus. The blotter is not intended to be all inclusive.

For a list of all crime reports, visit www.towson.edu/police.

News

February 28, 2017

We can still save the planet

Cody Boteler/ The Towerlight Cromwell Valley Park is one of many places students can take a hike in Maryland. However, like all places, it will be affected by climate change in the coming years.

The climate is changing. It’s our fault. It’s bad. Things will get worse.

We can still fix it.

The scientific consensus is clear.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 34 national science academies, the African Academy of Sciences, the Geological Society of America and countless other scientists, groups and experts have concurred—yes, the climate is changing and yes, it’s mostly because of human activity.

The science of climate change is not complicated. When a fossil fuel, like coal, oil or natural gas, is burned, it goes through a reaction that produces carbon dioxide.

Carbon dioxide, when it reaches the atmosphere, traps heat instead of letting it escape into space. That’s why they’re called greenhouse gases – heat can get into Earth’s atmosphere, from the sun, but not as much is escaping, because carbon dioxide and other gases are trapping it in the atmosphere.

Since the Industrial Revolution, humans have pumped more and more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, accelerating the rate of climate change. We’re already seeing the effects as glaciers and permafrost melt, regions, like Syria, experience extended drought and storms become more powerful.

Here at home, the changing climate was probably most visible last week, when we had a few days of unseasonably-warm weather in the middle of February.

It got all of us at The Towerlight thinking, sure, and inspired this week’s theme of “Take a Hike,” and yeah, it was nice to sit outside and enjoy the sunshine.

But it’s really, really disquieting.

As one of my professors, Brian Fath, pointed out, it’s not just the winters that are going to get warmer. We’ll be dealing with hotter summers, too.

“It does come to bite you in the end,” Fath said in an interview.

Fath said that if we’re going to avoid absolute catastrophe from a changing climate, humans are going to have to make some “drastic changes.”

“The real question is whether

we’re going to do it voluntarily or if we’re going to be forced into it,” Fath said. “I am of the belief that if we’re not doing it voluntarily, we may be forced. The consequences [of a changing climate] will be so obvious that it won’t make any sense to keep doing business as usual.”

We’ve got to use less. We’ve got to reuse what we can. We have to recycle as much as possible. In a relatively new book, Fath put it really simply: There are no trash cans in nature. We can’t keep consuming and then discarding like we do.

I love this planet and got into journalism, at least in part, to report on how it's changing.

As much as we wanted this issue to be, we didn’t want our readers to forget about the scientific fact that our planet’s climate is changing and that humans are going to have to adapt.

The economy won’t matter, civil rights won’t matter, privacy won’t matter, healthcare won’t matter; jobs, unemployment, the stock market all won’t matter, if our planet becomes uninhabitable because of climate change brought on by human action.

9

Psych prof. talks inclusion, control KEVIN MCGUIRE Contributing Writer

Honors College psychology professor Jonathan Mattanah recognizes that many college students struggle with psychological problems, but, he says, inclusion in the University and greater control over important life decisions may help them cope.

“They are all not doing well, and they are all not having a very good time of it,” Mattanah said. “We know they are struggling. And they are struggling in a variety of ways.”

Mattanah argued during his Feb. 21 lecture that financial stresses and the increasing number of students with neurological disabilities are causing this strain. Students also report feeling unstable and insecure in college, in what developmental psychologists are calling “emerging adulthood.”

This recent developmental phenomenon theorizes that students ages 18-29 are struggling with not yet being adults and no longer being adolescents.

“They are sort of floating between adolescence and adulthood,” Mattanah said. “And by nature there’s a kind of instability associated with emerging adults.”

Lilian Odera, assistant director of outreach and media at the Counseling Center, said it’s important for students to pay attention to current events and relationships affecting the transition into college life.

“A lot of times they wait until things spill over, and many of the students lack the coping skills to deal with the stress,” Odera said. “This presentation brings to light many things we need to be attentive to.”

Mattanah argued that involvement with the university is key to battling this stressful transition.

“The students need to feel a part of the university,” he said.

Separating from parents is also key in the transition from high school to college. Mattanah stressed that the role of the parent needs to shift from overseer to a sort of “sounding board.”

“Control is no longer the primary task when parenting college students, but rather parents need to believe their children are able to make competent decisions,” he said. “In order for a college student to feel close to their parent, the student needs to feel that their parent will respect and listen to them, without solving the problem for them.”

Mattanah also noted that involvement with faculty can give a great sense of inclusion between the student and the university, and he argued that faculty need to be approachable so that students will feel comfortable connecting with them outside of the classroom.

“There’s a lot of evidence that students really value connecting with faculty, but research suggests that it doesn’t happen very often,” he said.

-To read the rest of this article online, visit thetowerlight.com.

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12 February 28, 2017

TAKE A HIke

Take A Hike

Take a hike! No, really, take a hike. Around Towson, that is. The towerlight has found some pretty sweet hiking spots near campus for nature-lovers of all interests and skills levels. So lace up your boots or some comfy sneakers (maybe even pack a picnic) and get a move on. We’re burning daylight here.

Loch Raven Reservoir Sarah Rowan/ The Towerlight

Each weekend, three miles of Loch Raven Drive, which weaves along the reservoir’s banks, are closed to allow bikers and walkers to enjoy the area without fear of vehicular traffic.

Not even 15 minutes away from campus lies one of the area’s largest hiking destinations - Loch Raven Reservoir. At 3.75 square miles, the reservoir provides drinking water for Baltimore City and most of Baltimore County. In addition, its watershed is covered by miles and miles of paths and fire roads for activities like running, hiking, biking and horseback riding.

Each weekend, a 3-mile section of Loch Raven Drive shuts down along the reservoir for bikers and walkers to enjoy a break from busy, vehicular traffic. For fishers, the Loch Raven Fishing Center rents out boats and canoes, and provides the only boat ramp with access to the reservoir.

To Towson graduate Geoff Hoesch, the surrounding trails are an excellent place for students in particular to visit.

“Whether students want to escape the concrete jungle, experience nature, take amazing photos or just get some exercise, Loch Raven is an excellent choice,” Hoesch said. “If you know where to look, you can even find old foundations for long-deserted buildings throughout the area.”

Hoesch runs the website “Loch Raven Trails,” dedicated to providing information about the reservoir and its various hiking trails, plants and animals.

For students traveling to the reservoir from campus, Hoesch keeps an updated list of trail parking sites on his website. (Sarah Rowan)

lake roland

Double rock park Photos by Marcus Dieterle/ The Towerlight

Double Rock Park boasts a yearly attendance of 50,000 to 60,000 visitors and stays open from sunrise to sunset.

Double the trails means double the fun at Double Rock Park. Located directly northeast of the Maryland School for the Blind, the park sits on the edge of Parkville just inside of the Beltway.

The park’s blue and gold trail routes each cover about 1.5 miles, according to Jerry Hahn, a community supervisor at the Parkville Recreation office. The trails offer a fairly leisurely walk along the Stemmers Run stream which bisects the park. Visitors might even be able to spot some of the local wildlife such as birds, deer, rabbits, squirrels and foxes, Hahn said.

At 107.7 acres, Double Rock is the perfect spot for casual hiking without being an all-day ordeal. Of course, you could spend all day there if you’re into that sort of thing, because the park is open from sunrise to sunset.

People can also rent out any of the park’s pavilions and picnic areas for group events through the Parkville Recreation Council.

The park also includes a playground for kids and athletic fields where people play in football, baseball, softball leagues run by Parkville Recreation, Hahn said.

Attendance depends on the seasons and weather, but Hahn estimates that 50,000 to 60,000 people use the park per year.

“Whether it’s winter, spring, summer or fall, there’s a lot of people who use the park,” he said. (Marcus Dieterle)

Who knew we had such a beauty so close to TU? (We sure didn’t!)

Only four miles from campus, Lake Roland really is a sight to see.

Lake Roland, which used to serve as a reservoir for Baltimore City, is now part of an over 500-acre park between Falls Road and North Charles Street.

According to Jeffrey Budnitz, a volunteer for the park and a member of the Lake Roland Nature Council’s trails committee, the park used to have an average of 42,000 visitors per year.

Budnitz said he was involved with a park-wide restoration effort in 2009 and the park reopened in October 2011. He said Lake Roland now welcomes 315,000 people on average per year.

If you’re entering on Copper Hill Road (just off of Falls Road), you can walk through the heart of the park where the sounds of woodpeckers, hawks and other birds fill the trees. There are also paved pathways that weave through the park.

Just down the road, turning onto Lakeside Drive, you can visit the Lake Roland Nature and Environmental Education Center where you’ll learn about Maryland’s flora and fauna. Visitors can even meet the center’s resident fish, turtles, snakes, frogs, toads and insects.

The center also includes nature-related reading materials and a craft table for kids.

Hiking isn’t just for humans, so be sure to let your four-legged friend tag along. Visitors can let their dogs loose at the one-acre Paw Point Dog Park after paying the Lake Roland Nature Council a $35 dog park membership fee good for 12 months.

The dog park was created after off-leash dogs threatened the park’s animal populations of foxes, eagles and other birds, otters and minks.

The rest of Lake Roland is dog-friendly as well -- just make sure Fido is leashed outside of the dog park. (Marcus Dieterle)

Take A Hike

February 28, 2017 13

Cromwell valley park

Cromwell Valley Park is about a 15-minute drive from campus, and it’s definitely worth the short jaunt.

The park has short hiking loops that aren’t too strenuous— and are all worth it.

There’s a giant meadow, a stream to hike along (or jump through!) and a hill with a surprisingly high elevation and tree cover, given the location.

The park has history scattered through it, from old farm buildings to a currently-being-restored stone kiln, and is a popular locale for bird-spotting and field trips, because of the nature center and “Barnatorium.”

There are outdoor classes, workshops about primitive technology, and festivals all coming up.

It’s a park you won’t want to miss.

If you get the chance to go, we can’t recommend the Minebank Run Trail enough. It goes along a gentle stream and is an easy, clearly-marked path. It’s also really cool to walk out Photos by Sam Shelton/ The Towerlight of the wooded areas into the meadow and see all that open Babbling brooks and shallow streams provide welcome space. (Cody Boteler) respite from winding trails at Cromwell Valley Park.

Glen arboretum The Glen Arboretum has been designated as a space for Towson students for about eighty-five years, according to James Hull, chairman of the Board of Directors of the Glen Arboretum.

He suspects that it was used when Towson University was largely a teaching school, and teachers had to know how to educate their students on keeping a garden during the Great Depression.

“The Glen went through a period of neglect” from the late 1960s until the late ‘80s according to Hull, until he wanted his plant ecology students to be able to recognize various (tree) species. He came up with the idea that The Glen should have all the native species of Maryland represented.

Today, Hull uses a figure of roughly 125 native tree species.

“I have 109 of them represented in the glen,” he said.

Studies have linked time spent in nature to reduced levels of stress, anxiety, and depression. Hull explains why he so often has students plant trees, rather than just doing it himself.

“I firmly believe that if you plant a tree which is going to live to be 150-300 years of age that you are developing ownership of something,” Hull said. “You can bring your grandchildren back and say, ‘I planted that tree.’” (McKenna Graham)

Fort McHenry

patapsco valley state park Patapsco Valley is huge. Extending across the Patapsco River, the state park spans 32 miles and four counties. Since we weren’t ambitious or insane enough to take on the entire park in one afternoon, we narrowed down our hike to the Daniels area of Ellicott City.

We decided we’d explore Daniels because we’d heard it was creepy and abandoned, and we really like things that are creepy and abandoned.

On the downside, we found that the region isn’t creepy at all, but bustling with fishermen and fellow explorers.

On the upside, it was still really cool.

We played tourists in our own state, walking around with cameras around our necks, enjoying the tranquility and gaping at the cool abandonment. When we took a break for lunch, we sat near the dam and listened to the sounds of water falling and fishing lines being cast.

The Daniels region of Patapsco is perfect for hiking around and daydreaming about 19th Century villages left behind. Even after the woods take hold of a place, it’s fun to wonder about who used to drive that car to that ivy-blanketed church on Sunday mornings. (Kristin Helf)

Photos by William Strang-Moya and Kristin Helf/ The Towerlight

The Daniels area of Patapsco Valley State Park formerly housed a town called Elysville, which formed in 1810 but was abandoned in 1968, so crumbling stone walls, dilapidated building structures and half-buried old-fashioned cars litter the scene.

You don’t have to be a history buff to enjoy a walk through Fort McHenry (but for those who weren’t paying attention in history class, Fort McHenry is a source of national and state pride known as the place where Francis Scott Key wrote the national anthem). Only a 30-minute drive from campus (or a quick ferry ride from the Inner Harbor), the historic coastal fort features plenty of wildlife and open space as well as exhibits such as the Commander’s Quarters, Guard House and Enlisted Men’s Quarters. Visitors have access to the park’s 42 acres of lush green fields, perfect for bringing your dog and having a picnic as the weather heats up, or for $10 you can tour the historic areas. If you’re more of the outdoorsy type, you can participate in ranger talks in the afternoon or explore the wetlands near the Patapsco River for monthly bird walks.

If you’re looking for a more educational experience, you’ll enjoy taking a journey back to the 1800s through the living history performances. Fort McHenry is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. (Taylor DeVille)

the NCR TRAIl The Northern Central Railroad (NCR) Trail, or since 2007, the Torrey C. Brown Rail Trail, extends 20 miles from Ashland Road in Cockeysville, Maryland, all the way to the Pennsylvania border.

Once the trail hits the border, it becomes the York County Heritage Trail, extending all the way through to York, PA. The path lies on the abandoned Northern Central Railway corridor, which was converted into a trail by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources in 1984.

Most of the trail runs alongside the Gunpowder River and Beertree Run, offering views of a variety of plants and wildlife for the trail’s many runners, walkers and bikers.

Richard Desser is an active member of the NCR Trail Snails, a Baltimore-based running club dedicated to promoting fitness through group runs, group racing and social events.

“You’re never going to get lost on the NCR Trail,” Desser said. “You’re either going forward or backward.” (Sarah Rowan)

14 February 28, 2017

Arts & Life

The un-coronation of Donald Trump Baltimore artists protest on “Not My President’s Day” KRISTIN HELF Associate Arts & Life Editor @kristinelise_

Not My President’s Day wasn’t a typical anti-administration protest.

Envisioned as a day of art and activism, the day-long event on Monday, Feb. 20, was created to bring like-minded people together, from Towson theatre students to artists from communities all over Baltimore.

Theatre graduate student Laura Pazuchowski first heard about the artistic demonstration when the idea for the event was still in its infancy.

Holly Hughes, her former professor at the University of Michigan, initially broached the subject on Facebook, not knowing it would turn into a national event and spread to cities across the U.S. According to the Not My President’s Day Facebook page, the event’s purpose was to disrupt the perceived norm of “bigotry, sexism, xenophobia, environmental devastation and a long list of injustices.”

To the five women who headed the Baltimore demonstration, including junior theatre major Molly Cohen, women’s rights were an especially important issue to address.

“The image that we have for the

event is a crab in a pussy hat,” Cohen said. “So that speaks for itself.”

The day began at the Stillpointe Theatre and featured kid-friendly activities, like a workshop for families called “Our Democratic Heritage.”

Later in the afternoon were several performances at The Mercury Theatre, followed by a procession to The Crown led by Theatre Women Against Trump (TWAT).

Performances in the Crown’s Red Room included several performance art displays by an ad-hoc group of Towson undergrads, made up of not only theatre majors, but anyone who felt inclined to speak out against the injustices of the Trump administration.

“We [wanted] to see what happens when everyone’s in a room together and what we can all create within a couple hours with who’s there,” Cohen said.

The group, which included Cohen, students Laura Gede and Griffin DeLisle and their director, theatre MFA candidate Jesse Baxter, wanted to deliver a performance that asked the audience, “how do we make change?”

The piece began with three disconnected characters who “viewed the world from their micro perspectives,” as Baxter put it. They eventually

Kristin Helf/ The Towerlight

Performance artists walked and crawled around the Crown with cinder blocks tied to their ankles. discovered one another but weren’t able to communicate effectively, and the performance soared as two characters, frustrated and impassioned, tore up pieces of paper and threw the pieces around the room.

“By the time we hit the climax of the piece, the room was full and leaning forward to see where this would go next,” Baxter said. “This may not have been the right venue for such a performance, but the audience found a way to listen.”

Such venue inconveniences served as a metaphor for the theme of the piece, Baxter explained. While we may never find the right “venue” to have such necessary and challenging conversations, the conversations must still take place.

After a few more performances, including one by Towson alum theatre group “The Oven,” began the

Kristin Helf/ The Towerlight

Above: Towson undergrads work with theatre MFA Jesse Baxter to develop a performance for Not My President’s Day. Right: The Crown decorates with papier-mâché administration caricatures.

night’s main affair: a cabaret featuring a litany of musical, comedic, poetic and burlesque performances hosted by Chris Jay, emcee and The Washington Blade’s Best of Gay D.C.’s Best Drag King of 2016.

It was no coincidence that the cabaret, and all other performances throughout the day, featured such a diverse group of Baltimore artists.

It was a necessity for Pazuchowski, Cohen and the other organizers of the demonstration.

“That was important to us, to try to be inclusive in that way,” Pazuchowski said. “And I think another part for me personally, because I’m gay, and when I found out all this political stuff, it made me feel worried about the status of my relationship in terms of the law, because I had just gotten married.”

To the people in Baltimore and

across the nation whose very identities are threatened in the current political regime, Washington’s Birthday 2017 was less of a holiday and more of a reminder that one’s existence, to many Americans, is not valued, but feared. Baltimore’s art community faced this reality peacefully, but not sitting down.

“Art’s relationship to creating change is one of the things that it’s great at doing,” Pazuchowski said. “It just seemed to make a lot of sense to do performance. I think art attempts to challenge the status quo a lot and one of its functions is to get people to think outside of what they normally do and disrupt the regular patterns.”

All of the proceeds from Not My President’s Day were donated to the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland.

Arts & Life

February 28, 2017

Fusing anime and surrealism

Courtesy of hasaniclaxton.com

MFA candidate Hasani Claxton’s painting “Emotional” uses elements of Japanese manga to comment on the stereotype of women being over-emotional, along with the “angry black woman” trope.

SYDNEY ENGELHARDT Contributing Writer

Towson adjunct and Master of Fine Arts degree candidate Hasani Claxton’s exhibit of black animestyle paintings, on view now in the Center for the Arts, shows the struggle of young black males when confronted by the police.

“It’s like all that stuff that we have to tell our kids about -- Don’t wear hoodies, don’t make eye contact with the police, don’t walk around with dreads,” Claxton said.

Two paintings in the exhibit are directly influenced by Claxton’s past job as an attorney -- he was the assistant district attorney in the Bronx before deciding to change careers -- during the height of stop and frisk. These pieces depict black anime males in various movements.

“When a cop comes to a prosecutor they have to prove that the arrest was legal and that they had probable cause to stop and search somebody,” Claxton said. “One excuse was furtive movements, which is usually like he made eye contact and then put his hands in his pocket, it was always black and Latino guys that were suspicious.”

The paintings all depict a struggle that most black males face, in a series called “How Not To Get Your @$$ Kicked by the Police”: “No. 1 No Dreads, No Cornrows, No Afros, No flattops, No Spikes, No Hair,” “No. 2 No Hoodies, No Tank Tops, No Cardigans, No Clothes,” “No. 3 No Eye Contact,” “No. 4 No Furtive Movements,” “No. 5 Don’t Run.” “I wanted to have enough paintings to create a narrative and start a conversation,” Claxton said.

In Claxton’s favorite piece, a black anime character looks over his shoulder with wide eyes. Next to his face are the Japanese symbols for glare.

“Manga, glare, it’s this thing in manga language, in anime where someone will turn around pissed off and the typography will pop up that says ‘glare,’” Claxton said.

Claxton is originally from Saint Kitts in the West Indies and now resides in Baltimore. He decided to go back to school and pursue his MFA at Towson, after obtaining his Bachelor of Fine Arts in illustration from Academy of Art University in San Francisco.

The paintings are not the only pieces showcased in his exhibit

-- there are also a series of silicone face sculptures Claxton says were inspired by him being the father of two daughters.

“They are meant as a commentary for the idea that women are over-emotional,” Claxton said. “So like, the ambiguous angry black women stereotype.”

Although each silicone sculpture didn’t take long for Claxton to cast, he spent hours working on the hair, putting each follicle in one at a time.

“They are small but they represent a lot of work,” Claxton said.

This exhibit marked a change that took place in Claxton’s art, a switch from realism to pieces of surrealism and brighter colors. His main goal was to examine the misconception of blackness in today’s society.

“I am hoping that it will be something that will connect with people on different levels,” Claxton said. “So like, some people look at this with the political idea behind it and then other people will just think it’s cool.”

Claxton’s “Rise of the Afrotaku” paintings and sculptures will be on display in the Holtzman MFA Art Gallery until April 1.

15

“Legion” breaks superhero mold TAYLOR DEVILLE Associate Arts & Life Editor @artvandelady

If you’ve seen the trailers for FX’s “Legion,” only one thing will be clear to you: this isn’t your typical Marvel superhero show.

“Legion” isn’t the first of its kind to jump on the unreliable narrator bandwagon. It does, however, stand out in stark contrast to the repetitive story arcs and corny dialogue we see in, well, every other superhero show.

It’s also the first live-action X-Men show we’ve seen since... ever?

In fact, unless you go into the show knowing that protagonist David Haller (Dan Stevens) is Charles Xavier’s son, you might even forget “Legion” is an X-Men show in the first place.

“Legion” is what a superhero story looks like without all the trappings— no capes, no uniforms, no long action sequences (yet, anyway). But even more compelling than its more artistic approach to the Marvel universe is the fact that it’s putting mental illness at the forefront of the plot.

If you want to go into the show like I did, knowing next to nothing about it, you should stop reading here.

“Legion” follows David, a schizophrenic young man who also happens to be the most powerful mutant on earth. During his six-year stint at Clockworks Psychiatric Hospital, Haller learns from mutant/love interest Syd Barrett (no, not the Pink Floyd one) that the screaming voices in his head, nightmarish demons and often violent episodes aren’t all related to his mental illness.

Of course the show maintains certain elements of what you would expect from an X-Men show—what would a Marvel show be without a shadowy and mysterious organization (“Division 3” in this case) masquerading as a government agency? Only Division 3 isn’t the sole antagonist of this show—the scariest opponents are the ones in David’s head, the Devil with the Yellow Eyes and The Angriest Boy in the World, who haunt his memories and lurk in the corners of David’s mind and his reality.

Stylistically, “Legion” is flawless— between the merging of ’60s and futuristic aesthetics and David’s

downright terrifying dissociative episodes, I found myself rewatching the show repeatedly so I could fully absorb myself in the world that show creator Noah Hawley has put together so adeptly (admittedly, I turn down the volume and avert my gaze as soon as I hear the spine-tingling drums and horns that herald the arrival of the Devil with the Yellow Eyes). The acting, too, is sublime— Aubrey Plaza steals the spotlight in every scene she’s in as David’s mentally-ill friend Lenny.

Where “Legion” needs to find its footing is in its approach to David’s dissociative disorder. Only three episode into its eight-episode season, “Legion” has us believing that David is not schizophrenic—he’s just a remarkably powerful telepath.

Comic book fans will know that David does suffer from a dissociative personality disorder in which each of his personas—which probably includes the Devil and World’s Angriest Boy—controls one of his many superpowers. Dr. Melanie Bird, the Professor X-like figure of Summerland, a rehabilitating counterpart to Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, insists that David is completely well, that the demons he sees are real. Some critics speculate whether the show deviates from the comic books in this regard or not— which would certainly feel like a slap in the face to those of us who advocate for more visibility of mental illness in media. Personally, I’m confident that Hawley knows better than to nix the mental illness from a character whose powers are literally defined by it (not to mention how gross and exploitive that would be).

If it sounds like I haven’t told you much about the series, that’s by design—give it a watch (in the day, with the lights on).

I really hate to credit any one form of media with being a “game changer,” because, well, that’s rarely the case, and that phrase is thrown around so much that it’s kind of lost its meaning. I’m not sure if Legion is a game changer--what I am sure about is if Marvel (and DC, for that matter) took more creative risks, explored their universe in more experimental ways, we could really see a (much needed) rebirth of the superhero genre.

16 28, 2017 February 28, 2017 14February

Puzzles Puzzles

Crossword Sudoku

Puzzles

?

9-5-16

● Each row and each column must contain the numbers 1 through 4 (easy) or 1 through 6 (challenging) without repeating.

● The numbers within the heavily

outlined boxes, called cages, must combine using the given operation (in any order) to produce the target numbers in the top-left corners.

● Freebies: Fill in single-box cages with the number in the top-left corner.

Please support independent student journalism @ TU

KenKen® is a registered trademark of Nextoy, LLC. ©2016 KenKen Puzzle LLC. All rights reserved. Dist. by Universal Uclick for UFS. www.kenken.com

? ?

See page 17 for answers to today’s

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Arts & Life

February 28, 2017

17

Q&A with author Violet LeVoit Do it with beadwork Author Violet LeVoit is a Baltimorearea native currently based in Philadelphia. She graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art but describes Towson University as her idea of, “this is college.” She said that despite never attending Towson, her summers spent doing workshops on campus were formative. Her newest work, “I Miss the World” -- an “experimental noir” novel -- was published in October 2016.

MG: Can you tell me a little about the organization you were part of, the Towson-Glen Arm art youth movement?

VL: Stuff like that is what happens in a world without internet, with bored, smart kids in the suburbs. That was happening in every pocket of every city across the United States... 20-30 bright, interested kids. It was either that or do drugs, and we didn’t want to do drugs, so we started... just making art and doing things... At the time I knew this was special. It wasn’t just [time] with friends, we were doing something.

MG: Can you tell me a bit about “I Miss the World”?

VL: The book is about a brother and a sister who meet one afternoon in LA’s Hollywood Forever cemetery, which is where a lot of stars are buried, and they have a long talk about their childhood and what they remember.

Slowly, while the conversation goes on, you start to realize that something very, very terrible has happened... It was an interesting book to write, because it was essentially 40,000 words of a conversation. [I was] deeply influenced by an author named Nicholson Baker, who wrote... this book called “The Mezzanine” and the only action in the story is that a guy steps on the bottom of the escalator, and arrives at the top.

The full text of it is what he’s thinking about as he’s on the escalator—why he’s at the mall, why cut a sandwich on the horizontal instead of the diagonal... Reading this I thought, “What an amazing way to write a novel.”

MG: How did you come up with the title?

LV: “I miss the world” is spoken as

”

part of the conversation. Two or three years ago, my grandmother died, and her loss was tremendous to me. It really got me thinking about one half of my life in which she was alive, and the other future half in which she’s not going to be there. Reflecting on how I have reached that point where I’m kind of the crotchety old person who says, “Oh these new-fangled phones, why can’t we have the old phones?” I’m sort of that person, and it’s sort of a catalog of things that I knew as a child that don’t exist anymore—the knickknacks in my grandmother’s house, things I was never going to see again. [I like this quote from L.P. Hartley], who said, “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” Why do people in the nineties think wearing overalls with one shoulder off was a good idea?... That was a way to measure time passing, was the way objects were changing.

MG: What was your favorite scene to write, or the most impactful?

VL: [I have two.] One: the favoritest part of it was thinking about all those objects, and really trying to understand them... to identify the subtleties of why they are the way they are. That gave me a lot of pleasure because these are kind of precious objects from my childhood, and it was a chance to catalog them and roll them around in my head and feel like they hadn’t been lost... They were still inside me. Two: I have PTSD. I had it because I had a horrific labor experience—I was in labor for 90 hours, and even at the end of that, I had to have an emergency C-section... That experience broke me and remade me, and it re-occurs in everything I’ve ever written... I can’t get away from that fearful, terrifying breaking experience.

It took me apart, but also remade me as a writer, as someone who had something to say... Writers don’t even hit writer puberty until they’re 30, because you need enough living, enough heartbreak, enough new experiences, to really understand how people live, and make decisions, and cope with being human. Once you get that, you’ll have so much to say and know exactly how to say it. A lot of times [journalists] say, “I’m an aspiring writer,” and I say, “Do you write?” And they say, “Yeah,” and

I say, “Well, then you’re a writer now.”

It doesn’t matter if your book is published or not, if you’re writing, you’re a writer. At a certain point, though, the wine ripens, and that’s usually around thirty. There’s one scene, but I had to go to a very, very dark place in order to write it. Even now, when rereading that book, I skip that page.

MG: How do you deal with writer’s block?

VL: ...The one thing is to just sit down and write. Sit down and say, “Today is the day I’m going to write a bunch of crap.” And once you give yourself permission to write the crap, get [that] out of the way, then you really get to the good stuff. I think writer’s block is just the fear of writing badly... Sometimes a change of venue is good; sometimes I get up and walk around and talk like one of my characters... When you’re getting started, just commit to writing every day. If you get the ball rolling, every day it gets easier.

Kate Beaton does a web comic called “Hark! a Vagrant” she had this quote: “If you draw, you’re not going to get worse at drawing by drawing.”

MG: What would you say is your biggest inspiration?

VL: [My gut reaction is], I want this to not be nothing. To be something.

I was made to think and perceive the world this way, and all of the molecules of me will be around for 50 more years if I’m lucky. If it’s going to get told, it’s got to get told now... Labor was a near-death experience, a wake-up to, “You only have so many years to do the things you want to do, so you better do them.”

MG: Do you have any advice for any young or struggling writers?

VL: The biggest mistake I made was wasting time trying to be real. I’m not real just sitting in my bedroom, writing flash fiction. I thought being real was being in Barnes & Noble. Don’t waste any time waiting for somebody else to make you real. Once you start doing your thing, then you become the place of the new real... Five years ago, the job of “YouTube star” didn’t exist... it’s not because someone decided Youtube was real, it’s because people decided it was real. Just start doing your thing, and you are real.

Don’t waste any time waiting for somebody else to make you real. Once you start doing your thing, then you become the place of the new real.

”

Violet LeVoit Author, “I Miss the World”

Courtesy of Kanji Takeno

Multidisciplinary artist Joyce Scott talks beads and sculpture.

JESSICA RICKS Staff Writer

You don’t have to post on social media or take to the streets and protest in order to make a political statement -- sometimes, multidisciplinary artist Joyce Scott says, you can do it with beadwork.

On Wednesday, Scott spoke to the audience about her life and artwork while pictures of her art were projected behind her. The pieces consist of complex bead designs, many of which are accompanied by sculpture and blown glass. She inherited her artistic talents

from her family, she said.

“They may not have been able to read or write, but boy could they turn a song,” Scott said of her great grandparents.

Scott attended the Maryland Institute College of Art and received a degree in education, which was quickly abandoned. She jokingly said that if she had stayed a teacher she would have ended up a 700-pound alcoholic, so she went on to get her masters in crafts. Her work has been featured in museums including the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Smithsonian.

--Read the rest of this story online at www.thetowerlight.com

Solutions

for Puzzles on page 16

● Each row and each column must

contain the numbers 1 through 4 (easy) or 1 through 6 (challenging) without repeating.

● The numbers within the heavily

9-6-16

outlined boxes, called cages, mus combine using the given operatio (in any order) to produce the targ numbers in the top-left corners.

● Freebies: Fill in single-box cages

the number in the top-left corner.

KenKen® is a registered trademark of

MCKENNA GRAHAM Asst. Arts & Life Editor

18 February 28, 2017

Sports

towson takes first series of the season File photos by Alex Best/ The Towerlight

Freshman catcher Andy Pineda practices gunning down runners in a practice at John B. Schuerholz Park before the start of the season. Pineda did not play this weekend.

Towson practices taking grounders at practice. The team went on to win its first series of the season this weekend against Cal State Northridge, its first opening day win since 2014.

JILL GATTENS Contributing Writer @JillGattens

Towson opened up its season with a series win over California State Northridge this weekend, with the team’s only loss coming Saturday in a doubleheader series.

“I’m happy about this weekend,” Head Coach Mike Gottlieb said. “I have a better feel for our team and the direction they are going.”

The Tigers capped off their series Sunday with a 6-5 comeback win over the Matadors.

The Tigers trailed 3-0 in the top of the seventh, but redshirt senior outfielder A.J. Gallo's singled to keep the inning alive, and a RBI single from fellow redshirt senior outfielder Colin Dryer sparked a 6-run inning.

Cal State Northridge added two more runs in the bottom of the seventh inning, but senior pitcher Kyle Stricker recorded his second save of the season to lift Towson to a series clinching win.

The Tigers split the Saturday doubleheader series with the Matadors. In game one, the Tigers

fell behind early.

Towson attempted to rally with a seventh-inning solo home run by sophomore catcher Trey Martinez and an eighth-inning two-run home run

by Gallo. However, the Tigers fell 11-7.

In game two of the Saturday doubleheader, the Tigers rallied in the late innings to secure a win over the Matadors.

Towson was behind 2-1 in the eighth inning, but Colin Gimblet ripped a double down the third base line to score Logan Burke, Gallo and Tristan Howerton to give the team a 4-2 lead.

In the top of the ninth, Richard Miller reached on an infield error that scored Dyer.

Later that inning, Richie Palacios delivered a two-run single that helped secure Towson a 7-2 victory over Cal State Northridge.

Towson opened the series against Cal State Northridge with a 4-1 victory over. Led by a strong start by Skyler Morris and three RBI from Dyer, this lead the team secured its first win of the season.

Morris went five innings and struck out four along the way. Dyer led the way offensively. He drove in

three of Tigers four runs in the win.

“The pitching overall was good,” Gottlieb said. “The bullpen played a crucial part in all three wins.”

The Tigers had not won an opening day game since the 2014 season.

Towson will host Wagner in its home opening series which will run March 3-5 at John B. Schuerholz Baseball Complex.

“There were a lot of positive performances from the offense,” Gottlieb said. “I like what we have and hope we can play as well in the next series.”

Sports

February 28, 2017

19

late season struggles TU falls to CAA rival Elon at home DESMOND BOYLE Staff Writer

Towson wrapped up its home schedule -- and honored seniors Brianna Bush and Raven Bankston -- Sunday with a 67-65 loss to Colonial Athletic Association rival Elon on senior day.

Each team hit a 3-pointer to open the game, but Towson struggled to defend Elon on the inside and gave up several rebounds and points in the paint.

Bush and junior forward Mary Cuevas were overwhelmed by Elon's physicality and speed down low. As a result, Elon built up a 13-6 lead in the opening five minutes.

Following a timeout, the Tigers came out firing. Bankston hit a three before junior guard Sianni Martin hit a contested jumper from inside the arc.

Junior center Daijha Thomas helped Towson’s inside presence on defense and converted on an opportunity to pull the team within one.

Elon ended the quarter on a 6-2 run in large part of the play of senior forward Jenifer Rhodes who had two blocks and a bucket during that run.

Towson began to use traps on defense to disrupt Elon's rhythm.

Following an Elon turnover, Bankston converted a tough layup to pull the team to within four.

Martin then hit a 3-pointer in the corner to pull Towson within one with just under two minutes to play.

Elon's struggles at the charity stripe were a big reason that Towson came back and tied the game 37-37 before half.

The Phoenix came out of the half and went on a 7-point run thanks to a three from Shay Burnett.

However, Bankston brought the Tigers back with a tough and one conversion.

That layup sparked a 17-3 run for Towson, which was capped by two straight buckets from forward Maia Lee.

“I think it’s always great when you can start to play your best basketball in March,” Head Coach Niki Reid Geckeler said. “I think everyone is looking for that chemistry, that confidence boost as we wrap up the regular season and go to the CAA tournament.”

Elon managed to regroup following a timeout and closed the quarter on an eight-point run which gave them a 55-54 lead going into the final quarter.

A jumper from Bankston gave Towson a 62-60 lead with just under six minutes left in the game.

Following several turnovers from both teams, Essence Baucom went to the line for Elon and connected on one of two foul shots to tie the game at 65 with 36 seconds left to play.

Towson then turned the ball over with eight seconds left and Burnett drove to the lane and sunk the game winning layup with only three seconds left.

Towson will travel to Delaware for its final regular season game on March 1 before going into the CAA Tournament March 8-11.

Jack Saunderson Swimming & Diving

Men’s Golf The team will tee off its spring season March 2 at the Gary Freeman BCU Invitational.

Women’s Golf Sophomore Jenny Buchanan tied a school record by scoring three-under 69.

JOIN THE Marching Ravens!

OPEN AUDITIONS

Saturday, April 1st at M&T Bank Stadium FOR INFORMATION AND TO REGISTER

BaltimoreRavens.com/MarchingRavens

Sophomore swimmer Jack Saunderson was named the Most Outstanding Male Swimmer in the CAA Conference Championships. Saunderson set a school record and a conference meet record in the 200-yard butterfly event.

20 February 28, 2017

Sports

tigers edged out on the road

File photos by Joe Noyes/ The Towerlight

Junior guard Mike Morsell looks down low in Towson’s contest at SECU Arena against CAA rival Elon. Morsell finished the game with 32 points, two assists and one block (Above).

Junior guard Brian Starr takes a shot against Elon. Starr finished the game with nine points in the team’s 85-66 win. Up next for Towson is Northeastern (Below).

JORDAN COPE Sports Editor @jordancope26

All good things must come to an end, and that was the case with Towson’s six-game winning streak this week. The team concluded its 2016-17 regular season campaign with losses to William & Mary and UNC Wilmington on the road. “[I’m] Proud of how hard our guys have competed this year,” Head Coach Pat Skerry said. “We will need that type of effort Saturday night against Northeastern.”

Saturday, the Tigers comeback efforts came up just short in Williamsburg, Virginia, in what turned out to be a 83-79 victory for the Tribe.

In the first half, Towson shot just 41 percent from the field, while William & Mary shot 52 percent from the field. Offensively, nobody took control for Towson in the first half. Freshman guard Zane Martin and junior guard

Brian Starr were the team’s leading scorers with six points each.

In the second half, the Tigers shot better from the field but the Tribe continued to shoot the ball well. The Tigers pulled within two points with 13 seconds left in the game, but the Tribe hit their free throws down the stretch and went on to win.

Senior forward William Adala Moto led the team in scoring with 15 points, while Martin and Starr finished with 10 each. Junior guard Deshaun Morman and sophomore guard Jordan McNeil added 13 points each to the mix.

Thursday, Towson fell to UNC Wilmington, the No. 1 team in the conference. Towson came out hot offensively, shooting 54 percent from the field while holding UNC Wilmington to 42 percent. Towson went into the locker room with a slim 4-point lead.

In the second half, the Tigers cooled down from the field while the

Seahawks heated up. The Seahawks shot close to 47 percent in the second half and built a lead that the Tigers could not overcome.

Moto continued to play well for the Tigers, leading all scorers with 33 points and adding an assist and two steals. The Tigers will need Moto to continue to play well into the conference tournament.

With March just around the corner, Towson looks to make a run at the conference title and a bid in the NCAA Tournament. Towson goes into the tournament as the No. 3 seed and will take on the No. 6 seed, Northeastern.

In two meetings with Northeastern this season, Towson won on its home floor but fell on the road in a close decision. The rematch is scheduled for March 4 at 8:30 p.m. in the Charleston Coliseum.

“We are excited for the weekend and will really focus on our execution,” Skerry said.