VOLUME 75, ISSUE 23
SINGLE COPY FREE - ADDITIONAL COPIES 50 CENTS
WEDNESDAY, MAY 16, 2018
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Adelante raises funds with beats BY KEVIN GONZALEZ Staff Writer The Hip-Hop Summit culminated a three-part series of events that raised funds to establish a first year experience scholarship for East Los Angeles College students on Saturday. Adelante First Year Experience program held the event at the G3 auditorium. The first two events consisted of the Woke Womxn’s Conference and Pride week. The Hip-Hop summit was designed to bring awareness to the benefits that Hip-Hop can have on communities. Vanessa Ochoa, the associate dean of student services at the Adelante FYE center, was one of the organizers of the event. Ochoa said that one of the goals for the hip-hop summit was to expose the community to the power of hip hop. “Hip-Hop can change your life. It’s changed my life, which is why I wanted to bring that experience to the ELAC community,” said Ochoa. “I expect people to gain insight on how hip hop can help elevate them the next level.” The event consisted of more than a dozen performers and speakers that brought all of the elements of hip-hop into one place. Hip-Hop and its influence to the fashion world were represented by BORNXRAISED clothing brand founded by SPANTO. The connection between art and hip- hop were represented by muralist, tattoo and graffiti artist
PHOTOS BY KEVIN GONZALEZ • PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY STEVEN ADAMO
CHUBS. The element of turntables were represented by figures like DJ Eliza May and World Famous Beat Junkies Dj Icy-ice. Dr. David Stovall from the University of Chicago spoke about the positive effects that hip-hop has on the youth of the community and about the gentrification that plagues the community. Local talent REVERIE and many others figures in the hip-hop community were also present. The host of the event was Tyson Amir, author of Black Boy Poems. Before the event started, Amir spoke about the need for more events like these in which the community can come together to learn about the benefits and true identity of hip-hop.
Amir said he wants the students effect that real hip-hop can have to realize that the mainstream hip- on a community, the current state hop played on the radio is corporate of hip-hop and the difference hip-hop that doesn’t truly represent between real hip-hop and what hip-hop was originally about. Corporate hip-hop. Amir spoke about the start of “I’m excited about hip-hop and how people having an “Hip-Hop can African Americans opportunity to a change your life. created a culture to deep engagement It’s changed my with the culture express and survive and the history of life, which is why I the settings they hip-hop, especially wanted to bring that were living in. In order to give the political and experience to the revolutionary power the audience an ELAC community.” of it so that it can example of what he meant, Amir serve the people VANESSA OCHOA Associate dean of instead of corporate compared hip-hop Student Services to the Brazilian interest,” said Amir. The first speakers martial arts form consisted of author known as capoeira. Amir followed by Stovall. Both “The slaves had to find a way to of these speakers spoke about the disguise a martial arts to protect
themselves. They made it look like a dance so when the slave officer or overseer came around, they would think the slaves were just dancing, but in reality they were learning how to kick and defend themselves,” said Amir. Amir also shared some of his political rhymes or “bars,” as he called them, and explained the reasons behind them. Stovall talked about how gentrification is affecting the communities and how minorities must work together to fight back. “The ancestors taught us that if you fight, you will win, but you have to fight or else nothing is going to change,” said Stovall. Stovall said the culture of hip-hop came from the need in young people to create and express themselves.
He also said Los Angeles is going through something similar with a lot of art and recreational programs being cut from the school districts, leaving young people without a space to create. “Here in Los Angeles they’re trying to do the same thing by taking away your art programs, moving people out and taking away quality education. Now the question is ‘what will young people do to create because you are fighting for a space to create in a world that’s trying to do something to you?’” said Stovall. The Hip-Hop summit also consisted of a panel in which most of the hip-hop elements like art, fashion, music and politics were present. The Panel consisted of BORNXRAISED clothing brand founder SPANTO, Graffiti and Tattoo artist CHUBS, Dr. Stovall, and musical artist Melione. The panelists spoke about what inspired them to pursue their art form as a career and about the struggles that they had to overcome. During the summit there were raffles, a silent auction, a live painting by CHUBS and a fashion show by ELAC alumna, Bethany Naranjo. Toward the end of the summit, there were performances by artists like MELIONE, KING VVIBE, X THE UV, and ELAC scholars and alumni, SHNEAKY, FREQ and ZZAY. The main event was REVERIE, who culminated the summit with a live performance. The Hip- Hop summit had a small turn-out of students during the whole event. The majority of attendees consisted of Adelante club members and the artist’s entourage. Throughout the summit, a recurring message was that the community must work together to make the best out of what they have. That was shown when the small audience came together to support the performers. Artists, performers, students and faculty all gathered at the front of the stage to make the artist feel like they were performing in front of a huge audience. “I don’t care if it’s only 20 people in here, were going to turn this place up like it’s a full auditorium,” said X THE UV one of the performers.
Speech team destroys competition BY PAMELA ESTRADA Staff Writer Speech team is one of few community colleges teams to attain four, 1st place, national titles in four consecutive years as of last month. On April the team took part in the Phi Rho Pi National Tournament in Daytona Beach Florida. This event put ELAC on top when the speech team brought home the 1st place gold for the “Wheeler Division Individual Events.” “This was an important win for us, and for the school, because we want everyone we compete with to know that East Los Angeles College is a school of excellence,” said ELAC Forensics Director, David Hale. In addition to the Phi Rho Pi National tournament in Daytona Beach, Florida, they also competed at the National Forensics Association National Tournament in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, which
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also marked the first year the team competed at two national level tournaments. The speech team won six gold medals, two silver, and ten bronze. The team took down fifty-five participating schools from across the nation. They also conquered above 800 individual entries. What marks these accomplishments as amazing is that they kept their top rank while competing at a higher division this year. “It’s never about the win. It’s about the team bond that gets us to where we are,” said Maya Origel a competitor with the team. “Never underestimate us.” said Staci Orozco a newcomer who just started with the team. This year’s honors mirror those of the teams first year. When they competed at the National Forensics Association National Tournament, they gained fourth place in the President II Division and 17 overall, out of 64 schools in which
61 of them were universities. ELAC was the highest-ranking from any school in California. The outranked schools were Cal State University Los Angeles, California State University Long Beach, California State University Fullerton, California State University-Chico, University of the Pacific, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and San Jose State University, making it the top community college. Hale said the team is made up of 60 on and off students who take part. The travel team is made up of 13 students as reported by Origel. The speech section of the team is coached by adjunct faculty members Alixandria Lopez, DeRod Taylor, Jedi Curva, Trisha Brodak-Silva and student tutor Paxton Attridge. The debate section of the team is coached by professor Myhanh Anderson. The team has also gained local victories within California. The speech team competed at the
Financial Aid Transfer Workshop Cal State L.A. and UCLA staff will take part in Tomorrow’s informative workshop on the process to carry over Financial Aid when transferring. Taking place at the library in room 103 at noon.
MAKING HISTORY— The speech team at Phi Rho Pi national Tournament in Daytona Beach Florida. California Community Colleges Forensic Association State Tournament in Sacramento. At this even there were more than 25 schools participating. They also
had over 350 and fifty individual entries. ELAC speech team walked away with a total of one bronze, four silver, and three gold medals. The speech Team has embedded
Board of Trustees to Fill Vacant Position Applications will be accepted through 4:30 p.m. on May 31 to fill the vacant position on the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees.
itself in history. “This win has further cemented our reputation across the nation as the speech team to beat,” said Hale.
Chavez Ravine The Theater Arts will present Chavez Ravine, written by Culture Clash, through the month of May at the P2 Proscenium Theater.