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Volume 73, Issue 15
Wednesday, April 12, 2017
www.elaccampusnews.com
but the band must also stage their performance for the Coachella Staff Writer crowd. Rojas says the band is known to On a Wednesday afternoon, in a have wild live shows. garage tucked away near Garfield They feature a hot pink dancing High School located in East Los gorilla named Chilla Gorilla, and Angeles, cumbia-punk band Thee a friend or two going home with a Commons rehearse their set list for bloody nose as seen on the band’s their biggest show yet, the 2017 facebook page. Coachella Valley Music and Arts “We don’t want to come across festival. as a gimmicky-circus band,” David The band is set to play both says. weekends, April 15 and April 22, “We want to be like Salt taking the stage just moments Bae: just a little sprinkle of before headliners like Lady Gaga, the carnivalesque aspect of the Future, Gucci Mane and Bon Iver. psychedelic elements.” “Its our first time playing,” The band was taken by surprise bassist and East Los Angeles when their manager Gil Gastelum College student Jose Rojas says. told them they would be playing “My friends are always inviting the festival. me or asking ‘When are you going “I was slightly confused because to go to Coachella?’ and I tell when we came back from the West them, I’m not going to go unless I Coast tour last December, we had am playing.” already done a full U.S. tour, but Recently, Thee Commons our goal has definitely been to play ranked number 28 out of the 161 festivals,” David says. acts in L.A. Weekly’s Coachella “We weren’t anticipating it to 2017 ranked bands list. be this soon, so that took me by Despite recognition, there are surprise. Actually, the festival we still challenges they face leading were going to be playing at was a up to the festival. shock.” According to guitarist and To the band, the opportunity singer David Pacheco, not only to accomplish a goal like this must they shorten their usual means much more to them and hour-long set to 40 minutes,
BY MEGAN G. RAZZETTI
those they represent. David says that although Thee Commons has yet to make it to the point of appealing to mainstream audiences, the band has room to experiment with its sociological and political expression. “We are in a very turbulent time in which certain demographics have been scapegoated and highlighted for the wrong reasons,” David says. People such as people of color, different sexual orientations and various religious backgrounds who have been targeted by the Trump administration. “However, this has created a spotlight for people like us to thrive in, which was a very unintended consequence by Donald Trump.” The formation of the band began in 2012 with brothers David on vocals and Rene Pacheco on drums. Thee Commons have dealt with a rotation of bassists, one after another since its beginning. It was not until a random meeting at ELAC in the S2 Performing Arts complex quad that current Thee Commons bassist and ELAC student Jose Rojas meet David, who was also attending the school at the time.
COMMONS Continued on page 4
PHOTOS BY DIEGO LINARES • PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY STEVEN ADAMO
Suicide awareness represented with backpacks BY STEVEN ADAMO Staff Writer Eleven hundred backpacks were on display on campus Tuesday to help visualize the number of college-aged students who die each year from suicide. Rob Schicker of Send Silence Packing, the program in charge of the backpack display, said the number of backpacks on display represent the 1,300-1,500 collegeaged suicides that happen every year. Volunteers weaved through the sea of backpacks and provided observers with suicide facts and information. “Most of the backpacks are donated by the families. Some of them that are heavily decorated are
News Briefs
the actual backpacks from students who have taken their own life,” Vanessa Guerrero, a psychology major and volunteer for the event, said. Active Minds, a non-profit group that created the Send Silence Packing program, has over 400 chapters on college campuses nationwide. Active Minds serve as a liaison between students and mental health professionals. The Send Silence Packing program was created to bring awareness to these issues using visual aids. “This event is to bring awareness of mental health because a lot of times people don’t want to talk about it, and you don’t see the impact until you see the numbers,”
Guerrero said. Half of the backpacks had stories attached to them. Some of them were written by family members, friends or people who were in relationships with the victims. A common thread among most of them was the desire to have done something more to help. John Raasch, a mental health counselor at the Student Health Center, helped bring the backpack display to campus. Raasch provides personal counseling for students who are experiencing life crises. They provide free coverage Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., and close at 2 p.m. on Fridays. Other on-campus resources include the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI),
Child center now enrolling
The ELAC Child Development Center is now accepting applications for child services like all-day toddler, pre-school, kindergarten and transitional kindergarten for the 2017-2018 school year. For more information, call (323) 265-8788.
Psychology Club and Students Against Substance Abuse (SASA). “An Active Minds chapter on campus would address some of these needs more specifically and make these issues more visible,” Raasch said. Anyone interested in starting an Active Minds chapter at ELAC can contact chapter manager Laura Horne from Active Minds at www. activeminds.org. Their site provides information on what signs to look for and how to reach out. If you or someone you know is in crisis, the national suicide prevention lifeline is 1-800-2738255 (TALK). The number is available 24 hours a day, and there is always somebody available to answer the call.
Consent and assault workshop
CN/IVAN CAZARES
REMEMBERING—Student Daniela Rosales stops to read the stories of people that have committed suicide. The 1,100 backpacks laid on the floor by Send Silence Packing represent the number of suicides in the U.S. each year.
The first of two “Healthy Consent and Sexual Assault” workshops is taking place today from 11 a.m. to noon in C2-106. The event is sponsored by ELAC’s SAAVE Team and is being facilitated by Dr. Eileen Le. The next workshop will take place April 20.
Social sciences open ouse
The Social Sciences Department is hosting its spring open house on Thursday at G3 Auditorium Foyer from noon to 1:30 p.m. Refreshments will be served.