Portland State Vanguard, Vol. 73, Issue 25

PORTLAND STATE VANGUARD

VOLUME 73 • ISSUE 25 • APRIL 30, 2019

G N I T R O P P U S

S R O V I V R U S

INTERNATIONAL: YELLOW-VEST PROTESTS CONTINUE FOR 24TH CONSECUTIVE WEEKEND • COVER: ACTIVISTS RALLY FOR SEXUAL ASSAULT AWARENESS

CRIME BLOTTER April 23–28 DYLAN JEFFERIES APRIL 23 Fire Alarm

At 1:29 p.m., a disconnected dryer vent set off the fire alarm in Ondine Residence Hall. There was no smoke or fire. CPSO and the Portland Fire Bureau responded.

APRIL 26 Attempted Burglary

At 3:12 a.m., a burglary was attempted at Millar Library. Nothing was taken.

CPSO was notified later that day at 10:34 a.m.

Forgery

A Portland State staff member who works at the Robert and Maureen Neuberger Center reported to CPSO that 17 forged checks have been attempted to be deposited in the last week.

APRIL 28 Vandalism

CPSO responded to graffiti in multiple locations across campus. The graffiti occurred between 3:26 a.m. and 10:46 a.m.

Attempted Kidnapping

At 3:57 p.m., Portland Police Bureau was dispatched to SW 10th and Columbia regarding an attempted kidnapping near the south side of Smith Memorial Student Union. The incident occurred between 3:15 and 3:57 p.m. at 724 SW Harrison. The non-student stated that someone they knew attempted to force them to go with them. The victim was able to flee and called the police from an off-campus location. The suspect is described as a white male, around 50 years of age with shoulder-length dirty blonde hair. At the time of the incident, the suspect was wearing a black jacket.

The suspect was not found after CPSO and PPB checked the area. PPB is investigating the incident.

CONTENTS COVER BY JOHN ROJAS, PHOTO BY BO KOERING NEWS HILL TO HALL

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NONVIOLENT FREEDOM ACTIVIST BRINGS HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE TO REVOLUTIONS

SFC TO SEND SEPARATE BUDGET TO BOT, ADVOCATES LIVABLE WAGES FOR STUDENTS

P. 4 P. 5

INTERNATIONAL CONFETTI IN THE SKY

INDIA’S GENERAL ELECTIONS REACH PHASE THREE

54 JOURNALISTS KILLED IN 2018

P. 10 P. 10 P. 11

OPINION ACCESSIBLE SUSTAINABILITY

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INTERNATIONAL THIS WEEK AROUND THE WORLD

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SUSTAINABLE IS NOT ACCESSIBLE

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HUNDREDS DEAD IN SRI LANKA TERRORIST ATTACKS

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’EVERYTHING FOR NOTRE-DAME, NOTHING FOR THE MISERABLES’

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ARTS & CULTURE GARBAGE DAY: KILLER CAVALCADE

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COVER COMMUNITY SPEAKS OUT ON SEXUAL ASSAULT

PARTY, PRESERVE AND EDUCATE

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P. 8–9

EVENTS CALENDAR

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STAFF EDIT ORI A L EDITOR IN CHIEF Nada Sewidan MANAGING EDITOR Marta Yousif NEWS EDITORS Sophie Concannon Anamika Vaughan INTERNATIONAL EDITOR Madison Cecil ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR Cervanté Pope OPINION EDITOR Taylar Rivers ONLINE EDITOR Sangi Lama

COPY CHIEF Hannah Welbourn COPY EDITOR A.M. Lavey CONTRIBUTORS Sabrina Achcar-Winkels Chloe Dysart Andrew Gaines Dylan Jefferies Katharine Piwonka Emily Price Marena Riggan Gregory Retz Julianna Robidoux PHO T O & MULTIMEDI A PHOTO EDITOR Bo Koering MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Huilyn Loo

PRODUC TION & DE SIGN CREATIVE DIRECTOR John Rojas LEAD DESIGNER Dana Townsend DESIGNERS Robby Day Danielle Emeka DIS T RIBU TION & M A R K E TING DISTRIBUTION & MARKETING MANAGER Dylan Jefferies T ECHNOL OGY & W EB SIT E STUDENT MEDIA TECHNOLOGY ADVISOR Corrine Nightingale

TECHNOLOGY ASSISTANTS Damaris Dusciuc Long V. Nguyen Annie Ton A DV ISING & ACCOUN TING COORDINATOR OF STUDENT MEDIA Reaz Mahmood STUDENT MEDIA ACCOUNTANT Sheri Pitcher To contact Portland State Vanguard, email info@psuvanguard.com

MIS SION S TAT EMEN T Vanguard’s mission is to serve the Portland State community with timely, accurate, comprehensive and critical content while upholding high journalistic standards. In the process, we aim to enrich our staff with quality, hands-on journalism education and a number of skills highly valued in today’s job market.

A BOU T Vanguard, established in 1946, is published weekly as an independent student newspaper governed by the PSU Student Media Board. Views and editorial content expressed herein are those of the staff, contributors and readers and do not necessarily represent the PSU student body, faculty, staff or administration. Find us in print Tuesdays and online 24/7 at psuvanguard.com Follow us on Facebook and Twitter @psuvanguard for multimedia content and breaking news.

NEWS

SNAP!

SNAP!

APRIL 23–24 CHLOE DYSART

APRIL 23: OREGON JUDGE TO GRANT PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION AGAINST RESTRICTED ABORTION United States District Judge Michael J. McShane said he would block President Donald Trump’s new federal rule that would restrict abortion. The restriction goes in effect May 3 and would prevent taxfunded family planning facilities from referring abortion as an option to patients. According to Politico, Oregon is one of 20 states—along with organizations such as Planned Parenthood and the American Medical Association—to resist the new abortion restrictions.

APRIL 23: PROTESTERS GATHER AT OREGON CAPITOL TO PROTEST BILL PROPOSING MANDATORY VACCINES A House bill regarding vaccines has recently been voted out of committee by the Subcommittee on Health and Human Services and onto the floor of the Oregon Legislature. H.B. 3063 would get rid of parents’ ability to exempt their children from vaccines for nonmedical reasons in public and private schools. Approximately 1,000 people gathered on the steps of the capitol to protest the bill, according to the Statesman Journal. If passed, children enrolled in public and private schools would have until Aug. 1, 2020 to get fully vaccinated.

APRIL 24: OREGON HOUSE VOTES TO REPEAL TAX BREAK The Oregon House voted unanimously to repeal a tax break for companies. In 2015, the Oregon legislature voted to pass a tax cut on companies providing internet service. According to The Oregonian, the bill was originally created to attract Google Fiber to Portland with companies offering faster broadband speeds. In a property tax dispute, Comcast used the bill to pay $45 million less in taxes, resulting in drains on other tax revenue. Comcast has since stopped lobbying against the repeal. House Bill 2684 will continue to the Oregon Senate where it will be voted on in the coming weeks.

APRIL 24: OREGON ONE OF FIVE STATES TO DEFY TRANSGENDER MILITARY BAN In the aftermath of a recent Supreme Court decision banning transgender people from military service, Oregon has announced it is one of five states that will not enforce the ban in their national guard organizations, alongside Washington, Nevada, New Mexico and California.

In 2018, former Secretary of Defense James Mattis proposed an official policy for a ban following a Trump tweet in 2017. In 2016, the U.S. government estimated there were around 8,980 service members who identify as transgender. Gov. Kate Brown has also publicly condemned the ban and maintains she stands with the LGBTQ+ community.

VANGUARD IS HIRING A PHOTO EDITOR, CONTACT MARTA YOUSIF AT

managingeditor@psuvanguard.com PSU Vanguard • APRIL 30, 2019 • psuvanguard.com

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NEWS

NONVIOLENT FREEDOM ACTIVIST BRINGS HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE TO REVOLUTIONS SOPHIE CONCANNON

Portland State’s Students United for Nonviolence hosted Reverend Dr. James Lawson, associate and friend of Martin Luther King Jr., on April 24 to provide insight on nonviolent practices of protest, as well as his role and experiences in founding the nonviolent Freedom Movement in the 1960s.

The event—titled “Continuing the Revolution: A New Intergenerational American Freedom Movement”—was held from 6–9 p.m. in the University Place hotel. The event detailed Lawson’s history as a pioneer of nonviolent movements across the American South in the ‘50s and ‘60s, and included historical perspective from various members of the James Lawson Institute.

Lawson stressed throughout the event that nonviolent social revolutions were systematic, not spontaneous, and involved strategic planning and recruitment. “[The Nashville] campaign was a planned campaign,” Lawson said. “We recruited people...for our workshops and our campaigns, and once we got started, we were able to escalate because people recognized the nonviolent way was the way that allowed people to be human and alive, not despising and hating other people.”

On the sit-in campaign orchestrated by Lawson and others involving students sitting at deli counters in downtown Nashville, Lawson said, “That sit-in campaign was not about getting a hamburger, which many of the public reports in the media focused on.”

“It was a shift from a public codification of public hostility directed toward a part of the citizenry of the nation,” Lawson continued. “It was a strategic shift.”

DANA TIOWNBSEND

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PSU Vanguard • APRIL 30, 2019 • psuvanguard.com

Members of the Institute also gave a summary of Lawson’s background through a 30-minute excerpt from the documentary A Force More Powerful, detailing the rise of nonviolent protest in Nashville and its subsequent spread across the Amerian South.

The documentary depicted Lawson’s history as a methodist minister from Ohio, hosting evening workshops on methods and stories of nonviolence—using Gandhi’s words as an aid—with students in the basement of the church. Asked

by Martin Luther King Jr. to take his efforts further south, Lawson began the steady uphill battle in the late ‘50s of desegregating Nashville through diner sit-ins and boycotts.

Lawson took issue with the documentary oversimplifying the efforts to desegregate downtown Nashville. He explained that existing literature on the national campaign for desegregation from 1959 to 1960 does not adequately define what really happened.

Dr. Mary Elizabeth King, director of the James Lawson Institute, likened the decade of nonviolent protest and organization before the official start of the civil rights movement in the 1960s to the decade before the American Revolution in the 18th century.

“To John Adams, the real revolution was when the colonists withdrew their cooperation with the British crown,” King said, “Even before the Declaration of Independence, they were governing themselves.”

King said John Adams wrote that the true revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people, not the history of military operations.

“Some experts view the war as military defense of existing self governance in the colonies,” King said. “Most historians looking at [the decade before the revolution] assumed there was an unstoppable march to war, so they completely overlooked the boycotts, demonstrations, noncooperation, nonimportation, nonexportation and amazing participation of men, women and children.”

The event also focused on the nonviolent use of power in giving and removing consent. “[Lawson] has, for 60 years…been revealing how the power exercised by the people is exerted by their consent and cooperation,” King said in her introduction.

She said weeks before the first Fourth of July, John Adams wrote the preamble to the Declaration of Independence and said to secure rights, governments are instituted and derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.

“This is who we are,” King said. “We are the ones who give consent to the government, and in nonviolent action, we withdraw that consent.”

Faculty coordinator Tom Hastings said Lawson’s experiences and words were “enormously relevant” to PSU students and faculty.

“Lawson teaches skills that strengthen democracy,” Hastings said. “[Students and faculty] can use these skills for the rest of their lives as members of our democracy.”

Lawson emphasized that they chose downtown Nashville specifically as a target for desegregation efforts.

“Social change is hard work,” Lawson concluded. “Nothing about it is spontaneous.”

NEWS

SFC TO SEND SEPARATE BUDGET TO BOT, ADVOCATES LIVABLE WAGES FOR STUDENTS

JOHN ROJAS ANAMIKA VAUGHAN In a push for a $15 an hour minimum wage for student workers, the Associated Students of Portland State Student Fee Committee will be sending a separate student fee budget proposal to the Board of Trustees for consideration instead of a unified budget proposal with President Rahmat Soureshi.

The president’s budget proposal, on the other hand, will not allocate $15 an hour wages for student workers. The two budget proposals will be sent to the Board for discussion on May 3 where they will make a final recommendation. If the recommendation is over a 5% increase, the budget will be subject to approval by the Higher Education Coordinating Commission.

“An immediate increase to $15 an hour for all students and employees earning minimum wage would cause compression issues so others would need their salaries increased,” said Associate Vice President for University Communications Christopher Broderick. “The result would total several million dollars that the university does not have...raising the minimum wage on campus to $15 would compound what is already a significant budget shortfall that we face in 2019–20.”

Due to the requirements of the Oregon Pay Equity Act, if the SFC’s proposal were passed, PSU would have to pay all student

workers across campus the same wage, even those who are not employed by a student fee-funded area.

The increase could have statewide implications, explained SFC Vice Chair Jose Rojas-Fallas. “[The president] explained to us that when they negotiate with unions, they negotiate with the state union, so we’re not only talking about PSU [staff ] unions—we’re talking about everybody,” Rojas-Fallas said. “So if there were to see an increase here, it would have to be statewide.”

The SFC sent a letter to the president and Board members outlining their decision to send a separate student fee budget to the Board knowing the broader implications of the proposal.

The letter stated: “We believe that increasing student wages to a livable level of $15 an hour does not hinge on the relative wages of professional staff. Our capacity to provide a better quality of life to our students should not be hindered by others’ perceived unfairness.”

“We are continuing to support the idea of increasing FFA student workers wages to $15 an hour because we believe it to be a worthy cause to consider, with all facts known,” the letter continued.

The SFC budget allocates money for student fee-funded areas such as resource centers, 5th Avenue Cinema, the student sustainability center and student media. The SFC’s budget proposal would increase the student fee by $30, $8.40 of which would be allocated to increase student worker wages to $15 an hour.

“Ultimately what’s more frustrating for me is that [the school] is going to potentially propose a fee increase upwards of 12–14%,” Thompson said. “Costs in the city are going up, and the majority of students don’t really have the means to be going to college.

The university does have a plan for increasing student wages over time in compliance with the state’s minimum wage law. Starting July 1, PSU will pay a minimum wage of $12.50, which will increase to $13.25 the following July and then up to $14.75 in 2022.

“I think that if they asked the students for their priorities at all for what they would be funding, this would be one of the things that people would support,” SFC Chair Elliot Thompson said. “I think people would accept an increase in their tuition in an effort to make sure that everyone who works here, especially their peers, are able to pay for school without having to bust their ass working two or three jobs.”

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INTERNATIONAL

THIS WEEK

WORLD

around the

April 21–27

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April 21–25

SOUTH AFRICA

The nation’s eastern provinces experienced massive flooding and mudslides throughout the week after torrential rains began on April 21. Al Jazeera reported 23 people either drowned or were crushed while 32 were hospitalized by April 23. By April 25 Reuters reported the death toll had risen to over 70.

One resident told Deutsche Welle, “When we looked around the gate, which was still standing, there was nothing left behind the gate. Their cars, their garage, everything was obviously down the hill.” Some 1,000 people from the KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape provinces were displaced as roads flooded, sewer lines became blocked and homes and buildings were destroyed.

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April 22–23

MYANMAR

Three people were confirmed dead while another 54 remain missing after a landslide in the northern Kachin state buried a jade mining site on April 22, Japanese news network NHK reported. According to Al Jazeera, the landslide occurred at around 11:30 p.m. near the Maw Wun Kalay village when a mud-filter pond—which is used for discarded mining waste—collapsed and buried the sleeping miners. “They won’t survive,”

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Kachin lawmaker Tin Soe told Reuters, “It is not possible because they are buried under mud.”

While the jade mining industry in Myanmar is worth billions, accidents are common.

Separately, on April 23, the country’s Supreme Court upheld the initial ruling against two Pulitzer-prize Reuters journalists, who were arrested in December 2017 for possessing classified documents. The Huffington Post reports Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were charged under the Official Secrets Act while investigating massacres committed by Myanmar forces and far-right Buddhist villagers against Rohingya Muslims in the Rakhine state. According to The Japan Times, the journalists have the option of appealing twice more to the Supreme Court.

If no appeal is given, they will carry out the remainder of their seven-year sentences.

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April 23

NEW YORK, UNITED STATES

The UN Security Council adopted a resolution addressing sexual violence in war devoid of any mention of sexual and reproductive health after the U.S. threatened to veto the measure. According to Deutsche Welle, the Trump administration would not support the measure otherwise, saying the wording allowed rape survivors to have abortions. While the resolution will still support victims of war-

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time sexual violence by creating better access to seek justice as well as medical and psychological assistance, references to prosecution under the International Criminal Court were also eliminated. Democracy Now! quoted UN Ambassador of France Francois Delattre, “It is intolerable and incomprehensible that the Security Council is incapable of acknowledging that women and girls who suffered from sexual violence in conflict, and who obviously didn’t choose to become pregnant, should have the right to terminate their pregnancy.”

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April 23

SAUDI ARABIA

The Gulf kingdom carried out 37 executions of prisoners convicted of alleged terrorism by the secretive Specialized Criminal Court, which Human Rights Watch said is “increasingly used to try peaceful dissidents and rights activists on politicized charges.”

Human rights groups have condemned the mass executions, including the British group Reprieve, which was representing five of the executed prisoners. Amnesty International reported 11 of the 37 were convicted of spying for Iran in “grossly unfair trials,” while 14 anti-government demonstrators were convicted of violent offenses after being tortured into giving what they claimed were false con-

fessions. At least one was a minor at the time of his original arrest. According to Middle East Eye, 32 of the 37 prisoners were of the Shi’a Muslim minority, and documents from three trials prove some of the men recanted their confessions, while others claimed to have never confessed at all.

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April 27

CALIFORNIA, U.S

Six months after the Pittsburgh massacre, another synagogue was targeted on April 27 when a gunman entered the Chabad of Poway synagogue in San Diego and opened fire, killing one person and injuring three others. According to The Los Angeles Times, the suspect, identified as John T. Earnest, is also suspected of writing a letter which was posted on social media, detailing a manifesto and plans for the attack while claiming responsibility for a March 24 arson fire at the Islamic Center in Escondido. The Chabad community had gathered to celebrate the last day of Passover, the week-long Jewish holiday commemorating the liberation of the Israelites from Egypt. After the attack, the suspect fled the scene but eventually surrendered to authorities, Reuters reported. The FBI is now investigating alongside San Diego police.

INTERNATIONAL

HUNDREDS DEAD IN SRI LANKA TERRORIST ATTACKS

‘EVERYTHING FOR NOTRE-DAME, NOTHING FOR THE MISERABLES’ YELLOW-VEST PROTESTS CONTINUE IN PARIS

MADISON CECIL After more than 300 people were killed in a series of bombings in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe announced authorities have arrested or killed the majority of those connected to the attacks.

The attacks, which targeted three churches and four hotels in the country’s capital, left hundreds dead and at least 500 more wounded on April 21, marking the deadliest attack the country has seen since their civil war ended 10 years ago.

The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attacks, leading Sri Lankan authorities to search for 70 individuals who are believed to have connections to the terrorist organization. No evidence has been found that confirms the group’s responsibility.

Wickremesinghe called for the immediate ending of “jihad terrorism” and thanked the local Muslim community for assisting authorities with identifying potentially dangerous individuals.

“There are several foreigners working as teachers in our country without work visas,” Wickremesinghe said. “In consultation with the Muslim religious affairs ministry and the home ministry, we will expel them from the country.”

Six days after the attacks, on April 27, Sri Lankan authorities engaged in a firefight with a group of suspects in the southern city of Batticaloa. 15 people including six children were killed. It is believed three of the 15 were directly involved in attacks.

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo and the senior Catholic official in Sri Lanka, called for no public church services to be held until the police could guarantee the safety of church-goers.

A private service, available to only priests and nuns, was held inside St. Sebastian’s Church on April 28. The service was guarded by Sri Lankan

PROTESTERS IN PARIS, AS PART OF THE YELLOW VEST PROTEST. FEB. 2019. COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS EMILY PRICE

SRI LANKA PRESIDENT MAITHRIPALA SIRISENA, ANNOUNCED A BAN ON BURQAS, APRIL 2019. COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS navy and police outside the church gates.

Ranjith also delivered a televised, private mass service in a small chapel in Colombo.

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and opposition leader Mahinda Rajapaska all attended the private mass in a “rare show of unity,” according to The Guardian.

“This is a time our hearts are tested by the great destruction that took place last Sunday,” Ranjith said during his private mass. “This is a time questions such as ‘does God truly love us,’ ‘does He have compassion toward us,’ can arise in human hearts.”

President Sirisena announced that a ban on burqas went into effect on April 29. He called the garment worn by some Muslim women “a security risk and a flag of fundamentalism.”

“President Maithripala Sirisena took this decision to further support the ongoing security and help the armed forces to easily identify the identity of any unwanted perpetrators,” a press release from the president’s office stated.

Violence broke out between yellowvest protesters and French authorities on April 20, marking the 23rd consecutive Saturday of the group’s demonstrations.

The yellow-vest protests first began in November 2018 when French citizens claimed fuel prices and living rates were too high. The demonstrations have been a weekly occurrence since, always taking place on Saturdays.

When people began pledging millions of dollars to the rebuilding of the Notre-Dame Cathedral after a fire on April 15, political unrest rose among French citizens. During the Saturday protests, one sign read, “Victor Hugo thanks all the generous donors ready to save Notre-Dame and proposes that they do the same thing with Les Miserables.”

According to Reuters, this was not the only sign that paid tribute to Hugo’s Les Miserables.

More signs read, “Everything for Notre-Dame, nothing for the miserables,” or “Millions for Notre-Dame, what about for us, the poor?”

Yellow-vest protesters acknowledge the massive loss from the Notre-Dame fire, but they said they want to make sure the public knows that Notre-Dame is not France’s only problem.

“I think what happened at Notre-Dame is a great tragedy, but humans should be more important than stones,” protester Jose Fraile told TIME. “And if humans had a little bit more money, they too could help finance the reconstruction work at Notre-Dame. I find this disgusting.”

According to TIME, a 200-person group— separate from the main yellow-vest demonstrations—were blocked by riot police when they attempted to march to the president’s Elysee Palace. Another group attempted to march directly to Notre-Dame but was stopped by a large security perimeter set up by authorities. Approximately 137 people were detained or arrested by Paris police.

There were 31,100 protesters throughout the country, of which 5,000 were in Paris, according to Le Monde. Reuters reported there were approximately 60,000 on-duty police officers in France. Paris authorities also closed a large portion of the city’s metro system in order to contain the protests.

Demonstrators in black hoods allegedly threw rocks at police and set scooters and trash cans on fire, according to Reuters.

Police responded to protesters with tear gas and stun guns.

Macron made a formal speech on April 25 addressing the yellow-vest demonstrations were based on “fair demands.”

“I’ve touched more clearly on the density of lives,” Macron said. “I heard the anger. I felt it in my flesh.”

Despite Macron’s speech, yellow-vest protests continued for the 24th consecutive weekend on April 27. Several groups have claimed they are preparing for a major protest on May 1.

PSU Vanguard • APRIL 30, 2019 • psuvanguard.com

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COVER

COMMUNITY SPEAKS OUT PORTLAND STATE RALLIES AGAINST GENDER VIOLENCE GREGORY RETZ Illuminate—Portland State’s interpersonal violence advocacy group—hosted a rally in the Park Blocks on April 24 as part of sexual assault awarness month. Take Back the Night: We Are Worthy 2019 and Denim Day are among the events meant to spread awareness of sexual violence and show solidarity for survivors.

Denim jeans—on which participants wrote messages like, “consent is not implied” and “I am more than my body”—hung from clothes lines stretching across the park.

The Sexual Assault Awareness Rally was held following the Denim Day march. As participants walked through the Park Blocks, they chanted: “Stop the violence/no more silence/say it loud, say it clear, sexual violence is not welcome here.”

Participants also chanted, “Claim our bodies/Claim your right/ Take a stand/Take back the night!”

Peace Over Violence, a social service agency which seeks to

end sexual and domestic violence, has been running Denim Day for the last 20 years. The Denim Day campaign began after the Italian Supreme Court overturned a rape conviction because of the victim’s outfit. The court felt that the victim’s jeans could not have been removed by her rapist without assistance because they were too tight.

The court’s ruling, now known as the “denim defense,” implies a survivor of sexual assault must have consented because of the clothing they were wearing at the time. The day after the ruling, women in the Italian Parliament wore denim in protest.

Women’s Resource Center student intern Alisha Ram said,“We have more people participating and wearing denim and making these statements that are so crucial to reducing victim blaming, reducing sexual violence that happens so often, and so much of sexual violence happens on our college campuses.”

On why Illuminate and Denim Day supporters use the term “gender violence” as opposed to violence against women, Anastasia Amsden—a peer educator with Illuminate—said “[sexual violence] affects people of all genders. Women are affected a lot, but people of all genders are affected by sexual violence.”

According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, one out of every 10 survivors are male.

Similarly, from a 2015 report, 47% of transgender people in the United States were sexually assaulted at some point in their lifetime. While the majority of transgender survivors of sexual assault are women, there are survivors of sexual violence and harassment who are not.

The WRC, which has worked with Illuminate and the Queer Resource Center in the past, has sponsored several programs seeking to create a safer and healthier campus throughout Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

MEMEBERS OF THE PSU COMMUNITY GATHER IN SUPPORT FOR SURVIVORS OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE. BO KOERING/PSU VANGUARD

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COVER

UT ON SEXUAL ASSAULT TAKING BACK THE NIGHT JULIANNA ROBIDOUX The Women’s Resource Center capped off its annual Sexual Assault Awareness Month calendar of events with Take Back the Night: We Are Worthy 2019 on April 26.

The event took place in Hoffman Hall and featured speakers from Portland State, a dance group performance and a keynote speech by Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs.

“This year, our aim is to acknowledge how cultures of violence prevent us from sharing our histories, our experiences and treatment of people,” PSU student and event emcee ‘Apikale Fouch said.

The first speaker was PSU student Angeline Booth, a gender, sexuality and queer studies major who serves as the education and outreach coordinator for the PSU food pantry. She is also the founder and facilitator of PSU’s transgender women’s affinity group.

“There are very few times that trans women are handed a mic and able to say whatever we want,” Booth said. “I knew that I wanted to use this time to remind us all how we got here and who made it possible for a space like this to exist.”

Booth credited Sylvia Rivera, a Latina American gay liberation and transgender rights activist, as the inspiration for her speech.

“Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson created Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries,” Booth said.

“Together they provided housing, financial assistance and safety for houseless LGBTQ youth of color in New York City. These women have fought for all of us and continue to do so.”

Booth ended her speech with a reminder that transgender rights activists have fought for the rights of all women.

“Sylvia fought to scream so that we could whisper,” Booth said. “Sylvia fought to be seen so that we could choose not to be. Sylvia fought every single second so that we could take a moment of rest. Sylvia fought to her death so that we can live.”

3D, or Damn Diverse Dance, based in Corvallis, Ore., performed as well. PSU student and emcee Nina Campos said the group was created to build a platform for women of color to break western ideals of sexuality, gender, ethnicity and race through the empowerment of dance.

“3D was denied the right to participate in Oregon State University’s Take Back the Night,” Campos said. “The director of the Survivor’s Advocacy Resource Center said that their group was ‘too inappropriate and too sexual.’ 3D is here to prove that survivors can look, act and present themselves however they choose to do so. Healing isn’t a straight line. Healing, for them, is dance.”

3D danced to a mashup that started with Ariana Grande’s “God is a Woman,” incorporating step dance with syncopated, choreographed moves. They also performed to Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation.”

Gumbs, practicing poet, artist, educator and scholar followed 3D and gave the keynote speech. Author of Spill: Scenes of Black Feminist Fugitivity, Gumbs is the first person to do archival research on the papers of

Audre Lorde—an American writer, feminist, womanist, librarian and civil rights activist—and June Jordan, a Caribbean-American poet, essayist, teacher and activist.

Gumbs highlighted the history of Ida B. Wells, AfricanAmerican investigative journalist, educator and one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

“What if we thought about Ida B. Wells as the first person to take back the night?” Gumbs said. “Ida B. Wells created an international anti-lynching movement, and she wrote about the connection between sexual violence against black women and lynching as a tool of power.”

Gumbs also discussed another one of her inspirations.

Gumbs quoted the last line of “Poem About My Rights”

by Jordan: “My simple and daily and nightly self-determination may very well cost you your life.” “[Jordan] wrote a poem called, ‘I Must Become a Menace to My Enemies,’ and she was,” Gumbs said. “Her father used to beat her, so she slept with a knife under her pillow. One night he came in and she threatened to stab him to death. So we have yet another example of taking back the night.”

“In ‘A Litany for Survival,’ which is again one of those poems that is likely to be read at an event like this, Lorde said, ‘It is better to speak remembering we were never meant to survive,’” Gumbs said.

“So, simply remembering enough to testify is not effective, especially for those of us who the law does not convene to protect—who, in fact, the law convened to violate,” Gumbs said.

After her keynote address, Gumbs answered questions students and attendees had about issues surrounding sexual assault and healing that they submitted anonymously online.

Jose Moreno-Perez, a sophomore at PSU majoring in sociology and Spanish, said Booth’s speech moved him the most.

“I will say that Angeline’s speech brought me to tears,” Moreno-Perez said. “I was not expecting any of that.”

Denise Soto, a sophomore at PSU majoring in biology, said that for her, the event was enlightening.

“The whole experience for me, being here, was really eye-opening,” she said. “Anybody can be a sexual assault victim.”

Event organizer Haidre Williams, a senior majoring in women’s studies, was on the Sexual Assault Awareness Month planning committee. She said the committee worked with Academic and Student Recreation Center, the Veterans Resource Center and the Queer Resource Center.

“It’s been six months in the making,” Williams said.

“It’s really great to see it all come together and go well and be well-received, so it’s really a labor of love. The sense of belonging and helping make this happen. It takes a village. It couldn’t have happened without all of us.”

DAMN DIVERSE DANCE PERFORMED AS PART OF TAKE BACK THE NIGHT IN HOFFMAN HALL, APRIL 2019.

JULIANNA ROBIDOUX/PSU VANGUARD

PSU Vanguard • APRIL 30, 2019 • psuvanguard.com

9

INTERNATIONAL

CONFETTI IN THE SKY

MASS BUTTERFLY MIGRATION TAKES FLIGHT IN LEBANON

INDIA’S GENERAL ELECTIONS REACH PHASE THREE

EMILY PRICE A wet winter in Lebanon has encouraged more butterflies to migrate there than the country has seen in 100 years.

“The last time this migration happened was way back in 1917,” Magda Bou Dagher Kharrat, a plant genetics professor at St. Joseph University in Lebanon, told Reuters.

Vanessa cardui butterflies, also known as “painted ladies,” are among the most common species of butterflies worldwide.

Painted ladies are named due to the white speckles that contrast their orange and black coloring.

“It was something really beautiful,” Rony Kharrat told Reuters.“People were stopping on the road to watch them...

We have never seen anything like it before.”

Despite their numbers, these butterflies do not harm the agriculture in Lebanon, and are, in fact, welcomed as a signal of expanding biodiversity. “[The butterflies] also represent an increase in food material for birds who eat them, and by pollinating more flowers, they will increase biodiversity,” Nabil Nemer, a professor of entomology at the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik, told The National.

After experiencing more than 50 inches of rainfall since January, 15 more than the country’s average, scientists are wondering if climate change is to blame for the butterflies’ extended migration, according to The National.

“It was beautiful seeing millions of butterflies, like confetti in the sky,” Yasmina El Amine, a climate change researcher in Beirut, told The National. “Everyone on campus enjoyed the beginning of spring with this migration.”

INDIA’S ELECTIONS RUN OVER THE COURSE OF A MONTH. COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS MADISON CECIL

JOHN ROJAS

10

PSU Vanguard • APRIL 30, 2019 • psuvanguard.com

The third phase of India’s seven-phase general elections came to a close on April 26.

The Indian elections are divided into seven phases in order to make it easier to maintain a “peaceful, free and fair process,” according to The New York Times. The Indian government lacks enough public workers to have every voter across the country vote in one day, so instead the process is divided into seven regions. In each phase, voters of one region cast their ballot. In the end, all votes are totaled for a final count.

India, the world’s largest democracy and the second most populous country in the world, has five national political parties and over 2,000 smaller parties registered in this year’s general election. Citizens are voting to fill a new parliament who will then select a prime minister.

Phase one of the elections began April 10, but the seventh stage is not set to start until May 19. Final results are expected to be announced on May 24.

“The Election Commission criteria is that we have to provide a polling station for every person within a two kilometer radius,” Deputy District Election Officer Vinod Chandra Prajapati told CNN. According to CNN, five officials ventured 60 kilometers into the forest in order to uphold this policy. Bharatdas Darshandas is a priest who lives alone in the Gir forest. Officials have traveled to his home every year to set up a voting station for him.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which currently holds a majority in parliament. The BJP was the first political party in 30 years to claim an outright majority in the legislative body, according to The New York Times.

A political party in parliament needs 272 seats in order to have an overall majority.

The BJP promotes a Hindu-nationalist ideology and is pushing for the emphasis of the Hindu religion in textbooks. According to The New York Times, India’s minorities “say they feel increasingly afraid.”

For the first time in India’s history, women are more likely than men to turn out to vote. In the 2014 general election, women had almost closed the gender gap with a 65.3% turnout in comparison to 67.1% turnout for men.

With a 450 million person workforce and 10 million new workers per year, India’s rising unemployment rate is one of the key issues of the 2019 general elections. In February 2019, the unemployment rate was 7.2%. This is the highest India’s unemployment has been since September 2016. The Association for Democratic Reforms has revealed the issue as a top priority for voters.

BJP’s main opposition, the Congress Party, has released several statements with proposals to cut the unemployment rate in half, according to Reuters. During the 2014 elections, Modi promised to generate more jobs, but according to The Economic Times, has failed to deliver.

According to Reuters, approximately half of India’s population works in farming. This sector of the population has been calling for more support from the government. When the Congress Party gained power in three of the largest rural states, the BJP guaranteed small farmers 6,000 rupees, the equivalent of $86.22.

Reuters also reported the Congress Party promised rural farmers 150 work days a year as well as an annual handout of 72,000 rupees, or $1,031.71, to the poorest families if they were to win the general elections.

INTERNATIONAL

54 JOURNALISTS KILLED IN 2018 CPJ REPORT REVEALS JOURNALISM AS HIGHLY UNSAFE CAREER SABRINA ACHCAR-WINKELS Journalism has been deemed one of the most dangerous professions by the UN, and new reports and data are revealing more journalists are dying every year.

According to Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 54 journalists were killed in 2018—34 were murdered due to their work, while the remaining 20 were caught in crossfire during a dangerous assignment.

The data from CPJ was collected from Jan. 1, 2018 through Dec. 14, 2018 and includes those who died inadvertently during combat or on other dangerous assignments. With 47 total deaths in 2017, CPJ reports a 13% increase in total journalist deaths in a year.

For the third year in a row, there were more than 250 total journalists around the world behind bars in 2018, according to CPJ. The organization’s annual census suggests “the authoritarian approach to critical news coverage is more than a temporary spike.”

Turkey has been the world’s worst jailer of journalists for two years now, imprisoning at least 68 journalists at the time of the census. Turkey, China and Egypt—which were responsible for the jailing of more than half of all imprisoned journalists in 2017—have increased the number of journalists imprisoned. In 2018, China was responsible for the imprisonment of 47 journalists, while 25 were jailed in Egypt.

CPJ’s report does not include journalists who have gone missing or are detained by organizations outside of a nation’s government. With ongoing armed conflicts in Syria, Yemen and Libya, the organization believes dozens have gone missing in these countries.

In April 2018, Reporters Without Borders released its annual World Press Freedom Index. RSF found “growing animosity toward journalists” as democratic leaders and authoritarian governments alike are attempting to undermine the press. “The climate of hatred is steadily more visible in the Index,” RSF said in its report.

“More and more democratically elected leaders no longer see the media as part of democracy’s essential underpinning but as an adversary to which they openly display their aversion,” the report added.

In April 2019, RSF released the World Press Freedom Index for 2019. This year’s report shows how “an intense climate of fear has been triggered” among journalists.

“The 2019 World Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders shows how hatred of journalists has degenerated into violence, contributing to an increase in fear,” the report stated. “The number of countries regarded as safe, where journalists can work in complete security, continues to decline, while authoritarian regimes continue to tighten their grip on the media.”

The Deadliest Countries For Journalists In 2018 Number of Journalists killed by country in 2018*

Afghanistan

13

Syria

9

India

5

Mexico

4

United States

4

Central African Republic

3

Yemen

3

Brazil

2

Colombia

2

Israel & Occupied Palestinian Territories

2

*As of Dec 14, 2018 Turkmenistan is now considered the most dangerous country for journalists despite North Korea holding that title for the past three years. North Korea is now the second most dangerous country for journalists in the world.

For the third consecutive year, Norway has been ranked the safest country for journalists. According to the 2019 World Press Freedom Index, Finland is the second safest place for journalists, dropping the Netherlands to fourth after two reporters were forced to live under police protection due to their reporting on organized crime.

Ethiopia and Gambia have significantly improved their rankings. Ethiopia, now 110th, is up 40 places in comparison to last year, while Gambia is now ranked 92nd. Venezuela dropped five places and is now 148th due to the number of journalists who have been arrested in relation to their writing.

According to the 2019 RSF World Press Freedom Index, the United States slid from the “satisfactory” range to the “problematic” range. The U.S. is 48th from 180 of the most dangerous coun-

Total Killed 47

53

2017

2018

JOHN ROJAS tries and territories for journalists and members of the media.

“Never before have U.S. journalists been subjected to so many death threats or turned so often to private security firms for protection,” the RSF report stated.

Article 19 published a report in May 2018, claiming President Donald Trump’s attacks on the media via his Twitter account and during press conferences are creating a hostile environment for journalists in the U.S. “President Donald Trump’s nationalistic rhetoric, fixation on Islamic extremism and insistence on labeling critical media ‘fake news’ serves to reinforce the framework of accusations and legal charges that allow such leaders to preside over the jailing of journalists,” CPJ stated.

The Article 19 report states that attacks, insults and threats have become “occupational hazards” for journalists working around the world.

So far in 2019, five journalists have been killed worldwide, according to CPJ.

PSU Vanguard • APRIL 30, 2019 • psuvanguard.com

11

OPINION

ACCESSIBLE SUSTAINABILITY

CHECK YOUR MINDSET, NOT THE PRICE TAG KATHARINE PIWONKA The truth is that the choice to live a more eco-conscious lifestyle and stand up for the environment costs nothing— changing your mindset will change your habits.

Capitalism is trying to trick you into thinking sustainability is expensive. Don’t fall for it: Bamboo yoga mats, organic green smoothies sipped through metal straws and $200 hemp-woven trousers are not a requirement for an eco-conscious lifestyle.

The mainstream sustainability movement is a romanticized, white-washed and classist fiction that has nothing to do with the real thing. Consequently, real sustainability is pushed further and further out of sight. This green-washed facade is not actually sustainability but another mode of exclusion based on race, class, gender, ability and status. In other words, it’s bull.

Real sustainable living is made up of a series of daily choices and actions. It’s a state of mind rather than a state of momentary living. This leaves room for individuality in what choices are possible and available for every person. There are very few versions of a perfect sustainable lifestyle while existing in society today. That is why small choices everyday are what matter.

Calling your state legislator to demand more sustainable policies is free. Educating yourself and others, to the best of your ability, on the topic of sustainability, climate change and environmental justice is more than possible for many. Those who have privilege need to be using that privilege to lift up other individuals in the environmental movement.

There is no shortcut to sustainability because the United States, as well as the rest of the developed western world is not set up to be sustainable. There will always be aspects of sustainable living that will be inaccessible to some people. It requires a certain amount of monetary funds, physical ability and education to make sustainable changes in your life. If you have privilege that will allow you to make these choices, you have a responsibility to do so.

CONSUMER GOODS

Remember the golden rule: Buy less and buy consciously.

When it comes to grocery store purchases, there is always a more sustainable choice you may be missing. Buy in bulk to avoid excess packaging, DIY your own household cleaning products instead of buying chemical-based ones and consider decreasing or eliminating fish consumption, a commercial practice wreaking havoc on our oceans and their inhabitants.

It’s well known that fast fashion is horrible for the environment. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, 84% of excess clothing was thrown away by consumers and companies. On the other hand, ethical clothing brands, such as Reformation, are often too exorbitant for many to consider purchasing. The solution? Avoid buying new clothes by repairing the ones you have or replacing them with secondhand items. As an alternative, attending clothing swaps, flea markets and other secondhand events can be a more accessible means to sustainability than even thrift shops.

SUSTAINABILITY IS EMPATHY

Living eco-consciously means standing up against climate injustices that marginalized communities suffer from. Sustainability is a synonym for environmental activism. Calling out environmental racism, such as factory farm toxic runoff destroying low-income neighborhoods, and the recent dismissed case of Alabama authorities dumping toxic waste into a landfill located in the largely African American populated Uniontown, is just as much a part of sustainability as replacing your plastic tupperware with glass.

DANA TOWNSEND

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OPINION

SUSTAINABLE ISN’T ACCESSIBLE TAYLAR RIVERS Sustainable living is an idealistic lifestyle that is not attainable or inclusive for the average person. The money and time the lifestyle requires is not something that most possess and the assumption that they do is rather elitist.

Environmental policies reflect the power dynamics within our society. If mostly white, urban, middle to upper class, college-educated people—the people who hold the most power in our society—make our environmental policies, then the policies they craft will work best for themselves, and worse (or not at all) for other groups of people.

Sustainable living is the practice of reducing your demand on natural resources by making sure you replace what you use to the best of your ability. The three main areas of sustainability are: environmental, economic and social. This practice reveals itself in various ways throughout daily life. Each opportunity to reduce your environmental footprint comes with a cost most people cannot afford.

FOOD EXPENSE Money—or lack thereof—is certainly part of the problem, especially when it comes to a necessity such as food. Certified organic foods, fresh produce, artisanal cheeses, humanely raised meats and other “sustainable” fare typically cost more than their industrially produced, heavily processed counterparts.

For example, grocery stores such as Whole Foods that sell both organic and non-organic produce vary in price. Organic strawberries are $4.99 per lb, whereas non-organic strawberries are $3.99 per lb. Regular tomatoes are $1.99, and their organic counterparts are $2.99. A gallon of regular milk will cost

you $4.39, but an organic gallon will set you back $6.99.

Price tags are a small piece of the very complex puzzle of why the sustainable food movement is inaccessible to many. The real issue at hand is low-income citizens’ lack of practical access to healthy foods. Low-income families do not have access to most of the foods within grocery stores let alone organic produce.

FASHION Fast fashion is an approach to the design, creation and marketing of clothing that emphasizes making fashion trends quickly and cheaply available to consumers. Stores such as H&M, Zara and Forever 21 are stores where you can buy trendy, super cheap clothing.

Thrifting is an option, but shopping at a thrift store isn’t as easy as going to a department store. It requires a lot of rummaging, patience, time and determination. Stores can get crowded and most of the time items are not organized.

Navigating through the racks can also be an overwhelming experience. The prices may be low, but you sacrifice the convenience of going to the mall and simply buying what you want.

In addition to this, if everyone turned to second-hand clothing shops, the prices will begin to rise, which would make them no longer affordable to the people who actually need them.

TRAVELING Reducing your carbon footprint requires either a vehicle that is environmentally friendly, solely relying on public transportation, walking or biking. These options don’t work.

In a new study, Bankrate.com found the typical American household in many larger U.S. cities doesn’t earn enough to afford the average new car.

“The main point of this research is to illustrate how Americans are having to overextend themselves to pay for a new car at today’s prices,” said Bankrate.com analyst Claes Bell. “Low-and middle-income households are having to stretch loan terms to six or more years and/or spend huge percentages of their paychecks to afford reliable transportation, and it’s very difficult to get off that hamster wheel of debt once you’re on it.”

Public transportation is not always reliable when you are running on a tight schedule. Biking or walking both require copious amounts of physical energy that not all possess, and suggesting this is highly ableist and ill-informed.

The rich and the powerful are often hypocrites. They might grow organic gardens or drive electric cars but live in a huge home (or several) and take multiple international trips each year. Instead of inflicting hardship on more marginalized groups—with bad policies or bad habits—they should begin by holding a mirror up to themselves.

People are struggling to live the life they currently live let alone adopt an entirely new lifestyle.

Until we reach a place where we find solutions collectively in a way that is inclusive of all groups within our society, the lifestyle will not be accessible.

PSU Vanguard • APRIL 30, 2019 • psuvanguard.com

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ARTS & CULTURE

GARBAGE DAY KILLER ANIMAL CAVALCADE ANDREW GAINES Hollywood seems hell-bent on reminding us that, given the slightest opportunity, nature will murder the shit out of us.

While there were a handful of killer animal films in the ’60s and early ’70s—such as The Birds, the truly awful Frogs and Willard—the arrival of Jaws in 1975 is what really kicked off the trend. After that film became the biggest thing in the world, just about any animal you can imagine got to star in its own film. So, Iet’s run through some of my favorites.

‘ALLIGATOR’ (1984) DIRECTED BY LEWIS TEAGUE

The urban legend about baby gators getting flushed down the toilet is a good setup for a creature feature, and this movie takes that concept and runs with it. The murderous reptile at the center of this film lives in the sewer system of Chicago and has grown massive from feasting on lab rats injected with growth hormones.

I’m not sure if the film’s portrayal of the sewers of Chicago as a massive, labyrinthian series of tunnels wider than the streets above them is accurate, but it gives us several scenes of hapless individuals wandering around in there until they get torn to shreds by the titular creature, so it all works out.

Alligator is a really fun b-movie with a lot of great performances, puppetry and smart usage of miniature sets to make the scenes with a live gator seem more imposing. The plot follows a pretty similar cadence to that of Jaws, as the authorities refuse to believe our working-class heroes until it’s too late. Unlike the Spielberg film, we get a great scene during the climax of the alligator wandering into the wealthy part of town and eating uptight rich people, which is exactly what I want out of a killer animal film. Unfortunately, it’s really difficult to get ahold of these days. Alligator isn’t available for streaming anywhere and the only DVD copies on Amazon are imported discs that are apparently a rip of the VHS version of the film. If you come across the movie in a bargain bin or garage sale, I highly recommend it.

14

OF ‘UNKNOWN ORIGIN’(1983) DIRECTED

BY GEORGE P. COSMATOS

The trailer for this horror film starring G.O.A.T. actor Peter Weller suggests that there’s something supernatural going on in the protagonist’s house. There’s not—it’s a rat.

The villain is a larger-than-average, but not giant, rat. Still, the movie makes its presence as menacing as possible, and the setting of a single uptown New York house is a really refreshing, claustrophobic change of pace from the open cities and resort towns you usually get in these sorts of films. The rat isn’t necessarily a villainous, murderous presence until the protagonist, Bart Hughes, decides to devote himself to getting rid of it.

The vast majority of the film is Bart waging a one-man war against this relatively smart, very hard-to-kill rodent, and his descent into madness while attempting to kill it is a good, fun use of Weller’s acting chops.

It’s definitely on the smaller scale as far as these movies go. Usually, if there are small animals killing people the movie either goes for the “they’re giant now” option or makes it about a swarm of the creatures. That said, the chaos that ensues gets pretty intense. Bart nearly destroys his entire house in his quest for rat murder.

This one got saved from VHS obscurity by Scream Factory, which released a Blu-ray version of the film last year. It’s also available to rent on Amazon Prime.

‘RAZORBACK’ (1984), DIRECTED BY RUSSELL MULCAHEY

This is where we get weird, folks. Mulcahey, best known for directing the masterpiece Highlander, went back to his home country of Australia to film this movie about a killer boar the size of a truck. Aside from a handful of opening shots set in “New York”—which is almost certainly Sydney—the movie takes place entirely in the outback. Razorback seems hell-bent on making sure you never ever come to Australia, as it presents the country as a borderline apocalyptic wasteland inhabited by homicidal maniacs and pigs that want to eat you alive.

The best thing about the film is that it’s approximately 250% weirder than a movie about a giant boar needs to be. The film quickly decides that the animal at the center isn’t enough to keep the interest of audiences, so it introduces Benny and Dicko, two diseased-looking brothers who run some kind of factory that exclusively produces gore and viscera, and who also happen to be rapists, sadists and murderers. They live in a literal hole in the ground, seemingly dressing themselves in random scraps of clothing you’d find in a dumpster and are exclusively there to make

PSU Vanguard • April 30, 2019 • psuvanguard.com

life much harder for our poor, harried heroes.

On top of the villains of the human and animal kind, the movie has an incredibly wild visual style that makes it look like no other killer animal movie out there. Bright, unnaturally colored lighting spills up out of the floor and ceilings, and surrealist matte paintings occasionally take over the background.

The editing is frequently frenetic and unpredictable, lending itself to a movie that genuinely sets you on edge. Not because of its not-very-good horror chops, but because you have no idea how the next scene will look. This movie hasn’t received a high-def release, which is a shame because it’d probably look gorgeous on Blu-ray, but you can get it on DVD or rent it from Amazon.

‘ANACONDA’ (1997), DIRECTED BY LUIS LLOSA

If you made a Mount Rushmore for terrible movie performances, Jon Voight’s greasy, lumpy, ponytailed head from Anaconda would be in George Washington’s place. This movie is pretty legendary in some circles.

You’ve got a mix of laughable puppetry, atrocious early CGI, nonsensical plotting and one of the all-time greatest accents in a film.

I have no fucking idea what nationality Jon Voight is going for in his portrayal of villainous snake-trafficker Paul Serone, but it takes residence somewhere near the halfway point between Strong Bad from Homestar Runner and Wilford Brimley’s New Orleans accent in Hard Target. This movie is an absolute blast if you’re watching it in a group.

The plot, such as it is, is this—Jennifer Lopez is commanding a boat trip down the Amazon for a nature documentary. The bad news is that she and her crew run into Voight, who almost instantly takes over the boat and holds the crew hostage as players in his ridiculous hunt for the mighty Anaconda.

The good news is that Ice Cube is also there, and he’s delightful as ever. Every single fact this movie tells you about the leading snake is completely wrong (a staple of bad killer

DANA TOWNSEND animal flicks—even Razorback claims that Razorback Boars don’t have a nervous system, which…is suspect). The opening crawl claims Anacondas are worshipped by indigenous tribes all along the Amazon, often grow up to 40 feet long and love murdering so much they’ll regurgitate their prey so they can eat it again—nothing on earth fucking does this. Between its very strange ideas of what snakes are/can do, a mind-boggling performance from Jon Voight, and a really fun scene of Owen Wilson getting murdered, the movie’s an absolute riot. You can get it on Blu-Ray or rent it from Amazon.

Runners-up include Renny Harlin’s idiotic, delightful mess Deep Blue Sea, and the early Jaws cash-in Orca. According to the film, the orca is the only other animal that kills for revenge. That’s almost certainly not true, but that movie is a hell of a lot of fun.

I’m not entirely sure what it is about the human brain that makes it so when we see pretty much any animal, we automatically wonder “what if this was killing me?” Maybe it’s some weird cro-magnon fight-or-flight response burned in from the days when everything could actually kill us, or maybe it’s the same part of the brain that makes us envision an insane Final Destination 2 traffic accident any time we see a log truck (or is that just me?). Either way, there’s plenty more animal carnage to be found out there in the world of cinema.

ARTS & CULTURE

PARTY, PRESERVE AND EDUCATE CYPHER CULTURE CONFERENCE PROMOTES PHYSICAL EXPRESSION CERVANTÉ POPE Dance-based cypher culture has been kept underground from mainstream, only really known by those who participate in the tight-knit scene, especially within Portland. That was until the Cypher Culture Conference came to town, and the education and energy it spread were paramount.

Cypher culture—which began in the ‘70s and ‘80s, allows for many inner-city youths and disenfranchised adults to immerse themselves in a fairly competitive yet nonviolent community promoting inclusivity through the lens of hip-hop.

Historically speaking, cyphers began—and still act as—their own faction of music and dance therapy, a home base of connection for those who choose physical expression over the oral weight of words.

“Cypher culture has given me everything I know and have,” said Decimus Yarbrough, dancer, community organizer and co-founder of the CCC. “From the lows to the highs, I have been able to experience the spectrums of life through this culture. It is a lifestyle that offers no end to possibility and creation.”

The amount of creativity and vivacity emanating from the dancers was hard not to absorb. There are a few different forms to cypher dancing—such as strutting, house, popping, etc.—and nearly everyone who participated found themselves blending so many of these styles in developing their individual rhythm.

What didn’t come naturally was aided by instructors, as Yarbrough managed to land some of the most famed dancers in the scene from, the Bay Area all the way to London, to lead some of the workshops at the conference.

According to him, the CCC definitely isn’t the first of its kind, but it is the first to hit Portland and have this kind of impact.

“I wanted to bring something to Portland’s dance community that gave them access to more than the norm of the competition and workshop combination,” he said, though he nods the idea for the conference off to cypher mentor Junious Lee Brickhouse and his annual dance and music festival the International Soul Society Festival. Much like Brickhouse’s festival, Yarbrough’s conference was intended to live by the basic pillars of cypher culture—party, preserve and educate.

“I am always thinking of ways to creatively build community and appreciation for what we have, so a lot of my selection of guest artists and teachers are based on that idea and people who embody that same spirit,” Yarbrough said.

“Our parties help us celebrate our culture. We preserve our culture by holding space in special ways such as battles and showcases, and we always ensure the education of our culture is included by things like workshops and dialogue sessions.”

Much of that dialogue came from strutting instructor Lonnie Green, known in the community as Pop Tart. He’s a San Francisco native who was verbally adamant on making sure the dancers at his workshop knew how the media’s commodifying of cypher culture (through movies such as Breakin’ and Beat Street) was an inaccurately palatable portrayal of its actual influence. He emphasized how many of the dance moves are rhythmic evolutions of survival-mode reactions from living on the streets, where much of breakdancing and its related styles got their start.

The dancers in his workshop ate his many words up, taking to heart the meanings of that type of lesson. As they tried to replicate and lock down the routine he was teaching, he shouted out other bits of applicable knowledge: “Kill all the hate and respect culture.”

Pop Tart’s messages communicate a side of cypher culture rooted in strife and struggle, while other instructors like house dancer Tsunami emphasized the importance of support. House style involves a lot of footwork and flow, which is one of the elements in these types of dance that people have a bit of trouble with. Her deal was about transforming the hiccups into graceful missteps that add to a personal style.

“Groove first” was a mantra Tsunami repeated, and when it came down to actually putting her students into cypher circles for practice battles, she tried to drill another idea into their heads: “It’s not just about the dancer inside the circle; it’s about everyone,” she said. “It’s energy in and energy out the whole time.”

With that in mind, everyone shed their inhibitions for the most part and spent some time in the middle of their circle.

Even if the moves didn’t hit a note of perfection, the entire room was hyped on participation, with each individual shining under the hue of their own cadenced spotlight.

Yarbrough couldn’t have asked for it to go any other way.

The CCC, aside from providing a hands-on experience for newcomers and scene vets, is supposed to deepen the knowledge, respect and connection of the community. He considers it his life’s work, and based on the spirit that carried on throughout the conference, he’s doing his job successfully.

“There is room here for all of us as long as we show our most sincere appreciation to what we have been given and show respect to why we are here,” said Yarbrough. “We create this space to celebrate each other and we must continue to provide these spaces for each other to develop, sharpen and endure the common unity.”

DANCERS GIVING AND RECEIVING ENERGY IN THE CYPHER. BO KOERING/PSU VANGUARD

PSU Vanguard • APRIL 30, 2019 • psuvanguard.com

15

Cervanté Pope & Hannah Welbourn

APRIL 30–May 6 ART

MUSIC

FILM & THEATRE

COMMUNITY

TUE APR 30 WED MAY 1 THU MAY 2 FRI MAY 3 SAT MAY 4 SUN MAY 5 MON MAY 6

SOUL BOX PROJECT PUBLIC DISPLAY MULTNOMAH ARTS CENTER 9 A.M–5 P.M. THROUGH APRIL 3O FREE Powerful visual statement showing the effects of gunfire. Each box represents an injury or death by guns.

SWMRS, BEACH GOONS, DESTROY BOYS WONDER BALLROOM 7 P.M. $19 • 21+ Oakland trio SWMRS are out in support of their new album Berkeley’s on Fire with $1 from each ticket sold going to various charities.

‘WOMAN AT WAR’ LIVING ROOM THEATER 9:20 P.M. $11 ($8 WITH STUDENT ID) Chorus teacher by day and ecoterrorist by night, Halla is out here doing the metaphorical God’s work.

EMO NITE HOLOCENE 9 P.M. $10 • 21+ Dust off that My Chemical Romance tee for a night of emo jams with your fellow former scene kids.

“LOVE ACROSS CULTURES” PORTLAND STATE WHITE GALLERY THROUGH MAY 17 FREE Alyssa Silos’ solo exhibition of mixedmedia pieces draws inspiration from queer interracial relationships.

THE MUSIC OF THE ROLLING STONES ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL 7:30 P.M. $35+ It may not be the actual Rolling Stones, but hearing Vegas voice Brody Dolyniuk sing over a symphony still sounds pretty chill.

2ND ANNUAL CABARET FOR CHOICE BIT HOUSE SALOON 8:30 P.M. $10-50 It’s a variety show of sorts, with the proceeds mainly going to Northwest Abortion Access Fund.

MIDTERM STRESS RELIEF FEATURING CORGIS SMITH MEMORIAL STUDENT UNION 238 4 P.M. FREE WITH PSU ID It’s that time of the quarter, and the corgis are back to help relieve some of the stress. Catch them on the second floor of SMSU until 6 p.m.

FIRST THURSDAY STREET GALLERY NW 13TH AVE, BETWEEN HOYT AND KEARNEY 5 P.M. FREE Hosted by nonprofit Urban Art Network, this street gallery continues every first Thursday through October.

PETER, BJORN AND JOHN, JONATHAN SOMETHING DOUG FIR LOUNGE 9 P.M. $22–25 • 21+ Remember that one song from 2006 that made you hate whistling?

Yeah, well it’s Peter, Bjorn And John’s fault.

‘LOVE, LOSS, AND WHAT I WORE’ THE SANCTUARY AT SANDY PLAZA THU–SAT: 7:30 P.M.; SUN MAY 19: 2 P.M. $25–35 Based on the book by Ilene Beckerman, this play centers around women’s stories, experiences and closets.

BLOODWORKS NW BLOOD DRIVE BLOODWORKS LIVE STUDIO 11 A.M.–5 P.M. FREE If you can give blood, you should give blood. This local drive benefits community members and continues every first Thursday of the month.

“AROUND TOWN” HIGH & LOW GALLERY OPENING 6–10 P.M.; CONTINUES WED–SUN: NOON–8 P.M FREE Local artist Conner Choi’s exhibition features depictions of Southeast Portland.

SICKO MODE: DRAKE VS. TRAVIS SCOTT TRIBUTE NIGHT HOLOCENE 9 P.M. $10 • 21+ Not sure why either of them needs a tribute night but at least the music will be good.

‘ARABY’ 5TH AVENUE CINEMA 7 P.M., 9:30 P.M. $4–5 (FREE FOR PSU STUDENTS) Sick family, found diaries and lots of bike riding. This Brazilian drama will definitely get emotional in ways you won’t expect.

FREE FRIDAY WINE AND CHEESE TASTING ELEPHANTS DELICATESSEN 5 P.M. FREE Free wine? Free cheese? If you missed last week’s event, head to Elephants Delicatessen for another night of samples.

“BLURRED LINES” ALBERTA STREET GALLERY TUE–SAT: NOON–7 P.M.; SUN: NOON–6 P.M., THROUGH MAY 29 FREE Maquette Reeverts’ solo exhibition features abstract drawings and paintings and is intended to give the effect of blurred vision.

SABERTOOTH MUSIC & BREW MICROFEST CRYSTAL BALLROOM 3 P.M. $10–30 This fest offers brews inspired by—and sometimes made by—the bands playing. This year’s headliner is the Melvins.

‘DIARY OF A WORM, A SPIDER, AND A FLY’ NEWMARK THEATRE SAT: 2 P.M., 5 P.M.; SUN: 11 A.M., 2 P.M. THROUGH JUNE 2 $15–34 It’s a live adaptation of a children’s book about overcoming the fear of growing older. Some of us adults could use that, too.

CRAFTY WONDERLAND SPRING ART + CRAFT MARKET OREGON CONVENTION CENTER 11 A.M. FREE More than 200 vendors will be at this showcase hosted by Crafty Wonderland. Cute kittens will be available for adoption.

“CONDUIT” STUMPTOWN COFFEE 1 MON–FRI: 6 A.M.–7 P.M.; SAT–SUN: 7 A.M.–7 P.M. FREE Check out this collection of grayscale works by David Joel Kitcher while enjoying some cold brew.

LA DISPUTE, GOUGE AWAY, SLOW MASS HAWTHORNE THEATER 8 P.M. $22.50–25 La Dispute doesn’t sound as aggressive as they used to, but that’s okay. It’s still in-your-face hardcore.

‘HOW TO KEEP AN ALIEN’ NEW EXPRESSIVE WORKS 2 P.M. $20–25 It’s the last day to catch this play that’s not anything about space aliens but everything about humans with different dialects.

‘FRIENDS’ BRUNCH TRIVIA BETHANY PUBLIC HOUSE 11 A.M. 20% GRATUITY AUTOMATICALLY APPLIED TO BILL

“PLANE OF SCATTERED PASTS” UPFOR GALLERY WED–SAT: 11 A.M.–6 P.M. FREE Heidi Schwegler and Quayola’s joint exhibition focuses on the fragmentation of objects as they age.

JAPANARAMA: THE ONGOING INFLUENCE OF JAPANESE CULTURE THE OLD CHURCH 7:30 P.M. $10–25 • 21+ Japanese culture has a huge influence over American culture, and Fear No Music is throwing a concert in tribute to that.

‘LIAR LIAR’ CLINTON STREET THEATER 7 P.M. $5 It’s one of Jim Carrey’s most famous roles, and now you can see it yet again on the big screen with ticket proceeds donated to Self Enhancement, Inc.

TIPSY TRIVIA WITH STEVEN: BLAST FROM THE PAST SCANDALS PDX 8 P.M. FREE • 21+ Test your ‘90s/’00s pop culture knowledge for a chance to cover your tab.

This is another chance to put all that binge-watching to the test. You might as well do it with a mimosa.