'This is our city'

UAB’S OFFICIAL STUDENT NEWSPAPER

VOLUME 61, ISSUE 3

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2019

Birmingham community gathers to celebrate UAB

See PARADE Page 3

CITYLIFESTYLE - P. 7 Local designer designer Local continues the continues the conversation conversation of history history of through through T-shirt art T-shirt art

PHOTO BY AMY LAWHON/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

PHOTO BY LAKYN SHEPARD/ART EDITOR

PHOTO BY DREW CRENSHAW/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

PHOTO COURTESY BY UAB IMAGE GALLERY

‘This is our city’

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opinion

HUMAN RIGHTS

Black women deserve a #metoo movement too Being a Black young lady, I have heard many times the scenario of “what goes on in this house, stays in this house” and this stigma has been a gateway I am not saying that Black for not addressing issues. people do not care about Although issue that is now the issue, it is not as being brought to light since talked about comthe wake of the documenpared to other issues tary, it is way overdue. such as police bruSexual assault in the tality or poverty.

Black community does The awareness is not need to just be a hot not there, and neither topic of discussion, but the desire to discuss it needs to be dealt with the head on with our comsame energy that police brumunity. tality gets.

Thigpen As Black women These stories made me facing racism along with wonder if Black women are sexism, the struggle is never caprotecting the Black community, tered to in the eyes of society. who is protecting Black women?

Black women are faced with There needs to be more the struggle of picking to advoconversation about sexual assault cate against sexism or racism and because every time is brought up not intertwine the two because it is met with silence and Black they are different avenues of women deserve more than that. oppression.

We deserve to have our #MeI had this epiphany long ago Too movement and our stories but it really did not hit me until believed and supported just as the R.Kelly scandal following the much as other women do.

“Surviving R. Kelly” documentary.

These conversations much It really shocked me to be had with families, churches, recognize this being as a sexual friends and anybody else. Black predator towards young girls women should not have to suffer and it made me question on why in silence because society will not don’t we talk about sexual assault lend a listening ear. in the Black community?

If our own people do not Is it a taboo thing that stays in believe us in our cry for protecthe household and is repressed tion, how do we expect the rest deep down inside a person or is of society too? It simply will not it something that Black people be done until we start discussing simply do not want to acknowlabout the things that matter and edge and accept? work to protect Black women.

Kameryn Thigpen Opinion Columnist cchs2017@uab.edu

ALL ILLUSTRTIONS BY SAVANNAH DONALD/STAFF ILLUSTRATOR

TEACHING ASSISTANTS

We’re too old to need babysitters

Destyni Cravens Opinion Columnist dcravens@uab.edu

ceived when relating to leadership. Universities feed off of students’ feelings of being uncomfortable with teaching themselves.

Therefore, they put “leaders” into position to Last week in my Chemistry CH 106 “teach.” class, as we were preparing to receive an Why would anyone want to pay such overview of the course, I waited for my TA steep prices in tuition yet not get the necto provide further instructions. Instead, he essary teaching time they deserve? This stood up in front of the class, gave out is why universities rely so heavily on his email as his preferred method of TA’s. To distract students from the contact if we need help and then sat problem that professors often time down. For the rest of the class, not do not have the time and coma word more was spoken from him. mitment needed to address each Teaching Assistants in classes student because of the overoften provide little to no support whelmingly large classes. for students who enroll in their It is a student’s obligation to take class. Instead of offering educationresponsibility of their education. al guidance, their sole purpose is to The truth of the matter is that serve as the university’s way to conCravens students are terrified to take ownerform students to pre-set standards. ship of their education. No one wants And this may not directly be the to teach themselves how to solve empirical Teaching Assistant’s fault. After a mixture formulas or how to successfully carry out a of not knowing the material themselves titration. This fear stems from societies and enough to teach, and simply not having the universities continued attempts to strain time themselves as busy students, they are student’s independence. often not prepared to lead a class.

Having TA’s in classrooms is the way Students come into the class, sign a roll students’ independence is shattered. No sheet, and then do groupwork worksheets student has the confidence to learn on their while the TA sits in the corner. As a student, own. Leadership is a quality that for some when I do need help, my first instinct is to reason is not applicable in educational approach the teacher. situations.

I’m not a kindergartener. I do not need When universities force students to someone to babysit me while I do extra remain in the same mindset of “I need this busy work which I could easily do in my person to teach me everything,” students dorm. Instead I attend class to have contact ultimately fail in classes and life, because with my professor, not another student like they are unable to see the bigger picture. myself to learn more. If my intentions were Anyone can lead themselves toward a to learn from a peer, I could do so by signbetter education, but TA’s only serve as a ing up for a tutor session. Instead, I wake roadblock for that journey. at 6:30 a.m. to be able to arrive to my 8 am Before you roll your eyes at your TA for class with the intention to learn as much as not teaching you the material you need, possible. first ask yourself, “Do I really need them to The fact that universities rely on TA’s to teach me? Or can I find this information on “teach” students shows the apparent tie to my own?” society and the standards that are precon-

PARADE From FRONT

blazer news

I think this parade is great. The fact our team has come this far, and all of the spirit behind the program is amazing. I have never seen anything like this at a school, so I am glad we are here. This is so exciting. Go Blazers.

Kayla Bates I was able to attend the Boca bowl game. It was a once in a lifetime experience. Being able to cheer on the team this year, and see how excited the fans were was a feeling that was unexplainable. Winning our first championship game is a feeling that I will never forget.

With football being back, it gives an underlying motivation and a sense of pride that was not apparent when we recruited high school students while the program was down. The parade solidifies UAB’s presence here within the city. This is our city. It made me love Birmingham even more. The resources we have from teaming up with the city will give us an even more prosperous future.

Julianna Moreno Blazer News Reporter jumoreno@uab.edu

Gene and Linda GarrettÂ

Karissa White

Greg Jenkins

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(Gene) We have been number one fans since day one. We have a collection of UAB stuff at our house.

I knew Gene Bartow when he came here.

We did not go to school here. I used to teach school in Illinois. I met Gene Bartow at my school. He did not know me, but I knew who he was. I remember him coming to our school in 1963 and we have been fans even since.

PHOTOS BY AMY LAWHON/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2019

Tre Crawford [The football program shutdown] was crazy.

Before coming out here, I had never heard much about UAB but with the program being shut down it was all over the place. I remember hearing about the program being taken away and not thinking anything about it, and then I ended up playing ball here. I never would thought I would end up here playing and then winning the championship. It is crazy how it all worked out

Kylen Binn The city is so supportive. Everyone came together in Birmingham.

See the full image gallery at:

https://bit.ly/2Dp67Jh

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BLAZER NEWS

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Exhibition

rd

THOMAS

Molly Thomas, junior in art with a photography concentration

Myah Clinton Blazer News Reporter mkc16@uab.edu

Once again, AEIVA is filled with student created artworks for the 43rd Annual Juried Student Exhibition. This year, 25 UAB students get to display their work in an exhibition which is open for most of the Spring semester.

MICKLER

Thad Mickler, senior in art with a concentration in drawing

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What was supposed to be a beginning-of-the-semester assignment, became a piece of art that Thomas submitted to the exhibition. While looking for random items to include in a collection art piece, Thomas said she had an idea to take the project further. After scampering the produce section at Wal-Mart, she had found a plantain that would juxtapose the blue paint color she would use to cover the random items with.

“I really like using strong lighting,” Thomas said. “So I set up the composition and I messed around with the lighting until I got kind of the monster lighting that’s on it.”

Thomas said that photography has always been an inspiring medium to create artwork from.

“I think it was looking through those [National Geographic] magazines and like just the power of the images,” Thomas said. “I thought they were beautiful, and I do other art forms and I like other art forms, but I think photography is my favorite because you can capture what’s actually in front of you.”

Both of Mickler’s pieces in the exhibit are tributes to his late grandmother, with whom he shared a close relationship. One is a monoprint and the other a mixed media collage that Mickler includes for a specific reason.

“I took care of her at her home [when] she was confined to her bed,” Mickler said. “She would have, she had this whistle that she would blow if she ever needed my attention.

Eventually, she moved into a nursing home and she left the whistle behind. And I took it and that’s in one of my pieces.”

The exhibition is open and free to the public until March 7 at the AIEVA building.

Wimberly submitted three archival pigment prints to the exhibition, which he created by painting the images on paper and scanning them to a computer where he edited them until he arrived at the finished product. Two of the pictures have what appears to be a bottom half of a person and various leaves and the other is of a detached head with flowers behind it.

Wimberly said cartoons are his biggest art influences.

“I would watch a lot of TV growing up and just like draw whatever I saw. And I would watch a lot of cartoons,” Wimberly said. “So, I always knew there was someone who was making the cartoons and I always wanted to be that person. Like, I wanted to get paid to put that stuff on TV and have other kids see it and stuff. So that made me want to draw.”

HERNANDEZ

Salma Hernandez, junior in art with a concentration in new media Hernandez didn’t know where to start for a project in Derek Cracco’s class. At Cracco’s suggestion, she looked through old photographs at her house and chose a picture of her father in a phone booth. Later, using a mural called The American Dream that she found on Instagram, Hernandez combined the two images and burned them on a metal plate.

Hernandez dabbled in art as a child but didn’t seriously consider it as a career path until freshman year of college.

“I was like ‘What am I going to do with my life?’”

Hernandez said. “I experimented with different fields and I was like ‘you know what, I’m not good at anything else’.”

BALAZS

Quinn Balazs, junior in history with a minor in art studio

Although Balazs said he is normally apprehensive about sharing his art work with the world, he decided to submit to the exhibition because his professor, Sonja Rieger encouraged him to do so.

“I submitted three pictures of empty lots in Norwood, which is a neighborhood in North Birmingham,” Balazs said. “It was the affluent neighborhood until they built Mountain Brook and then it became the upper middle class African American neighborhood.”

Why did Balazs choose Norwood?

“I hate going places, I hate going to neighborhoods and seeing them decaying before my eyes,” he said. “It just, that makes me sad. So, I wanted to bring attention to a neighborhood that was falling into disrepair but was also resurging in some regards.”

Balazs said he does not like taking pictures of people.

“I try to tend away from people because I feel the camera dehumanizes the human form,” Balazs said.

“My teacher says it’s because I’m scared of portraiture and she’s probably completely right.”

Instead, he prefers to shoot buildings and plants.

“You can tell a whole lot about a place based on the architectural setting,” Balazs said. “You can tell when it was built. You can tell the last time it was maintained.

You can tell whether there’s somebody who cares about that property or not.”

WIMBERLY

Terrence Wimberly, senior in art with a drawing and painting concentration

PHOTOS BY AMY LAWHON/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER GRAPHICS BY LAKYN SHEPARD/ART EDITOR

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FASHION

The Young Money of wearable textiles Why having denim in your closet is as important as including your favorite rapper in your daily playlist Trevor Stewart Operations Manager at BlazeRadio tstew99@uab.edu If denim were Young Money, then jeans would be Lil Wayne and jackets are Drake.

Then the denim shirt would be Boi-1da. Boi-1da is much less popular than his contemporaries just like the denim shirt. Everyone in the industry knows who Boi-1da is but he can go to the grocery store without being mobbed by fans.

Boi-1da’s lane is the one the denim shirt takes up in the fashion world, unknown by the masses but those who care know how pivotal his contributions are.

It’s safe to say that denim isn’t fully appreciated by the masses. Yes, jeans are as abundant as Lil Wayne’s influence over the current state of rap Industry. Jeans and Wayne alike are beloved by the masses but at this moment both seem to be undermined by their own longevity. As a result of their fame and critical acclaim people have become desensitized to them. However, that isn’t the case for tops made of denim.

Let’s address denim jackets, which are similar to Drake in terms of versatility. The denim jacket is an

all-purpose garment. Denim jackets are amazing because they are appropriate in cool weather where they can be worn alone. When temperatures drop into that range we describe as cold you can wear a denim jacket on top of a hoodie and avoid having to lug around your heavy coat. Additionally, denim jackets can be customized to make them a fashion statement through embroidery and monogramming.

The denim jacket, aka Drake, said it best: “Young Money Ship never sinking.”

So put some respek on denim’s name.

PHOTO COURTESY

BY SEMAJ HOLDEN

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2019

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citylifestyle

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT

CONSTRUCTION

I-59/20 bridge closing

Continuing the conversation Creative and activist inspired by civil rights movement Juwayriah Wright CityLifestyle Reporter juwright@uab.edu Growing up in the Acipco-Finley neighborhood, Rob Zeigler has always identified as a strong Birminghamian.

Believing in the Civil Rights movement, Zeigler said he knew he wanted to carry on the legacy, but with his own twist.

Now, he sells Martin Luther King designed T-shirts that have been worn by Mayor Randall Woodfin and NFL All Star CJ Mosley and NBA All Star Demarcus Cousins.

Zeigler is a Birmingham native and self-proclaimed creative activist with a background in graphic design and digital media and now uses apparel to shed light on history.

Describing himself as an introvert, Zeigler said he wanted to create a way for people to communicate what they stand for without saying anything.

“I’ve always been inspired by MLK as well as other pioneers in the civil rights era, because it is close to home,” Ziegler said.

“I feel it, it’s like I feel it in my bones. I find other ways to say what needs to be said that may be unconventional. That’s where I am today and I’m still learning as I go.”

Zeigler said his work is directly influenced (right) PHOTO BY DREW CRENSHAW/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER (left) PHOTO COURTESY by his surroundings and his studies, which

BY ROB ZEIGLER helped transform what would simply be art Rob Zeigler’s featured collection is inspired by MLK’s The Letter from the Birmingham jail. It into a business and entrepreneurship. has been worn by DeMarcus Cousins and Mayor Randall Woodfin.

“I went into apparel design thinking I was gonna end up in the sport apparel field, people a ‘cool’ t-shirt,” Ziegler said. “What rights leaders left off. but that led me Zeigler’s MLK tee you see here and behind the scenes, it’s nowhere but always about people. It’s always about works not just to back home,” be a hip design but finding resolutions to whatever injustices Ziegler said. “I maintains historical need to be resolved.” resettled and The aspiration within his work does not importance by honestly a part standing for a cause. seem to be one-sided; the aim is to open of what I do is Zeigler said the tee up dialogue within all communities. founded in my “There’s always another level, and for has allowed him faith, so I put me, being a graphic designer, I wasn’t to meet an array of two and two content with that,” Ziegler said.The next influential people, together.” level is ‘how can I affect people in a including Mayor Zeigler said the positive way?’ and one of the mottos of Woodfin. literal proximity to “A t-shirt design has opened so many the brand is to spark a convo.” such a historically influential city is a part of doors, so I’ll always tell my friends Find out more about the MLK tee on why he chose to do what he does, and that the one thing I don’t want to do is sell Instagram @rob.zilla or at themlktee.com there is a responsibility to finish where civil

I’ve always been inspired by MLK as well as other pioneers in the civil rights era, because it is close to home - Rob Zeigler

Myles Womack CityLifestyle Editor mjw3@uab.edu

The Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) announced in an advisory Jan. 15 that its construction crews are preparing to close “portions” of I-59/20 through downtown Birmingham for Phase III of the I-59/20 Bridge Project.

Jan 18-21: Red Mountain Expressway ramp to I-59 SB will close until the new ramp and bridges are constructed and open to traffic.

Ramp from I-59 SB to Red Mountain Expressway SB will not be available. The ramp will re-open Monday, January 21.

Jan 25-28: From 9 p.m., Friday until 6 a.m. Monday, Carraway Boulevard will be closed under the I-59/20 Central Business District bridges between Richard Arrington Jr. Boulevard and 11th Avenue North.

Feb. 3-4: Carraway Boulevard will be closed in the vicinity of the I-59/20 Central Business District bridges for completion of the demolition of the Red Mountain Expressway ramp to I-59/20 SB. Carraway Boulevard will reopen by 6 a.m. on February 4.

ALDOT advises motorists to use “caution, obey the posted speed limits, adjust arrival and departure times” and to use I-459 will be the most efficient way to avoid construction delays.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2019

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CROSSWORD 1. The UAB affiliate nickname and a type of clothing.

2. Last name of the Birmingham artist who uses his designs to honor Martin Luther King.

3. The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form 4. A material usually made for jeans.

5. The most efficient road to take Downtown to avoid construction delays and bypass the closure.

6. Last name of the mayor of Birmingham.

7. One way to customize your denim 8. The only animal that was present at the Parade, Friday, January 18, apart from Blaze the Dragon.

9. State government agency that will be closing the I-59/20.

10. A movement against sexual harassment and sexual assault.

Editorial Board

1.

Spring 2019

2.

Kristina Balciunaite Editor-in-Chief kribal@uab.edu

3.

4.

Sufia Alam Managing Editor sufia@uab.edu

5.

6.

Lakyn Shepard Art Editor layshep@uab.edu

7.

8.

9.

10.

Myles Womack CityLifestyle Editor mjw3@uab.edu VACANT Blazer News Editor VACANT Opinion Editor

Corrections Previous issue’s crossword solutions:

Corrections from previous issues will appear here.

Interested in working with the Kaleidoscope? Apply on HireABlazer or contact kribal@uab.edu for more information.

No experience is required.

1. Coppin.

2. Flannel.

3. Western.

4. Davis.

5. Dounia.

6. Egg. PHOTO BY AMY LAWHON/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

EVENTS CALENDAR The Reargument of Roe v. Wade (1972) HSC Alumni Theater 6 - 8 p.m.

Show: Lake Street Dive Iron City Bham 8 p.m.

Employer in the Foyer: Regions Collat School of Business, Medical Properties Trust Commons (Lobby)

Improve Your Commute HSC 314 2 - 3:30 p.m.

noon - 2 p.m.

Discussion: Celebrating UAB African American Trailblazers: Fifty Years of Firsts Mervyn H. Sterne Library, 174 5 - 6:30 p.m.

UAB Women's Basketball vs North Texas Bartow Arena 11 a.m.

Lecture series: CreativeMornings Forge, Pizitiz 8:30 - 10:30 a.m.

Randy's Cheeseburger Picnic The Nick Rocks 8:15 - 9:15 p.m.

Show: Reality Something / Wieuca / Captain Kudzu / Dogwood Lung The Firehouse 8 - 11:59 p.m.

Concert: Soul Desert, The Dirty Lungs, The Magic Math The Nick Rocks 10 p.m.

Fourth Annual Lyric Masquerade Ball Lyric Fine Arts Theatre 7 - 11 p.m.

Concert: Jeff Rosenstock w/ Remember Sports & Double Ferrari Saturn 9 p.m.

Concert: Sylvia Rose Novak w/ Will Stewart TrimTab Brewing Company 8 p.m.

2019 Helen Keller Art Show of Alabama reception Birmingham Civil Rights Institute 3 - 5 p.m.

Workshop: Professional Communication Education Building, 241C 2 - 3 p.m.