Issuu

‘It’s not something that we chose’

UMSU women’s rep outlines plan to tackle period poverty at U of M

Ivan Nuñez Gamez, staff

Awe return to classrooms, plenty of students are set to encounter distinct challenges that distance learning prolonged. Not only will some students be forced to endure social anxiety as we swiftly transition to in-person learning, but period poverty — the lack of of freely available menstrual products — remains an unaddressed issue affecting diverse communities within the student body and across Canada.

UMSU women’s representative Christine Yasay, who previously served as co-president of the UMSU Women’s Centre, acknowledged that due to online learning this past year, period poverty was not recognized as a university-wide issue.

Coming into her role as advocate for the women’s community on the UMSU board of directors, Yasay is prioritizing the fight against period poverty while recognizing that “menstruation stops a lot of women from pursuing the activities that they want to do if the products are not provided for.”

While the University of Manitoba lagged behind in tackling period poverty during the COVID-19 pandemic, fellow Canadian universities lost no time. Since 2019, the University of British Columbia has provided free menstrual products through over 300 dispensers across campus, further expanding access by the end of 2020.

Furthermore, the University of Ottawa implemented the Period Project — a pilotstage, student-led initiative that sought to install period product dispensers in frequently used washrooms across campus.

Yasay voiced her frustration with the U of M administration’s inaction while sharing her sense of responsibility to advocate for the cause.

From meeting with the vice-provost (students) Laurie Schnarr to engaging in

meaningful dialogue with Members of the Legislative Assembly, Yasay and UMSU’s vice president advocacy Victoria Romero have pushed for the establishment of free and widely accessible period products on campus.

Earlier this year, the Manitoba NDP introduced a bill to amend the Public Schools Act which required that menstrual products be available to students free of charge.

Though the bill successfully passed in the legislative assembly — effectively arranging for the distribution of free period products across

public schools in the province — post-secondary institutions in Manitoba have been left to tackle period poverty without support from the provincial government.

During our conversation Yasay highlighted that period products do not come without a high price tag, yet she did not seem discouraged by this.

She said that she has been actively trying to contact the university’s period product plant while also looking for sustainable options to avoid contributing to the imminent threat non-degradable waste poses to our planet.

For Yasay, the fight against period poverty is personal as well as political.

Endometriosis and other menstrual issues are prevalent within her family, and have made her realize how many barriers are in place when there is no adequate support.

“[A period issue] stops you from doing the things that you want to do. Sometimes you have to take days off and it’s very inconvenient for your job, as a student, our council roles, and it’s not something that we chose, it’s just how our anatomy works.”

From breaking the stigma that periods are unsanitary or shameful to ending the misconception that only women menstruate, Yasay plans on collaborating with student leaders to get the message out among the student body.

“I would just encourage people to get involved,” she said.

“There’s a lot of issues that we need a lot of people to back us up.”

news@themanitoban.com

graphic / Dallin Chicoine / staff

MONDAY QUAD DAYS

10AM - 4PM Lawn games and daily activities on the Quad TUESDAY QUAD DAYS

10AM - 4PM Lawn games and daily activities on the Quad

8PM - 12AM Karaoke Night at VW Social Club 13 QUAD DAYS 10AM - 4PM

Lawn games and daily activities on the Quad

NIGHT 7PM - 11PM Outdoor movie night, location TBD

7PM - 12AM Our Welcome Week concludes with a ﬁnal concert hosted at Burton Cummings Theatre. Featured artists will be announced shortly 17 SATURDAY

CONCERT

Local Farmer's Market hosted on the Quad with a Live Music Festival featuring local artists 12

QUAD DAYS

10AM - 4PM

Lawn games and daily activities on the Quad FOOD TRUCK FRIDAY

11:30AM - 2:30PM Food trucks will be present to bring fun new eats on campus

UMSU STREET PARTY

9PM - 2AM

Three of our UMSU Businesses will be hosting a Street Party on the 3rd Floor of University Centre, featuring a wide variety of entertainment and activities in each restaurant 16 FRIDAY

QUAD DAYS

10AM - 4PM

Lawn games and daily activities on the Quad UMSU NIGHT MARKET 5PM - 10PM

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Ants have reverse chemtrails — regular citizens spraying chemicals everywhere they go to control the government

To complete Sudoku, fill the board by entering numbers 1 to 9 such that each row, column and 3x3 box contains every number uniquely

In Hidato, fill the board by continuing the chain of numbers from 1 to 100 moving any direction or diagonally to the next number.

In Straits, like Sudoku, no single number can repeat in any row or column. But rows and columns are divided by black squares into compartments. These need to be filled in with numbers that complete a “straight.” A straight is a set of numbers with no gaps but can be in any order, eg [4,2,3,5]. Clues in black cells remove that number as an option in that row and column and are not part of any straight. Glance at the solution to see how “straights” are formed.

Sudoku Puzzle by Syndicated Puzzles

Hidato Puzzle by M.J.D. Doering

Straights Puzzle by Syndicated Puzzles

Arts

Culture >

’Toban tracks — study vibes

Hit the library and crack the books with these perfect study tracks

Alex Braun, staff

t’s our back to school issue, classes are starting back up and although we’d rather not think about it, actual schoolwork and studying is back on the horizon.

Study soundtracks are a pretty personal alchemical recipe for people, and obviously a lot depends on your specific brain chemistry, so I’ve tried to go for a range of tempo and activity levels with these songs.

The first stretch of this playlist is higher energy and more hyperactive. I personally need some stimulation and background chatter to really focus, so I prefer to post up in a busy area and turn on some techno. This strategy is represented here by a few skittering beauties from Canada’s finest producers, such as Edmonton’s Khotin with “iash.xv” off his Archive 13-15 compilation, or Montreal-based Jacques Greene’s spectral breakbeat track “Do It Without You.”

One’s personal emotional vibe when studying also takes some consideration. Some tracks here are melancholic and cold, like Ouri and Zach Frampton’s haunting “figure profane,” or warm and comforting like The Golden Age of Wrestling’s “outlaw run.” I

also wanted to highlight a new age hippy-tinged side of ambient and electronic music with some good vibes courtesy of Beverly Glenn-Copeland, Joseph Shabason and Yu Su.

The final stretch is where things really space out and branch into some darker vibes. If hypnotizing noise and drone gets you focused, start with local duo Ardor’s track “Spring Declares Itself” and go from there. If you like them, catch them and Texas wizard Claire Rousay at this year’s send + receive festival. So start up this playlist and get to cracking those books fellow Bisons. Pull up to your favourite spot on campus and study easy knowing that you have the coolest study music in the world going through your headphones.

iash.xv — Khotin, Archive 13-15

Do It Without You —

Jacques Greene, Dawn Chorus figure profane — Ouri, Zach Frampton, bt002 : self hypnosis tape

Closed Space — CFCF, Liquid Colours

Ahora — Daphni, Jiaolong

Touch-Me-Not Yu Su, Yellow River Blue Old Melody — Beverly Glenn-Copeland, Keyboard Fantasies

’Toban turntable

Living Hour, ‘Someday Is Today’

Alex Braun, staff

5/5 stars

Living Hour has long been a shining star of Winnipeg’s indie-rock scene, providing us sleepwalking prairie-dwellers with dreamy, washed-out and romantic sounds since 2013.

Taking inspiration from our harsh winters and wide open skies, Living Hour’s previous efforts sometimes fell into the hedonic whiteout bliss a little too deeply, becoming dreamy to the point of drowsiness.

But on the new record, Someday Is Today, Living Hour sounds sharper and more focused than ever. Each element pops, each song captivates and the band no longer hides itself behind any reverbed-out obfuscation, adding new textures, dynamic range and lyrical specificity to their quiet romanticism.

Take the album’s lead single “Feelings Meeting,” a collaboration with bedroom pop luminary Jay Som and the first-ever Living Hour song

you could feasibly headbang to. It’s a definite statement of intent, both in its altrock loud-quiet-loud dynamics and in its lyrical themes, which mirror the band’s musical expansion and newfound directness.

Singer Sam Sarty is cancelling her “glossy subscription to the void,” searching for understanding and communication in a world of “Vaseline lenses” and blinking LEDs.

Sarty spins dozens of these oddly specific lyrical gems throughout the album, such as on the carefully rendered restaurant dissociation tale “No Body,” where lyrics about laminated menus and stray sugar cubes conspire with a hypnotizing instrumental to lift you out of your corporeal form.

The second half of Someday Is Today sees the band going further afield musically.

The slowcore-y “Curve” is led by a compelling, gentle vocal turn. The song slowly builds from its downtrodden begin-

Escape from North York — Joseph Shabason, The Fellowship outlaw run — The Golden Age of Wrestling, Crossface Chicken Wing Dimension Intrusion — F.U.S.E., Dimension Intrusion (25th Anniversary Edition) Spring Declares Itself — Ardor, Spring Declares Itself discrete (the market) — Claire Rousay, a softer focus Hatred of Music II — Tim

Hecker, Ravedeath, 1972 Diamond Cove (And Its Children Were Watching) — Kyle Bobby Dunn, Bring Me The Head of Kyle Bobby Dunn Headache — Grouper, Paradise Valley

International Indigenous Hip Hop Awards full of rising stars

Alex Braun, staff

Winnipeg’s Exchange Event Centre hosted the second annual International Indigenous Hip Hop Awards Show Aug. 26 and 27. The awards and surrounding conference highlighted artists in the Indigenous urban entertainment world and celebrated the culture and community around Indigenous-made hip hop and R&B.

The ceremony featured performances by artists like El Paso’s Artson, Winnipeg local Kenny Murkz and J25 out of Gary, Ind.

The awards, which were voted on by the public, went to a variety of artists from around the world.

Edmonton-based horrorcore and “psycho-drug-rap” trio Psych Ward Kidz won collaboration of the year for their track “8 Bars of Deranged.”In the artist categories, Nehiyaw and Métis artist EarthChild won producer of the year, Manitoba’s own Stun took home the award for breakthrough artist of the year and Las Vegas-based artist SheRōze was chosen as songwriter of the year.

arts@themanitoban.com

nings to a frustrated feverdream ending, dissolving and devolving just as it reaches its peak.

The charming “Miss Miss Miss” recalls the lounge-inflected art-pop of bands like Stereolab and Antena, juxtaposing that euro-chic energy with lyrics about missing the distinctly unchic now demolished Palomino Club on Portage.

The rambling indie-pop track “Exploding Rain” showcases another new lead vocal turn, and has a distinct Broken Social Scene vibe. The song builds instrumentally to a gliding, blissed out outro as vocal and guitar lines interweave and splash against each other.

Finishing with the stunning closing combo of “No Body” and the wistful, Yo La Tengo-esque instrumental “Memory Express,” Someday Is Today leaves the listener with butterflies in the stomach and a healthy urge to turn the record back over and start

/ Killbeat / provided again. This album represents a big leap forward and significant artistic achievement for Living Hour. Not a song is wasted on Someday Is Today as Living Hour covers a wide swath of influences with grace while never sounding like anybody but itself.

Living Hour’s Someday Is Today is available on major streaming platforms.

Two female artists won big in the song and album of the year categories, with Toronto-based Cree “femcee” TheRa11n getting the nod for best hip hop single and Treaty 6 territory’s Pooky G bringing home the hardware for hip hop album of the year.

Check out the complete list of winners below.

Hip Hop Single of the Year: The Ra11n, “IYKYK”

Collaboration of the Year: Psych Ward Kidz, “8 Bars of Deranged” feat. Doom Squad, Monster Loco and Poltergeist OD

Producer of the Year: EarthChild, Indian Time

Hip Hop Album of the Year: Pooky G, So Far So Hood

Songwriter of the Year: SheRōze, We Rise

R&B Single fo the Year: Melody McArthur, “Wilding” feat. Jahkota

Clothing Line of the Year: Nipîy Iskwew

Best Male Hip Hop Artist: Sten Joffi, “Thank You”

Best Female Hip Hop Artist: MzShellz, “Level Up” Breakthrough Artists of the Year: Stun, “Gimme Love” DJ of the Year: DJ O Show

Music Video of the Year: Savelle Tha Native, “Shoot My Shot”

Best International Hip Hop Single of the Year: Barkaa, “King Brown”

Best International Hip Hop Album of the Year: Baker Boy, Gela

Inspirational Social Change Award: TKO arts@themanitoban.com

Self-order kiosks — the future of food on campus

New upgrades to the Campo food court include mobile and kiosk ordering

Abisola Ojo,

volunteer

ne of the many chan-

ges the COVID-19 virus brought about was the need for social distancing and contactless technologies throughout many industries, with the U of M only having recently returned to in-person classes, and with masking and social distancing guidelines still being in use.

The U of M welcomes students back in person with an upgrade to the Campo food court located in University Centre. New self-order kiosks allow students to order food from their favourite restaurants in a remote and contantless way and pick it up once it is ready.

The food court consists of multiple restaurants. AFV Kitchen (Afro Food Vineyard) offers traditional Nigerian cuisine. Their jollof rice, plantain and chicken are a personal favorite. Burrito Splendido offers customizable burritos and other Mexican fare.

They are locally owned and operated here in Winnipeg.

PZA specializes in pizza, with gluten-free or plantbased options. You can build your own pizza or try one of their prefab options. Newcomer Bagelsmith offers Montreal-style bagels and sandwiches served on your choice of bagel.

The kiosks are an exciting way of ordering food because they can reduce wait time and allow customers to order with just a few taps. After you pay, you are given a reference number and the staff call this number once your food is ready.

The Hey Chef mobile app, where students can save 10 per cent on their order, lists select restaurants in the food court. You can order ahead of time and skip the line by using this app, which helps if you need to save time between classes.