FC Nepal
The Magazine of the Ellis College of Arts and Sciences
The Experiential Learning Issue In the Movies
Travel Tested
LARPers
Henderson State University Vol.17, Summer 2015
Experiential learning opportunities are key to student success
Dr. John Hardee Dean of the Ellis College of Arts and Sciences
One of the priorities of the Henderson State University Strategic Plan is enhancing academic programs “to more deliberately bridge the liberal arts and professional aspirations.� Ellis College has responded to this priority by increasing experiential learning opportunities for our students. Through experiential learning, students gain knowledge and skills from direct experiences outside a traditional academic setting. This involves activities such as study abroad, undergraduate research, and internships. These activities help develop critical thinking skills by requiring students to take initiative, make decisions, and be accountable for results. Such experiences often enhance student chances of gaining employment or acceptance to graduate school. Each summer we send students to China, Europe, and Central America. We are trying to expand our study-abroad opportunities with new exchange programs in Germany and Pakistan. Undergraduate research opportunities are abundant at Henderson, not only in the sciences but in the humanities as well. We are putting more emphasis on interdisciplinary research projects and encouraging more students to present results at regional and national meetings. We are proud of the extensive internship opportunities offered in almost every academic program in Ellis College. Internships integrate knowledge and theory learned in the classroom with practical application and skills development in a professional setting. Sometimes students are hired by the company with whom they intern. Additionally, an internship can beef up a student’s resume and make her or him more competitive in the job market. Internships also provide an opportunity to network and make valuable connections for future jobs. In this issue of Forge, you will read about some of our students who have taken advantage of experiential learning opportunities in Ellis College. We will continue to develop new opportunities as we actively strive to bridge liberal arts and professional aspirations.
Content Volume 17 Summer 2015 President Glen Jones
Provost Steve Adkison
The Magazine of Ellis College
Dean of Ellis College John Hardee Associate Dean Angela Boswell
Forge Editorial Board John Hardee David Stoddard Michael Ray Taylor Designers Megan Snoddy David Stoddard
Editors Scott McKinnon Michael Ray Taylor Contributors Ashley Bles V. L. Cox James Engman Steve Fellers Josh James Scott McKinnon Lauren Remedios Katie Smith David Stoddard
Cover Illustration David Stoddard (based on a reference photo �Bus park� by Akin Amar - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons - https:// commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bus_park. jpg#/media/File:Bus_park.jpg)
FORGE is published yearly by the Henderson State University Matt Locke Ellis College of Arts and Sciences. Through profiles and current news, the magazine serves as a personal link connecting the college to its alumni and other related communities. The FORGE staff, composed of students and faculty, strives for excellence in magazine journalism through fair reporting and high quality photography and design. To suggest topics for future FORGE articles or to comment on the magazine, please email hardee@hsu.edu.
Action Move
Acting student hits the big screen
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2
Unbound in Belize
Student overcomes reef barrier
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Surviving Nepal Alumna recalls earthquake
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8
Zombie Love
Student shares role-play passion
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Visualize Freedom Artist opens doors in DC
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Taco Impresario Alumnus finds rolling success
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If you like what you see Consider making a donation to an Ellis College organization or department or endow a scholarship in memory of a friend.www.hsu.edu/academics/elliscollege
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CJ Barnard
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Action Move
Theatre student pursues his dream By Scott McKinnon
Not many students can claim that they have hung around dinosaurs. Even if they could, they probably can’t go to a movie theater and point themselves out on screen in the biggest movie of the year. For CJ Bernard, senior theatre major, experiences like these were just some of the incredible events he has notched into his belt over the past year. Bernard first realized that his life would revolve around acting during his sophomore year at North Pulaski High School, just outside of Little Rock. His class trip to the Arkansas Repertory Theatre’s production of “Les Misérables” opened Bernard’s eyes to the idea of entertaining people for a living. Since that trip, he has been in over 20 stage productions and just as many films, ranging from friends with a camera to major studio productions. 3
During the summer of 2014, Bernard spent most of his time living in hotel rooms as he travelled from one shooting location to the next. “I was in Atlanta, Michigan, Louisiana, Mississippi and Memphis,” Bernard said. “It was absolutely exhausting.” Bernard can now be seen in this summer’s smash hit “Jurassic World.” Bernard is certain that there was a specific reason why he got cast. “They put me in these tiny little shorts,” Bernard said. “They just wanted me for my assets.” Over the course of four days of filming during the summer of 2014 in Louisiana, Bernard was able to take part in scenes involving the gigantic aquatic Mosasaur and was even able to shoot a scene with Chris Pratt. “I was there sitting with a bunch of actors waiting to film when the costume crew was looking for some security guards because some of the extras didn’t show; so they picked me and another guy,” Bernard said. “That’s when I got to meet Chris [Pratt] and carry him out of a lab in the scene, even though it ended up not making the final cut.” “Get on Up,” the August 2014 movie based on the life of James Brown, was one of Bernard’s favorite experiences. He was featured six times in the movie that filmed in Jackson, Miss. During filming, he was able to meet and chat with star Chadwick Boseman, comedian Craig Robinson, and actress Octavia Spencer. Bernard took pride in making Robinson laugh and Spencer blush. So far in Bernard’s burgeoning career, the film “The Outpost” stands out as his most memorable experience. The independent film tells the story of Bernard’s character, a young man who journeys from his family farm to enlist in the military and ship out into combat during WWII. Upon returning home, he struggles with PTSD while trying to reintegrate into his family. It was the first time Bernard was asked to cry on cue, which he said he did flawlessly. “I really have to pat myself on the back for that one,” Bernard said. Bernard left a strong impression on Josh Taylor, the film’s writer and co-director, throughout the production of “The Outpost.” “He’s such a friendly, outgoing guy,” Taylor said. “He was even more impressive, because at the drop of a dime, he would turn into an angry loner named Jack Luck who was witnessing his brother’s death.” Having grown up in a military family, Bernard said the film resonated with him because it gave him a chance to understand some of the experiences his family members had endured. His grandfather, father and uncle have all served in the armed forces. His family recognizes and acknowledges his talent, and they are incredibly proud of him. He said they also constantly worry and stress out over his career plans.
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Away from the stage and screen, Bernard enjoys “the little things in life” and takes pride in being a nerd. For him, it’s all things nerd: anime, books, and especially playing Mario Kart. Bernard hasn’t always been a Reddie. He began across the ravine at Ouachita Baptist University before transferring to Henderson last spring. “It’s kind of like ‘Fight Club’ in that we don’t talk about OBU,” Bernard said. Now he is “totally focused” on finishing his education. He is absolutely sure about what he wants to do with his life after college, so he is dedicated to his remaining time at Henderson. He stayed busy on the stage at Henderson the past year with performances in “Boys Life,” “Proposals” and two student directing projects, “Mime in a Box” and “Bake Off.” Bernard was also back on the stage in the Arkadelphia Little Theatre production “Bleacher Bums” over the summer. He continued work during the summer toward earning his Screen Actors Guild card. He has a professional photo shoot scheduled in Atlanta, and he hopes to get cast in more major speaking roles on film rather than background extras. Unfortunately, auditions for such parts tend to be announced with short notice. But he plans to keep applying for roles as they become available and is currently in the audition process for several independent films. He hopes word of his positive work on “The Outpost” will eventually reach other directors. “I honestly can’t wait for another project to come along where I can pick up the phone and give CJ a call,” Taylor said, “because it was an honor working with him.”
Left and bottom right CJ Bernard on location for the short film “The Outpost.” Photos courtesy of Josh Taylor Top right Bernard rehearsing for the Arkadelphia Little Theatre summer production, “Bleacher Bums.” Photo by David Stoddard
Unbound in Belize
Biology student pushes beyond disabilities By Ashley Bles
Few things can stop Kesha Pilot. Two years ago a car accident tried when it cost her the use of her legs, but last summer Pilot proved not even that could get in her way. She went to Belize on a school marine biology trip, making her the first paraplegic to do so. “Going abroad is going to be an experience for anyone,” Pilot said. “But for me it was an even bigger deal.” 5
Belize, a small country about 1,200 miles away from Henderson on the coast of Central America, is home to the second largest coral reef in the world. The trip is one of two that Dr. James Engman, professor of biology and department chair, leads abroad each summer. Engman has been organizing these study abroad trips since 1999, but this was his first time making accommodations like the ones Kesha needed. Fortunately, they had time to prepare. To begin, there was the issue of money. Pilot would need to be accompanied by her husband Clay, which would double the cost of the trip. Engman granted her a full scholarship for the trip from a tropical study scholarship fund awarded by the Henderson Foundation. The trip was heavily focused around snorkeling, which presented another problem: how could they give Pilot mobility so that she could “swim” too? The answer came in the form of a scuba scooter.
“Actually, getting the scooter was the easy part,” Engman said. Pilot and Engman went to the disability resource center, where general legal counsel Elaine Kneebone arranged for the scooter to be purchased. Once the scooter was in, Pilot spent hours in the campus pool practicing with it, wearing a snorkel vest that could easily be inflated or deflated. Pilot said at first she was hesitant to deflate the vest but was glad she did. “Being in the water was really liberating,” Pilot said. “I was able to go somewhere without my chair for the first time in two years.” Getting the scooter, and its 20-pound battery, aboard the plane to Belize proved to be another challenge. After plenty of emails, phone calls and meetings with Delta Airlines and their disability hotline, Tropic Air Belize airlines and the director of the TSA at Little Rock’s airport, the scooter made it safely to Belize. Because of her scooter, Pilot was able to
do everything others could do in the water, including swimming with rays, nurse sharks, sea turtles and giant grouper fish. Other activities while in Belize included cave tubing, exploring Mayan ruins and a scavenger hunt to learn about the lives of islanders. The group focused particularly on studying the reef, which is very carefully protected and one of the only remaining completely living sections of coral reef in the world. Organisms that are considered rare at other sites like turtles, manatees, sharks and large grouper can be easily observed at the reef. The Belize Tropical Research Education Center, the lab that hosted and housed the 14 visitors including Engman and Pilot’s husband, has been hosting study abroad students for 20 years, but Pilot was their first visitor in a wheelchair. Belize does not have the same accessibility requirements of the United States, and there were no ramps and plenty of rough terrain to climb. Pilot said everyone was very inclusive and helpful to her, including locals who patiently carried her and her wheelchair, which they called a “wheelbarrow,” when needed. They carried her up and down stairs, pushed her across sand and helped her in and out of boats. In fact, the only part of the trip that Pilot wasn’t able to join in on was cave exploration. Instead, she got to go zip lining. Sarah Wolven, a sophomore business major from National Park Community College, also went on the trip to Belize and says Pilot’s confidence, willpower and smile were an inspiration to the group. “I wish every person in her situation could experience what she did with us because it would show them that they can do it,” Wolven said. “She truly puts meaning to the words ‘yes I can.’” Pilot said it’s not at all about feeling like a burden but instead taking the chance and getting out there. “It really is liberating,” Pilot said. “Everyone really did a lot to make sure I was included.” Pilot also said the lack of accessibility in Belize made her more thankful for her situation in the United States. Pilot especially wanted to thank the disability resource center for working with her, both on the Belize trip and in making her life on campus easier as well. She said that although there were challenges and difficulties to overcome, she hoped she could help clear the way for others with disabilities to also be able to go on such trips. The study abroad trips for the summer of 2015 were to the Galapagos Islands and Machu Pichu in June and Belize in July. The program is comprised of mostly Henderson students but students from National Park College in Hot Springs as well as far away as the University of Panama have received scholarships and participated in the past.
Right: Temple 1 in Tikal, Guatemala Photos courtesy of Dr. James Engman
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Back: Clay Pilot, Dr. James Engman, Samantha Pennington, Quinshell Smith, Itzela Cruz, Emilie Wright, Sarah Wolven, Summer Holt. Front: Kesha Pilot, Sarah Holt, Amanda Oliviera, Nikki Roberston, Abhy Verdurmen, Megan Benson 7
SURVIVE
Lauren Remedios emerges from Nepal’s earthquake with a mission
A few minutes before noon on April 25, a massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck the small mountainous nation of Nepal.
By Scott McKinnon
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Lauren Remedios, 2008 Mas-
could hear my mother shout ‘run!’”
ters of Liberal Arts graduate, and her
Remedios said.
mother, visiting from her home in
She ran barefoot toward the ho-
India, were staying at a hotel in the
tel’s lobby exit. Walls began cracking
tourist area of the capital city Kath-
around her. This is it, she thought.
mandu when the quake hit. “I was sitting on the bed in my
She assumed that her mother was running behind her. When she
hotel room when the bed started
reached the bottom of the lobby
to shake,” Remedios said. “Within
stairs, Remedios turned to see that
moments, the whole room began to
her mother had fallen. Without
heave violently.”
a moment of doubt or ounce of
As Remedios and her mother felt the initial quake ripple through their downtown hotel, instinct kicked in. “Through the roar of the earth, I
hesitation, she ran back up the stairs. Debris rained down. “My mother was furious with me for coming back for her,” Remedios said.
The quake struck as Remedios was three days from departing after a six-week evaluation of local work for her employer, Heifer International. The Little Rock-based charity organization has been working with farmers in Nepal since 1957, according to its website. Heifer’s mission there is to help develop goat and dairy production so that the country can lower imports and also reduce poverty. Remedios had traveled to Nepal help evaluate the project in the midlife of its planned cycle. Her team visited 22 communities in four regions of the country, conducting over 800 surveys and interviews, she said. Remedios earned her undergraduate degree in management and statistics in Bombay, India, before coming to Henderson with her future husband in 2006 for her graduate degree. After earning her MLA in 2008, Remedios began teaching third grade at the Huda Academy in Little Rock. Following three years of teaching there, Remedios decided to return to school at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock. During her time at the Clinton School, she became interested in international development, mainly in the global south. After graduating in May 2014, she learned that she had received the Heifer-Clinton School fellowship, a one-year fellowship in the Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Department at Heifer International. Working from the organization’s Little Rock headquarters, Remedios has conducted evaluations and consultations on projects based in the 32 countries in which Heifer works.
“Through the roar of the earth, I could hear my mother shout ‘run!’”
Clockwise from the top: Lauren Remedios with her mother in Nepal, in traditional dress, with Bill Clinton, in graduate school Photos by Lauren Remedios and Jacob Slaton (Bill Clinton)
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“The community of Nepal showed me what resilience and community spirit look like.”
Remedios is responsible for looking at the impact and effectiveness of Heifer’s projects on local food security, income generation, agro-ecology, women’s empowerment and the environment. She also provides recommendations to improve the projects. She has conducted onsite evaluations in Uganda, the Philippines, Nepal and Peru. The April 25 earthquake’s epicenter was roughly 48 miles northwest of Remedios and Kathmandu. The ferocity of the quake leveled buildings in the capital and flattened many nearby villages. Officially, 8,789 people were reported killed and 22,309 injured in Nepal alone by the earthquake and subsequent aftershocks. With dozens of citizens still listed as missing or unaccounted for, the final number of casualties may take years to be confirmed. Left, top to bottom Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal flag, U.S. Geological Survey map of the earthquake-affected area in Nepal. Other photos Photos of life in Nepal by Lauren Remedios
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The Times of India reported that dozens of historic landmarks and sites designated as UNESCO World Heritage sites were either damaged or completely destroyed by the earthquake’s intensity. The Dharahara Tower, originally constructed in 1832, was one specific landmark reduced to rubble. After rescuing her mother, dragging her out of the hotel with only bruises, the gravity of the situation hit Remedios. She broke down. The pair spent the next three days camped out with other survivors in the hotel courtyard. With no sleep, power or communication, they survived the 55 aftershocks that would occur after the initial quake. “Buildings had collapsed all around us and the scene was dismal—bloody faces, broken limbs, shock and terror amid a cloud of dust that refused to settle,” Remedios said. “In moments like these, you can either be selfish or selfless, and I was both at different times.” Remedios’s colleagues in Nepal managed to successfully reach her, and one even braved the disaster area to personally check on her mother and her as they camped with the other survivors. The initial earthquake occurred on a Thursday. As Remedios boarded her Monday night flight away from the destruction, she reflected on what had she had endured. “As we took off, I wept for the survivors,” Remedios said, “for the loss of life and for the helplessness that I felt for the people of Nepal.” She now looks to the future. She recently accepted a full-time position with Heifer as an evaluation and research associate and will be researching and testing new evaluation tools and methodology, along with writing a manual for them. She also plans to return to Nepal at the end of 2015 to visit some of the Heifer project sites affected by the quake. Remedios recalls that even while she was surrounded by the chaos and carnage of the earthquake, there was something very positive and hopeful happening around her. “The community of Nepal showed me what resilience and community spirit looks like,” Remedios said. “There was a strong camaraderie between the locals and foreigners that helped people get by.” Link to references in this story: Heifer International http://www.heifer.org U.S. Geological Survey http://www.usgs.gov/blogs/features/ files/2015/05/Nepal-Aftershock-Map.png
Images of Nepal: Design with a conscience By David Stoddard One idea behind Forge Magazine is to offer a vivid visual experience to our readers. While designing and producing Forge we occasionally run short on images. When this happens, we strive to marry image and art to the content of the prose without superfluous images. As we were gathering material for this issue, an earthquake struck Nepal. We explored ideas for stories that tie Ellis College to a significant world event. Henderson has enjoyed a fairly rich and diverse international student population thanks to the university’s Center for International Programs. One reason the earthquake struck home with me and others on campus was the number of Nepalese students attending Henderson over the past decade. I have known, helped, and shared meals with several of them over the years. These students mean the news of the earthquake is more personal. The personal account we run in this issue did not come from a Nepalese student, but from another former Henderson student who we had heard was caught by the earthquake. It offers added interest because she was working for one of Arkansas’ well know charities and non-governmental organizations, Heifer International, when the earthquake hit. Remedios’s story connects us to events halfway around the world. With this in mind, as one of the designers of Forge, I sought images to tell her story and make the connections that would help to draw readers in. Remedios is, of course, a main source for the images we chose. What she did not have to share, however, were photos describing the destruction and suffering on the ground in Nepal. This was fine, as we did not wish to sensationalize the story in any way. As a designer I did want to depict the destruction for readers, both as a reminder of the suffering and to create a visual backdrop for the story. As socially conscious educators, artists and journalists we—the editorial staff and the dean—shared the view that this story would be good to highlight on the cover. When we do not have specific images for an article, we sometimes go to outside
sources. For example, in the CJ Bernard profile in this issue we shamelessly used PR photos from the summer blockbuster, “Jurassic World.” Although news media took ample photos of the disaster in Nepal, it did not feel right to purchase generic images from a news service for Forge. I considered contacting former Nepalese students to see if some had images of the disaster. This would of course be very personal for them, and I have no doubt each may have had sad stories to share about family and friends, but again it did not feel like the right thing to request. Since in many ways, to me, this story is a way of linking Henderson to social consciousness and the good things our students do, it seemed appropriate to find a socially responsible way to solve my design problem. As a teacher of design, I encourage students to take on socially conscientious issues and to use ethical and socially aware methods when creating their work. I often tell them if they need reference images for illustration they should shoot photos themselves or find royalty-safe sources such as the Creative Commons Initiative as a way to help decorporatize the creative process. Although I am not endorsing any one organization or institution, I applaud any effort that helps artists retain creative control over their own work without the interference of commerce if they wish to do so. For the cover illustration of this issue, I was able to find the work of several photographers. All of these photographers had shared their work via Wikimedia, a nonprofit organization dedicated to “encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free, multilingual, educational content.” Although Wikimedia is not the only source for art, photography, design and prose shared freely by creators, it is a source that offers insightful information and is well organized. It is the place I found images that help to share the sad situation in Nepal without being exploitive, where I could bring to the pages of Forge the ethical choices I try to impart to my students at Henderson.
This photo of Kathmandu after the earthquake struck Nepal is shared as ”Bus park” by Akin Amar - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/ wiki/File:Bus_park.jpg#/media/ File:Bus_park.jpg The image has been altered and manipulated to create the cover for this issue of Forge.
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Zombie Love
A Bloody Reward Media student explains the rigorous activity of LARP
By Ashley Bles
One year ago, I died in the woods of Texas. If that sounds dramatic, it’s because it is. That’s kind of the point. It was an impossibly dark, cold March night. Although I’d been falling asleep sitting up only 30 minutes prior, my muscles strained with adrenalinefueled energy as I writhed on the ground. My limbs flopped as if they had no strength to fight against the impossible weight of gravity. My voice was shrill and my throat was torn from screaming for over four straight minutes. There were other voices, disembodied in the dark, all of us calling for help. Deep down, I knew it was hopeless. I’d been down too long. Too many precious seconds had ticked away. I’d come out here to rescue a dear friend—a father figure—and my brother, but for all I knew they were already gone or had fled to safety and left without even knowing I was there. It was just too dark.
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This was a scene from a live action role play (LARP) in which I participate once a month. It’s called Dystopia Rising and it entails eating, sleeping, and living in character for a weekend of camping, while zombies, raiders, bandits, and other players try to kill my character with padded foam weapons, boffers, and Nerf guns.
The LARP community, like many nerdy subcultures, is often misunderstood. It’s easy to assume we’re all weirdos living in our parents’ basements. Positive portrayal in media, as in the 2008 movie “Role Models,” starring Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott, is so rare that many LARPers are afraid to talk at all about their hobby. A growing field of LARP scholars have begun to examine the complex culture of LARPs. Let’s back up a little. The world of Dystopia Rising is set 400 years after a fungal infection turned the dead into the undead and mutated the living. Failed attempts to cleanse the earth with nuclear bombs have left an irradiated wasteland of zombies and heavily mutated humans called “strains.” I play a combat medic named Lillian, or Lil, whose family lived in an area so irradiated that her skin is rotting off, much like the zombies she fights daily. Her family
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is a makeshift one, built from those she met in the wastes and played by my friends and out-ofcharacter brother. Lil is created from parts of myself, forged with a strong love for horror-based makeup and special effects. She is my stubbornness and care for others, exacerbated and turned up to a nearly rabid level. LARP scholar and fellow Dystopia Rising player Sarah Lynne Bowman describes this model for character development as the Fragmented Self, in which parts of a player are enhanced for their character. Bowman herself favors the Repressed Self, playing up her child side, something she cannot normally express. Fellow Henderson student and LARPer Coley Henson’s character Marethyu is his Augmented Self, which is himself plus something like strength that allows him to run around cleaving zombies in half. Lil’s father Canton is played by my friend Samuel, who says Canton is based on himself, a model Bowman calls the Doppelganger Self. There are many more models to label how a persona is established, as well as different reasons for playing. I play to show off my zombie rot, to become immersed in the setting and to feel my heart pound wildly with fear or excitement or rage as Lil. Real life just doesn’t afford that kind of emotion. You can’t take your aggression out on your boss like you can a raider charging at you. In many ways, Lil is me. I slip into her skin; literally putting on her face rot is a process of applying liquid latex to my face to make a second skin. I don a costume that I’ve spent hours sewing, including an intricately made facemask to cover her rot and chain mail made of soda can tabs woven together. I live as her: fighting with a foam machete; running wildly in the night toward desperate cries for help or away from the moans of the undead; waking up to bandits roaring into my cabin. I created her from the best and worst parts of me, made connections with other players and then played out interactions between their characters and my own. Her tears are my tears. Her scream is my voice. So when my character was bleeding out on that dark moonless night, there was real panic in my voice as I screamed. It was Friday night, around three in the morning. I was falling asleep where I was sitting and a friend offered to escort me to my cabin, located in the farthest corner of the game site. Exhaustion had me leaning heavily on him as we started the trek across “town.” From beyond the darkened field, voices called out for help. Terrified voices. Familiar voices. My escort seemed hesitant to respond, asking me if I was sure I wanted to go. The voices came from an unlit area known as Tent City. Usually Tent City problems were known as “over there problems.” But I was awake now, and trembling with fight and fear. To ignore their cries was not an option. We broke into a sprint that turned into a more desperate run as the screams continued. “Tent City needs help!” “Hunters at Tent City!” Hunters are a particularly nasty type of zombie
with freakish speed, sharp claws and the ability to become invisible in the dark. “Somebody get to Canton! Canton needs help!” This was Sapper, my brother’s character, calling for someone to help Lil’s father. My own rabid desire to protect my brother merged with Lil’s need to protect her father. In LARP terms, we call this “bleed” because in-character and outof-character feelings bleed into each other. It can be an overwhelmingly strong feeling that pulls you into the game. I rounded the corner and found that my escort had left me rather than brave whatever was attacking Tent City. There was no time to worry about this, however. People were dying. It was pitch black and pure chaos. The smack of striking boffers echoed into the woods. I ran in, blindly diving for the first shape on the ground that looked like a body. It wasn’t Canton, so I stumbled to my feet and dove for the next. Normally Lil would administer medical attention to anyone who was down. Her equipment and profession make her among the quickest healers. Once a person’s hit points reach zero, they only have five minutes on the ground before they “bleed out” and die. There was no time to help though. By the time I checked the fifth person and still couldn’t find Canton, terror was clouding my judgment and my blood was raging. Was I too late? I realized I hadn’t heard Sapper’s voice amongst the others since I got there. Had they died already? Bled out before I could help? Had they given up on the fight and gotten away safely? I felt a hand on my shoulder. I’d been foolish, bending over bodies without anyone to help make sure I wasn’t going to get attacked from behind. Slowly, I turned to see who it was. Something in my gut told me it wasn’t a friendly face. A crazed, grinning zombie face painted pale with dark, sunken eyes confirmed my fear. “Dominate.” This was the command to be put under someone else’s control and used by a certain, very dangerous type of character. His grin widened as he noticed I was a medic, my medical supplies frozen in hand as I waited to hear my order. “Stand over there. Don’t move, don’t say a word.” He pointed deep into the tree line. Slowly, dread knotting my muscles into jerky mechanical movements, I obeyed. I stayed there as the voices around me wailed and moaned, hands and jaw clenched so tight my ears rang. Some are there to kill, others to cause the psychological turmoil and terror that makes
the game so immersive and real. The zombie I’d come up against was played by a person who knew how to evoke that type of emotion. He could have told me to run, he could have just struck me down. Instead, he left my character powerless as everyone around her died. A time—probably a minute or two but eons to me—passed before the zombie who’d controlled me came back, as if he’d forgotten about me. He began to idly attack me. “4...4...4,” the damage came in flurries of three, each swing a light hit from a short foam boffer that I treated like razor sharp claws down my side and back. My armor, worth a measly 14 hit points, had been broken earlier that day. I only had 10 hit points to my name—a weak, squishy thing by Dystopia Rising standards—so the first three hits were enough to knock me down. He threw a couple more hits in for good measure as my legs crumpled. Later, after the game was over, the man who played this zombie, a friend of mine named Alex, would tell me that he had hoped another would come along and finish Lil off while she was stuck in place, but he was forced to act before the domination wore off. He also bought my dinner as a consolation prize for killing my character. There were no hard feelings.
This brings us up to speed: my character on the ground, screaming for help desperately as I imagined all the blood slowly draining out of my body. As I lay there, muscles straining against the futile weight of gravity, my thoughts and Lil’s blurred more than they had ever to that point. “Sapper!” My voice was shrill. I wonder what it’s like to die. “Canton! Somebody, please!” There was chaos all around. Someone tried to pick me up and begin first aid, but they too were knocked into “bleedout.” We sprawled on the forest floor together. How long have I been in bleedout? I should be counting. “Sapper!” Breathless. “Canton!” They’re already gone. They left me. They left me! Again, first aid was attempted and again, the person fell beside me. My thoughts got more frantic, my voice breaking more often. I think it’s been about three minutes. How do people keep track? I began to shriek the names of any character that might recognize my voice. “Sapper! Canton! Kraken!” Do I just go to logistics after this? I wonder what it’s like to die. I don’t want to die.
By the time a third person arrived to try to save me, I figured it had been five minutes. “Starting first aid ...” They weren’t a combat medic like Lil, so it would have taken them two minutes to save me. I cut them off. “No, don’t. It’s … I don’t know how long I’ve been down but it’s been too long.” The person swore and collapsed to their knees next to me as I stood up, placing my hand on my head to signify I was out of character. I stepped to the side of the battle, still unable to tell who was there. From there, I took the long way back to logistics, where all staff and official business goes on. Dying in Dystopia Rising is a lot like dying in a video game, in that you can do it more than once. The fungus that caused the zombie outbreak, known as the Gravemind, is an amorphous hive mind that lives underground. Bodies that die, characters or NPCs, sink into the ground, to be reclaimed by the Gravemind. Each character gets a certain amount of lives, or “infection points,” before their body can no longer pull itself back together and they become a member of the walking dead. This was Lil’s first death, and technically she had three more infection points. Somehow that didn’t lessen the blow any. The walk to logistics was a blur. My throat was raw, my cheeks wet with tears and my entire body trembling. I could have avoided all of this, part of me said. I could have just gone to bed. That’s not what Lil would have done, however, so I knew I couldn’t either. Players have a choice every minute of the game: stay true to their character or break immersion and use knowledge unavailable to their character. They have the choice to cheat. I knew that wasn’t what I wanted out of this game, however, and I knew that Lil’s death was suitably poetic. After all, I’d died trying to save people. When I got into logistics, head hanging low, my words were in a disappointed sigh. “I died...” To my surprise, I was met with a hearty “Congratulations!” “We know how much it sucks to die,” the game director said with a soothing smile. “We prefer to look at it as a moment of growth. Because, hey, you’re going to grow from this, right?” I nodded, surprised, and filled out the proper marks on my character sheet with her. After a break for water, I went to have my Gravemind scene, an intense role-play session where a member of the staff describes to you your character’s psychological and physical journey out of the hive mind and back to the surface. continued on page 20
Illustrations based on photos cour tesy of Ashley Bles Designed by Megan Snoddy
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Doors to Unders
Art alum VL Cox creates a tra Visualize Freedom By Katie Smith
Six wooden doors were lined up on the Arkansa Capitol steps in March, each labeled only for a certain group of people: White. Colored. LGBT. Immigrant. Homeless. But the door for human beings was chained up, inaccessible due to heavy a lock. 16
The doors were part of “End Hate,� an anti-discrimination art installation by 1991 graduate VL Cox, displayed in connection with two weeks of protests sparked by a state bill designed to mirror the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Two weeks after the installation appeared in Arkansas, she took it to the National Mall in Washington, where it was displayed near the Lincoln Memorial.
Visualize Freedom
standing
aveling exhibit
Cox first attended Henderson in 1980, majoring in “volleyball and frat parties,” as she recalls. She spent a year at Arkansas Tech University before moving to Memphis. Finally in 1988, she decided it was time to go back to college and study art, earning her BFA in 1991. She developed the concept for the discrimination doors in 2013. She said she realized “change was on the horizon” when she saw a
news story about a group of teens who had killed a homeless person simply for fun. As public controversy over Arkansas HB1228 grew, Cox decided it was the perfect time to finally create her doors. Although Cox is a gay woman with a partner of 15 years, she said the work was in no way designed to push a homosexual agenda. Her mission is tolerance. “I don’t care who you are or what you believe in, to discriminate against someone else is wrong,” she said. Cox traveled to Washington, D.C., at the invitation of Paula Morrell, creator and producer of the public radio program “Tales of the South.” At the Washington installation, Morrell invited people to share personal stories about discrimination, which she recorded for radio broadcast. Morrell said she believes Cox’s art serves as a powerful reminder that those doors were very real at one point. She called them a visual representation of what can happen if we aren’t careful. “It’s an important statement to make,” said Morrell. “I’m very excited and proud to be a part of it.” Sixth Judicial Circuit Judge Wendell L Griffen was one of those who shared his story on Morrell’s show. He shared it again at a HB1228 protest event with Morrell and Cox in March and saw “End Hate” on the steps of the Capitol. He said they remind him of a poster in his chambers titled “History.” It has three doors: one for men, one for ladies, and one for blacks. He said Cox’s art reminds us that if you don’t know where you’ve been, you won’t know when people are trying to take you back. Cox said she added a “Veterans Only” door to the traveling exhibit after hearing horror stories at the Arkansas Capitol. However, she wishes that she didn’t have to add more doors; she would prefer to take some away. “Regardless of what your beliefs are,” she said, “you should treat your fellow man with respect.” Left V. L. Cox stands with her “End Hate” installation at the Arkansas Capitol. Below Cox takes her installation to the National Mall Photos courtesy of V. L. Cox
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By Josh James
A Henderson graduate’s food truck drives Arkadelphia’s small business economy Taco Impresario 18
Jonathon Gonzales
Since February 2014 Little Penguin Tacos food truck has been feeding locally sourced food to hungry masses in the area. The truck is owned and operated by Jonathon Gonzales, a 2008 general studies graduate. Gonzales grew up in Gurdon, but he, his wife—Claya Gonzales, a Henderson graduate who is an oncology nurse at Genesis Cancer Center—and his daughter, Eva, live in Arkadelphia. Gonzales came up with the idea for Little Penguin’s menu while attending Henderson. “My parents would want to make room in their freezer,” Gonzales said. “So they would give us food, mostly meat.” As poor college students, he and his roommates bought only basic groceries, like eggs and cheese. “My roommates and I discovered we could make a lot of tacos, especially breakfast tacos, for about the same amount of money as everyone else was paying to order pizza,” Gonzales said. At first, Little Penguin only served breakfast tacos, but eventually added pork, beef and chicken to offer lunch options. The inspiration for the name came from the same apartment. “It was a basement apartment with no windows,” Gonzales said. “So everything we did was in the dark and cold.” They nicknamed their apartment the “penguin den.” Mostly, Gonzales wanted to bring a good natural food option to the Arkadelphia area. He said that Arkadelphia is limited in its choices for fresh, all natural, non-frozen food options. Opening in Arkadelphia, however, proved to be difficult. “I went to the city thinking I could just get a business license,” Gonzales said. “But Arkadelphia had passed an ordinance against transient businesses.”
Gonzales brought the issue before the Arkadelphia Planning Commission last year. He said that at the meeting, the owners of a few local restaurants strongly opposed the presence of food trucks. He recalled that one local restaurant owner vehemently opposed any mobile food service on the grounds that they are not held to the same health code requirements. Gonzales insists that is simply not the case, adding that he contacted the health department long before he found out about the non-transient business ordinance. “Food trucks have the same inspections,” Gonzales said. “We pay the same taxes as restaurants. The only difference is mine has wheels on it.” Chase Ogden, senior political science major, is a good friend of Gonzales. “It was very frustrating to me,” Ogden said, “the way the town was handling this in such a way as to stifle growth and competition.” Ogden felt the problem was local business owners, not necessarily city officials, who seemed more receptive to mobile food courts. Gonzales said he thought the ordinance was intended to avoid roadside vendors, not mobile food courts. Anita Wiley, Arkadelphia’s building supervisor agrees, saying that ordinance is no longer “really an issue.” After over a year of meetings, the ordinance keeping mobile vending out of Arkadelphia has been changed. Following the change in laws, building plans have already been submitted for a lot on Pine Street just across from Arby’s. Gonzales hopes to have Little Penguin operating in Arkadelphia for the fall 2015 semester. Gonzales said he has received “a lot of support.” He said he has done well in Caddo Valley but has only recently had many college students as customers.
“Little Penguin has the best quesadillas in town,” Abbey Nivens, sophomore marketing major, said. She said she only recently discovered the food truck, so it was just her second visit. Nivens suspects other students have the same issue. “I don’t think a lot of people know it’s here,” she said. Gonzales uses as many local ingredients as are available. He buys the all the pork cuts from J.V. Farms in Bismarck and the beef from J.C. Ranch in Gurdon. This summer he found local produce, but he plans to begin supplying vegetables from his own garden. The tortillas come from Tortilleria Brenda in Little Rock. “My goal is to get where we use all natural and local ingredients only in the kitchen,” Gonzales said. “We’re just not quite there yet.” Ogden said that Gonzales opened the food truck to make money for his family, but that his motives behind using local suppliers transcend Little Penguin’s culinary mission. “He does it, not just because it’s better food for you,” Ogden said, “but because he understands the importance of keeping the money in the community and supporting other small businesses like his.” Gonzales has big plans beyond the move to Arkadelphia for his growing business. He hopes to add a scooter delivery service, extend hours, hire additional employees and a second trailer for special events. He also plans on obtaining a liquor license because “nothing goes better with tacos than beer,” Gonzales said. In July, Gonzales made the decision to pack up Little Penguin and leave Caddo Valley for Hot Springs Village until he makes the move to Arkadelphia. In a post to Little Penguin’s Facebook page, Gonzales thanked his patrons by stating, “From snow days to 100-plusdegree weather and a breakfast menu with just three options to a full menu served all day, we’ve made tons of friends and met lots of interesting passers-by. Thank you all who have made this a great place to get a dream on wheels fired up.” As Little Penguin Tacos continues to grow, Gonzales plans to continue to meet customer expectations of quality that his food has created. “Business is going really well,” Gonzales said. “All these big plans will take a lot of time and tons of work, but I’m excited about what the future holds for Little Penguin.”
Photos and design by David Stoddard
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A Bloody Reward – continued from page 15 It was an emotionally draining cherry on top of an already exhausting sundae. I walked out of the experience shaken but with more understanding of Lil than I ever could have planned. By the time Lil was back in play, it had been about two hours since I’d been headed to bed and had thought I couldn’t get any more tired. Adrenaline and emotion still kept my heart thrumming, and I couldn’t seem to get the shake out of my limbs. Canton and Sapper met Lil as she came out of the morgue. Samuel, who plays Canton, broke character long enough to ask if I was all right as a player before jumping back into Canton’s mindset to ask Lil the same thing. It turns out they had left me, but not on purpose; they’d had no idea I was even there and only heard about my death after I’d already gone to the Gravemind. We hugged and they handed me off to a friend who kept watch so nothing else could sneak up on me that night. It has been over a year since Lil’s first death. She has had her second since then, accidentally being beheaded by a member of her town. She has come a long way as a character and I have watched this as a player sometimes with pain, sometimes joy, sometimes squeamishness, sometimes hesitation as to whether I should let her make her own path. I am the vehicle and I am the player. But when I am playing her, she takes over. I find my mouth saying things I never planned for her to say, making deals with people I never wanted her to talk to and getting into trouble I would avoid if I were her and knew what I know. It is a kind of duality that I could never have imagined before playing. At times, trying to explain it seems crazy. In many ways, Lillian is a thing much bigger than and separate from me. If I were to quantify her now, I don’t think it would be fair to call her just my Fragmented Self. She is more than just my stubbornness and my love for caring. She is a different creature entirely. She has become more jaded, more compassionate, more afraid and angrier, all in one. So why do I do this? Why do I voluntarily crawl through the dirt, sleep in cramped cabins, run rough terrain, and scream at the top of my lungs once a month? Why do I immerse myself in a completely different persona for days at a time, even if it causes me to cry or feel pain? Does that make me crazy? Let me ask you: Wouldn’t you like to escape for a weekend to be a zombie slayer? Wouldn’t you like to be a hero?
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Legion of Nerds By James Jackson, photos by Scott McKinnon What is a nerd? “Nerds are people who go above and beyond for what they love to do,” Dakota Clark, freshman biology major, said. Nerds led to a new student organization being formed on campus in 2014. The Legion of Nerds met every week during the school year. The club’s founder, Coley Henson, junior general studies major, described the group as a community of people who share similar interests. “I kind of thought it would be cool if all these groups could get together and get to know each other,” Henson said. Henson said group interests include all types of gaming, from video to tabletop to LARPing, and everything in between. The diversity of interests helps members open up to one another and become friends. Members of the group are very serious about their passions and expressing themselves through them. “There is no judgment of passions in this group, and that is why I love it,” Clark said. Group members claim that rather than distracting students from study, the Legion actually helps in getting academic work done. Upperclassmen help show younger members how to become successful college students. Ashley Bles, a junior mass media major known as the “Mom” of the group, makes sure that most of the younger members stay on top of their academics before the fun begins. “I have had friends who had to drop out,” Bles said. “I don’t want to see that happen again.” With any organization comes rules: no bashing particular “nerd” hobbies, no spoilers of games or other major events, and no over-exaggeration of something you haven’t done. The “don’t force it” rule asks that no one forcefully impose their interests on someone else. The group held its first major LARP in November and its second in January. “You get to make a creative outfit,” said Henson. “There is a story or a world that the LARP is traditionally set in, and you try and fit into that particular world. While the group was playing pretend and attacking each other vigorously, there were many other students outside enjoying the sunny day as they watched the live action take place. “Ever since I saw the movie ‘Role Models,’ I wanted to do it,” Steve Hibbard, a junior accounting major, said. “It’s super cool. You get to blow off some steam.” “I appreciate that people are expressing themselves this way,” Leighton Hall, sophomore computer science major, said. “It’s awesome.”
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Forged from the Embers: The Ellis College of Arts and Sciences 1100 Henderson Street Arkadelphia, AR 71999-0001
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Award Winner
Left to right from the top
Paintings from Katherine Strause’s “How Women Saved the South” series: “Beauty,” “Bow and Arrow,” “Delta Couple,” and “Award Winner”
Katherine Strause, chair of the art department, was keynote speaker at the Arkansas Extension Homemakers Council (AEHC) state convention in Hot Springs in June, where she was awarded lifetime membership in the organization. Strause’s relationship with AEHC began with her exhibit, “Home Demonstration Clubs or How Women Saved the South,” at the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies last year. The exhibit featured more than 20 paintings depicting the work of home demonstration club members, whom Strause had learned of from Arkansas History Commission archivist Jane Thompson. “She showed me some of the scrapbooks from the home demonstration clubs,” Strause recalled. “I just about lost it, looking at those old photos and reading about what they did.” Another source of information was Elizabeth Griffin Hill’s book A Splendid Piece of Work: 1912-2012: One Hundred Years of Arkansas’s Home Demonstration and Extension Homemakers Clubs. Strause used text from the book alongside her paintings. To top this honor off, her painting “Delta Couple” from the project was accepted into the prestigious Delta Exhibition, on display through Sept. 20, 2015. The piece was among work selected from an eight-state region.