issue II
CANVAS magazin
LET TER FROM THE EDITOR Around 11:30pm on a Tuesday night last fall, I missed an editorial meeting for Pipers In-Depth. I either had a work obligation or was ill, I do not remember. But just as I was just climbing into my bed when my phone began to rang. I saw it was Pipers In-Depth’s co-Editor in Chief, Travis Whitt and answered. He was speaking very passionately and loud. My first thought was, Wow, Travis is drunk. But after I listened closer I realized that he was completely sober. He was talking about a different type of journalism than what Pipers In-Depth was, something more creative, engaging and mostly weird. Soon I found myself say “Yeah” over and over very passionately. Travis wanted to completely rebrand the magazine and break away from our traditional two page spreads that distanced that authors from their work. He wanted to call it ‘Canvas.’ Immediately I was on board. I knew it was something that needed to be done and that it was unlike any other Hamline publication. After about an hour on the phone with Travis it was difficult to fall asleep. I had all these ideas of what this new magazine ‘Canvas’ could be and what it would look like. I am very pleased to show you the work of the Canvas team. I am continually inspired and amazed by everyone on the team and it often makes it difficult for me to fall asleep because I am so amazed by everyone’s work. Come ‘Canvas’ with us.
SINCERLY
TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Humans of Hamline 3 Touring New Prospectives 5 #puppylove 7 CAMPUS THROUGH THE SEASONS 8 Trigger Warning 9 hands: harm & healing (trigger warning) 11 And in the middle of it all, A Fly Swatter 13 beyond our appearances 14 The Quest for the Perfect T-Shirt 15 HMAC training 17 REJECTING REJECTION 19 Broke Starving Writers 20 Who is Canvas?
Lexi Goethel Scattered throughout the issue, “Faces on Campus” by Lexi Goethel. Lexi sings in the Hamline A Cappella choir. She also works for the Fulcrum Journal and the campus Starbucks, so say hello when you stop by for an espresso fix.
Ebise Lata “My family and I came here from Ethiopia and I’ve worked at Hamline University for about two years now. We came to Minnesota in 2012 through the DV (Diversity Immigrant Visa Program) lottery. I have a relative who already lived here and is a really good friend of mine who sponsored me and my family. When I lived in Ethiopia I was learning nursing, but when I came here I needed a job right away, so now I work for ABM, who does the cleaning for Hamline. Hamline is very good. The students and staff are all very nice here, but my dream is that someday, when my two kids have grown up, I’ll be able to go back to school for nursing.”
“When my two kids have grown up, I’ll be able to go back to school for nursing” Photo Courtesy of Ebise Lata
Earl Schwartz “My vocation has always been a teacher, and I’ve been very fortunate to have had wonderful teachers, wonderful teachers and role models. Going back to my childhood I think that I’ve always wanted to emulate their example. I’ve wanted to be who they were. So, in that respect my wanting to be a teacher is directly related to my having been enough to have had wonderful “I’ve had the unusual experience of fortunate teachers in my life. On the other hand, teaching the same student in daycare the most rewarding part of being a and, years later, again in college.” teacher is of course the students. Given that I started teaching in 1976, I have Photo by Natalie Pieterick students who are now well up in years. One of my first teaching positions was in a daycare center. I’ve had the unusual experience of teaching the same student in daycare and, years later, again in college. I also have many students these days who are the children of students of mine from many years ago. One of the greatest rewards, I think, of living in a community over time and maintaining relationships is the rare opportunity to see lives bloom and grow, and to have some satisfaction in knowing that, at some point along the way, you were a part of the process.”
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Yasmin Hirsi “My family and I came to this country from Nairobi, Kenya when I was 8 years old. We moved here for my sister. She had a heart problem that seemed like it was going to need surgery, but luckily it closed up on its own. We’ve moved around some since then. We lived in Syracuse, New York for a while before we moved to Portland, Maine where I went to school for fourth grade until halfway through my sophomore year of high school, when we moved to Apple Valley, Minnesota. I went to two high schools in Apple Valley: Apple Valley High School for the remainder of my sophomore year, and then the School of Environmental Studies for my junior and senior “Helped us expand our years. My experiences at these high schools were knowledge far beyond our very interesting, the first one was very hard because textbooks” Photo Courtesy of Yasmin Hirsi I came from such a small town where everyone knew each other and we were all friendly. I remember feeling so small in that high school, that’s why I transferred to the School of Environmental Studies where there were only juniors and seniors with a total of 400 students. It wasn’t a school I would’ve ever thought of going to, but they allowed us to do many amazing things and helped us expand our knowledge far beyond our textbooks. I’ve had many new experiences since coming to this country. I’ve seen snow for the first time, gone camping, and other amazing experiences.”
Humans of Hamline Words Collected by Emma Denotter Fall/Winter 2017 •2
Touring New Prospectives Words by Sam Verner
Working as a tour guide is a rewarding profession. It gives the guide a sense of carving the path of the many prospective students that tour the university. The guides meet new and unique students every time they give a tour, and get a broadened sense of what high school students are looking for from their colleges, sometimes giving the guide insights as to what they can do in their own path. For some students, a campus tour is all they see of a school before making their decision. I’ve seen people say that they made their decision because a tour that was given by one of the guides, and even a couple that chose not to for the same reason (their loss). There have been a few times where a student comes in, saying the usual stuff: “I already visited the U of M, that’s where I see myself, I’m just here because Mom/Dad/Uncle/Friend/Dog/Etc. made me.” and that’s completely alright. Sometimes they’re a lost cause, and we focus mainly on what differentiates Hamline from a state school. In other, more magical times, we find students that are disinterested, have gone on a tour at another school and fell in love with it, only to realize that sometimes love at first sight is misleading. Every school has it’s nuances and unique qualities that make it slightly different from the last. Not all tours are triumphant.
Some feel like you’re weathering a hailstorm and all that can be done is tie yourself to a fence and cover your head. The storm in this case is the tour, and the
hailstones are the questions that we get. To be a nice tour, there must be a good balance of silence, questions, and witty banter. The tours can sometimes be like you’re touring with a bunch of monks that have taken their vows of silence. Others are like you’re touring with a horde of overzealous parrots. Too much of a good thing is never really a good thing, and that is clear for both silence and incessant questioning. It’s important to 3 • Canvas
answer questions about security, parking, life on campus, and general atmosphere, but sometimes being asked for the third time about how far the student can push the boundaries of what an acceptable therapy animal is (“So, like, if I get anxious without my bearded dragon, Harold, can I register him as a therapy animal?” “Probably, you would have to register him through Disability Resources and they can answer any other questions about that” “Okay, but what about my komodo dragon?”) gets my blood pressure up. Luckily, most of these can be stifled by telling them that these questions are great for their admission counselors and that we need to move on in the tour. Sometimes I’ll also just say that I’m not sure and then get fake-excited about some random Hamline fun fact. A lot of people know some basic historical facts about Hamline, but probably only tour guides know that Hamline hosted the first intercollegiate basketball game against the Minnesota School of Agriculture and lost that game 9-3. Being that we’re a private university, it seems natural that all the buildings were made from donations from alumni and people that have so much money that it only makes sense to donate to the school they went to. That’s the case for 99% of the buildings (pay special attention to the Drew family: Drew Science Hall, Drew Residence Hall, and Drew Fine Arts) but sometimes a person gives to the school not with money, but with their time. The Hedgeman Center and Anne Simley Theater are the only two places on campus that are not named after someone who donated money to the school. Anna Arnold Hedgeman graduated from Hamline in 1922 as the first person of color to do so from Hamline. She was also a powerful figure during the Civil Rights Movement. Anne Simley was the theater director at Hamline for close to four decades. Her time dedicated to the students during her long tenure in the theater is what led to her name eventually
Mariah Ortega-Flowers Mariah is a member of Hamline’s basketball team, a New Student Mentor and also works for the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. Catch her on the courts or giving campus tours to potential Pipers.
being tied to the totality of the theater department. Also, Old Main used to be four stories tall, but burned down and insurance would only pay for it to be rebuilt with three stories. There are many others, but it’s not up to me to give away all the guide’s secrets. Being a tour guide requires a particular set of skills that otherwise would not be necessary for any other job. Walking backwards for an extended period of time is both more dangerous and harder than one would expect. Crossing Snelling with groups ranging from a one-on-one to a group tour with fifteen or more is challenging, especially considering the crosswalk takes on average ten minutes to give the walk signal. Being a guide means that you must be “on” at all times as well. Think of it somewhat like a retail job, where the customer is the priority, and all their needs must be met. Weather is always a factor. Not only do I not want to give a tour when it’s pouring, blizzarding, or 95 degrees outside, but neither do the prospective students. This is where a more advanced technique is brought into play.
I call it the “Temperature-sensitive Snake.” The idea is simple, the execution isn’t so much. It involves snaking from building to building, trying to keep yourself and the group in a controlled climate while still keeping the tour path intact. Same can be said when it is pouring, sleeting, hailing, and blizzarding (and yes, I’ve given tours in all those scenarios). All in all, through bad weather, bad questions, and disinterested students, being a tour guide is one of the more fulfilling jobs that I’ve found myself in. Every bad experience turns into a good story eventually. . . so even those aren’t the worst. I’d say I’m lucky to have had the experience I did while being a tour guide. Fall/Winter 2017 • 4
@dogsofhamline
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#puppylove Words by Chloe McElmury, photos courtesy of @dogsofhamline Instagram
The first week of college can be stressful, especially when it’s the first day of the next four years of your life. The adjustment can admittedly be difficult. However, diving into your passions can help you find others with similar interests and more easily connect to your campus. What better passion than sharing your love of dogs with the new community you’ve decided to call home? Ella Seehafer, a first-year hailing from Waseca, Minnesota, has found a way to do just that. On September 8th, Seehafer started the Instagram account, @DogsofHamline. Currently above 130 followers, it garners anywhere from 30 to 55 likes per post. Ella is spreading puppy love all over Hamline. “I always get really happy when I see a dog, so I started to share them with others to hopefully make them a bit happier, too,” she explained. The joy of dogs and pets is trendy thanks to social media. In today’s connected world, dogs are treated as celebrities, with many pooches having their own social media profiles. Ella wanted to engage in this trend, saying, “I used to put a picture or videos of dogs on my Snapchat story whenever I saw one.” She was delighted to see messages about how her photos and videos were making peoples’ days better and brighter. Many of us might keep that one contact around on social media because we know they constantly post photos of dogs, or even better, they have their own prized pupper. Dogs solve our stresses by welcoming us to reward them some well-deserved pats and praise. Even Hamline recognizes the benefits of dogs,
bringing them in during finals week to lift our spirits. When it’s not finals week, you still see people with their dogs on campus, spreading joy to those who stop to pet the pets. At least for me, whenever I see a dog, I can’t stop staring and smiling. Dogs definitely help to make college a little bit less stressful, even if it’s just staring at them for a few seconds as they pass by. Ella realized this, saying she “just came up with the idea of doing something special” based on messages she received before creating the Instagram. With encouragement from her friends and strangers alike, she’s kept it going even through classes and joining the women’s tennis team. While she’s “not sure if it’ll become something more,” it’s a little thing she enjoys to do for herself and those who follow the account. Spreading happiness through dogs isn’t a bad gig. Thankfully for us and the rest of the Hamline community, she even adds multiple photos per post, assuring followers will get their daily dog fix. Ella, not one to be shy, would shamelessly self-promote at the lunch table and elsewhere on campus. But, she realized people were already aware of it, saying that they already follow. She shared, “it made me excited that some people were mentioning it to their friends.” There’s no doubt her Instagram has already had an impact. While it might be small, Seehafer has brought some light to Hamline’s campus. Check out the @dogsofhamline Instagram for some good boys anytime, anywhere.
Spreading happiness through dogs isn’t a bad gig.
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“Nobody judges me for drinking iced coffee”
“There are always dogs playing in the courtyard”
“Hearing the crunch of leaves when I walk on top of them.”
“The first two weeks of snow are so beautiful...”
“The squirrels think they own everything.”
“... Then its like ew go away.”
Hamline Through the seasons Photos and Quotes Collected by Bree Carey
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WARNING Canvas would like to alert readers of possible triggers in the next article. The content on the next page could be a trigger warning for mental illness, self-harm and self-injurious behavior. Reader discretion is advised. If you or anyone you know is dealing with mental illness, reach out and get help, whether that is on campus or off. No one should have to go through this alone.
Hamline Counseling and Health Services: (651) 523-2204 National Alliance on Mental Illness: www.nami.org Helpline: (800)-950-6264
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Hands: Hands: Harm Harm & & Healing Healing Photos and Quotes Collected by Elle Obermeyer Elle Obermeyer Elle writes for both Canvas and the Oracle, so keep your eyes open for her work. She also loves music; in addition to her campus job in Sundin Music Hall, Elle is a member of the Hamline A Cappella choir and the fundraising chair on the choir board.
“It’s relentlessly exhausting to be so depressed that you can’t even trust yourself with a set of sharp keys.” 9 • Canvas
“Sometimes when it’s bad you have to remind yourself, one moment at a time. Just one.”
“My hands serve as the express image of how my anxiety picks away at my mental health; quietly, and in small pieces.” Fall/Winter 2017 • 10
From Journalism to Museum Curator to the Classroom, Curt Lund hasn’t faltered in his love for design or his collecting of it. Words and photos by Franki Hanke
An unpractical, celebrity-designed lemon squeezer sits behind a perfume bottle filled with water and labeled “Helvetica” and an aged Holiday Inn fly swatter reading “For Emergency Use Only.” Across the table are piled, wooden letterpress pieces while a box of still dirtied, inky letters waiting to be cleaned sit beside them. Then, behind the desk, sits Curt Lund, a relatively new professor in the Digital Media Arts major in his first year as an academic advisor. Whether one sits down to talk or wanders around the bookshelves littered with collections, Lund’s stories await in that office: where his appreciation and love for typography and the history of design is evident. “Ever since grade school I knew I wanted to work for a newspaper. I created classroom ‘newspapers’ for my 5th grade class,” Lund said. “Within a couple of years after that, our public library computers got Print Shop… I made my first business card in eighth grade—why an eighth grader needed a business card, I don’t know.” However, late in high school, Lund realized the graphic design he’d been doing for the newspaper was actually it’s own field, so he officially changed from journalism to graphic design for his undergraduate degree at Iowa State. Eventually, after a stint of working in the nonprofit sector and 11 • Canvas
freelancing, Lund returned to school at the University of Minnesota’s design program. “I was interested in curation and exhibit design, but my first semester in grad school, I got a teaching assistantship, and I knew right away teaching was what I actually wanted to do,” explained Lund. But, this shift to teaching runs
And in the Middle of It All, a Fly Swatter parallel to the development of his artistic projects, one of which is an example for a theme connecting his work: collections.
the key fobs in the installation, the entire project consists of clusters of collected materials, not unlike Lund’s office and home. Whether out of interest, the hope of implementing them into a project, or sharing them with a class, Lund’s space is spattered with interesting pieces, each with a story behind them. A framed dollar bill from historic Germany bears the value of five million dollars from a period of intense inflation. A vintage advertisement card decorated with a corseted woman advertises the garments for roller skating in the wrong time period. Rubber stamps from an old butcher shop glare out from the dresser, misplaced from their home to an antique shop and now to here. Perhaps most interesting of all is a relatively simple item that would be easy to pass by unless it was the only thing in the entire room, like it was when Lund arrived to his office at Hamline.
A white and green plastic fly swatter, stolen from a Holiday Inn and bearing its foreboding and confusing message “For Emergency One such piece is titled East Fremont Use Only,” waits in the center of an for the region in Las Vegas it stemmed otherwise empty room, welcoming Lund to a new chapter and a new from. East Fremont featured a excuse to collect things. collection of screen printed works from signage of old hotels, printed materials related to the area on classic key fobs and maps of the area where the images that inspired it were shot. From the collected photographs to the textual snippets gathered for “A lot of my artwork is made up of stuff I’ve collected.”
Molly Dionne Molly plays on Hamline’s Lacrosse team. She is also a member of the Student Alumni Board, as well as the site manager for Hamline’s Football team. Fall/Winter 2017 • 12
By Savannah Charpentier
BEYOND OUR A PPE A R A NCES 13 • Canvas
“I may be petite but I am determined, authentic and compassionate.”
Hailey Peterson Hamline is a small campus. We walk by the same people everyday without knowing anything about them—except what they look like. We are judged by what people can see. There are ways to express ourselves through dress and hair, but we are more than our appearances. I want people to be able to see me for more than what I look like. I wanted to give people a chance to tell us who they really are, so I decided to ask people around campus for themselves that they wish people knew.
“ I come on strong, but I love people and I’m very down to earth.”
Savannah Charpentier
“I don’t look like a musician, but I love to sing and make music.”
Matti Solomon
“I may seem laid back and easy going, but I am also extremely driven in everything I do”
“If you get to know me, you’ll learn I am a person who is strong, confident and powerful.”
Amina Dedefo
Cristina Cuevas
Newcomer to Hamline Fashion Club stitches together the first step towards a grand ideal
Before last year, Ricardo Martinez had never sewn anything. The extent of his clothing design had been creating team logos out of online presets, but after a short start at Fashion Club, he’s now sewing his way towards the perfect t-shirt. “Alisha talked me into it,” Martinez said referring to the club’s president and his friend, Alisha Bowen. “I mentioned how I wanted to learn how to sew,” and the rest was history, so to speak. She introduced him to Fashion Club and started teaching him the basics. “She brought a sewing machine into my room one night,” Martinez recounted, remembering how fun that night lesson was. Once he knew some basics, he wanted to participate. “The theme was recycled clothes,” Martinez said about the first show. Everything they made was to be made from discarded and donated pieces. “I originally wanted to make a shirt that was longer in length, but still tighter and kind of flowy-ish. Slimmer, longer, looser and kind of stretchy,” Martinez said. “[I wanted] a larger collar instead of being choked, slightly smaller sleeves and little things like that.” Even with a mental image of the top in his head, materializing it became a challenge. “It’s hard to do if you don’t have one, big piece of material,” Martinez explained. “A lot of the donation shirts had designs on them already. What I did from that point was see what I could use. I just thought of the basic parts of a shirt. There’s sleeves, there’s the body, there’s pockets and designs that are optional.” Looking at pieces from the donations, Martinez found his options for a body base between two choices: a black shirt or the white he chose. Otherwise, a lot were marked with Hamline designs or parts of the Anderson dining hall button-up uniforms. Working off the base, the next step was making it into something like his vision. “I didn’t wanna do just plain colored sleeves because I didn’t want to make a shirt you’d already find.
I had to be a little more original— creative.” That’s when flannel sleeves were added out of a pair of shorts turned into the arms of his top. “That was also tricky because they were female shortshorts that didn’t really have enough material.” With help again from Bowen, he figured out a way to use the minimalistic shorts to add the accent sleeves. But the shirt still wasn’t completed. The last element to add was a pocket. “I made it in a spot it isn’t usually in,” Martinez said of its placement on the lower right of the shirt. Besides its location, the pocket’s size stood unique. “I felt like it’s comfortable to have a pocket down there, and I also made it extra big…” He demonstrated, putting his entire hand into the black pocket. The last step was showing it off. “At first I was like, ‘I don’t know about this.’ It was out of recycled clothes,” Martinez said, but he found validation at the show. “Some people came from other schools [and said] ‘Wow, I actually wanna wear that.’ ” Inspired by the feedback, Martinez plans to continue in Hamline Fashion Club and to keep chasing his first idea: the perfect t-shirt.
the quest for the perfect t-shirt Words and photos by Franki Hanke
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REJECTING REJECTION An interview with Adrienne Novy by Rebecca Higgins
Adrienne Novy can often be found on her computer with a bumper sticker on the back stating ‘WRITE BLOODY.’ By her sticker and her ‘My Chemical Romance’ t-shirt one thing is clear: Adrienne is a badass. This badassery translates beautifully into her poems. Her poetry can be found in FreezeRay Poetry, Harpoon Review, Vagabond City Lit, Voicemail Poems, Maudlin House, Nailed Magazine and on Button Poetry. Adrienne is a senior at Hamline and everything she does amazes me whether it is a powerful performance of a slam poem, her knowledge of the Marvel universe or stories about her dog, Milo. I was able to sit down and have a conversation with Adrienne. While she said amazing things, I said ‘Yes!’ or a pensive ‘mmm-hmm’ every couple minutes. RH: You have a great work ethic. Poet Kaveh Akbar came to the Introduction to Literary Publishing course and talked about how you need an internal engine to keep going through the highs and lows of writing. AN: I have been on social media trying to normalize the rejection process. When I was starting out, I would hear all the time ‘Oh Harry Potter was rejected, now it’s a best selling book.’ But when you are in the process, it feels personal. Poet Julian Randall made a really good point to me. He said, “Write the book you needed when you were younger.” A lot of the poems in my manuscript are about a genetic disorder I have called, Cat Eye Syndrome and being in and out of the hospital a lot as a kid. I only know of one or two people who have the same disorder. So I am thinking to myself-with probably much less swear words than I knew as a child-how would I have felt if I had known there was someone else out there with the same syndrome. That’s where my drive comes from. 17 • Canvas
RH: I am really interested in how you are normalizing the rejection process. What you would say to writers that feel their work is not valid because people are rejecting it? AN: It’s very easy to compare yourself to others. I especially do that because I am Facebook friends with writers I really admire. Also I am apart of a group called ‘Submit, Bitches!’ They have lists of places with open submissions but also people can say ‘I got rejected from this place.’ It creates a community for people to back each other and their work. I have also realized there is a home for your work. If your Dream Press™ doesn’t accept you, there is still a home out there for your work. Often times that home is better than that Dream Press™. I submitted different poems to a press and they rejected me. One of the poems they rejected ended up getting picked up by Nailed Magazine. Writers beginning this process should intern with a press because when you see it from the other side, it makes a huge difference. You’ve probably seen
it too with your internship at Red Bird Chapbooks. RH: A lot of the submissions just needed another draft. I hate it because you can’t just write ‘Do another draft’ in the rejection letter. I think it is really disheartening for people because they put all this work into a manuscript but get a standard rejection letter. AN: It’s also important to recognize that there are people on the other side of those rejection letters. You would want to send feedback but that takes time and energy. The editors are just trying to do their best. We should be really thankful and respectful of them. RH: You self-published a chapbook of your work for the Teen Writers and Artists Project and are currently working on a manuscript. How have you grown as a writer from all of this? AN: What has really helped me is the professors at Hamline, specifically John Colburn, Bill Reichart, Katrina Vandenberg and Sun Yung Shin. When I wrote my first chapbook, I just wanted to showcase a wide variety of poems, so people got their money’s worth from making the donation. This manuscript is much more centralized. My writing has gotten a lot weirder. Definitely more lucid. Professors really let me try out different styles. I have also had the opportunity to work with so many writers, not only in the college circuit. RH: You mentioned that people outside of the college circuit have also helped you grow. AN: Lewis Mundt, Cristopher Gibson, Thressa Johnson and Sierra DeMulder are people that have had a tremendously positive impact on me-both as writers and people-ever
since I moved to the Twin Cities for school. Poetry and publishing is what really gravitated me to the Twin Cities. If Lewis hadn’t start the Hamline University Poetry Slam organization, I could have missed out on a lot of experiences. RH: You’ve talked a lot about community: reading other people’s works, supporting other writers and ‘Submit, Bitches!’ How has having a stronger literary community helped you? AN: You really grow a lot as a person from being able to have that community. When you have readers, you see it through their eyes. They do not know the ins and outs of every metaphor or what every symbol means. My friend Tiqua literally said “I don’t think this piece makes sense in here because the theme is of the body.” It made so much sense. While I want my manuscript to have poems about Marvel comic characters, it didn’t fit. I never would have been able to grow if I couldn’t communicate with other people. RH: What has performance poetry and slam poetry been for you? AN: It has been both a good and a bad thing for me. It’s been good in the way that I have a really strong competitive streak. I did speech team for three years in high school and poetry reading was my main event, I feel that’s where that competitive streak comes from. I love being at slams, supporting people and listening to other perspectives. A super real thing I don’t like about slam is celebrity culture. I think the thing with celebrity culture and people having really popular work is associating who the person is with their writing. You kind of get star struck. I still get star struck all of the time. Kaveh Akbar for example. RH: In our class, he was saying that some famous poets forget what got them to there and end up burning out. AN: Also with celebrity culture, I do not like the pressure it puts on creative people. It is like, ‘Oh I got really successful for this one thing. What if I try to experiment and people don’t like me anymore?’ It can sometime pigeonhole writers with certain styles. It can definitely burn writers out. RH: How has coaching slam poetry affect how you view the process? AN: The youth are out there changing the game and making it better in ways we can’t even possibly imagine.
We should listen. These kids have a lot of important things to say. RH: Do you have a favorite poem or poetry collection right now? AN: Oh god! I am currently reading ‘The Crown Ain’t Worth Much’ by Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib. That is amazing. A poem that has really influenced me is ‘Unburningable the Cold is Ruining Our Lives,’ by Kaveh Akbar. I love George Abraham. I have their chapbook right here, ‘al youm: Yesterday & Her Inherited Traumas.’ They have been so helpful to me. Julian Randall is also another poet that comes to mind. Jess Rizkallah has been so helpful and a gracious, beautiful friend to me. I love Melissa Lozada-Oliva. She talks about heavy stuff but her sense of humor is incredible. A poem I really love is ‘Yosra strings off my mustache.’ Another poet that blew my mind is Bill Moran ‘Oh God, Get Out, Get Out.’ It was one of those book I got so much out of and inspired me to write my own stuff. There are so many more...
Photo Courtesy of Barbara Novy
Emily Butts Emily is the Assistant Area Coordinator for Manor and Sorin. In addition to her Residential Life responsibilities, Emily is the president of Hamline’s A Cappella Choir and a University Honors student. Fall/Winter 2017 • 18
Broke Starving Writers Words By Kierann Elliott
There’s BS written on the white board. What could that mean? You guessed it: Broke Starving Writers! Jokes aside, do you ever have that intense desire to write but you just can’t seem to find the time or motivation? You think to yourself, “Oh yes, I’ll draft that Cinderella AU tomorrow morning!” and instead the warmth of your floral comforter saps your will to open a Word document. Make yourself motivated by joining other struggling writers and designating a set hour in your busy schedule (let’s say 4:15pm every Thursday) to sit down and finally get started on that fanfic novel you’ve been putting off (or for everyone else, just digging up some good ol’ inspiration). You can find the consistency you crave at Broke Starving Writers, located in Giddens Learning Center (GLC to the general populace) room 101E. Everyone is welcome to roll on in, find a seat and get crackin’. If you’re nervous about writing
in a room full of strangers, don’t worry! While it may seem bustling and busy at the start, soon the laughter will eventually quiet down to gentle murmurs. It settles into a relaxing silence as the clicks of keyboards are the only consistent noise throughout the room. If silence drives you up the wall, bring headphones and bang your head to the beat no one else can hear but you may end up in someone’s story. Don’t feel pressured into bringing your laptop either, many prefer pen and paper. Simply bring your own supplies and they’ll provide the time. Can’t think of anything to write? They’ve got prompts! What’s more thought-provoking than: -Describing a scene using only your nose. -Killer pizzas on the loose! -Suddenly owning a ridiculously large ship (Titanic II). -Wondering what to do with Truth Sunglasses™ Watch out! You’ll be notified when the time is up. At the last five minutes, the silence will be interrupted with a single question: Who wants to share? Consider sharing your love for the Cinderella AU you’ve freshly drafted. Now head back to that busy schedule of yours, knowing that you can always come back another Thursday.
Connor Suddick Connor is an Executive Student Council Member of Hamline University Honors as well as a Coordinator for the Law and Justice Society. He participates in social justice work, and is a Programming Assistant for Hamline Sexualities and Gender Diversity Initiatives. 19 • Canvas
Canvas
staff Editor-in-Chief Rebecca Higgins Managing Editors Sean Hanson (not pictured) Chloe McElmury Assistant Editors Audrey Campbell Elle Obermeyer Design Chief Chloe McElmury Design Assistant Natalie Pieterick Contributors Bree Carey Audrey Campbell Savannah Charpentier Emma Denotter Kierann Elliott Lexi Goethel Franki Hanke Rebecca Higgins Chloe McElmury Elle Obermeyer Natalie Pieterick Sam Verner
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Want to get
involved? Have a favorite professor you want to interview?
Our Staff has come together to create a publication that looks at the Hamline Community with a fresh perspective. By synthesizing creative and meaningful pieces with crisp and pleasing design. We hope to provide the Human Community with a publication that spotlights its people and the work they do. Throughout these pages, we aim to tell the stories of the lesser known on and around campus. We will not stop until Canvas covers all.
What is
CANVAS?
Want to make embroideries of President Miller and show them off? We are now looking for contributors for our Spring 2018 issue. Don’t be a stranger, just be a little strange. Contact us at: canvas@hamline.edu