Volume 94, Issue 20

A watchdog for the Temple University community since 1921.

TEMPLE-NEWS.COM

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2016

VOL. 94 ISS. 20

STADIUM

Stadium plans still in early stages

AND

JENNY KERRIGAN TTN

President Theobald talked to The Temple News’ Editorial Board last week about details.

By STEVE BOHNEL PAIGE GROSS The Temple News

ALEX BEAUFORT TTN

PATRICK CLARK TTN

INSIDE In our annual special edition, Movers & Shakers features individuals making a difference in the university community.

About three months ago, The Temple News sat down with President Theobald to discuss where the university was in terms of developing plans for a possible on-campus stadium.

Even after a resolution was passed last week by the Board of Trustees—approving $1 million to hire an architect to design a stadium and retail space and conduct an environmental assessment—Temple is still in the preliminary stages of deciding what the facility might look like.

Last Thursday, The Temple News’ Editorial Board met with Theobald to talk about where stadium discussions currently stand.

Theobald said many concrete details are still being worked out, including what the stadium would actually look like, the neighboring retail space design and community concerns.

When asked about tension between residents, students and the university, Theobald directed reporters to Joyce Wilkerson, senior adviser to the president for Community Relations and Development.

Wilkerson said now that the Board has approved the funding for a design of the proposed

STADIUM | PAGE 6

men’s basketball PATRICK CLARK TTN

JENNY KERRIGANTTN

STUDENT & ALUMNA SPEAK UP Social work major Glenda Bryant has lived in North Philadelphia for most of her life, and serves as a licensed minister in West Philadelphia.

A

Journalism alumna Sofiya Ballin started a project for the Inquirer about Black history.

By ANGELA GERVASI The Temple News

By STEVE BOHNEL News Editor

t a Temple Student Government student forum more than two weeks ago, Glenda Bryant stood face-to-face with President Theobald, voicing her opinion about why university administration has mishandled communication with nearby community members about a possible on-campus stadium.

Now, she wants people to know she isn’t the only voice of the community.

“The only reason my name is out there is because as far as I know, I was the only community member who was at that meeting, so I spoke up for other community members,” Bryant said at the Church of the Advocate on Thursday. “There’s some people here who would have spoken just as eloquently, just as loud and would have been just as in his face as I was.”

Bryant, a 54 year old social work major, is a local minister and teacher. She has lived in North Phil-

NEWS PAGES 2-3, 6

I was the only “ community member

After five consecutive wins in conference play, the Owls face No. 1 Villanova on Wednesday.

By OWEN McCUE Assistant Sports Editor

adelphia for most of her life.

She was born at Temple University Hospital in 1961, and was raised in a house near 18th and Huntingdon streets—the same one she lives in to-

An Uber driver once told 2014 journalism alumna Sofiya Ballin, “black people don’t know how to be successful.”

Ballin begged to differ.

“Black people existed before slavery,” Ballin said.

“We had empires, we had villages, we were successful, we pioneered math and science and people don’t know that.”

When she lived in Mount Vernon, New York, a suburb outside the Bronx, Ballin attended a predominantly black school, where her childhood was cloaked in celebrations of black history.

She studied the story of Queen Nzinga, a powerful ruler of 17th century Angola. She memorized “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” a song often labeled as “The Black National Anthem.” She took day trips with her father into Harlem, which she said felt like “stepping into black culture.”

To Ballin, the driver’s comment was an indication that others had not received the history lessons she had.

Now, she’s working to change that.

The 23-year-old Inquirer staff writer is the creator of “Black History: What I Wish I Knew,” a Black History Month identity series that voices stories of black Philadelphians.

From Joan Myers Brown, founder of PhilaDanco, to Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter of hip-hop group The Roots,

Fran Dunphy has developed a habit.

In recent games, a decision by one of his players caused the coach to put his hands on his head in frustration before slowly moving them down, until his face rests in his palms as he reflects for a brief moment.

Junior guard Josh Brown’s missed pull-up jumpshot from a few feet inside the 3-point arc sparked the reaction with less than seven minutes left in Thursday’s 63-58 win against Connecticut.

Senior forward Jaylen Bond triggered the same response 5:38 into the second half of Sunday’s 77-65 win against South Florida when he caught the ball in the paint and then tossed it to an opponent wearing green instead of one of his teammates.

After Sunday’s victory, the Owls have won five straight games, but Dunphy continues to remain uneasy on the sidelines.

“Personally, I just think that’s the type of coach he is,” Bond said. “He’s always going to

BRYANT | PAGE 3

BALLIN | PAGE 11

WINS | PAGE 20

who was at that meeting, so I spoke up for other community members.

”

Glenda Bryant | social work major

Saving gunshot victims

Temple University Hospital hosts a program that shows community members how to save lives.

PAGE 3

OPINION PAGES 4-5

Lost leads and several close wins

“Formation”: an ode to black culture

LIFESTYLE PAGES 7-8, 16-18

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT PAGES 9-12, 14 SPORTS PAGES 19-22

“Saturday Night Live” cast member Kenan Thompson spoke to students and faculty in Tomlinson Theater yesterday night.

PAGE 7

Jessie Hemmons, a street artist better known as Ishknits, seeks a more unified Philadelphia through street art and communication.

PAGE 9

Kenan Thompson at Temple

Alumna recognized for street art

NEWS

PAGE 2

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2016

Student Conduct Code questioned by nonprofit Young Americans for Liberty believe its First Amendment rights were violated after setting up a table earlier this month.

By LIAN PARSONS Assistant News Editor The student organization Young Americans for Liberty is seeking to reform Temple’s Student Conduct Code following an incident on Feb. 3 when two members were prevented from recruiting in the Student Center without a reservation.

Young Americans for Liberty is a nonprofit “proliberty” organization on college campuses. Savannah Lindquist, president of YAL’s Temple chapter, said two members planned to go to the Bell Tower with clipboards, but went to the atrium of the Student Center instead, because it was raining.

Jason Levy, senior director of student services, approached YAL and told them they needed to have a reservation to use space in the Student Center.

“The only place you can do what you’re doing without a reservation is on the sidewalk and you have to be on a Philadelphia sidewalk, not Temple property,” Levy said in a video posted to YouTube

by Campus Reform.

YAL, however, believes this policy violates the First Amendment as Temple is a public university.

“Any time we’ve done something that’s just standing there, we never reserve a space because we believe it’s within our constitutional right to do so,” Lindquist said.

“Temple is a public university.

… As long as we’re not trying to hurt people or have a freestanding structure like a table, we have a right to be there.”

Levy told The Temple News he doesn’t believe the incident was a freedom-ofspeech issue, but rather part of a set of policies that are “important to maintain the academic process.”

“If folks are part of the organizations on campus, there’s a set of rules and regulations they need to follow,” Levy added. “We just want to make sure everyone has access to space that we think is appropriate.”

YAL contacted the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education which, according to its website, seeks to “defend and sustain individual rights at America’s colleges and universities,” like freedom of

just want “toWemake sure everyone has access to space that we think is appropriate.

”

Jason Levy | senior director of student services

KATHRYN STELLATO TTN

Student organizations set up tables at the Student Center after registering with Student Affairs. Recently, there has been discussion about reforming the Student Conduct Code relating to what is deemed public space on campus property.

speech, due process and legal equality.

FIRE gives Temple a “yellow” speech code rating, which means the code of conduct contains “at least one ambiguous policy that too easily encourages administrative abuse and arbitrary application.”

“Yellow-light” policies, which FIRE defines as “ambiguous policies that too easily encourage administrative abuse and arbitrary application,” like parts of Article III: Proscribed Conduct, section C in the Student Conduct Code.

This article states that “participation in a dissolved or unrecognized student organization” is against the code of

conduct.

Lindquist said this policy appears counterintuitive, as the process to become recognized as a student organization involves recruitment to begin with.

“We know that Temple’s speech codes are blatantly unconstitutional but the ways they enforce it aren’t consistent,” Lindquist added. “A lot of Temple’s code of conduct is kind of vague so they can enforce what they want.”

YAL is working with FIRE to reform Temple’s Student Conduct Code, Lindquist said. A university spokesman said he was unsure about any discussions between FIRE and YAL.

In a similar case from 1980, Pruneyard Shopping Center v. Robins, the judge ruled that individuals have the right to solicit on private property that is accessible to the public under the First Amendment.

“State constitutional provisions, as construed to permit individuals reasonably to exercise free speech and petition rights on the property of a privately owned shopping center to which the public is invited, do not violate the shopping center owner's property rights,” Justice William Rehnquist wrote.

Levy said most of Temple’s rules exist to maintain working order within the uni-

versity. He added that yelling “fire” in a crowded room technically falls under the rights of free speech, but could be dangerous to people, and thus is not allowed on Temple property.

Lindquist said as Temple is not a private university and accepts federal money, it is “bound by the constitution.”

“When it comes down to it, all we want out of this is for everyone’s First Amendment rights to be protected,” she said. * lian.parsons@temple.edu T @Lian_Parsons

MOVERS SHAKERS AND

Lifelong Philadelphian bridges community and university Andrea Swan, who serves as the director of the university’s Office of Community Relations, graduated from Temple 18 years ago.

By GILLIAN McGOLDRICK The Temple News Around the corner from Temple’s Office of Community Relations, community members are sitting in desks, working toward earning their GEDs. It’s a task in which Andrea Swan, director of the university’s Office of Community Relations, has played an influential part.

The Office of Community Relations, located at 1509 Cecil B. Moore Ave., is Temple’s main point of contact for community members, with residential, nonprofit and legislation constituents. The office meets with homeowners and tenant associations, block captains and leaders of housing projects around the area on a regular basis. The office also takes walk-ins in the office daily to answer questions about Temple’s work.

Swan is a native Philadelphian who wanted to go to Temple since she was 11 years old. She earned her undergraduate degree in 1998, a master’s degree in 2011 and is now working toward another adult and organizational master’s degree.

Swan doesn’t call those who live around Temple community members or locals—she always addresses them as “our neighbors.”

“It’s wonderful that Temple is an option for our young people,” Swan said. “But it’s so important to share with our neighbors, with the 45-yearold mother, who has two years [of college] under her belt and say, ‘You

BRIANNA SPAUSE TTN

Andrea Swan works in the Office of Community Relations. She is currently working toward a second master’s degree.

can come back to Temple and finish your degree.”

Swan spent 13 years away from Temple—when she was working for the Mayor’s Licenses and Inspections office as a public relations consultant. She even met her husband through Temple.

“Temple is so much ingrained in me, it’s such a part of my life,” Swan said. “Wherever I go, I don’t care what the topic is, I discuss the history of Temple University.”

Swan serves as adviser for Temple’s chapter of National Council of Negro Women, Big Brothers Big Sisters and Temple University Com-

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munity Service Association. She is also a point of contact for students who are looking to get involved with community service and connects them directly with nonprofit organizations.

She also frequently organizes service to volunteer at houses of worship like Berean Presbyterian Church with the student organizations she advises.

“These relationships are ongoing,” he said. “It’s like any other relationship: you love people, you may have tension but you’re always going to keep it moving. We’ve had some neighbors who have had some con-

cerns about recent happenings, but those issues are addressed and put aside, because there are other issues to address.”

Swan described a community member with whom she had a conversation. They discussed her concerns with the stadium, off-campus student issues and a collaboration with Temple students and her church.

“These are multi-faceted relationships,” she said. “At the end of the day, these relationships have been years in the making and we work together for a variety of topics.”

“We work together,” Swan added. “And even if we don’t agree, we

NEWS@TEMPLE-NEWS.COM

still respect each other and work together.”

One of Swan’s proudest works include the Big Brothers Big Sisters work with Philadelphia schools.

There are about 120 students who go weekly to surrounding schools to meet with their “littles.”

“She is quite amazing. She is still my mentor to this day,” health sociology 2008 alumna Bianca Augustine-McClendon said. “She’s an amazing, positive person. She’s always there to support me. And it’s not just for me, I’ve seen her there for others and how amazing of a person she is inside and out.”

Augustine-McClendon grew up at 12th Street near Lehigh Avenue.

She earned her master’s degree in health administration from St. Joseph’s University, which she partly attributes to Swan’s encouragement to continue her studies.

“She’s always a ‘You can do it!’ person,” Augustine-McClendon said. “I see the drive she has to give back to the community, to give back to Temple students. She doesn’t just work at Temple, she reaches out.”

Swan’s “willingness to always succeed” is what helped AugustineMcClendon push past adversities she faced during her college career.

“The ‘community’ part of her position really speaks for itself [because of] her always wanting to reach out and appreciate everyone around her,” Augustine-McClendon said. * gillian.mcgoldrick@temple.edu T @gill_mcgoldrick

NEWS

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2016

PAGE 3

Stopping the bleeding, saving lives Fighting Chance is a program taught by TUH nurses, which shows community members how to treat gunshot wounds.

By JULIE CHRISTIE The Temple News

DANIEL SEBASTIAN TTN

Brooke Walker dicusses the Department of International Students in her office last week.

New office helps assist a recent uptick in international students 2,470 international students currently attend Temple.

By JONATHAN GILBERT The Temple News Temple has seen a spike in international student enrollment during the last five years. Due to this spike, the university created the Department of International Student Affairs to aid the foreign students seeking an American education.

The university has experienced an 89 percent increase in international students during the last five years. In 2011, there were 1,442 graduate and undergraduate international students. In Fall 2015, there were 2,740 international students overall, according to the Department of International Students, as of Fall 2015.

The jump stemmed from the fact that Temple began to create recruiting offices worldwide.

“We created a brand new office of international admissions,” said Vice Dean of International Students Brooke Walker.

“We have a team of people who brand, market and recruit people abroad.”

Due to the rise in students, the university decided to create the new office Continued from page 1

BRYANT

day. Her grandparents bought the property in the 1950s, and it has since housed her sister, nieces and nephews.

Today, she’s a senior at Temple, and graduated with an associate’s degree in behavioral science at the Community College of Philadelphia last May. Her feelings toward the university, however, have changed since when she was growing up.

“I would ride by it, and I would go, ‘I want to go there,’” she said. “It was a prestigious university, you heard about it all over the country. … But then when I started hearing some of the policies and decisions they make about how they spend their budget every year, and then hearing about the stadium, just the more and more I heard about it, I wasn’t as proud.”

Along with being a fulltime student, Bryant works two jobs as a licensed minister at Overcomers Christian Center at 43rd and Westminster streets, and a ministry class teacher at the Christian Lifestyle Institute on 52nd Street near Greenway Avenue.

Despite all the religious work she does, knowing her home community is an impor-

to help students achieve optimal levels of academic success. International students face struggles like language barriers and differences in academic backgrounds, so the university decided a department was needed to assist the students.

“This new unit is dedicated to international student success,” Walker said.

“We don’t want students to fall through the cracks. I want to work with advisers, with faculty and with different associations at Temple University so that our international students graduate in four or five years.”

The new office is located in the Division of Student Affairs at 1802 N. Broad St. Previously, Walker helped Temple set up an international recruiting office in Beijing as assistant vice president for global partnerships and programs. The expansion of the university’s foreign offices helped with recruiting foreign students, which led to the jump in recent years, she said.

“Right now the international students have the second highest retention rate behind honors students,” Walker said.

Shagun Gupta, a junior business major from Mumbai, India, said she faced difficulties transitioning to school in America from India. One of her biggest

tant lesson she’s learned since starting three years ago.

“You really don’t have a leg to stand on if you start complaining and there is something that you could do and you didn’t,” Bryant said.

Bryant has regularly attended “Stadium Stompers” meetings at the Church of the Advocate, one of the organizations that opposes the possible on-campus stadium.

Pele IrgangLaden, a 2015 alumnus and leader of the group, said Bryant’s contributions have been invaluable.

“Glenda has been a great bridge between students and community members because she’s lived in North Philadelphia and is also a Temple student,” IrgangLaden said. “Besides all the great ideas she has, she’s been a big part of bridging those communities.”

Despite the magnitude of challenging the stadium, Bryant said life itself has posed many more challenges.

“I’ve been around for a minute, I’ve been around for over five decades,” she said. “So life in itself, the things people go through [are tough].”

One of her biggest challenges, she said, was giving birth to her daughter when she was 17. Now, Sharita Benson is 37, and works as a fashion designer in Greensboro, North

struggles included English classes.

Gupta said she went to the Writing Center, which has tutors trained for people learning English as a second language, but she continued to struggle. She said she would have benefited from the Department of International Student Affairs.

“When I started realizing that what I said mattered in class, that I was just like everybody else in class, I started talking more and writing more and now I don’t struggle with it anymore,” Gupta said.

Walker said communication between her and international students is vital to helping them develop.

“I need to hear from students—why do they come here? What is Temple doing well? And, can we do more to help them succeed?” she said.

The main goal of the department is to make sure that all international students have the means to succeed and immerse themselves in the Temple community.

“We want the international students to be successful,” Walker said. “We want them to become a part of the fabric of Temple University.” * jonathan.irwin.gilbert@temple.edu T @jonnygilbs96

Carolina.

“I love that she’s doing what she loves to do and making a living out of it,” Bryant said. “That’s what any mother wants for her child, so she did well in spite of me and a little bit because of me.”

Regarding the current struggle involving stadium discussions, Bryant said a lack of information and communication has led to the divide between the community and university administrators.

She added, however, that protesters need to remain focused and deliver a clear antistadium message to administration.

Even if community discussion starts, it may be too late, Bryant said.

“President Theobald, I think, mentioned that once he has recommended to the board to move forward, then he would have town hall meetings,” she said. “I’m like, ‘But you’ve already decided.’

So you’re basically not having a meeting with us to find out how we feel, you’re having a meeting with us to tell us what you’re going to do.”

Bryant admitted that an issue complicating the process is the polarizing views of individuals who support or oppose an on-campus stadium.

She believes it stems from the media, people’s backgrounds

and who raised them.

She thinks people in Temple’s surrounding neighborhoods are judged too quickly—which then leads to friction between the community and university.

“A lot of people look at North Philly, they ride the streets and they might see trash, they may see abandoned buildings and things like that, and they get this idea that people don’t care about their neighborhood,” she said.

“And it’s just not true. Sometimes it gets overwhelming, yes, and there are some people like that, but darn it, there are people like that in every neighborhood.”

“I’ve heard from students in some of my classes, I’ve heard with my own ears that people in the neighborhood, they don’t care,” Bryant added. “I always have to say, ‘Wait a minute, everybody’s not the same.’ You know?

There are some people there that do care.” * steve.bohnel@temple.edu T @Steve_Bohnel

ONLINE Watch a video profile on Glenda Bryant online at temple-news. com/multimedia

A gunshot to the arm should not be fatal, but Amanda McMacken, a registered nurse in Temple University Hospital’s Emergency Department, said she sees that risk of fatality over minor bullet wounds often.

“We have teenagers a few miles away from a trauma center who are dying because people don't know how to stop the bleeding,” she said.

Now, for a few hours every other week since December, McMacken—and several other nurses from TUH—volunteer their time to teach community members how to save lives.

Fighting Chance was developed by Scott Charles, the Trauma Outreach coordinator at TUH, and Tim Bryan, the assistant director of Emergency Medical Services at Temple. Bryan said the community had been asking for a program like Fighting Chance for years, but it took the “right people” to finally bring it all together.

“This makes us feel not helpless,” said Midge Smith, 67, who volunteers every day at the 12th and Cambria Recreation Center. “They taught us things we didn’t know much about for helping a person: how to use a tourniquet, that you got to plug up a bullet wound and the most important thing is to talk to them, keep them calm.”

The program is entirely centered around empowering people, Bryan said.

“The most traumatic thing for the person who’s not hurt is standing next to the person who was, and not knowing what to do,” he said.

“It’s heartbreaking. So many people have lost someone, and there are so many stories,” added McMacken, who volunteers for the Fighting Chance program. “And it’s not just one one person, they’ve lost multiple people—a brother or sister or nephew or their kid. Sometimes people forget the family is still involved, and the pain doesn’t go away. That’s why they’re there: to save their last child.”

The concepts of Fighting Chance were introduced at a monthly community meeting with the Philadelphia Police’s 25th District in late summer of 2015, said Ricardo Rose, a member of the Advisory Board at the 12th and Cambria Recreation Center.

“They wanted to try the initiative with a community that was already progressive,” Rose said. “Two-anda-half years ago, this neighborhood was dominated by drug dealers and gangs. There were shootings all the time.”

Dara Del Collo, a registered nurse in the TUH Emergency Room, volunteered her time to help teach the program and said almost everybody who attended the program had known or seen somebody get shot.

“Not knowing what to

do, they felt hopeless or helpless,” Del Collo said. “The first time we did a reenactment, and we told them to do what they normally do after a shooting, I was taken aback by the chaos.”

Through a strong partnership with the 25th District and community involvement, Rose said the community was able to “turn it all around.” It was this relationship with the police that connected Rose’s community with TUH to develop the program, he added.

“This is not Temple telling the community that they need this, this is the result of the community asking for years,” said Bryan, who constructed the curriculum of the program based off the U.S. Military’s course “Tactical Combat Casualty Care.”

“Large events like Sandy Hook or the Boston Marathon are rare, but there’s a shooting here every day.”

Bryan said the program has taught more than 80 people, and many attend the program more than once. At the end of the two-hour sessions, participants receive a certificate from Temple showing they have undergone trauma response training, Rose added.

“When we first started, there were boys outside playing ball on the court and Mike Abdullah, the vice president of the Advisory Board, he called them in,” Smith said.

“And you know, at first they were slow and sluggish because they didn’t want to be there, but at the end [of the program] they asked to come back, and they brought their friends.”

The training also helped when a man outside the recreation center collapsed from low blood sugar. Smith, along with others who had received training from the program, lifted the man and placed him safely in his daughter’s vehicle. By the time police arrived, they had “already sent him on his way” to the hospital, where he was treated and they later learned the man made it through the incident unscathed.

Bryan said the biggest challenge for the program now is the complete lack of resources.

“It’s 100 percent voluntary with no resources,” he said.

While the program has only come to the Glenwood community, Bryan, Charles and Rose all said they hope the program extends throughout Philadelphia.

“What they teach is beyond a shooting,” Rose said.

“This applies to helping anyone who is injured. [The community’s] participation and awareness has prepared them for catastrophic situations, but it also gives them a sort of comfort.” * julie.christie@temple.edu T @ChristieJules

EDITORIAL/OP-ED

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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2016

column | politics

A watchdog for the Temple University community since 1921.

Emily Rolen, Editor-in-Chief EJ Smith, Managing Editor Joe Brandt, Chief Copy Editor Steve Bohnel, News Editor Paige Gross, Opinion Editor Michaela Winberg, Lifestyle Editor Ryan Deming, Web Manager Victoria Mier, Arts & Entertainment Editor Julie Christie, Web Editor Michael Guise, Sports Editor Jenny Kerrigan, Photography Editor Lian Parsons, Asst. News Editor Margo Reed, Asst. Photography Editor Owen McCue, Asst. Sports Editor Donna Fanelle, Design Editor Jenny Roberts, Asst. Lifestyle Editor Finnian Saylor, Asst. Designer Eamon Dreisbach, Asst. Arts & Entertainment Ian Berman, Advertising Manager Editor Grayson Holladay, Business Manager Harrison Brink, Multimedia Editor Jeanie Davey, Marketing Manager Aaron Windhorst, Asst. Multimedia Editor

The Temple News is an editorially independent weekly publication serving the Temple University community. Unsigned editorial content represents the opinion of The Temple News. Adjacent commentary is reflective of their authors, not The Temple News.

Visit us online at temple-news.com.

Send submissions to letters@temple-news.com.

The Temple News is located at: Student Center, Room 243 1755 N. 13th St. Philadelphia, PA 19122

EDITORIALS

Start collaborating now The university needs to engage its neighbors, even without a concrete plan for the stadium.

Following last week’s editorial, “Let answers be heard,” President Theobald and administrators invited The Temple News’ Editorial Board to a follow-up interview that Theobald said would answer any questions we had about the building of a stadium on Main Campus, for the sake of transparency.

We’ve consistently reported on the community’s involvement—or lack thereof—in the discussion. In November, an administrator, William Bergman, told us “several private dinners” were being held to inform community members that the university was exploring the construction of a stadium.

In a November interview, Theobald shared preliminary financial and athletic details and addressed community concerns. He said the university reached out to the community for the first time that week.

“Things are still very preliminary. We haven’t had the neighborhood conversations, well, we just started them,” Theobald told us then.

Yet, in our interview last week, Theobald said community input would not begin until the university could present residents with renderings, data and the results of an environmental impact assessment, for which the Board of Trustees approved $1 million in funding at a special meeting on Feb. 8.

Our questions about community involvement thus far were redirected to Joyce Wilkerson, Theobald’s top adviser on community relations.

At the Feb. 8 meeting, some residents expressed concerns about homes being seized by eminent domain— the stadium is being built entirely on Temple-owned property—while others believed the stadium would be built on property formerly occupied by William Penn High School, at Broad and Master streets.

Wilkerson told us yesterday the current channels used to spread information through the community might not be ideal, or completely effective. She added that while she too is trying to be transparent about the process, until last week, there was nothing to tell.

“It’s hard for people to go out and say, ‘We’re going

to build a stadium,’” Wilkerson said, without first having details of the stadium, like the height, usage and proximity to current homes pinned down.

A task force consisting of students, faculty, administrators and community members will propose uses for the facility, but Theobald couldn’t confirm the number of people on the task force, or the ratio of representation. Wilkerson said it will meet sometime this week, but she couldn’t confirm any further details.

Wilkerson told us four block captains had been sent to New Orleans to see Yulman Stadium at Tulane University—a stadium similar to what Temple wants—information not widely known by community members or by us, until now.

The construction of Anderson Hall in the late 1960s, which was built on some property seized by eminent domain, set a negative tone for community relations with the university, which is still felt today, she said.

There’s no community development corporation or similar organization in North Philly with the clout to oppose the stadium. Filling some of that void is the “Stadium Stompers,” a group of students and neighbors who meet at the Church of the Advocate on Diamond Street near 18th. The group, Wilkerson says, is not necessarily representative of the community’s voice.

We know some concrete details: location, plans for funding and design challenges. Through all of this, administrators have stressed that talks are still preliminary, yet some consistent answers are offered.

But when it comes to the community, all we really know is that talks are preliminary, and not much outreach, if any, has happened since it allegedly began in November.

The Feb. 8 meeting showed many community members remain in the dark.

History has shown us the community-university relationship hasn’t been productive. We see now that not much has changed. If the university doesn’t recognize the seriousness of this decision and involve those affected before a plan is in place, that relationship won’t improve.

CORRECTIONS The Temple News strives to be a newspaper of record by printing factually correct and balanced articles. Accuracy is our business, so when a mistake is made, we’ll correct it as soon as possible. Anyone with inquiries about content in this newspaper can contact Editor-inChief Emily Rolen at editor@temple-news.com or 215.204.6737.

Shut down gendered campaigns Some candidates are taking a “softer tone” to appeal to women.

T

he 2016 presidential election is a milestone for me since this is the first in which I can vote. Keeping up with candidates’ positions on policies and polling results has become GRACE SHALLOW LEAD COLUMNIST a habit so I may be informed when Election Day rolls around.

According to a recent New York Times article, however, Republican candidates feel female voters, like myself, are only interested in politics when candidates take a “softer tone.” “[Republican] candidates who once vied to throw the hardest rhetorical punch are campaigning in gentler terms, emphasizing their compassion and human frailty, and especially their concern for women and families,” the article said.

Reading this felt like a slight—like my interest in the presidential race as a young woman was out of place amongst the male bravado

dominating the Republican race so far.

“The Republican presidential race has seemed at times like a contest of schoolyard insults and chest-thumping machismo,” the article said. “With Donald J. Trump leading the way, the campaign has repeatedly descended into a kind of primal struggle among men, each seeking to outdo his rivals through brutish intimidation.”

Travis Unger, a junior criminal justice and political science major, and chairman of Temple College Republicans, said Republicans, unlike Democrats, appeal to American people as a whole.

“On the Democratic side, you see a lot of pandering to certain groups of people and I feel like on the Republican side it’s more of voter-wide thing instead of just specific groups,” he said.

Laura Glennon, a junior political science major and vice president of the Temple College Democrats, told me her thoughts about Republican candidates’ concerns for women.

“I don’t think that [the Republican candidates] care and it’s obviously a big concern of mine. I think it’s very important candidates talk about [women’s issues],” Glennon said. “I think a lot of people think we have reached a point where gender is equal and I think that’s just incorrect.”

How women are treated

has been a topic in Republican candidates’ conversations and not only because of Trump’s comments about Megyn Kelly, Carly Fiorina and Hillary Clinton. Issues like defunding Planned Parenthood have been discussed throughout the 2016 presidential race, which could have huge consequences for women nationwide.

“Much of what Planned Parenthood does is STD/STI

such services have on women’s health care. A fact that is often overlooked is women have been an integral part of American history through the good, bad and ugly.

Through the historical milestones, like the Lewis and Clark Expeditions and the Underground Railroad, we all know the big female players like Sacagawea and Harriet Tubman amongst many other

screening providing contraception, wellness checks and sexual education sessions,” The Temple News reported in October. “Planned Parenthood offers counseling for the relationship aspects of sex and sexuality, offers services for victims of domestic abuse, sexual abuse or assault and cancer screenings.”

I believe if Republican candidates are discussing Planned Parenthood and other important issues like abortion or the gendered wage gap, they should not be thinking of the female electorate only in terms of “frailty and human compassion.”

These candidates should be aware of the positive impact

examples. These instantly recognizable names are not the only women who were integral parts of American history.

Women have celebrated every national celebration, grieved for every national tragedy and have been participants in American history since the country’s conception in both big and small ways.

If candidates continue to speak to and consider female voters as a “special kind” of voter, and not an integral part of their constituency, I hope those feelings are reflected on voting day.

This felt like a slight–like my “ interest in the presidential race as a young woman was out of place.”

* grace.shallow@temple.edu

FROM THE ARCHIVES Feb. 7, 2012: The Temple News published the annual Movers & Shakers issue, profiling people in the Temple community who go above and beyond in their every day life. This year, we profiled musicians, organizations, athletes, artists and academics on what they’re doing right now.

column | media

Proposed bill is unconstitutional A journalism registry could violate the First Amendment.

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bill in South Carolina’s House of Representatives could threaten journalists’ right to remain independent of govern-

ment.

The South Carolina Responsible Journalism Registry Law proposed by state Rep. Mike Pitts makes unregistered, practicing journalists in the state illegal.

Journalists who are found unlicensed can be fined up to $25 for their first offense. If these journalists continue to work without a license, they will be fined up to $100 and can spend up to 15 days imprisoned.

To join this proGILLIAN MCGOLDRICK posed registry, journalists must present an affidavit from their publication and a background check must be performed.

The bill is formulated to be similar to a gun registry.

A right to free press is written into the First Amendment and journalism is one of the many jobs utilizing this freedom in the Bill of Rights. This same free press, unregulated by any government institution, is crucial to democracy.

If the press is regulated and registered with the government, then the government can, in theory, pick and choose which journalists can publish work.

A registry for guns makes sense:

those who own a gun, a weapon that can cause physical harm if used improperly, should have to undergo these checks that are required in the bill. But journalists have their own code of ethics that are taken seriously by all professional organizations.

Executive Director of the Student Press Law Center and First Amendment attorney Frank LoMonte said there is “no way” this bill could be considered constitutional.

LoMonte said this registry does not seem too threatening to journalists due to the backlash it’s already received from journalists across the nation, but he fears for the status of press freedoms if the bill is taken seriously.

“If [the registry] went any place, if it got serious consideratio, then it would be incredibly intimidating to journalists trying to go to the Capitol,” LoMonte said.

“Someone is considering whether or not you can remain in the profession or not.”

Journalists already go through background checks before they receive government credentials for covering many major events. A registry is a perfect example of restrictive government—a politician putting their hands on the rights of others where they do not belong.

“The profession has standards to police itself,” LoMonte said. “If journalists are behaving in an unethical way, then there are already mechanisms in the profession to drum those people out. We don’t need licensure to do that.”

The congressman who proposed this bill is one of the few who defended the confederate flag remaining in front of the state Capitol back in July 2015.

Some people may occasionally pose

as journalists to get into important events, LoMonte said. The registry would be impractical even if people were asking for licensure at every interview.

“I think fortunately the backlash has been so fierce that it may have the opposite effect of what was intended and make journalists more determined just because they know this is such an overreach,” LoMonte said.

The bill received criticism from many outlets including editorials from the Washington Post and Huffington Post.

The South Carolina Press Association told Bluffton Today they would fight “tooth and nail” if the bill got any traction. According to NPR, the state’s branch of the American Civil Liberties Union said the bill is “another (unconstitutional) waste of tax dollars.”

Since Pitts proposed the bill, he has said that it was a “ruse” to show “media bias” when it comes to the First Amendment after the backlash it received.

Many journalists fell into his trap, but it is up to journalists to fight for their right to be independent whenever a threat is brought up against them. And to use tax dollars to propose a bill that would threaten a free democracy is irresponsible at best.

Bullets and guns can break one’s bones, but a journalist’s words need to remain unregulated.

“Hands off my gun!” is very different than “Hands off my First Amendment.”

A gun can kill and maim. But a journalist? Our words may have power and can travel at a speed faster than a bullet, but shouldn’t be treated as killing machines. * gillian.mcgoldrick@temple.edu

OPINION

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2016

PAGE 5

column | pop culture

Formation: an ode to black life A black celebrity has finally gotten it right.

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s a fan of the Wu-Tang Clan, I was heartbroken when I heard that RZA, the leader of the nine-man group from Staten Island, New York, told Bloomberg News “all lives matter.” He followed that statement by suggesting black men be more aware of the type of image they portray.

Not long after, when asked on Fox & Friends about the lack of diversity in this year’s Oscars, “Clueless” star—no DARRYL MURPHY pun intended—Stacey Dash said channels like BET are a “double standard” to integration, and should be done away with. Ironically, BET, and other black outlets, have helped to keep her relevant for more than two decades.

I was baffled.

I then thought of the black celebrities like Pharrell Williams, Raven-Symone and Common, to name a few, who in recent years inspired Twitter jokes, ruthless memes and scathing think pieces because their take on the black experience was myopic and off-base.

I was concerned for black people in pop culture. I can tolerate those who don’t speak up about racism—that’s not what I am looking for from them. But many are using their platform to downplay its effect, and that is just plain treacherous. “[Those celebrities] don’t speak for the community, they speak for themselves,” said Lina Richardson, a Ph.D candidate of Urban Education. “It’s really about your proximity to struggle at the end of the day.”

I agree. Perhaps, as a celebrity in a higher class stratosphere, you can forget what it is like to be black in America.

Unless, you’re Beyoncé.

On the eve of the 50th installment of America’s unofficial “holy day”—the Super Bowl—I received a series of backlogged text messages from a good friend.

One read: “Believe it or not, I needed…

THAT NEW BEYONCÉ!” followed by 15 bee emojis.

When I arrived home later that night, I logged onto Facebook and saw

my news feed flooded with status updates about a song called “Formation,” which was giving everyone “life.”

My curiosity led me to Google. I watched. I was not let down—not that my opinion matters, I’m not one of the women she’s urging.

She sang about black pride and feminism, with visuals of revolution in the video. She told us she likes her “baby hair, with baby hair and afros” and her “negro nose with Jackson Five nostrils.”

And if that wasn’t enough, perhaps the most relatable moment of the song, is when she tells us she’s “got hot sauce in [her] bag.”

are beautiful and their lives matter.

I loved it—but again, that doesn’t matter. Her message didn’t stop at blackness, it pushed through to her feminism.

Beyoncé was empowering black women, the core of the black community. She called for all of the ladies to “get in formation,” and warned if they don’t “slay” they “get eliminated.” She then destroyed the last bit of any wholesomeness left to her image when she told the world, with two middle fingers in the air, “When he f--k me good, I take his a-- to Red Lobster.”

Unapologetically black, unapologetically woman.

donna fanelle TTN

Yes, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, the biggest pop star in the world, carries hot sauce in her bag. And, yes, for many, it is that serious.

The video, set in New Orleans, opened with her standing on top of a police cruiser sinking in the waters of the decimated city, as local social media star Anthony Barre, better known as Messy Mya, asks: “What happened after New Orleans?” Barre was gunned down leaving his girlfriend’s baby shower in 2010.

In the middle of the “Formation” video, police in riot gear surrender with their hands up to a black boy dancing, dressed in all black, with the video cutting to the words “STOP SHOOTING US” spray-painted on a wall.

Beyoncé’s position could not be more clear. She hit the mark that so many artists and celebrities have missed by miles. She let it be known that black people, with all of their hairstyles, shapes, sizes, shades, genders and preferences

Not even 24 hours after its release, during the halftime of football Christmas, Beyoncé managed to remind us of the Black Panthers’ 50th anniversary, as she and her dancers performed the new song dressed in black leather outfits honoring them. It is worth mentioning it was also Sandra Bland’s birthday.

The next day she announced her Formation World Tour and revealed she will start a fund to benefit the children of Flint, Michigan.

No artist since James Brown has had such undeniable influence, power and has been so explicit about black pride.

While many noted black celebrities avoid or dance around race, Beyoncé, who is arguably bigger than the music industry, wrote a song about it, with lyrics and visuals that clearly let you know where she stands: on top of a police car sinking in the waters of New Orleans. * darryl.murphy@temple.edu

LETTER TO THE EDITOR ...

Low voter turnout in TSG elections left some dissatisfied.

As both an alumnus and a part of the adjunct faculty of Temple University, I am deeply disappointed by the Board of Trustees’ decision to move forward with plans to construct a stadium in North Philadelphia despite disapproval from students, members of the North Philly community and even the mayor of this city himself.

Those protesting the stadium have long maintained that Temple administration, and the Board of Trustees especially, refuse to hear the input of students on issues that directly impact the university and its place in North Philadelphia. Students and community members have been successful in registering their dissent through public demonstrations, but there is another way that students can make their voices heard.

When asked about their interaction with students, Temple administration typically cites meetings with Temple Student Government as proof that they are listening.

So who is Temple Student Government, and who do they represent?

Ryan Rinaldi is the current TSG president and leader of the Future TU party. According to their site, the Future TU party purports to have a platform based on “Three Pillars,” one of which is “Unite the Communities,” but it makes no mention of North Philadelphia. Rinaldi is also unambiguously pro-stadium.

Future TU was elected with 66 percent of the vote. However, only 17 percent of the student body voted in the last election. That's roughly 11 percent of the student body who voted for Future TU. I will be the first to admit that I never voted in a student election. I was never convinced that Student Government held any meaningful power. Based on those numbers, I wasn’t the only one. I regret that now.

At Board of Trustees meetings, the TSG President is supposed to represent the concerns of the entire student body.

The TSG President is just about the only interaction the Board of Trustees has with students at all, except when chairman O’Connor is cursing out student reporters over the phone.

So when Rinaldi says to Trustees, “Sometimes pushback from a few doesn’t necessarily represent the student body,” he is seen as speaking for all Temple students.

But Rinaldi and Future TU only represent 11 percent of the student population. So what would happen if all the students I see getting out, making noise, and trying to make Temple accountable to the wants and needs of students and the community, formed a party and ran in the next TSG election?

And what if they not only put together a party, but organized to inspire students to vote? That way, someone who represents the actual student body could have a seat at the table. Someone who not only would fight for students, but would represent the interests of the community as well.

Winning a student election alone won’t stop the stadium.

Putting a conscientious student party in power is but one step in the process of making Temple a more democratic institution, but it is a clearly achievable, and potentially powerful move in the right direction.

It can’t be hard to beat 11 percent.

Tyler Horst is a faculty member, alumnus and former freelance writer for The Temple News. He can be reached at tmhorst@gmail.com.

column | media

New media on campus: good idea, poor execution The Tab succeeds at page views and not much else.

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s the point man for polishing—and on the rare occasion, performing word-surgery on—the written content of the current reigning student media organization here, The Tab’s tagline was provocative enough to get me interested.

“The Tab is a like (sic) your student paper except better! We cover the news students care about, in a style that they actually want to read,” the Twitter bio reads.

The Tab’s tagline, touting its conversational style and openness to “anything a Temple student wants to write about”—as expressed

by Dylan Keith, a senior journalism major and one of the three top editors for The Tab’s JOE BRANDT Temple edition.

I just spent hours unifying The Temple News’ voice before seeing that tagline for the first time. What is this big corporation, and what is it doing in our market?

I felt the disruption.

In the past month, this stylebook-less, “conversational” online news startup has burst onto the discourse of the Temple community with content ranging from a Valentine’s Day video in which staffers give passersby roses (and Tab-branded condoms) to breaking news coverage.

Its rise to popularity on campus has been helped by sharing articles on Facebook and tabling at campus events (where condoms, Tshirts, water bottles and other “swag” make an appearance). A post on a student’s disorderly

conduct arrest in the TECH Center, rumored to be for stealing Twinkies from 7-Eleven, drew 115 likes and a plethora of comments.

But what about that tagline?

I sat down for an hour-long interview in Annenberg Hall last week with the three top editors including Keith, junior journalism major Jordan Gunselman and sophomore journalism major Alexa Ross, who stressed the tagline was handed down from higher-ups and that it didn’t apply here.

reaching into the college media market as some students become disenchanted with their print newspaper. Besides The Tab, there’s The Odyssey Online and Her Campus, similarly structured and minded organizations. The Odyssey also brands itself as a student-newspaper alternative.

“Student newspapers have put the people writing first and not really bothered to think about the audience, in my experience,” The Tab’s co-founder Jack Rivlin told the Press Ga-

“We’re still establishing ourselves here, we’re still finding our voice at Temple, so for now we’re just going with what The Tab brand itself uses,” Gunselman said.

“I don’t think The Tab is better than The Temple News,” Keith later added. “We are two separate types of writing, two separate types of journalism.”

The Tab is a British media company which has opened 44 university bureaus in the United Kingdom and has plans to expand to about 200 schools in the United States, according to the Press Gazette, a British publication. The Temple iteration, which launched this year, boasts about 15 “core” staff and about 90 “interested” who could get involved in the future, the editors told me.

Across the country, professional newspapers are undergoing layoffs or buyouts, and we’re seeing the decline of City Hall bureaus, daily print editions and investigative reporting.

There’s an emergence of national organizations

zette last week.

“They tend to be filled with stuff about Middle Eastern politics, dry university press releases, Hollywood film reviews.”

The difference between The Temple News and whichever papers Rivlin was talking about is that we are covering what people care about, on top of what they actually need to know. We haven’t had a Hollywood review in years and we’re the best account of what is happening in the North Philadelphia community.

We have a set of checks and balances in place that would deter some of the more controversial editorial decisions made at The Tab. In recent weeks, they’ve gotten their most attention yet, the editors told me.

Last week, The Tab found a photograph of a car on which three men in Philly sports jerseys had drawn the N-word and a swastika in the snow. They published both the word and the Nazi symbol.

“It’s sad that something like that hap-

covering what people care about, on top of “We’rewhat they actually need to know.”

LETTERS@TEMPLE-NEWS.COM

pened,” said Student Body President Ryan Rinaldi, who added that Temple Student Government later referred Temple Police to The Tab’s post. “We just wish it was blanked out. We got the gist.”

“If a child is walking down the street and can see that, a college student can handle it,” Ross said. “It should be known that these things are going on ... we just put it out there, like, this happened, and they’re looking for the people who did it.”

That’s one way of doing it, and consistent with The Tab’s organizational values—to be first, to be conversational. “We don’t need to change our voice” for serious news, Ross said.

“And we do things as they’re happening.”

Other media organizations which picked up the story chose to censor, including philly. com.

The Tab’s format of times—“2am” instead of the proper Associated Press “2 a.m.” and other inconsistencies, as well as writers competing in a national contest to have their stories reach a certain benchmark of shares (the local branch of The Tab will allegedly win money if they do) will continue to infuriate me. And some of their editorial decisions that we wouldn’t be caught dead doing, like publishing the N-word and a swastika, or making a spectacle out of a disorderly conduct arrest, will infuriate me too.

But for the most part, I’m going to remain an optimist, even though some of my stodgier colleagues disagree. The Tab, as a more open forum for student voices, is a fundamentally good idea. The trouble is in the execution and maintaining its relatable and conversational tone when covering tough news.

But we’ll always be there for that. * jbrandt@temple.edu T @JBrandt_TU

NEWS

PAGE 6

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2016

NEWS BRIEFS

Cosby attorneys appeal decision in Constand case CRIME

ees and lack of proper temperature measuring devices for food. The solutions for many of these violations are easily corrected, he added.

If all goes well in Oyakhire’s next checkup, Saige Cafe will not require further investigation until next year’s annual inspection.

-Lian Parsons & Julie Christie

TEEN ARRESTED OUTSIDE PEARL THEATRE SATURDAY

Philadelphia Police removed several rowdy teenagers from the Pearl Theatre on West Oxford Street Saturday evening.

Executive Director of Campus Safety Services Charlie Leone said between six and eight juveniles had been causing a disturbance in the theater, and when the manager could not remove them, a Philadelphia Police officer stepped in.

Once the teens, all younger than 17 years old, were outside the building, they continued the disorderly behavior. Leone added several went to Wendy’s and one threw a milkshake.

Leone said only one teen was arrested because he was “the only one who was not compliant at all.”

He added the teen was later released to his parents.

-Julie Christie

TRIAL DATE SCHEDULED FOR BRANDON MEADE

Brandon Meade will go to trial for the alleged murder of his girlfriend, Agatha Hall.

Hall was a Temple student found dead in her apartment Aug. 31, 2015.

Her death was initially ruled a suicide, but further investigation resulted in the arrest and charging of Meade for her murder.

The trial is scheduled for Sept. 19, with a trial readiness conference Feb. 29.

Meade is charged with murder, possession of an instrument of crime with intent to use it, tampering with evidence, false reporting and falsely incriminating another.

If Meade is found guilty, he will face either the death penalty or life in prison without parole.

-Julie Christie

COSBY ATTORNEYS APPEAL TO END CONSTAND CASE

On Friday, Bill Cosby’s attorneys attempted to have his sexual assault case dismissed. Cosby’s attorneys argued that Bruce L. Castor Jr.’s 2005 deal with Cosby to never criminally prosecute him for the 2004 Andrea Constand case was binding.

Brian McMonagle, one of Cosby’s attorneys, filed the appeal notice to the state Superior Court, the Inquirer reported. He also appealed Judge Steven T. O’Neill’s decision not to disqualify District Attorney Kevin Steele.

Steele said his office opposes any fur-

STATE NEWS URSINUS CANCELS CLASSES AFTER VIRUS SPREADS

ALEX BEAUFORT TTN

Saige Cafe received 17 health code violations in a health inspection earlier this month.

ther delay in the case, the Inquirer reported.

He added he believes the defense should not appeal before the preliminary hearing.

A Massachusetts judge ruled on Thursday that Cosby’s wife, Camille Cosby, must sit for a deposition. The judge also declined her request for a formal protective order limiting the extent of questioning.

Cosby’s preliminary evidentiary hearing is scheduled for March 8.

-Lian Parsons

UNIVERSITY NEWS STUDENTS DISPLACED AFTER PIPE BURST IN 1940

Pipes burst on the fifth floor of 1940 Residence Hall, displacing students about 9 a.m. Sunday. The students were moved from the dorm to Tomlinson Theater and then to the atrium in Annenberg Hall.

Maintenance spent the day vacuuming water out of the dorm, said Charlie Leone, executive director of Campus Safety Services.

Students were allowed to return after an email was sent out just after 5:15 p.m.

Leah Hetzell, the resident director of 1940 Residence Hall said in an email to residents the burst pipe was caused by “a campus-wide heating issue.”

That same morning, students in 1300 Residence Hall were woken by fire alarms that went off seven times between 1 a.m. and 8 a.m. There was no damage to the building and residents were allowed in once the alarms were over, Leone said.

-Julie Christie

LOCAL CAFE RECEIVES SEVERAL HEALTH VIOLATIONS

Saige Cafe received 17 health code violations during a Feb. 4 inspection.

The cafe, located on 1802 N. Warnock St. near the Temple University SEPTA station, will remain open, said cafe co-owner Ram Hegde.

“If [the inspector] didn’t think we weren’t going to be compliant, we wouldn’t be open right now,” Hegde said. He added most of the violations, which included food that was less than six inches above the ground and uncovered trash cans, were “fixed in a moment.”

The most serious violation was the absence of a certified food safety handler during the inspection, Hegde said. Several employees have already registered to receive the certification, and go in for the test next week, he added.

“It doesn’t mean that the place is going to shut down,” said Oliver Oyakhire, inspector from the Philadelphia Department of Health/Office of Food Protections. “It just means that the standards are going to improve.”

Oyakhire said he will return in two weeks to reinspect the cafe. If Saige Cafe fails to comply with the violations, it will be submitted for a $315 fine. Failing compliance after the fine may result in court summons.

“It is essential that [the cafe] address these violations,” Oyakhire said, citing inaccessible handwashing stations for employ-

Classes were cancelled Thursday and Friday for students at Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pa. after about 200 students got sick from a gastrointestinal illness.

6ABC reported that a norovirus—often know as food poisoning or stomach virus— caused the sickness. Students first began experiencing symptoms of diarrhea, vomiting and stomach pain on Tuesday night.

A Montgomery County Health Department report conducted on Wednesday found the campus dining hall to have 12 violations including dead bugs, improper hand washing practices and pesticides near food, the Inquirer reported. All of the violations had been fixed the following day. The illness that students and some faculty suffered lasted between 12 and eight hours.

Twenty-two students were treated at hospitals but none were admitted. Classes resumed Monday for the 1,681 students at Ursinus.

-Gillian McGoldrick

IN THE NATION SUPREME COURT JUSTICE FOUND DEAD IN WEST TEXAS

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, 79, died of a heart attack on Saturday, according to multiple media reports.

Scalia was the leading conservative voice on the nation’s highest court and was on the bench for 29 years, the longestserving justice on the Supreme Court.

Scalia was nominated by President Ronald Reagan in 1986 and was best known for the landmark decision District of Columbia v. Heller that firearms in one’s home are protected under the Second Amendment. Scalia was also known for dissenting on the Roe v. Wade decision and the same-sex marriage decisions.

President Obama has announced he intends to nominate someone for the vacant seat, which is now split 4-4 between conservative and liberal views.

-Gillian McGoldrick

President discusses developments about possible on-campus stadium Continued from page 1

STADIUM

stadium, community involvement can “really get started.” She said the idea of a stadium is difficult to present to community members when many details about traffic, design and other factors are still being worked out, she said.

“That’s why I thought it was really important to get the [Board of Trustees] to commit some resources so that when we go to the community, there can be a meaningful process,” she said.

Theobald said Thursday while he favors an open dialogue between students, community members and administration, constructive discussion is imperative moving forward.

“My concern is that a free exchange requires two-way communication,” he said. “And in the [Temple Student Government] forum on [Feb. 1], there was a clear attempt to keep others from speaking.”

During the Feb. 8 Board meeting, which was held specifically to discuss stadium details, 10 public commenters spoke for around 40

minutes about their concerns about an on-campus stadium. Both Theobald and Wilkerson said the comments were catalogued and the university has already followed up with some of those people.

Theobald said a task force of faculty, community, student government and staff council members is

site at Geasey Field.

Other issues, including traffic, parking and the overall design are still being studied, he added.

Wilkerson added in the past few months, she and four nearby block captains traveled to Tulane University to see how Yulman Stadium, Tulane’s on-campus stadium which

We are a 900-pound gorilla. ... We flex “muscle, and may not even realize.”

HOJUN YU TTN

President Theobald speaks at the Board of Trustees meeting Feb. 8.

Joyce Wilkerson | senior adviser to the president

currently being created to assess how the stadium would be used outside of football games. Wilkerson will spearhead this group, which is set to start meeting next week.

Community members have voiced opposition to the possible stadium since its proposal in late October. Many have expressed concerns about issues regarding tailgating, but Theobald said there would be “no tailgating on the west side of Broad Street,” near the proposed stadium

NEWS DESK 215-204-7419

opened in 2014, has impacted the surrounding neighborhood in New Orleans.

Regarding the university’s relationship with the community, Wilkerson said some community members’ perceptions of Temple being a “bully” to its surrounding neighborhoods are legitimate.

“You have an institution with 38,000 students and a gazillion billion dollar budget,” she said. “We are a 900-pound gorilla. We hire

hundreds of people … thousands of people, but hundreds of community residents. We flex muscle, and may not even realize. It’s true, we’re a big old institution, one of the largest institutions of this city.”

One of the most outspoken groups against the possible stadium has been the “Stadium Stompers”— a group of students and community members—who meet every other Thursday at the Church of the Advocate. Theobald said although he believes a stadium is the next step for Temple, a debate is necessary moving forward.

NEWS@TEMPLE-NEWS.COM

“I can understand the people who say no, continue to lease the stadium at the Linc,” he said. “That’s why there is a debate here, because there are two sides or more, so sure, I understand why they would have that view.” * news@temple-news.com T @TheTempleNews Emily Rolen, EJ Smith and Joe Brandt contributed reporting.

lifestyle

The Owlery The features blog of The Temple News

BIRTHDAY FOR CAFE

QPOC PROVIDES SAFE SPACE

The Rad Dish Café hosted an open mic night last Friday to celebrate one year in business.

PAGE 16

Elías Gonzalez is the president of Queer People of Color, a student organization that provides a safe space for gender and sexuality discussions.

PAGE 8

FREE BUS TO BALTIMORE

The Tyler School of Art will offer a free bus to the Baltimore Museum of Art on Saturday. Registration is limited to 54 students.

PAGE 18

TEMPLE-NEWS.COM

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2016

PAGE 7

Inclusive cycling for women A graduate student is cofacilitating workshops for women, transgender and femme cyclists.

By JENNY ROBERTS Assistant Lifestyle Editor Stephanie Rogers said she has been talked down to before by salesmen while trying to buy cycling gear.

“Shopping for gear for winter biking, I’ve had salesmen tell me like, ‘Oh, I just grow a beard, so I don’t have to wear a balaclava or whatever,’” Rogers said. “It’s like, ‘Oh, well, that’s not really helpful for me, because I can’t grow a beard.’”

Rogers, a graduate student working toward her MFA in photography at the Tyler School of Art, said encounters like this are a result of the maledominated cycling world.

“There’s a lot of macho attitude related to cycling,” Rogers added.

To create a safe haven from these attitudes, Rogers began facilitating workshops through WTF Cycles, a bike co-operative for women, transgender and femme cyclists, as part of her independent study to receive a certificate in community arts practices.

WTF Cycles holds workshops on the second Sunday of every month. The second workshop was held last Sunday in Room 104 of the Architecture Building.

WTF Cycles is only one section of co-operative programing run through Cycles, a bike shop recently opened just northwest of Main Campus in mid-January by Jacob Kenney, a 2015 architecture alumnus.

Before Cycles opened, the space at 1426 W. Susquehanna Ave. was occupied by Neighborhood Bike Works, a chain of cycling-centric non profits.

Geena Cain, a bike mechanic and program facilitator at Neighborhood Bike Works in West Philadelphia, used to work at the Susquehanna Avenue location before the space became Cycles.

Cain co-facilitates the WTF Cycles workshops with Rogers.

“I really like the idea of empowering people who are not cisgender ‘bros’ to be thrilled about cycling, as not only a pastime, but as a valid means of transport,” Cain said.

Cain, who identifies as transgender, has facilitated other WTF events in the past and said WTF programming

CYCLES | PAGE 17

DANIEL RAINVILLE TTN

Junior theater majors Kate Brighter, (left), and Phoebe Gavula perform in “The Diner,” an original Temple production, co-written by sophomore Emily Young.

Student play shows family matters Emily Young co-wrote “The Diner,” a play feautured at Randall Theater last week.

By BROOKE WILLIAMS The Temple News

M

elissa Green and Emily Young finished the first draft of their original play at 4 a.m. on Green’s 17th birthday.

HARRISON BRINK TTN

Kenan Thompson performed in Tomlinson Theater Monday night.

SNL cast member comes to campus

By MICHAELA WINBERG Lifestyle Editor

GENEVA HEFFERNAN TTN

of the decade, like poodle skirts, checkered-patterned counters and roller skating waitresses, and rarely sees any customers after years of neglect.

The play is a two-woman show that focuses on high school seniors and waitresses Amy and Heather.

Young has always been fascinated by families, and made it a central theme to the play.

“The rules are very blurred in the Western world,” she said. “We don’t have the same sense of familial duty that other cultures have, especially Eastern cultures.”

Both main characters try to balance the duty

DINER | PAGE 16

Building community on campus, brick by brick

Kenan Thompson performed on Main Campus last night.

Stephanie Rogers sorts through tools at Cycles, a shop on Susquehanna Ave.

“It was like a birthday present to myself,” Green said. “I remember Emily planned a surprise party for me and pretended she was busy that day when I wanted to meet up and read it together.”

Young, a sophomore theater major at Temple, and Green, a sophomore theater arts and English double major at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, teamed up to co-write “The Diner,” which was produced and performed

by Temple Theater’s Sidestage Season. The show ran from Thursday to Sunday.

“The Diner” is set in a run-down, 1950sthemed diner in present-day Idaho over the course of two days. It includes several elements

When Kenan Thompson first joined the cast of “All That,” he said he and his fellow cast members felt like rock stars.

“Until we would go to the mall, and no one knew who we were,” Thompson told The Temple News yesterday.

LIFESTYLE@TEMPLE-NEWS.COM

Last night, Thompson visited Main Campus as part of XFINITY’s Professor of Entertainment contest, where students from multiple colleges voted to win a performance from Thompson on campus. At 7 p.m., the 13-season cast member of “Saturday Night Live” took the stage at Tomlinson Theater and talked about his life—“but in a funny way,” he said.

When he first landed a gig with the children’s comedysketch show in 1994, Thompson said he was shy around his costars. It seemed like everyone on the cast was already friends, and he was nervous.

KENAN | PAGE 18

Two seniors cofounded the group Building Relations in Communities.

By ALBERT HONG The Temple News Andrew Mazer said a brick opened his eyes to the “ecology” of the North Philadelphia neighborhood he lived in—after a group of teenage girls hit his girlfriend’s face with one in March 2014 just west of Main Campus.

Since then, he’s been on a mission that is reflective of a brick’s original purpose: to build.

“It gave me this drive to try and find a way to kind of tap into [the community] and start to make it … more of a peaceful, harmonious kind of a place,” said Mazer, a senior architecture major. “My medium to do that was through architecture and more specifically, the architecture of relationships and communities and the sociology in an urban environment.”

That spring semester, he and Veronica Ayala-Flores, another se-

nior architecture major, co-founded Building Relationships in Communities, a multi-disciplinary student organization aimed at fostering stronger relationships between Temple and its neighbors.

One of the group’s three core initiatives is to create relationships among local organizations with common goals. Through mapping and reaching out to various groups, Mazer and Ayala are working toward a “network-finding, network-building” database published on the group’s website. It would be a resource for students and groups to find other likeminded activists who could use their help.

“It would be more productive if we unite all of our efforts, so if there is already an organization there, you can easily access it and volunteer for them,” Ayala said. “That way, we have less competition and more addressing the actual problem.”

Mazer and Ayala have been collaborating with local community efforts, like Temple’s Good Neighbor Initiative, Asociación Puertorriqueños en Marcha, Inc. and the Urban Creators.

BRIC also teamed up with Dr. Mahbubur Meenar, a professor and the assistant director of Temple Am-

BRIC | PAGE 17

LIFESTYLE

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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2016

MOVERS SHAKERS AND

‘Reel girls’ focus on gender issues LeAnn Erickson will bring high-school aged girls to Temple for a workshop.

By GILLIAN McGOLDRICK The Temple News In 2010, LeAnn Erickson compared the demographics of Temple’s Department of Film and Media Arts with the demographics when the program first opened more than 40 years ago.

She said she found the data disturbing.

“It was very upsetting, the very low percentage of both women and people of color in the program,” said Erickson, a film and video production professor. “We always had a feeling that [representation of genders and races] were very skewed just by looking into our classes, but not like this.”

After this, Erickson set out to get more young women into the Temple program and introduce them to the film industry.

Erickson and her co-director Dede Maitre, an assistant professor in the film and media arts department, will host a one-day workshop titled “Reel Girls” on April 16 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. In this workshop, girls from high schools within an hour driving distance of Temple will write, produce, film and screen their own short film.

“If we didn’t start doing something about [the disparities among genders and races], then it would just continue,” Erickson said.

Reel Girls is returning for the first time since 2010 and 2011.

Erickson said by fostering the interest of young girls in filmmaking through Reel Girls, she hopes when these girls are choosing schools, they remember Temple.

“If they want to study filmmaking, the hope is that they think of Temple Film and Media Arts department,” she said.

After the first time scouting for girls to attend the Reel

Girls workshop, Erickson said she only looked at surrounding high schools which had media arts programs. Since then, she has expanded her outreach to photography classes and musical theater programs.

This year, the Reel Girls workshop organizers targeted 60 area high schools. The workshop has pushed their original goal of 15 girls to a cap of 30.

If they reach their cap, Erickson said she would consider adding a second April workshop.

“I really feel strongly that every person has a story to tell and we want [Temple] to be the program that can support everyone on their journey,” Erickson said. “Everybody’s work is enhanced by diversity.”

“Some of the problem of what we’re seeing in Hollywood and the industry is that the same old guys keep on hiring people who are like them because they feel comfortable with them,” Erickson added. “But that never pushes art forward. … Working with people with a different point of view, who bring something else to the table, ends up making work that in my opinion is much more exciting and creative.”

Freshman film major and co-director of Reel Girls, Eve Siconolfi, said she became interested in film while studying at her arts-concentrated high school, but she never understood why the film field was so competitive.

When Siconolfi learned that only four women have ever been nominated for best director for the Academy Awards—and only one woman has won the Oscar in the category—she wanted to see more representation for women in the film industry.

“It’s just like women in the STEM subjects—women want to do it, but it’s hard to do something when you go to class, but it’s predominantly boys,” Siconolfi said. “In one of my classes now, there’s only 10 girls out of 40 students. And it’s kinda like, ‘Really?’”

“It’s time for a little change,” she said. * gillian.mcgoldrick@temple.edu T @gill_mcgoldrick

KATHRYN STELLATO TTN

Jamya Day (left), treasurer of Queer People of Color, and Elías Gonzalez, president, hold bi-weekly meetings.

A safe space for students Students focus on the relationship between race and sexuality.

By PAULA DAVIS The Temple News Elías Gonzalez, the president of the club Queer People of Color, said he strives to provide a healing space for a very specific group on Main Campus. “[As a member], QPOC is your best friend,” the junior media studies and production major said.

Gonzalez said he noticed that in other student organizations at Temple, students often have to choose between discussing their racial identity and sexual orientation.

“You don’t have to choose one or the other,” Gonzalez said. “Members learn how their queer identity and racial identity intermingle.”

Jamya Day, a junior actuarial science major and the group’s treasurer, said the members of QPOC value the extra dimension of discussion based on how race ties into the challenges of being queer.

“You don’t have to compromise identities to be in QPOC,” Gonzalez added.

In meetings every other Wednesday, the group discusses topics relevant to both queer people and people of color, like consent, self-love and self-care.

QPOC also collaborates with other student organizations, like the Asociación de Estudiantes Latinos and

Students for Justice in Palestine.

QPOC held a program with AdEL called “Beyond the Color Lines,” which focused on “dismantling the stigma of colorism” in communities where shades of skin vary within a single race, Gonzalez said.

The stigma refers to the idea that lighter-skinned people, despite being the same race as darker-skinned people, are more appealing. This event raised awareness about how colorism isn’t just found within one racial group.

QPOC also collaborated with SJP in a two­-part series. The first part of the series was called “What’s Going on in Palestine” and the second part was called “Queer Resistance from Philadelphia to Palestine.” The second part of the collaboration related the trials of a queer person of color to the trials of Palestinian people resisting against Israeli powers.

Earlier this month, the group visited the William Way LGBT Community Center, at 1315 Spruce St., for a screening and discussion of the documentary titled, “Holler If You Hear Me: Black and Gay in the Church.”

QPOC’s meetings often provide a forum for what Gonzalez calls “productive venting.” Minority groups often get caught in a cycle of victimization, Gonzalez said, and QPOC strives to avoid that.

“We want to bring more education and empowerment,” he said.

Day said she encourages discussion during meetings that often makes members feel uneasy—oftentimes, uncomfortable discussions can inspire growth, she said.

“If you aren’t comfortable with a topic of discussion, stay uncomfortable,” she said. “That’s how you learn to become comfortable.”

“Your voice has complete validity,” Gonzalez said. “It matters.”

Language can be limiting, Gonzalez said. Oftentimes, new members aren’t yet sure how to label themselves, either by race or sexual orientation.

QPOC doesn’t ask members to label themselves during meetings.

“We want people to stop telling them who they are,” he said. “A person’s identity isn’t going to be the forefront of anything. You are what you tell us. QPOC doesn’t assume.”

“You’re just part of the family.”

By refraining from labeling members, QPOC also strives to establish a more comfortable setting for members who aren’t queer or people of color— who Gonzalez said are equally welcome at QPOC’s biweekly meetings.

Gonzalez said QPOC’s meetings are always a “learning experience,” and the presence of straight members doesn’t take away from the safe space.

“The space we create is one for anyone, as long as they’re willing to learn about the experience of a queer person of color,” Day added.

“We transform people through love,” Gonzalez said. “In other groups, there’s love and there’s transformation, but there’s no transformation through love.” * paula.davis@temple.edu

Professors ‘changing the cityscape’ for students A professor created Urban Thinkscape to help students learn

By ALEXIS ROGERS The Temple News Kathryn Hirsh-Pasek said she thinks of herself as the “grand imaginer” of one of her most recent projects: Urban Thinkscape.

The goal of the project is to help increase Philadelphia children’s academic and social skills outside of the classroom in their routine environment. Hirsh-Pasek wants to develop public spaces as high-quality learning opportunities for children and increase parent engagement.

“It is literally bringing museum-like, interactive elements to the streets so that parents don’t have to go out of their way, so that it is right there for parents during their daily

schedules and their already busy lives,” said Jacob Schatz, a research assistant in the psychology department. “They can have an educational, playful outlet for their children as well as themselves.”

Hirsh-Pasek, a professor in the psychology department, is leading the charge on the project, along with Brenna Hassinger-Das, a postdoctoral fellow in the psychology department. Schatz is also contributing to the initiative.

“Urban Thinkscape is a project that is designed to reimagine the cityscape into opportunities for playful learning,” Hassinger-Das said.

Hirsh-Pasek said children spend about 20 percent of their time awake in school. The other 80 percent, she added, is often spent participating in activities that are not engaging or educational.

The program is still in its early stages—there is an extensive design process that goes into reforming public spaces, like coordination with city officials, architects and the community.

can have an educational, playful “They outlet for their children as well as themselves.”

Jacob Schatz | research assistant

“The idea here is to marry science with architecture,” said HirshPasek.

Although there are no official sites for the interactive areas yet, the goal is to place them at everyday locations with high traffic volumes or where people may have to wait for a period of time, like bus stops, supermarkets and doctors’ offices.

“It really is changing the cityscape,” said Hirsh-Pasek.

Urban Thinkscape hasn’t installed any interactive public spaces yet, but Hirsh-Pasek said she has a few ideas, like an interactive puzzle installed into the back of a bus bench.

“It is just making public spaces

family-friendly and giving people access to these quality activities so they don’t have to make a special trip to the children’s museum,” HassingerDas said.

“I think the most beautiful thing and the most exciting thing about this project is that it hopes to inspire parents and children to interact together, and that is a huge problem in American culture today,” Schatz said. “Parents and children aren’t having these discussions, these dialogues that enrich children’s educational experiences.”

The group of developers is dependent upon the support and involvement of the community.

“We want to make sure that the community has a voice, that it is heard loud and clear and that the members of the community get to give a lot of input into what they want their community to look like,” Hirsh-Pasek said. “This is not about us, this is about building stronger communities with people who live in the neighborhoods.”

The group hopes to officially launch the program in about a year, Hirsh-Pasek said.

“Children in any community, children everywhere, should have an opportunity to engage in new and wonderful experiences that develop their executive function skills, that teach them content, that teach them creativity, that teach them critical thinking, and that expand upon their curiosities,” Schatz said. * alexis.rogers@temple.edu

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT LOCAL DIRECTOR WINS THEATER AWARD

CELEBRATING BLACK HISTORY MONTH

Blanka Zizka, the artistic director and co-founder of the Wilma Theater, won the Vilcek Foundation Prize for theater.

The foundation honors immigrant contributions.

PAGE 10

Galleries, museums and shops across the city are celebrating this month with special events focused on reminding visitors Black History should be remembered and celebrated year-round.

PAGE 11

TEMPLE-NEWS.COM

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2016

PAGE 9

BRINGING TOGETHER THE FABRIC OF PHILADELPHIA “theyFinally gave us

Jessie Hemmons, known as Ishknits, sees yarnbombing as a new form of communication.

crochet hooks and yarn. I was desperate. I begged these girls to teach me.

By ERIN BLEWETT The Temple News

D

uring her time at the Pennsylvania juvenile correctional facility VisionQuest, Jessie Hemmons learned to crochet because none of the other girls would talk to her.

“Finally they gave us crochet hooks and yarn,” Hemmons said. “I was desperate. I begged these girls to teach me.”

Crocheting, she said, was an effective form of nonverbal communication when “all other forms had failed” while she was in the facility. Her time at VisionQuest was an important experience teaching her yarn and

crochet could be an effective way to interact, Hemmons said.

Hemmons said she has seen crocheting “bring people together in a way that verbal communication” could not. This experience led her to believe that yarnbombing had the potential to to “bring Philadelphia together.” “[VisionQuest] changed my framework for life,” she added. “Not that I have any idea what it’s like to be a minority, but I got a tiny taste of what it feels like to be isolated in a situation and I think it was an important experience for me to have coming out of an environment where I’m of the majority.”

Today, Hemmons is better known around Philadelphia as Ishknits. A self-proclaimed “craft-ivist” and yarnbomber, she creates a style of street art that involves yarn instead of spray paint. Her work has been featured on TIME Magazine’s website and local street art blog, Streets Dept.

”

Jessie Hemmons | street artist

JENNY KERRIGAN TTN

Jessie Hemmons, also known as Ishknits, is a street artist who practices yarnbombing.

HEMMONS | PAGE 14

Alumna named city’s third laureate

Transgender icon leaves style legacy

In her new role, Yolanda Wisher aims to reach out to the community through poetry.

Donna Mae Stemmer, who died in June, left behind more than what was in her closet.

By VICTORIA MIER A&E Editor When Yolanda Wisher’s son was born six years ago, she started thinking about what would be left behind for him—trunks of journals, filled with poems that had never seen the light of day, or “something more substantial.”

Wisher chose the latter.

After about 15 years of “putting pen to paper,” the 2000 creative writing MFA graduate was recently named Philadelphia’s poet laureate. As the city’s third laureate, Wisher will participate in a variety of poetry events and use the medium as a vehicle for civic engagement.

“I want to demonstrate the art form,” Wisher told The Temple News last Wednesday. “People have a voice to be found. People really need that stuff to calibrate, sometimes, the trauma and the suffering and the pain of living.”

Some of Wisher’s other goals are to create new events, partner with organizations across the city and impact schools and the way poetry is involved in the curriculum.

Though Wisher recognizes there are many people in the city who love and appreciate poetry, she also wants to serve the people who “don’t already get it.”

“She’s always exploring another way to make poetry cool or relevant or cutting edge,” said Trapeta Mayson, a fellow poet and political science alumnus. “She’s going to want to really push to make poetry accessible.”

Wisher said she wants to “enhance, expand the definition of poetry and what poetry can do through my own example.”

Wisher’s own life would be an impressive example. From a young age, Wisher always had a talent for poetry, nurtured by her family and teachers. The first poem she ever wrote was a limerick in fourth grade­—“the best homework ever,” she

WISHER | PAGE 14

By TSIPORA HACKER The Temple News

PATRICK CLARK TTN

Musician and social activist Liz Ciavolino started a series of benefit shows with the Coalition to Abolish Death by Incarceration. Ciavolino and the group hope to raise awareness of the issue by appealing to people in a non-political way.

READ MORE ‘LOCAL MUSIC, LOCAL ACTIVISM’ FOR AWARENESS | PAGE 10

ARTSandENTERTAINMENT@TEMPLE-NEWS.COM

Jacquelynn Kane said Donna Mae Stemmer taught her how to eat chicken fingers with white gloves on.

“She was a good friend—she was a close good friend throughout all these years,” said Kane, a long-time friend of Stemmer. “As years went on we stuck together, and people went their own ways.

We all get older and some people die or get sick, one time we may have all been part of a group—in the end it was me and Donna Mae.” Stemmer was a Philadelphia transgender fashion icon who passed away in June. The Temple law alumnus and Korean War veteran was known for her activism and outfits in the city’s trans community.

After her passing, one of Stemmer’s friends called Philly AIDS Thrift, on 5th Street near Bainbridge in Queen Village. The friend suggested the organization collect the alumnus’ clothes, afraid the collection might be lost.

“We don’t do a lot of pickups,” said Tom Brennan, store manager of Philly AIDS. “But we knew we had to make this happen. It would have been tragic for her stuff to disappear.”

Stemmer and the rest of the community regarded Philly AIDS Thrift as a safe space, making it a logical resting place for her clothing collection. Stemmer also documented her outfits by photographing herself. Brennan found boxes of Polaroids when he went to her house.

Now, her extensive closet, including her old cheerleading uniform and a wide selection of jewelry, will be for sale at Philly AIDS Thrift. All of the proceeds will be donated to multiple AIDS organizations.

“It’s kind of amazing—she’s still giving back to the community,” said Michael Byrne, president of the Philly AIDS Thrift board.

STEMMER | PAGE 14

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2016

MOVERS SHAKERS AND

‘Local music, local activism’ for awareness Liz Ciavolino created a benefit series to try and create social change.

By EMILY THOMAS The Temple News Liz Ciavolino’s harp career started at 7 years old, when a professor at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore told her she had “perfect harp fingers.”

Today, the young Philadelphia musician is combining her love of music with activism. Teamed with CADBI, the Coalition to Abolish Death by Incarceration, Ciavolino is hosting a series of three benefit shows at W/N W/N Coffee Bar to raise money and awareness for the coalition, whose mission is to rework Pennsylvania law so prisoners with life sentences can have the possibility of parole.

The benefit series, which started on Jan. 17, will continue with its second show Feb. 21 and a final show March 20. The shows feature presentations from representatives of CADBI alongside various musicians, including Ciavolino’s band Liz & the Lost Boys.

A musician since childhood, Cia-

volino moved to Philadelphia in 2011 after studying harp at the University of Maryland, College Park. She hosts shows in her backyard and plays at local venues with her band.

“She’s just a real go-getter, she likes bringing people together,” said Anthony Coppa, a friend of Ciavolino’s and a local musician. “She’s very positive and open to celebrating other people’s work and sharing her own.”

Ciavolino’s involvement with activism started in college, where she joined the group Feminism Without Borders, among other activist organizations.

“I have all these dreams about art making the world a better place,” she said. “But it’s taken me a long time to find a way to actualize those ideas, so this is sort of like my first step in trying to do that and I hope to do more of it.”

Ciavolino was drawn to the political uproar of the 1960s and the artists who helped contribute, like Bob Marley and Bob Dylan, as well as more recent cross sections of art and activism—specifically, in the Black Lives Matter movement, she said, like British artist Blood Orange.

Ciavolino said she hopes the benefit series will help raise awareness for CADBI’s mission to end death by incarceration, a phrase

referring to the 5,100 prisoners in Pennsylvania serving life sentences without the possibility of parole.

CADBI believes sentencing people to life without parole is cruel and unconstitutional, and hopes to have the law changed so prisoners can have a fair chance at parole, according to the organization’s website.

Ciavolino approached the organization about the benefit series idea, admiring the initiative’s local approach to helping the community.

“I think a lot of people, including myself, get caught up trying to solve the entire world or solve all of mass incarceration,” she said. “We have to work on each individual state and each individual law and CADBI’s an organization that’s doing really awesome work and it’s doing it very locally and it’s work that could have a really lasting influence.”

Ciavolino said the benefits shows are not only to raise money for CADBI, but also to provide a stepping stone for people to “feel more easily engaged … with new ideas.”

“One thing that’s important to me is helping people feel invited to participate in local music but also local activism,” Ciavolino said. “I think the arts can really make politics accessible in a way that just talking about politics doesn’t.”

Coppa believes combining ac-

PATRICK CLARK TTN

Musician and social activist Liz Ciavolino started a new benefit series.

tivism with Ciavolino’s music and community organizing abilities helps engage the young people that come to her shows.

“I think 20-somethings are so inundated with pop culture and media,” Coppa said. “I feel a pulse that people want something that goes a level deeper and has some sort of real substance. I think the shows work because it’s cool to sit and listen to a thoughtful musician and Liz’s music really shines in an intimate setting.”

“I think her music and her style go hand in hand with serious social and political conversation,” he added. “These shows are more like listening parties and there’s a feeling of thoughtfulness and introspection in her music and also in the community

gatherings that she’s putting on, it really lends itself well to a discussion about serious social issues and also finding ways to effectuate change.”

For Ciavolino, it’s far too easy for musicians to “cocoon” themselves away and focus on individualistic goals.

“But if you have something that you’re excited to do that could benefit someone besides just you, I think that’s a really cool thing to do,” she said. “It’s easy for me, and probably everyone in the world, to forget how big the world is sometimes.” * emily.ralsten.thomas@temple.edu

Alumni filmmakers’ work shown at Sundance Festival EVAN EASTERLING TTN

Keith Fulton and Lou Pepe’s new film, “The Bad Kids,” was featured at the festival in January.

Blanka Zizka received a $100,000 prize for immigrant artists from the Vilcek Foundation.

Director wins Vilcek Prize Blanka Zizka was recognized for her contributions in theater.

By GRACE MAIORANO The Temple News When artists risked imprisonment under the reign of communism in 20th century Europe, Blanka Zizka escaped to underground theaters in Prague.

Across the Atlantic and nearly a half a century later, Zizka is the Wilma Theater’s artistic director and co-founder. She was recently awarded $100,000 for her work in theater through the Vilcek Foundation, an organization that raises awareness of the contributions from immigrants in the arts and sciences around the country.

“The [Vilcek] Prize coming at this point in time not only elevates Blanka as the leader of the Wilma Theater but as a very important artistic figure in the Philadelphia community and also in the national and regional theater community,” said James Haskins, the Wilma Theater’s managing director.

“Blanka is a masterly director with daring vision and sensibilities,” said Shinnie Kim, program officer of the Vilcek Foundation. “And there is her dramatic immigration story.”

In then-Czechoslovakia, Zizka said there was a lack of information and influences, unlike all the material available to her now in the United States.

But that deficiency taught her a lesson she brought to the shores of America after immigrating to Philadelphia in 1977.

“You are actually hungry for finding out more, so it gives you a focus,” she said. “You are hungrier than ever.”

That hunger still serves as her catalyst. In a day and age where regional theater falls victim to box office plummets, approach toward the artistic process becomes pragmatic, morphing into an “assembly line,” Zizka said.

When starting a new production, Zizka strips the text down to its authentic meaning. She encourages her actors to embrace this strategy, removing all layers to the “zero point.”

“As an actor, you need to lose all of your in-

hibitions,” Zizka said. “… We all create personas to deal with the world around us. We all create a little bit of a character to protect ourselves, and on stage, people can’t be hiding behind a character or props.”

Zizka said, however, freelancing instead of consistently working with a company can compromise finding this vulnerability, since the actors are physically and emotionally isolated from one another. She said she wants to “revamp the system” by maintaining a body of consistent actors through the Wilma’s “Hothouse,” which trains local artists through master classes and workshops taught by world-renown theater instructors.

Alongside implementing new techniques, Zizka said she wants to integrate international artists into the Wilma troupe, coinciding her hunger to explore uncharted territory onstage.

“Theater is actually one of the spaces where you can bring people of different color, different races together and create a piece that unifies everything,” Zizka said. “Maybe under the color of our skins we actually have much more in common … we need to talk about that ‘cause we’re constantly talking about differences, which polarizes the world.”

Last season, the Wilma produced “Hamlet,” featuring African-American actress Zainab Jah as the title character, which “expanded the palet” by sparking an alternative way of thinking about the classical work, Zizka said. She also strives to recruit talent from the city and its surrounding areas.

Zizka’s unconventional aspirations for the Wilma have especially evolved since becoming the sole artistic director of the theater in 2010.

“I think that was a big opportunity and realization for her, that suddenly she had a little bit of a sense of freedom to develop her own vision, her aesthetic for the Wilma Theater that wasn’t in any way in conjunction with another person,” Haskins said.

“I think we need to risk and we need to go out there and try new things, because doing the old known and safe is not going to attract people,” Zizka said. “... So I feel we need to push the limits of what we think theater can be … it may be an idealistic goal, but that’s the way to do it. That’s the way I know to do it.” * grace.maiorano@temple.edu

By TSIPORA HACKER The Temple News Alumni Keith Fulton and Lou Pepe have listened to many stories about eviction, pregnancy and addiction.

“There’s a human impulse that makes it difficult to stand there with a camera and continue to be an outsider. We end our days depressed,” Pepe, a 1997 film alumnus, said.

Fulton, a 1995 film alumnus, and Pepe faced many emotional challenges while filming “The Bad Kids,” a documentary following three at-risk teens studying at an alternative school. The documentary was recently accepted into Sundance Film Festival.

The filmmakers spent more than two years on “The Bad Kids,” which is “kind of short for a documentary,” Pepe said.

The alumni wanted to make a film that was purely observational, portraying their subjects in a “dramatic and intimate way, so the audience would be exposed to the social issue in a purely emotional fashion,” Pepe added.

“Educational films tend to be full of statistics,” Fulton said. “We wanted to make it purely character-driven. It plays like a fiction film, which is huge.”

Fulton and Pepe said at-risk youth are often stereotyped, which influenced the film’s title. The alumni wanted the audience to see the experience of the individuals featured “through their own eyes,” Pepe said.

“The Bad Kids” is set at Black Rock Continuation High School in the Mojave Desert. The desert quickly became a strong visual metaphor for the filmmakers.

“The desert is a harsh and unforgiving environment, a very blatant mirror for the harsh circumstances that these young kids face,” Pepe said. “It captures an environment that doesn’t care about anything or anyone, alienation and isolation. When you spend time in the desert, you also see a subtle beauty. This is also a metaphor for these young people, as there’s an incredible amount of life in the desert.”

Both Pepe and Fulton began their careers in the MFA program in the School of

Film and Media Arts in 1990.

“Who we are as filmmakers 20-something years later is very much a result of our years at Temple,” Pepe said.

Pepe credits his and Fulton’s occupations to the university, saying their careers started when filmmaker Terry Gilliam came to Philadelphia to film “12 Monkeys.” Gilliam’s assistant director asked one of the alumni’s professors, Warren Bass, if he had any students available to shoot a promotional piece to document the making of “12 Monkeys.”

Bass immediately thought of Pepe and Felton.

“Keith and Lou were the two stars of the MFA program, and they produced absolutely amazing work in every class I had with them,” said Bass, who still teaches at Temple. “I recommended Lou and Keith, and when they showed Gilliam their film work, he hired them immediately.”

“Keith and I always say we owe our careers to Warren Bass,” Pepe said.

The pair later passed down the favor while making “The Bad Kids,” hiring Bill Hilferty, a 2013 film alumnus, as their assistant editor.

Pepe had taught Hilferty during the film department’s study away program in Los Angeles, later hiring him as a general office assistant.

“I just started to edit footage,” Hilferty said. “I guess they liked what I did because they brought me on for longer.”

Hilferty narrowed 250 hours of footage down into 50 hours, picking the scenes he thought were worthy.

“You’re writing the movie while you’re editing,” he said. “Choosing what to show, which scenes show the development of the characters best.”

Pepe said the odds of getting a film into the Sundance Film Festival are “more difficult than getting into Harvard.”

Bass was the only one unsurprised when “The Bad Kids” was chosen for Sundance.

“I honestly expected them to get into Sundance, because that’s the quality work that they do,” Bass said. “They are brilliant.”

For Pepe, the pair is simply following its curiosity and not asking for permission to be creative.

“Do things that matter to you, make films that matter to you,” Fulton said. * tsipora.hacker@temple.edu

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2016

PAGE 11

EXHIBITS

MOVERS SHAKERS AND

Local designers strive to break ‘down barriers’ Conrad Booker and Ashli Reese want to change the landscape of fashion design.

By ERIN MORAN The Temple News Just days before Philadelphia Fashion Week, designer Ashli Reese wasn’t finishing her last-minute preparations for the runway like most of her peers in the industry. Instead, the lupus survivor of 13 years was preparing for the debut of melvetier, her new brand of convertible outerwear specially designed for women going through body changes.

Conrad Booker, Reese’s fellow designer-in-residence at the Philadelphia Fashion Incubator at Macy’s Center City, was busy finishing his design for The American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women Red Dress Collection at New York Fashion Week.

Booker, a 1986 architecture alumnus, accidentally landed in design after he was laid off following four years of work at a local architecture firm. From there, he decided to begin offering freelance design services for interior and architecture firms, but ultimately ended up in fashion.

“If you really stop and think about it,” Booker said, “it’s a natural progression in that architecture is all about structure and form and the greatest piece of architecture is the human body.”

Reese recently signed on for an additional three months with the Incubator, which she compares to a fashion MBA program, as she prepares to debut melvetier. After struggling with lupus for several years, Reese found herself with a huge wardrobe due to constant changes in her body.

Although she started designing clothing for men and women, Reese quickly realized she wanted to solve a problem. With that realization, she launched melvetier as a solution for women experiencing body changes due to illnesses, pregnancy and general life changes.

Reese’s main goals are to solve the problems in women’s fashion that traditional designers do not always pay attention to, as well as prove it is possible to be successful in spite of obstacles.

“I love breaking down barriers because I

think I have such a unique story and I don’t mind a challenge and I don’t mind going into this paving the way for a woman of color, a woman with a chronic illness, a single mother, a mother in general,” Reese said. “Whatever hand you’re given in life, it’s still possible to live your dream and turn your dream into a career that is successful.”

“More diversity is going to come and more women are going to be taking charge of more couture houses,” she added. “I think women designers are coming full force and they’re coming with problems that have not been solved yet.”

Both Reese and Booker cite the Incubator as a large step forward in their fashion careers.

Booker said his time with the Philadelphia Fashion Incubator has given him the necessary resources, contacts and experience with the business side of fashion design to grow his brand, conradbookerCOLLECTION, as he prepares next fall’s collection, which he describes as “very artisanal in its selection of materials and its application and handwork.”

“Having been on my own as a freelance designer for years, you struggle with making those connections and hoping that one day you’re going to meet people who might lead you in the right way and give you the right guidance,” Booker said. “It wasn’t until I got into the Incubator that I was exposed to so many industry professionals.”

Reese also initially struggled with settling into her niche in the fashion industry, but the Incubator helped her focus her creative energy and set career goals.

“It has helped me answer the question, ‘How do I make my talent into my career?’” she said. “That’s something that I think a lot of designers struggle with.”

While neither Reese nor Booker are participating in this month’s Philadelphia Fashion Week, they both have plans to shake up the scene before the next fashion week in the fall.

“I think Philadelphia is going in a direction that people are going to be proud of and people are going to be excited about purchasing from,” Reese said.

“Philadelphia is a manageable city,” Booker said. “You can meet a lot of people and get a lot of stuff done and you have the room and the resources to do it. Philadelphia will never be New York, but it has its own identity when it comes to fashion.”

Reese and Booker both contribute to Philadelphia’s fashion identity through their creative projects, such as Booker’s upcoming handbag debut and art showing at the James Oliver Gallery on Chestnut Street near 8th and Reese’s venture with melvetier.

“Be true to who you are. I am living proof that it can be possible,” Reese said. “I believe it’s possible because I’m doing it.” * erin.moran@temple.edu

EVAN EASTERLING TTN

Conrad Booker created a design for the Go Red for Women event.

Continued from page 1

BALLIN

the storytellers discuss what they learned, and didn’t learn, about black history.

Sandra Clark, the Inquirer’s managing editor, said the series is the first project to run every day for over a month in all three publications: the Daily News, the Inquirer and philly. com “She really, really worked hard to come up with a diverse group of stories, and you know, I’ve just gotten nothing but good feedback about that,” Clark said.

Each interviewee—33, including Ballin—is black. Some had advised Ballin to include non-black speakers, but she remained determined not to compromise the message of the series.

“It’s important to have black people telling black stories and giving them a platform to do so,” Ballin said. “That’s empowering for a young black kid who may have only had white teachers all their entire life, and for the first time they’re learning something from a black person.”

After she moved from Mount Vernon to the Poconos in Pennsylvania, she began noticing internalized

racism in black students. At her new school, her classmates and teachers were mostly white.

“And I’m sitting right there, and I’m listening to it and I was like, ‘Wow. When did you forget that you are great? When did you forget that you are great?’” Ballin said. “‘Do you know that you are a gem, walking through these halls?’”

When she was 17, Ballin began writing for The Coil Review, a website that celebrated natural hair. Under the influence of her parents, Ballin had never chemically altered her hair—something she said is so rare in the black community that she’s been likened to a unicorn.

“I’ve never processed her hair for a reason,” said Julie Ballin, Sofiya’s mother. “I believe that you should love yourself the way you are.”

Julie Ballin always knew her daughter could write, but did not realize the magnitude of her talent until Sofiya recited a poem at her high school’s Mother’s Day celebration.

“People were crying, people were holding their chests. I was a mess!” Julie Ballin said. After seeing the effects of her daughter’s writing, she encouraged her daughter to pursue it as a career.

“From that day I knew. I said,

EVAN EASTERLING TTN

An exhibit at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts showcases works by Norman Lewis.

Events highlight Black history, start conversation Organizers stress importance of Black history year-round.

By IMAN SULTAN The Temple News For Sonja Peterson-Lewis, a Temple African American studies professor, Black History Month isn’t just about honoring the past—it’s also about building the future.

“The whole purpose of [Black History Month] was so people could build upon that, not just so that they could reflect, but so that they could project forward,” Peterson-Lewis said. “So the importance of Black history is the same as the importance of all history, so that people can know about the past, so that they can prepare and build for a better future.”

“If it’s going to achieve what Carter G. Woodson intended for it to achieve, it has to be for people’s everyday lives,” she added. “People feel the responsibility for adding to it, not just learning it.”

Hannah Wallace, a senior African American Studies major, raised a similar issue.

“Black History Month is not really the month we think it is,” she said. “Originally, when the month came out, [people] were supposed to study Black history all year long. And then the point of Black History Month was to culminate what we learned.”

Wallace is an assistant archivist at the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection, which compiles more than 500,000 items on the history and culture of African Americans. The Blockson Collection plans to hold events for Black History Month, including a discussion about the experiences of black men on Feb. 18, related to the recently released book, “Question Bridge: Black Males in America.”

But Wallace said these events are yearround.

“I think with it being Black History Month, we’re putting it forward as Black History Month, but we usually do events,” she said.

Robert Cozzolino, one of the curators for “Procession,” an exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts showcasing the artwork of Harlem-based black artist and activist Norman Lewis, echoed Wallace’s sentiments.

‘Go ahead, go ahead, just be the best journalist that you can because you have something there, something in you, that is different, that is original, that is unique,’” Julie Ballin said.

Ballin began looking at Temple when her best friend applied. After reading about the urban, diverse environment at the university, she committed without visiting.

In her introductory class, she listened as the associate professor of journalism, George Miller, told the class about his then-newly created alternative music magazine, JUMP. Immediately, Ballin offered to write for Miller.

“Who is this pompous little kid?” Miller said he remembered thinking at the time.

The first story Miller assigned to Ballin was budgeted at 600 words.

Ballin turned in a 1,500-word piece.

Miller began editing Ballin’s pieces with her, line by line. She became attuned to the music scene, interviewing artists like Black Thought, covering block parties and handing out magazines at Made in America.

One day when Ballin was a sophomore, she was reading the magazine’s masthead when she noticed her name was on the list of senior staff members.

“He was the first person to really

“I would prefer a world where Black history, women’s history, is integrated into all we do as a society and culture so that it isn’t cordoned off for a 30-day period,” Cozzolino said.

“As a curator, I seek integration and interaction.

I would like to see an art world where children visiting the museum see the work and gradually realize that the installations are 60 to 40 artists of color, or women to men.”

Cozzolino also said PAFA has planned to exhibit Lewis’s work for many years.

“PAFA has specialized in exhibitions that represent artists who have been marginalized or fell through the cracks,” he said. “Lewis is certainly one of those artists. So while the show happens to be on during Black History Month, it was motivated by many other reasons.”

Atomic City Comics on South Street near 7th launched an art exhibition on Afrofuturism the first Friday of this month. Joe Turner, coowner and curator, said he shows Black artists throughout the year instead of confining those shows within a month.

Turner said he understands the marketing aspect and giving people something easier to connect with, but it’s still “strange.”

“If I have an art gallery show every month, there’s going to be a place for anyone’s Black experience, and experience in general,” he said.

Turner said Afrofuturism doesn’t have a fixed definition, but is “a way to examine historical events and the possibility of the future through the filter of Afrocentricity or African diaspora experience.”

“In truth, Afrofuturism is bigger and less monolithic than any definition that can be given,” Turner said. “The concept of what’s possible for the future has less to do with artistic visualization, it has more to do with interpreting your own experience and what you would like to see from the possible fictional future, what’s possible in publishing, or what’s possible in real life.”

Wallace added that the future is critical in continuing to celebrate Black history and people.

“We have to keep the conversation going so it’s not supposed to be just this month,” she said. “Definitely celebrate Black history all year round. Never bring it down to one month.” * iman.sultan@temple.edu

JENNY KERRIGAN TTN

Sofiya Ballin is a journalism alumna and one of the youngest staff writers at the Inquirer.

say like, ‘Your ideas are great,’ and to run with them,” Ballin said. “He was part of the reason why I can now have a project like this and pitch it to The Philadelphia Inquirer staff.”

While attending Temple, Ballin also interned for the Daily News. On campus, she kept busy working as the president of the Student Organization for Caribbean Awareness and contributing to Huffington Post.

Finally, Clark, who’d heard about Ballin from a colleague, reached out to the student. In September of 2014, Ballin joined the Inquirer staff.

“We get so few hires these days, that we really have to hire people who can, you know, who have real promise and can make a difference

quickly, and I would say she’s one of those,” Clark said.

During her time at the Inquirer, Ballin has written everything from a tribute to Fetty Wap’s “Trap Queen,” to a commentary on cuffing season, to a profile on Black Lives Matter activist DeRay McKesson, to a series on black history conducted by black people.

“It’s pretty fantastic,” Miller said of “What I Wish I Knew.” “And it’s ‘cause of her, you know? She went out there and did that. It’s like the most amazing level of pride you could ever imagine.” * angela.gervasi@temple.edu

PAGE 12

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2016

BRIANNA SPAUSE TTN

Villain Arts’ 18th annual Philadelphia Tattoo Convention stopped in Philadelphia this weekend, offering an offbeat way to spend Valentine’s Day. Hundreds of tattoo artists attended the Pennsylvania Convention Center Friday through Sunday. Walk-ins and appointments were welcome all weekend. Artists offered many different styles, from traditional to Japanese.

Well-known artists like Tim Pangburn from TLC’s “America’s Worst Tattoos,” and contestants like Chris Blinston and Matt O’Baugh from SPIKE’s “Ink Master” were present at the convention. Local favorites like Philadelphia Eddie’s Tattoo 621 were also in attendance. A diverse entertainment lineup spanned the three-day convention, including a freak show, human suspension and live painting.

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PAGE 14 Continued from page 9

HEMMONS

“[Hemmons] first reached out to me through email,” said Conrad Benner, founder and editor of Streets Dept. “I didn’t even know what [yarnbombing] meant. I had to Google it.

Until that point, yarnbombing was generally a wrap around a tree or a pole. She took it to a completely different level.”

Hemmons’ first piece was on a bike rack near 16th and Market streets, and she still remembers being nervous, despite having read a street art book which listed excuses to use if an artist is stopped while completing their piece.

The book even detailed crochet patterns for masks, “if you wanted to be real incognito,” she said. Hemmons completed the installation as quickly

JENNY KERRIGAN TTN

Jessie Hemmons first learned to crochet at a juvenile correctional facility.

as she possibly could.

“My hand was shaking,” she said. “I finally got it on, and I ran away. I think I walked by an hour later and it was still there.”

From there, Hemmons quickly became a breakout sensation, Benner said, in the “male-dominated art form” of Philly’s street art.

She’s particularly known for her large-scale pieces that often question social norms. Her most recent

project, a nine foot tall banner reading “feel the BERN,” is a nod to presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. The piece hangs over the Reading Viaduct on Spring Garden Street between 10th and 11th.

Despite her own status, Hemmons believes “anyone can be an artist.”

She even taught an online class through Skillshare, a worldwide online learning forum that uses industry

experts to instruct students in the creative arts, design and entrepreneurship fields.

“Jessie’s class was a series of lessons that talked about how to yarnbomb,” said Ally Kraus, one of Hemmons’ students. “It took a lot of confidence. I was hesitant about getting started. It was nice to have her reassurance. It really pushed me to put a yarnbomb out there.”

Hemmons wishes to expand her reach, noting that she doesn’t put her work in certain communities because of her fear of forcing her work on people. She hopes to incorporate residents of North Philadelphia into community yarnbombs in the future.

“I consider race and white privilege a lot,” Hemmons said.

“She’s way more humble than she should

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2016

* erin.clare.blewett@temple. edu

ONLINE Watch a video story of Ishknits online at temple-news.com/ multimedia

Continued from page 9

Continued from page 9

said. But when another student asked about getting the poems back, the class discovered their teacher had accidentally spilled coffee on the poems and thrown them out. Wisher said she felt “sheer disrespect and anger and rage” about the loss of her limerick.

But the experience also made her realize the poem was important, she said.

“That there was something deeper in the work for me,” Wisher said. “That was how I got started. Other teachers, my mother, started to recognize I had this talent for writing poems.”

But when it came time to attend college, Wisher felt she could only pick “one lane.”

She picked the athletic one, playing basketball at Lafayette College, and chose a “substantial” major to “fall back on.”

“Because I always believed that myth that you need something besides poetry to fall back on,” Wisher said.

It wasn’t long before Wisher realized what a “terrible lane” it was for her. She quit basketball, losing the financial aid that allowed her to attend Lafayette. Wisher was afraid she would have to leave, but the English department stepped in, she said, giving her a work study job in Lafayette’s writing center.

A year after she quit the basketball team, the Nuyorican Poets came to Lafayette.

Wisher remembers being “in awe of them,” thinking, “‘Wow, you can do that with poetry?’”

“And then it was like, ‘I can do that,’” she said.

The poetry group held a slam at the college. Wisher won.

“I was like, ‘Oh, s--t,’” she said. “This is real. It was confirmation that quitting the basketball team was a good decision.”

Before winning the slam, Wisher had never “really believed” in her work, she said.

The slam encouraged her to take a leap into poetry. She starting thinking about graduate school for the first time, ultimately deciding on Temple, where she could learn from Sonia Sanchez, the first poet laureate of Philadelphia. She also studied with Jena Osman, an English professor.

“She was very community-oriented, very interested in figuring out ways poetry could circulate outside of a university setting, how poetry could function where she lived,” Osman said.

Wisher was so committed, Osman said,

Stemmer had hundreds of articles of clothing and jewelry. She would take ordinary days and make them into extravagant occasions with the way she dressed, and her style was a way for Stemmer to support LGBTQ rights and inspire people to embrace who they were, Brennan said. “‘I’m just going to dress and be who I want to be,’—That was Donna to a T,” Brennan said.

Byrne met Stemmer through hosting GayBINGO!, and recalls seeing Stemmer at almost every event—always in the audience and always in costume.

Byrne, who performs drag as Carlota Ttendant, often reached out to Stemmer to borrow outfits.

“I thought I had a lot of clothes, but I have nothing compared to Donna,” he said. “She walked up to this huge cabinet, and asked, ‘Do you need earrings?’ and then opened another huge cabinet, just for bracelets.”

“A lot of the times she was in better costume than all of the drag queens,” Byrne added. “I will never forget Barbie Bingo. I had tried harder than anything to get the original Barbie dress—black strapless gown with a little red rose. I couldn’t find it anywhere, so I had someone make it for me.

Of course, Donna Mae had it on the same night. I said, ‘Oh, Donna Mae, you’re killing me!’”

Christina Kallas-Saritsoglou met Stemmer at Black Tie GayBINGO!, where they would sit together, and Stemmer would pass around little photo albums of her outfits.

The clothing, Kallas-Saritsoglou said, reflected her strong and bright presence.

“Shining, sparkling, it all went hand in hand with her personality,” Kallas-Saritsoglou said.

“She made people feel good and happy.”

“This was someone that just didn’t give a f-k,” Brennan added. “Her influence was just being herself.”

Stemmer was also a cheerleader for the Philadelphia Wolves softball team after Kane introduced her to the team.

“She always wore cheerleader outfits, with pom poms,” Kane said. “She would sew on the names of teams with sparkles and embellished letters.”

Stemmer was more than just a cheerleader for the Wolves. She stood behind those transitioning, Kane said. Sometimes all someone needed was to talk to someone with a “heart of gold,” she added—someone like Stemmer.

“Donna Mae will be Philly AIDS Thrift, even when her clothes are gone,” Byrne said.

STEMMER

WISHER

KARA MILSTEIN TTN

Yolanda Wisher, a Germantown native, was named the city’s third poet laureate.

that she wasn’t sure how she could do poetry full-time and help the community. Instead, Wisher took a job as the art education director for the Mural Arts Program. But then Wisher was named a 2015 Pew Fellow.

“I think when she got the Pew, that’s what convinced her she could combine both things successfully and actually live,” Osman said. “That’s where she is now … how can she combine her love of language and the love of how language can actually communicate to people?”

Wisher hadn’t even gotten word of the Pew grant before quitting her job at Mural Arts—“it might have been smart to wait,” she said, but it just “didn’t matter anymore about the money.” Though she felt she was doing important work and adored her co-workers, Wisher started to worry she would be putting poetry on the side for the rest of her life.

Now, as poet laureate, that’s not so much a concern anymore.

“Just trust that when you do something you love, you’ll be supported and you can find a way to take care of yourself,” Wisher said. “It happened for me. I want to help other people figure that out.”

“I’m just always proud when my son says, ‘My mom’s a poet,’” she added. * victoria.mier@temple.edu

OUT & ABOUT

be,” Benner said. “I think Jessie is very open. ... I think she helped change the idea of what a street artist is. She is using the platform to bring up a lot of important issues.”

Hemmons believes the whole point of public art is for it to “belong to the city.”

“So whatever they do with it is what they do with it,” she said. “It’s this idea of taking advantage of public space. I’m taking advantage of public space to put this piece up. Now you take advantage of public space and do what you want with it.”

NEW AFRICAN-AMERICAN AND DOMINICAN ART EXHIBIT OPENS

Taller Puertorriqueño is showcasing the work of visual artists Scherezade Garcia and Firelei Báez for their new exhibit, “Unpacking Hispañola.” The exhibit, which runs through April 2, features pieces that question the role of historical narratives, racial subjectivity and gender roles in society. Báez and Garcia create work that often questions historical narratives and the conditions that caused them. The main narratives will be derived from African American and Dominican culture. Taller Puertorriqueño is located at 2721 N. 5th St. -Erin Blewett

BOUTIQUE OPENS ON SOUTH ST.

MAARK Concept, a collaborative boutique and fashion showroom opened by Melissa Choi and Pia Panaligan of Philadelphia Fashion Alliance brand Senpai + Kohai, celebrated its grand opening on Friday. The new storefront, located at 1540 South St., will offer a curated collection of clothing for men and women as well as a selection of home goods by local, independent and established brands.

The grand opening featured Philadelphia brands like THE PHILLY SHOPS, Lobo Mau and VEXOT. The South Street West boutique will be open on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 12-7 p.m., Thursday and Friday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

-Erin Moran

BEST COAST TO PLAY TOMORROW

Lo-fi rock duo Best Coast will take to the Electric Factory tomorrow, performing with Wavves and opener Cherry Glazerr.

The pair are touring in celebration of their third studio album, “California Nights,” which received overwhelmingly positive reviews following its May 2015 release.

Wavves released its fifth studio album, “V,” in October, a faster and darker record than its 2013 LP “Afraid of Heights.” Tickets for the concert are $25-30. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show starts at 8 p.m.

-Emily Thomas

EXHIBIT EXPLORES HOMOPHOBIA AND TRANSPHOBIA

Friday, Temple Contemporary at the Tyler School of Art will showcase the works of MFA students Amy Cousins, Jennifer Johnson and Ajay Leister. “Not in Our House” by Cousins includes a mixed media exploration of homophobia and transphobia. Johnson’s thesis, “Let Me Clear up a Few Things,” uses film and performance art to pay tribute to the artist’s grandmother. Leister’s “Body Bag” touches upon bodily self-control. The exhibit’s reception will begin at 6 p.m. on Feb. 19.

-Angela Gervasi

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE TO PLAY AT UNION TRANSFER THIS FRIDAY

Baltimore psychedelic-pop band Animal Collective will perform a sold-out show at Union Transfer Friday. The group will release its tenth studio album, “Painting With,” the same day. Hip-hop collective Ratking will open the show. Doors open at 8 p.m. and the show begins at 9 p.m.

-Eamon Dreisbach

* tsipora.hacker@temple.edu

PHILADELPHIA NAMED BEST PLACE TO VISIT

‘HACKATHON’ AT PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART

@uwishunu tweeted Lonely Planet, a travel website, named Philadelphia the best place to visit in the United States. The city placed ahead of places like Yellowstone National Park.

@philamuseum tweeted an announcement of its first “hackathon,” a contest to create phone applications to better visitors’ experiences to the museum. The contest runs from March 11-13.

HOT COCKTAILS IN PHILADELPHIA

KANYE WEST TWEETS ABOUT CRIPPLING DEBT

LONELY PLANET’S UNITED STATES LIST

COMING THIS MARCH

TRENDING IN PHILLY The best of Philadelphia’s food, music, nightlife and arts. For breaking news and daily updates, follow The Temple News on Twitter and Instagram @TheTempleNews.

BEST PLACES FOR HOT DRINKS

ASKING FANS FOR PRAYERS

@uwishunu tweeted a list of bars and restaurants with hot drink offerings, including Bing Bing Dim Sum’s Bonita Applebaum, Frankford Hall’s house-mulled wine and the Dandelion’s cider.

@phillydotcom tweeted an article about West’s debt, citing one of the artist’s tweets from Saturday night. West claimed to be $53 million in debt.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2016

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The Draught Horse celebrates 15 year anniversary Over the past couple decades, North Philadelphia has undergone changes in its landscape and culture. Stores and buildings have come and gone, with neighborhoods looking different year to year. Some establishments have stood over time though, such as the Draught Horse Pub & Grill, which celebrates its 15 year anniversary next week.

The Draught Horse first opened on Feb. 17, 2001 and quickly grew in popularity following the men’s basketball team’s most recent Elite Eight appearance in the NCAA tournament. It became known for its “Wild Wednesdays,” on which draft beers would cost only 50 cents. The establishment has remained under the same ownership throughout its time at Temple, and with this milestone coming up, is looking to celebrate in style.

“We’ve got a huge party coming up next week for our 15 year anniversary,” said Director of Operations Mike Frost.

“We’re excited to do a lot of flashback promos. We’re bringing back the old college favorite of 50 cent drafts.

Man, that’s impossible to find anywhere around here nowadays.”

Aside from the drafts, bar will be serving two dollar drinks and seven dollar Red Bull Trashcans. The anniversary party will also feature a mechanical bull and musical entertainment as well as its drink deals.

In addition to this celebration, the Draught Horse is looking to expand and make festivities like this a regular occurrence. It recently held a promotion during winter storm Jonas where, in the event of the snowfall surpassing a foot, beers at the bar would cost just one dollar. The bar ran out of beer for that special by 8 p.m.

Deals like this are continuing to happen at the Draught Horse on a weekly basis.

The bar continues to have its traditional “Wild Wednesdays” where it serves up cans of Bud Light for a dollar and 16 oz. lager cans for $2.50. Still it is further modifying its menu deals. In a recent change, happy hour now lasts all day on Fridays.

“We’re slowly reworking our cocktail menu and our specials,” said Frost.

“I think our new special that we’re most excited about is our Friday happy hour.

It’s now happy hour all day. Our motto is ‘stay calm because it’s happy hour all day long.’ That started this semester in January and so far Fridays have been bigger and better than they’ve ever been. Our sales have been equal to ‘Wild Wednesdays.’”

Along with these new deals, the Draught Horse has upgraded its drink selection.

It’s added numerous canned craft beers, and with the help of the TapHunter app,

the menu can be easily changed and posted to alert customers of what is being carried on any given day.

“We’re embracing the craft beer can craze that’s in this community right now and the palette of the students and faculty to carry a lot of great drinks,” said Frost. “We have some limited edition beers that are hard to come by.

Whether it’s traditional Oude Gueuze, Lambic sour beers from Belgium and Germany to strong ales. From Russian River Damnation to having fun with beers like Oskar Blues Ten FIDY and Neshaminy Creek JAWN.”

The Draught Horse is also making changes in the way it interacts with its customers. In coming months it will be introducing drop-off catering for both students and faculty. Draught Horse food will be able to be delivered to student dorms via Habitat, as well as apartments in surrounding areas. Through

this service, customers will be able to experience the menu now produced by the new chef Chase Guernsey, a classically trained chef from Texas.

With so many new things happening, the Draught Horse is ready to celebrate 15 years and continuing serving the community for many more. It continues to change for the better to provide the best service that it can for students, faculty and community members alike.

“We want people to know that we’re making every effort and we’ve made a lot of changes to ensure that service is our main focus now,” said Frost.

“Quality and service is what’s going to move us ahead. Come back and give us another chance. See what the new chef has to offer. See what the new look and feel is all about. I’m confident we will change your mind.”

-Ben Lowenthal

LIFESTYLE

PAGE 16

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2016

Co-op café celebrates first birthday The Rad Dish Café held an open mic night on Friday in honor of its first anniversary.

By GILLIAN McGOLDRICK The Temple News Art hangs on the walls—accompanied by a few vegetable murals—in the Rad Dish Café, which was filled with about 75 people on Friday night in celebration of the café’s one-year anniversary.

The cafe held an open mic night to celebrate its first birthday in its location, Ritter Hall Annex.

The open mic night had about 10 performers and was open to musicians, poets and comedians. Each performer was given 10 minutes of performing time.

Halfway through the event, the group sang “Happy Birthday” to the Rad Dish Café and then cut into a large sheet red velvet cake to share among attendees.

Co-head for human resources at Rad Dish and junior social work major Claire Pope said the creation of the Rad Dish Café one year ago was inspired by a need for sustainably produced food on Main Campus. All of the foods served at the cafe are sourced locally and prepared on site.

The Rad Dish Café is a co-op organization, meaning it’s democratically run, and all decisions affecting the cafe are put to a vote by members. Members have to volunteer at the cafe for at least 10 hours per semester, and they can attend weekly meetings to discuss how things are running and ideas for improvement.

When ideas are brought to the table, the parties collectively make a decision on how to move forward.

“We need more wholesome food options that we can be proud to put into our bodies,” Pope said. “It’s not just French fries, which I’m also proud to put into my body, but you can’t do that every day.”

The co-op has gotten stronger throughout this past year, Pope said.

“We’ve gotten our footing of what works and what doesn’t work as far as making decisions quickly while still being cooperative and making sure everyone’s voice is heard,” she added.

Currently, 13 students are employed at the Rad Dish Café, Pope said. As it expands, she said more jobs might open up.

In the next year, Pope said she’s excited for upcoming challenges— both expected and unexpected.

“We have a lot of exciting things on the horizon, and seeing them become real is going to be really exciting,” she said.

Junior communication studies major Alana Domingo came to the open mic night and said since she

MICHAEL SOTTILE TTN

Kevin Gigler performs in front of about 75 people at The Rad Dish Café, located in Ritter Annex. The Cafe celebrated its one year anniversary last Friday.

transferred to Temple, she’s only been in the cafe a couple of times— but now she hopes to attend more frequently.

“A lot of the food options on campus aren’t healthy, and I’ve been trying to have a healthier lifestyle,” Domingo said. “I really like what they’re doing, getting stuff locally sourced and from the community.

The food is good and it’s good for you, and I want to support that.”

Nate Cabigting, a junior English major and musical performer at the open mic night, said he comes into the cafe three times a week for coffee.

“It’s just a good atmosphere and the food’s good,” he said. “And the coffee is so good.”

Cabigting said he thinks Rad Dish will be open for years to come.

“It’s in good hands,” he said.

Head of Rad Dish’s finance committee and junior accounting and film major Trevor Southworth said the cafe has done reasonably well for its first year open on Main Campus.

“Our sales have increased as people figured out where we are and who we are,” Southworth said. “We’re definitely still a first-year business.

We’re not necessarily rolling in it, but we’re doing well enough.”

Southworth said developing stronger relationships with student groups and community members is the focus of this semester. That’s why Friday’s large turnout was so exciting, he said.

“It gives reason to all we’ve done.” * gillian.mcgoldrick@temple.edu T @gill_mcgoldrick

MICHAEL SOTTILE TTN

Rad Dish Co-op member, Jonathan Bui, performs during Rad Dish’s open mic night.

Randall Theater produces original student play Continued from page 7

DINER

they feel toward their families with their duty to follow their own ambitions, Young said.

“They’re dealing with how they would react to their futures,” said Kate Brighter, a junior theater major and who plays Amy, a character who is torn between whether or not she should leave her family while they’re struggling financially and trying to take care of her younger brother.

“Amy ... is dealing with family issues. She has an autistic brother and an abusive mother. She’s also going away to college after graduation.”

Heather faces her own familial conflicts, as she becomes pregnant and feels obligated to stay home and

take care of her baby instead of heading off to college like Amy. “Her boyfriend is not the person she pictured herself ending up with in the long run, but now she’s sort of stuck in this situation and hoping to make the best of it,” said Phoebe Gavula, a junior theater major, who played the role of Heather. “I feel like it kind of ends with neither character really knowing if the best is happening or not.”

The play is a tragicomedy, meaning it doesn’t follow a traditional plot structure.

Instead of building up to one climax and falling into a resolution, much of the conflict ends unresolved, leaving the audience on the fence about which characters they sympathize with.

“The Diner” was written

to be truthful and relatable to a college-aged audience, Young said. The goal was for people to recognize themselves on stage even if their experiences may not have been exactly the same. Green said she hopes that the play gave viewers a new perspective despite the lack of resolution.

“I’m hoping they’ll feel not necessarily satisfied, because it’s not the most satisfying ending in the world,” Green said. “But I hope they leave feeling closer to the people around them. I hope they remember where they come from and who’s back home.”

“I hope they feel warm and fuzzy,” she added.

Young said she’s grateful TTSS decided to produce her play this season.

“It’s an honor to have your colleagues appreciate

DANIEL RAINVILLE TTN

Junior theater majors Kate Brighter, (left), and Phoebe Gavula star in “The Diner,” an original student production revolving around issues of family, as two young women prepare to set out into the world.

your work and want to put it on,” she said. “Somehow having a play produced feels like sending your only child off to boarding school. It’s like this

leap of faith, and it’s also really exciting.”

ONLINE

* brooke.shelby.williams@ temple.edu

Watch a video story of The Diner online at temple-news.com/multimedia

LIFESTYLE

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2016

PAGE 17

Literature comes ‘alive’ in annual series Temple is hosting a fourpart “Poets & Writers Reading Series.”

By ERIN BLEWETT The Temple News Juliana Spahr and Jena Osman were the only two women in the Ph.D. program at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

While they studied together, the two decided to create Chain, a literary journal which was in publication for 12 years.

“We decided that we wanted to start a magazine together that was doing something different than any other literary journal that we saw at that time,” said Osman, now an English professor at Temple and the director of the MFA Creative Writing program. “We were trying to include as many women and people of color as possible. It was important for us to see diversity.”

This was diversity they “weren’t really seeing elsewhere” at the time, Osman added.

Their connection continued when Osman invited Spahr, an award-winning poet, as well as an author and editor, to participate in this

semester’s “Poets & Writers Reading Series” on Thursday.

“You know, you read stuff in class, and it’s in the book,” Osman added. “You don’t really think of it as alive, and I feel like because we are teaching contemporary writers, it’s a great opportunity if they want to ask them a question or go up and talk to them.”

Spahr spoke to students, alumni and members of the Philadelphia literary community at TUCC. Philadelphia has a “very lively poetry scene,” Osman said. She keeps the series open to the public, and it is held in Center City so it can be more easily accessible to Philadelphia residents.

“These events bring a community of writers together,” said Natalie Risser, a sophomore English major.

Spahr, who holds a doctorate in English, spoke to a room so full that many had to sit on the floor. She read examples of her work including her newly released extended poem, “White Feminism.”

“I had never read anything by [Spahr] before, so this was an entirely new experience,” Risser said. “I enjoyed her perspectives on feminism and some other issues mentioned.”

“I feel very lucky that anyone will show up,” Spahr said. “It feels very nice.”

“I think that her writing really

DANIEL RAINVILLE TTN

Poet Juliana Spahr reads her work at TUCC Thursday. Her performance kicked off this year’s “Poets & Writers Reading Series.”

speaks to the contemporary moment in very useful ways, in ways that some people might not consider conventionally poetic,” Osman said.

“Her work is very much about how we can think about the world in ways that only poetry can provide.”

The series as a whole will feature four writers total, continuing on March 10 with author Susan Howe at

TUCC. Osman said that speaking with poets in person is important to the development of young writers.

“There are a lot of students here who are studying writing, and it gives them models to see, ‘Oh yeah, I can do that,’” she said. “They can imagine that it is actually something within the realm of possibility, that being

a writer isn’t some distant thing that only people in another decade or century would have done.”

“I think that it’s important to understand that literature is a living art,” Osman added. “It is not just something that existed in the past.” * erin.clare.blewett@temple.edu

‘Tap into the community’

Continued from page 7

BRIC

bler’s Center for Sustainable Communities. Mazer and Ayala helped write a proposal for a Green Stormwater Infrastructure plan in three sites around Philadelphia, with help from an Environmental Protection Agency grant aimed at reducing urban runoff pollution.

Another of BRIC’s initiatives is to help improve the urban physical environment.

The two co-founders said they value design charrettes held at the sites, which bring together designers and developers with community members who would be directly impacted by the project’s changes.

“It was just learning how to listen to the people that live there every day.”

Veronica Ayala-Flores | BRIC co-founder

GENEVA HEFFERNAN TTN

Stephanie Rogers organizes tools used to repair bicycles at Cycles , a bicycle shop on Susquehanna Avenue.

Tyler workshop hosts women cyclists Continued from page 7

CYCLES

has been “big in large cities with a radical population” across the country.

Cain added that co-operative programming like WTF Cycles, which provides free tools for cyclists to use and a space for them to work on their bikes, is especially important in the North Philadelphia area.

“This is like the only bike shop for 10 blocks in every direction,” they said.

While all WTF Cycles workshops have been held at Temple thus far, Cain said the next workshop, which will occur on March 13 from 3 to 6 p.m. and will be held at Cycles.

Rogers hopes Cycles will serve as a space to bring students and community members together.

“I would like to create more avenues for Temple students to connect to the rest of the community,” Rogers said. “I feel like there’s a lot of unnecessary fear that comes about.”

Rogers also said she believes many of the students at Temple who bike could really use the assistance.

“There’s a lot of bikes that I see around Main Campus that could be maintained better, where really easy things would really affect

the quality of somebody’s ability to use the bicycle,” Rogers said.

“The department of sustainability bought five Dero Fixit stands over the summer and

“I really like the idea

of empowering people who are not cisgender ‘bros’ to be thrilled about cycling.

”

Geena Cain | program facilitator at Neighborhood Bike Works

they’re awesome,” Rogers added. “It’s this amazing resource for Temple students, but when I walk by I see a lot of people not knowing how to use them.”

At the first WTF Cycles workshop, Cain and Rogers helped attendees loop their chains, true wheels and adjust seatposts to fit their

bodies.

“It was really neat because there was this cascading effect,” Cain said. “I would teach somebody something, and then they would be able to immediately turn around and teach somebody else how to do it.”

Reed Forden, who attended Temple from 2012 to 2015 and studied English and film, participated in the first workshop.

“I went there because my shifters were giving me issues,” Forden said. “And also my brakes needed tightening, which is a really basic maintenance thing, but I didn’t know how to do it, so I learned how to do both of those things with cool tools that I pretty much remember.”

Forden, who identifies as genderqueer, said they felt welcomed from the minute they walked in the door, and as a result, decided to become a volunteer for the rest of the WTF Cycles workshops.

“People were super friendly,” they said.

“Immediately someone’s like there, and they’re saying, ‘Hey,’ and they’re asking you about your pronouns and how your day was.”

“It’s just very nice. ” * jennifer.roberts@temple.edu

“There’s a lot of top-down mentality of an architect coming in and just saying, ‘This is what should be here,’ but our experience with these events were quite the opposite,” Ayala said. “It was just learning how to listen to the people that live there every day and experience this site every day to tell us what they think is best.”

It’s this kind of approach that BRIC hopes to continue—especially amidst the current on-campus stadium debate, which the Board of Trustees approved funding for last week. The group’s Facebook page contains a survey for students and community members to let the group know how they feel about the potential stadium.

Ayala and Mazer said they hope to gather these narratives to better understand the problem from all sides.

“That’s what we’re trying to extract from our work and our research right now, is trying to build all of those narratives so that we can construct what the stadium represents, from all possible angles,” Mazer said.

“A lot of the students sometimes say, ‘I’m only here for four years, what do I care what this place looks like when I leave?’” he added. “Their mind is already kind of made up as they come into it, so there’s this lack of pride and appreciation for this place that could be very wonderful.”

Ayala said BRIC will hold a lecture this week focused on teaching Temple students how to be good neighbors.

“What we’re doing isn’t really that revolutionary at all—it’s pretty simple,” she said. “It’s just people coming together and saying, ‘Enough is enough. What can we do?’” * albert.hong@temple.edu

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2016

LIFESTYLE

PAGE 18

Thompson says he reached success ‘piece by piece’

AROUND CAMPUS TEMPLE TALK: SHAKESPEARE ADAPTATIONS IN FILM

Today at 3:30 p.m., Sheryl Sawin, a professor in the Intellectual Heritage Department, will lead a Temple Talk about 21st century film adaptations of William Shakespeare’s plays. The discussion will be hosted in Room 200A of the Student Center and will focus on representations of sex, love and modern romance.

Temple Talks are a collaboration between University Housing and Residential Life and the Intellectual Heritage Department.

-Jenny Roberts

FLOWER SHOW TICKETS ON SALE

Philly Connections will be selling tickets to this year’s Philadelphia Flower Show starting Wednesday at noon in The Reel at the Student Center. The Philadelphia Flower Show takes place from March 5-13 at the Philadelphia Convention Center. The Philly Flower Show is the world’s oldest and largest indoor flower show.

Students can buy tickets at the The Reel’s box office for a discounted price of $10 per ticket.

Each student with an OWLCard can purchase two tickets.

-Gillian McGoldrick

Continued from page 7

KENAN

But as soon as he got to work, Thompson said his reservations disappeared.

“Once we got on set, it was like a freefor-all,” he said. “Whenever we would go to work, it was like a giant play-land.”

Last night, Thompson wasn’t just a child star or a stand-up comedian—he was a professor, true to the show’s title.

At the sound of his new title, he laughed, cleared his throat and straightened an imaginary tie.

“I’m going to lay down the life knowledge,” he said.

“It affords me a way to kind of just tell my story,” Thompson added. “It’s what I’ve been going through, what it’s like. Funny little stories, hopefully.”

Thompson’s story started in Atlanta, where he was born and raised. While there, he said, there weren’t a lot of luxuries. He watched TV to keep himself busy, and he knew when he was 3 years old that he “wanted to be involved in that world,” Thompson told an audience of about 400 students.

But there’s a difference, Thompson said, between being famous on TV and actually working as an actor.

“The difference is there are bills that need to be paid,” Thompson said. “There’s real life out there. I’ve been through all that.”

“There’s a lot of starving artists out there,” he added. “Different people get different opportunities.”

Melissa Rakiro, a senior theater major with a concentration in acting, said Thompson’s performance was “hilarious,” but also inspiring. Rakiro said as an aspiring actor, she sometimes worries about her future in the industry.

“I liked it because it touched on a black actor’s struggle,” Rakiro said. “It had a positive message.”

“If they don’t really know what it’s like to be a for-hire actor, hopefully this will shed a little light on that,” Thompson said. “It’s not all glitz and glamour. It’s a pretty tough grind for most people throughout their entire careers.”

It was great, Rakiro said, to get some perspective from a successful, long-standing SNL cast member.

“There’s no one road to success, which he sort of touched on,” she added.

Thompson said he got where he is today “piece by piece by piece.” Each role, from one of his earliest as a broadcaster on “Real News for Kids” in 1994, to his 2006 part as Troy in “Snakes on a Plane,” is like climbing a mountain.

“It’s cool to always climb that mountain,” Thompson said. “You don’t know how things are going to come out, you know?”

Thompson’s stand-up ended with a Q&A session with students. When they registered to

attend the event online, students had the opportunity to submit questions for Thompson to answer. About 40 were chosen, and those students asked Thompson their questions directly.

Mary Cosentini said her question for Thompson touched on a personal issue. As an undeclared freshman, Cosentini isn’t yet sure what she wants to study, or which career path to choose.

“Clearly he has an idea of what he likes to do,” she said. “I wanted to know what his second choice for a career would be.”

“SWAT team,” Thompson answered immediately. “I would want to be a kick-a-- sniper.”

Thompson told the audience he enjoyed performing at Temple and answering students’ questions.

“I’m glad it was a nice, intimate gathering,” Thompson said.

“I hope you learned something.” * michaela.winberg@temple.edu T @mwinberg_

ONLINE Watch an interview with Thompson from Monday night online at temple-news.com/multimedia

DISSENT IN AMERICA TEACH-IN: CLIMATE AGREEMENT DISCUSSION

The College of Liberal Arts will be hosting William Solecki, a professor at Hunter College, to lead one of its weekly Dissent in America Teachin forums. Solecki is the Founder Director Emeritus of the City University of New York Institute for Sustainable Cities, a program that works to recognize cities as part of the solution to the future of sustainable living. Solecki will lead a discussion of the Paris climate agreement and the impact that it has on urban communities.

The event will take place on Thursday at 2 p.m. in Room 821 of Anderson Hall.

-Erin Blewett

LIBRARIES SPONSOR RACE TALK

Temple University Libraries is sponsoring a lecture with Hank Willis Thomas, Deborah Willis and Bayeté Ross Smith, some of the collaborators behind the book “Question Bridge: Black Males in America,” which assembles a series of questions posed to black men along with their responses. In addition to leading a conversation on art and the role of transmedia projects in socially engaged fine art, the collaborators will discuss the process behind creating their book. The event will be held on Thursday in Sullivan Hall at 2 p.m. and is open to the public.

-Brooke Williams

TYLER OFFERS BUS TO BALTIMORE

Tyler Student Life is sponsoring a free bus trip to the Baltimore Museum of Art on Saturday. The bus will leave from the corner of 13th and Diamond streets at 9 a.m. and will return at 8 p.m. Before reaching BMA, students interested in seeing the exhibition “Queer Threads: Crafting Identity and Community” can be dropped off at the Maryland Institute College of Art, but will have to find their own way back to the BMA or to Temple. There are 54 spots open for this trip. Registration is available online and the event is open to all students.

-Paula Davis

TALKING WOMEN IN VIDEO GAMES

Media Critic Anita Sarkeesian will lead a talk on gaming culture titled “Tropes Vs. Women in Video Games” on Friday at 4 p.m. in Paley Library’s Ground Floor Lecture Hall. Sarkeesian will discuss sexism in gaming, featuring topics like the exclusion of women and the portrayal of female videogame characters.

Sarkeesian is the creator of “Feminist Frequency,” a video webseries that explores the representation of women in pop culture and deconstructs tropes. Registration is required for this event. Students can register by emailing byndthpg@temple.edu to reserve a spot.

-Jenny Roberts HARRISON BRINK TTN

Kenan Thompson, a 13-season cast member of “Saturday Night Live,” answers a question from Shaun Luberski, a strategic communications major.

Voice of the People | TORI TONE

SOPHOMORE | SPEECH PATHOLOGY

“I did my taxes.

Well, I started them, but I didn’t finish.”

KATELYN HULBERT

JUNIOR | SPEECH PATHOLOGY

“I went to my brother’s basketball game and had dinner with my mom.”

“What did you do on Valentine’s Day?” MOHAMMAD IBRAHIM

JUNIOR | FILM AND MEDIA ARTS

“I worked at a supermarket called Cousins on Berks Street.”

SPORTS

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2016

PAGE 19

SPORTS BRIEFS

Former Owls play in all-star game The Wildcats (22-3) received the No. 1 ranking for the second consecutive week when the poll came out on Monday.

“I’m excited to play the No. 1 in the country,” senior forward Jaylen Bond. “I’m really looking forward to it.”

Last season, Temple visited Villanova at the Pavilion on Dec. 14, 2014, when the Owls lost to the No. 7 Wildcats, 85-62.

During their 2013-14 campaign the Owls lost to No. 9 Villanova 90-74 at the Liacouras Center.

Temple and Villanova both come into Wednesday night’s game on five-game winning streaks. The Wildcats are currently in first place in the Big East Conference, while the Owls sit atop the American Athletic Conference standings.

“I think we match up with them pretty well,” junior guard Josh Brown said. “I think I watched them a little at the beginning of the year. Obviously they’re a different team now.”’

-Owen McCue

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL OWLS SET ATTENDANCE RECORD

In Temple’s 85-60 loss to Connecticut, spectators lined outside the front doors of McGonigle Hall while the arena received its largest crowd in history for a women’s basketball game with 3,392 people on Sunday.

-Connor Northrup

TTN FILE PHOTO

Former guard Will Cummings drives to the basket in the second half of the Owls’ 73-67 win against Bucknell in the first round of the NIT.

TWO OWLS PLAY IN ALL-STAR GAME

Former Owls Will Cummings and Micheal Eric participated in the 2016 NBA D-League All-Star Game on Saturday at Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto.

Cummings, who played for the Owls from 2011-15 and totaled 1,245 career points, scored 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting from the field while playing 21 minutes. The guard started for the West squad and played the second most minutes for the team.

Eric, who played for coach Fran Dunphy from 2008-12, came off the bench for the West squad, scoring eight points on 4-of-5 shooting.

The West squad los to the East squad, 128-124.

-Michael Guise

OWLS FACE NO. 1 TEAM ON WEDNESDAY

The No. 1 team in the AP Top 25 Poll will come to Main Campus on Wednesday, when Villanova plays Temple at the Liacouras Center.

FENCING OWLS COMPETE AT JUNIOR OLYMPICS

Sophomore Becca Stanford tied for third in the 199-fencer field at the Junior Olympics in Cleveland on Sunday.

Other Owls at the competition were freshmen Jessica Rockford, who finished 26th out of 146 competitors in the junior women’s sabre, Quinn Duwelius and Fiona Fong, who finished 74th and 83rd in junior women’s epee out of 183 fencers.

-Michael Guise

Forde: ‘This is about scoring’ Continued from page 22

FORDE

Freshman sprinter and hurdler Sylvia Wilson ranks in the Top 15 for both of her events. After breaking the school record in the 60-meter at the Feb. 6 Villanova Invitational, she ranks No. 11 in the 60 and No. 4 in the 60 hurdles out of all runners in The American this season.

Wilson re-broke her school record in the 60-hurdles on Friday

JOSHUA DICKER TTN

Gina Tucker (left), watches Breahna Wiczkowski on the balance beam at the team’s practice facility in McGonigle Hall.

Owls adjust to multiple injuries nearing end of regular season Continued from page 22

INJURIES

Shortly prior to the meet, the Owls’ coaching staff received an X-ray of Tucker’s foot that revealed a stress fracture and a torn ligament.

“We don’t really know what exactly happened,” Tucker said of the injury. “It took a lot for myself to realize this is real because I never really had an injury that kept me out. But the team’s holding up well, and everyone that had to step up stepped up.”

Tucker had competed in vault, beam and floor for Temple. She posted a career-high 9.7 vault routine in Temple’s 190.15-190.05 win over the Tribe on Jan. 15.

“It wasn’t an injury that we had planned for,” coach Umme Salim-Beasley said. “When you prepare for a lineup to be a certain way and then have to make a change in the middle, it adds additional stress to the girls that they really don’t need.”

Arone is nearly one week into rehab for her thumb, and so far she has done simple motions like squeezing and stretching Silly Putty to help regain strength in the

finger.

She is scheduled to begin doing gymnastics with her hand on the ground again Feb. 24 and will be allowed back onto the bars approximately one month from then.

Arone is also looking into the possibility of using this season as a redshirt year, which would grant her a fifth year of eligibility and the opportunity to start graduate school three years from now.

Tucker was scheduled to visit a doctor last Wednesday to begin finalizing a date for her surgery, which will be sometime within the month. She expects to be back to gymnastics activities around July. “[The team] is able to handle last minute changes,” Salim-Beasley said. “With our bus situation it taught us to think quickly and change our thought process and control what we’re able to control. We can’t control if someone gets injured, but we can control preparing the next person to compete.” * daniel.john.newhart@temple.edu T @dannynewhart

points at the conference meet. All the other meets that we have done so far is for them to prove to us that they are worthy of going.”

Temple finished last of the 11 teams at the championships last season, but several members of the team believe they can improve their standing this year.

“I feel as though within the time conference comes around, everybody’s going to be close to their prime where they should be, as far as what coach wants us to do,” McCluskey said. “I’m really excited. I

If you can’t step up, you might not “make the trip to Birmingham.”

Elvis Forde | coach

at the David Hemery Valentine Invitational, moving to No. 4 in the event in the conference.

Junior hurdler Simone Brownlee has the conference’s 10th best time in the 60 hurdles. She set a new personal best in the Villanova Invitational, which she credits to nailing down methods in practices.

“There’s just something about the technicality of having to think about so many things at once and just have to put it all together,” Brownlee said. “Even if you don’t run as fast as the person next to you, if you have better form, then you can sometimes beat that person.”

Other Owls in the Top 15 of their events include junior sprinter and jumper Bionca St. Fleur in the 200, junior sprinter Kenya Gaston in the 400, freshman multis competitor Crystal Jones in the high jump and St. Fleur and junior sprinter and jumper Jimmia McCluskey in the long jump.

“If you can’t step up, you might not make the trip to Birmingham,” Forde said. “You don’t want to go that harsh, but this is about scoring

think we’ll do better than last year.”

The only idea the team has to its comparison with other teams in the conference is from the Villanova Invitational, where the Owls outscored South Florida by 16 points. Last season at the conference championships, South Florida came in 10th, besting Temple by one point.

With just more than a week to go until The American championships, the intensity of the team’s practices is increasing. The Owls are putting more emphasis on taking physical care of athletes’ bodies, and their focus in practice is shifting.

“As we got further into the season, we started having more specialty days per week,” Brownlee said. “In the beginning of the season, we were doing a lot more distance running, and now that it’s getting further along, we are having more hurdle days to make sure we are technically proficient.” * maura.lyn.razanauskas@temple.edu

SPORTS

PAGE 20

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2016

Dunphy: ‘We’ve had some very, very close games’ Continued from page 1

WINS

be on edge. He never wants us to lose a game.”

Prior to the victory against the Bulls, Temple won its last four games by seven points or fewer. The team’s average margin of defeat in those games was 4.5 points.

The Owls have trailed in the second half three times during their recent winning streak. Temple overcame 12-point second half deficits in its wins against UConn on Thursday and Tulsa on Feb. 4.

After trailing by nine at halftime on Sunday, the Bulls cut Temple’s lead to four points with 13:43 left in the second half before the Owls used an 11-0 run to pull away.

“We’ve had some very, very close games,” Dunphy said. “It wasn’t something I was looking forward to, another one today, but I think South Florida gave everything they had.”

While UConn sits in fourth in the conference standings at 8-4 and Tulsa ranks sixth at 8-5, Temple’s other three wins during its five-game win streak came against teams with sub-.500 conference records.

The Owls needed a replay review wiping off Central Florida’s last-second basket to avoid going into overtime on Feb. 6 against the Knights, who are 5-7 in The American. The other two victories came against the Bulls, who sit in last place at 2-11 in the conference.

“Coach said at the beginning of the season, ‘We can beat any team in the country, we can lose to any team in the country,’” Brown said. “So we just gotta stick with it. Sometimes our shot’s not falling. Some-

times we can’t get stops, but we just stick with it and just find a way to win.”

The Owls’ past five wins have moved them into sole-possession of first place in the American Athletic Conference with a record of 10-3.

The winning streak, which started with a 70-63 victory against South Florida on Jan. 31, is the Owls’ longest streak of the season.

“We just like to win, man,” Brown said.

Temple is shooting 41.9 percent from the field in its past five games, which is 1.1 percent better than the team’s season average.

Opponents are shooting 43.4 percent from the field against the Owls since the Jan. 31 win at South Florida.

For the season, opponents are shooting 41.6 percent against Temple’s defense.

“Our shot selection and also our defense,” Bond said are two areas the team can improve. “We have to play better team defense to be the best team we want to be.”

The Owls face Villanova, the No. 1 team in the AP Top 25 Poll, on Wednesday at the Liacouras Center.

Temple has lost its past two games against its Big-5 rival, including an 85-62 loss to the Wildcats last year.

“I’m sure they heard Villanova talk after the Connecticut game,” Dunphy said. “Not from us. We talked about South Florida. I think they’re OK, but we need to play our best basketball every time out.” * owen.mccue@temple.edu T @Owen_McCue GENEVA HEFFERNAN TTN

Coach Fran Dunphy stands on the sidelines during the Owls’ win on Sunday.

Brown leads after Cummings’ departure Continued from page 22

BROWN

and to the local park to play a game.

After regular trips to the Chris Gatling Recreation Center in Irvington, New Jersey, one of Brown’s childhood friends invited him to practice with the Shooting Stars Amateur Athletic Union basketball program when he was 13 years old.

“That is when I got into organized basketball,” Brown said. “I took off from there.”

Heading into his eighth-grade year, Brown attended Union Township Middle School in Hampton, New Jersey, where he soon drew interest from local high schools and fans, who came out to watch the guard play.

“I was playing on the middle school team,” Brown said. “I remem-

ber going to the games, and guys would be lining up to watch me play because I could dunk. They treated me like a superstar, and I kind of saw I could do something with this game from there on.”

Brown then enrolled at Morristown-Beard School, a local private school in Morristown, New Jersey, for his freshman year of high school.

After one year at MorristownBeard, Brown did not return and

turned down two other high schools to enroll at St. Anthony High School in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Under Bob Hurley’s coaching, Brown won two New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association and three North Jersey, Non-Public B Championships.

“He was a terrific competitor,” Temple’s coach Fran Dunphy said.

“He knew what he was doing out on the court at all times. He was get-

GENEVA HEFFERNAN TTN

Josh Brown drives to basket for a layup in the second half of the Owls’ 75-65 win against Central Florida on Sunday at the Liacouras Center.

ting better as a basketball player.

He played for as fine of a basketball coach in all the country and everything fit.”

Brown committed to Temple in November 2011, during his junior year under Hurley, but reopened his commitment in June 2012 after a successful third season at St. Anthony’s and a summer basketball season where he was named MVP at the Hoop Group’s Pitt Jam Fest in April and the Rumble in the Bronx in June 2012.

Brown recommited to Temple in August 2012, passing on interest from seven schools including Rhode Island University, where Hurley’s son Dan coached.

“You always get buyer’s remorse when you are a college student-athlete,” Dunphy said. “He committed relatively early and some of his buddies did not. And they were getting more attention at that particular time.

I’m sure that had something to do with it.”

McKie, who played 13 seasons in the NBA, returned to coach at his alma mater in August 2014. Since arriving, the former guard has helped Brown understand the importance of taking care of the ball.

The Owls have turned the ball over 222 times this season, which ranks No. 1 in Division I in fewest turnovers.

“It has to be a pecking order,” McKie said. “He was to be a guy to put people in position. It’s like being a father in a household. If you are letting your kids run around and do whatever it is they want, then obviously there is going to be a significant amount of dysfunction.” * michael.guise@temple.edu T @Michael_Guise

Thompson No. 7 in sabre rankings: 3 meets remaining Continued from page 22

OLYMPICS

petition is on April 11. The representatives are then selected April 12.

“I feel like I’m finally at the point where I really understand fencing,” she said. “I really understand how to use my athleticism, how to use my intelligence. To make the Olympics would mean I finally figured the sport out.”

While at Temple, Thompson appeared in four consecutive NCAA Fencing Championships and won 50 matches in three of her four years on North Broad.

She also is the winningest sabre fencer in school history with 185 wins.

“We saw a lot of potential,” Temple’s

coach Nikki Franke said. “She didn't have a lot of experience, but she was an outstanding athlete and she had passion for the game.”

When Thompson arrived at Temple in 2008 as a freshman, she joined the team without a scholarship.

With the help of Franke and sabre coach Bradley Baker, Thompson led the sabre squad to a sixth-place finish at the NCAA Regional Championship while being named to the National Intercollegiate Women's Fencing Association first team during her first season.

“The biggest thing that helped her was gaining experience with strong competition,” Franke said. “All the coaching she received and the schedule we have really helped her understand the game itself. There is a whole mental game that she learned.”

Thompson joined the Peter Westbrook Foundation in New York during the summer of her junior year at Teaneck High School.

Soon after enrolling, Thompson was training four days per week with her coach Akhnaten Spencer-El, a member of the 2000 U.S. Olympic team.

“That was the reason I started taking fencing so seriously,” Thompson said. “The first day I was fencing, Peter Westbrook pulled me to the side and said, ‘I think you are really good and you should come and take group classes.’ …

Going four times a week wasn’t good enough if I wanted to be as good as everybody who I was fencing with.”

Thompson—whose brother Khalil is a sophomore sabre at Penn State—was encouraged to fence after Avis Thompson told her it

would be a good opportunity to obtain a college education.

During an open house at Teaneck High School in Spring 2004, Thompson—then in eighth grade—and her mother watched a fencing demonstration in the school cafeteria, marking her first time seeing the sport up close.

“I thought it was really different, but not in a good way,” Thompson said. “I was younger than everyone else, and I was already really smart. The last thing I wanted was to make myself more different than the rest of my classmates.” * michael.guise@temple.edu T @Michael_Guise

SPORTS

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2016

PAGE 21

women’s basketball

As former assistant, Cardoza’s UConn roots run deep Tonya Cardoza has two former Connecticut players on her staff.

By MARK McCORMICK The Temple News Since leaving Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma’s staff in 2008, Tonya Cardoza has dreamed of leading her program to national prominence.

In each of her first three seasons as coach, Cardoza reached the NCAA Women’s Division I Tournament. In the four years since, Cardoza has not appeared in the postseason tournament.

“I think in this time, this is Tonya’s program,” Auriemma said.

“She’s put her style of imprint on it.”

Following the team’s last NCAA appearance in 2011, the Owls have reached the Women’s National Invitation Tournament twice in four years, including last season when the squad lost to the University of West Virginia in the WNIT semifinal.

With a 17-8 record this season, Cardoza feels Temple is reaching its potential.

“We’ve been playing pretty good basketball,” Cardoza said. “I just want to be consistently mentioned in the NCAAs to the point where we’re a Top-25 team.”

Although Cardoza’s contract expires this season, she is confident she will return to Philadelphia and continue to develop her team to a prominent level.

“When I first got here, I thought we were consistently being a postseason team, and then we had two bad years,” Cardoza said. “But even in those bad years, we won 14 games. If you look back in those two seasons, there were a lot of times where we lost by 10 points or less.”

Following the Owls’ 85-60 loss to Connecticut on Sunday at McGonigle Hall, Auriemma said Cardoza’s squad is trending in the right direction late into the regular season.

Prior to Sunday’s loss, the Owls won six consecutive games. With four regular-season games left, Cardoza’s squad is in second place in the American Athletic Conference with 11 wins and three losses.

“It’s no surprise that they are where they are,” Auriemma said.

“When she took over, it was still the end of Dawn [Staley]. She’s done what she knows she can do, get really good perimeter players. They play with a lot of confidence.”

Every member of Cardoza’s coaching staff has been with the team for at least four years.

Among those coaches includes assistant coach Willnett Crockett, who played under Auriemma and Cardoza at Connecticut from 200206, and played in the WNBA for the

DONALD OTTO TTN

Coach Tonya Cardoza (left), looks for a foul call during the Owls’ 78-48 win against Houston on Friday at McGonigle Hall.

Los Angeles Sparks and Phoenix Mercury.

Former UConn player Brittany Hunter served as Cardoza’s assistant coach during the 2008-09 season for the Owls. For the past six years, Stacey Nasser, a four-year manager at Connecticut from 2004-08, has been the director of basketball operations for the past six seasons.

In her senior year at UConn, Nasser asked Cardoza to mentor her

as an intern, where she taught her how to analyze film and scouting reports.

“I buy into her system, and I know that she’s bringing the best out of her players,” Nasser said. “We’ve had a couple of down seasons, but the players are always great.”

Temple is one win away from its 800th program win. They can earn that when the Owls head to the Elma Roane Fieldhouse to face Memphis

on Thursday.

“I’ve always believed in the process,” Nasser said. “Temple as a whole has been heading in the right direction.”

“I’ve always believed in the process,” Nasser said. “Temple as a whole has been heading in the right direction.” * mark.mccormick@temple.edu T @MarkJMcCormick

women’s basketball

Berger discovers role off bench Khadijah Berger is averaging 3.2 points per game as a reserve.

By CONNOR NORTHRUP The Temple News As a junior at Hampton High School in 2013, Khadijah Berger texted Feyonda Fitzgerald to let her know she committed to Temple.

Berger, who has come off the bench in 25 games this season for the Owls, became teammates with a hometown friend.

“I didn’t believe her, but then she committed and I was like, ‘Wow,’” Fitzgerald said. “It’s good to have someone from home on the same team as me.”

When Berger was 13 years old, she traveled from Hampton, Virginia to join Fitzgerald on Boo Williams’ Elite Amateur Athletic Union team.

Although the two played in different age groups, the two teams practiced together.

“She was a year higher than me, so we always practiced together,” Berger said. “In a lot of the tournaments the younger girls would play the older girls

and it would always be us in the championship game.”

Temple began recruiting Berger when she was a junior in high school in 2013.

That same year, Berger and her high school made it to the third round of the Ronald Curry and Boo Williams Christmas Classic but lost to Fitzgerald’s Lake Taylor High School.

“I just talked all this trash,” Berger said. “Before the game we were like, ‘We are about to go head-to-head and go at it.’ Then her team came out and ended up beating us by like 30.”

During Fitzgerald’s freshman season with the Owls, she hosted Berger, who traveled to Temple for an official visit after already committing.

“It was one of the most fun visits I been through since I been here. We went out to eat and every activity they did I was there,” Fitzgerald said. “We were already close, I didn’t have to do anything spectacular and I just showed her a good time.”

After playing 35 games as a freshman and averaging 3.1 points per game, Berger continues to contribute for the Owls from the bench.

This season, Berger has played in 25 games. She is averaging 3.2 PPG and tied her season-high 11 points in a 104-49 Jan. 16 loss to Connecticut, the No.1 team in the AP Top 25 Poll.

“I want to give her more minutes,

but sometimes depending on who we are playing and the athleticism I don’t, but she is definitely someone I think deserves more playing time,” coach Tonya Cardoza said. “She is an extension of a coach because she sees the bigger picture. She is someone I said from day one probably has the highest basketball IQ on our team.”

As Temple trailed 34-31 against Cincinnati at McGonigle Hall on Jan. 10, Fitzgerald inbounded the ball to Berger, who drained a 3-point basket at the buzzer to tie the game heading into halftime.

Although Berger did not score the entire second half, Temple came out of halftime to outscore the Bearcats 19-9 on its way to a 74-51 victory.

“I feel like I’m a spark,” Berger said. “I come in with the mindset that I need to be doing whatever the starters are not doing.”

Berger plays multiple roles for the Owls from a shooter to a rebounder in the paint. For Berger, it is a role she always accepts.

“Last year I was like, ‘OK I’m a freshman and most freshman that go division I don’t play a lot,’” Berger said.

“I knew coming into my sophomore year I needed to be more focused to get more minutes and contribute more.” * connor.northrup@temple.edu

DONALD OTTO TTN

Khadijah Berger stands on the baseline in the Owls’ 78-48 win against Houston.

Lacrosse

Gooch sisters bond following shared injury Taylor Gooch tore her Achilles tendon before the start of the lacrosse season.

By EVAN EASTERLING The Temple News During a practice in the Student Pavilion in December 2015, Taylor Gooch’s season changed in a matter of seconds.

“We were conditioning and we were doing sprints and I turned,” Gooch said. “The first time I turned on this leg, my left leg, I kind of felt it like, stretch, but I just tried to brush it off because I wanted to finish conditioning and then the next time I turned on it, it snapped.”

The freshman defender tore the Achilles tendon in her left heel, sidelining her for the 2016 season. The story was all too familiar.

In 2013, Taylor’s sister, Hailee, tried out for the Salisbury University volleyball team.

During conditioning drills in the first practice of August tryouts, Taylor—who earned allconference honors during her junior and senior year at Cape Henlopen High School in Lewes, Delaware—tore her right Achilles tendon during circuit training.

“By the time I was on the last suicide I was pretty worn out,” Hailee Gooch said. “So when I fell, I thought I slipped on one of those gold things that you put the volleyball net in on the gym floor. … I had no idea that I even tore it.

When they asked me to stand up and walk, I couldn’t walk.”

Hailee Gooch, now a junior, underwent surgery and then rehabbed her injury until April 2014 and is now using her experience to help

her sister.

“I’ve like told her pretty much about my recovery and how long it’s taken,” Hailee Gooch said. “Like filled in how hard it is to kind of get back to where you’re at before. She’s pretty tough, so I think she’s walking before I was without a boot or crutches. She’s healing a lot faster than I was.”

Junior attacker Anna Frederick, who played alongside Taylor Gooch for two years at Cape Henlopen, remembers watching her force a turnover in the 2013 Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association State Championship game and run down the field to help Cape Henlopen protect its lead and earn the title.

After missing the 2015 season with a torn ACL, Frederick knows how it feels to sit out.

“I always ask her or other people that are in rehab or physical therapy, ‘How they’re feeling’ or, ‘How it's going,’” Frederick said. “So that they don't feel that no one cares that they're

hurt and that they're going through maybe the toughest thing they've had to do in their athletic career.”

The two Gooch sisters are two years apart in age and are competitive with each other. They spent their childhood competing over who their dog liked better and running races to see who was faster. As they have gotten older and spent more time apart, they have gotten closer.

“I would say before both of us went to college, we weren’t that close, we would fight a lot,” Taylor Gooch said. “When she went to college, we got a little closer, but we wouldn’t really talk until she came home for break. But now that we’re both at college, we talk pretty much everyday and talk about personal stuff with each other.” * evan.easterling@temple.edu T @Evan_Easterling

SPORTS HIGH SCHOOL RIVALRY

Khadijah Berger met teammate Feyonda Fitzgerald when the two played for the same AAU team in Virgina.

PAGE 21

thecherry.temple-news.com

LEARNING FROM HER SISTER

CUMMINGS,ERIC PLAY IN ALL-STAR GAME

Former Owls Will Cummings and Michael Eric played in the NBA D-League All-Star game, Temple will face the No. 1 team on Wednesday other news and notes.

PAGE 19

Freshman Taylor Gooch tore her Achilles tendon two years after her sister suffered the same injury.

PAGE 21

TEMPLE-NEWS.COM

PAGE 22

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2016

MOVERS SHAKERS AND

Former Owl embarking on Olympic journey 2012 graduate Kamali Thompson is attempting to qualify for the 2016 Olympics.

By MICHAEL GUISE Sports Editor

A

long with every first- and secondyear fencer in New Jersey, Kamali Thompson competed at Freshman, Sophomores in February 2005.

In her first year of the sport, the then-freshman at Teaneck High School watched her team-

mate finish third at the annual competition.

“She had a great day,” Thompson said.

“She fenced really well. Everyone was watching her. She had a huge trophy, and I decided that I wanted to practice enough so I could get that next year.”

A year later, Thompson finished ninth at the event, missing a Top-8 finish by two touches.

Following the competition, she found her passion.

“I wanted to keep fencing,” Thompson said.

“I wanted to keep going and get better.”

Eleven years later, Thompson—who graduated from Temple in 2012—is competing for a spot in the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

To qualify for the Olympics, Thompson

men’s basketball

must finish in the Top 4 of women’s sabre.

Points are earned when a fencer finishes in the Top 64 of international competitions and Top 32 in national competitions.

Thompson is ranked No. 7 after one national and six international tournaments, with one national and two international competitions left before the team is selected.

“She always says she has more to learn,” Thompson’s mother Avis said. “But to see her fence with the best in the world, I can’t put it into words.”

Thompson’s final two international competitions are on Friday in Belgium and March 20 in Seoul, South Korea. Her final national com-

OLYMPICS | PAGE 20

like I’m finally “atI feel the point where

I really understand fencing. ... To make the Olympics would mean I finally figured this sport out.

”

Kamali Thompson | former sabre

McKie: Brown a ‘throwback’ floor general Junior guard Josh Brown is the leader of the Owls’ offense, which ranks No. 1 in fewest total turnovers.

By MICHAEL GUISE Sports Editor Before the start of the National Anthem, Josh Brown takes a moment to say a prayer.

Prior to the lights dimming and the beginning of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” Brown bows his head and thinks of his mother, Kimberly, who died when Josh was one year old.

He repeats the routine when he steps to the free-throw line, with the intention of remembering the mother he never got to know.

“Once I got the opportunity to go to college and play basketball and Temple was one of the schools, I had that in my mind I was coming in memory of her,” Brown said of his mother, who went to Temple. “To walk in her

footsteps. If I could do that, I know she’d be watching over me.”

The junior guard took over the Owls’ point-guard duties after Will Cummings graduated last spring.

In his third year with the Owls, Brown has started all 24 of his team’s games, averaging 8.2 points and 4.7 assists per game.

“He’s a throwback point guard,” assistant coach Aaron McKie said.

“He’s a pass-first guy. We are working on him trying to run the team. … He’s the quarterback.”

Brown began playing organized basketball at 12 years old, but the Newark, New Jersey native was around the game since he was five. He would run around his neighborhood to friends’ backyard basketball courts

Track & Field

HOJUN YU TTN

BROWN | PAGE 20

Josh Brown calls a play in the second half of the Owls’ 63-58 win against Connecticut on Thursday at the Liacouras Center.

Gymnastics

Pair of injuries alter course for Salim-Beasley’s squad The Owls have been forced to adjust following two injuries.

JOSHUA DICKER TTN

Semaje Harper (left), and Cacie Rosario sprint during practice at the Student Pavilion.

Forde’s new approach Not every member of the track & field team will travel to the conference championships.

By MAURA RAZANAUSKAS The Temple News Coach Elvis Forde decided to do things differently this year.

In previous seasons, the whole team rode the bus to the American Athletic Conference

SPORTS@TEMPLE-NEWS.COM

Championships. But this season, Forde is handpicking who will travel to Birmingham, Alabama for the Feb. 28 meet.

“You have to show some significant performance at the conference level,” Forde said.

“Part of that is going to be judged based on where you are on the best lists.”

By “best lists,” Forde is referring to the list of the top performances in The American so far this season. Athletes that have a time or distance in the Top 15 of the conference have a better chance of scoring and are therefore almost guaranteed a spot on the traveling roster.

FORDE | PAGE 19

By DAN NEWHART The Temple News Around 7 p.m. on Jan. 15, the Owls were set to begin their uneven bar routines against defending Eastern College Athletic Conference champions, the College of William & Mary.

Sophomore Kerry Arone was in the midst of her warm-up ritual, prepping for what she thought would be her third meet of the season.

As she swung on the bar, preparing to transition into an overshoot, her left thumb got caught in the wrong position on the bar.

Arone fell onto the mat, but got up.

When she looked down, she noticed she had dislocated her thumb, with two parts of the bone bent in opposite directions, leaving the thumb dangling.

“I just got up and started walking away like nothing happened,” Arone said. “Then I looked down and I saw my thumb and I like freaked out. Beforehand my thumb was both-

ering me so I guess after all this it’s not going to hurt anymore.”

Until that point, Arone competed in all four events for the Owls. She set a career high in vault with a 9.425 score in the team’s first meet of the season on Jan. 3 at Central Michigan University and earned a 9.675 on the bars at a Jan. 10 meet against Kent State University.

Sophomore all-around Gina Tucker has also been sidelined for the Owls.

Then I looked down “ and I saw my thumb and I like freaked out.”

Kerry Arone | sophomore all-around

Tucker prepared to compete in the team’s quad meet with West Chester University, Ursinus College and Centenary College on Jan. 29, but she had a lingering pain in her left foot which began around December.

INJURIES | PAGE 19