Issue 17 volume 50

Volume 50 | Issue 17 | February 22, 2016

Featured inside: Africa is Not a Country campaign 2014- 2015

INside:

All photography by Paisley Spence

Abandoned cats of trent university

free your mind Free society

labruce to screen Gerontophilia

roots and routes a success!

Contents Page 3-5: Opinion Volume 50 | Issue 17 | February 22, 2016

Official masthead by Jackson Creek Press 751 George Street N • Suite 104 Peterborough, ON • K9H 3T2 tel: 705-745-3535 editors@trentarthur.ca • www.trentarthur.ca

Co-Editors Arthurwriters Yumna Leghari Zara Syed

Business Manager Jenna Pilgrim

Proofreader Keila MacPherson

Betelhem Wondimu Reba Harrison Adriana Sierra Tyler Majer Ugyen Wangmo Troy Bordun

Copy- editor

D Dmuchowski

Gurki Bhullar

Keith Hodder

Photographer Samantha Moss

Jordan Porter Dan Morrison Matthew Douglas

Board of Directors Chair: Keila MacPherson Secretaries: Ugyen Wangmo • Treasurer: Natalie Guttormsson • Member at Large: Natalie Guttormsson • Caleigh Boyle • Adriana Sierra •Jeffrey Moore •Ugyen Wangmo

Contributors Jenna Pilgrim • Yumna Leghari• Ryan Newman • Ugyen Wangmo • Adriana Sierra • Roger Corman • Keith Hodder • Reba Harrison • Jordan Porter • Alaine Spiwak •Betelhem Wondimu • Stephanie Laing • Tyler Majer • Zachary Cox • D Dmuchowski • Amy Jane Vosper • Brian Hough •

• • • • • •

Pg 3: Editorial: Race in Pakistan Pg 3: The elephant in the room Pg 4: Samsung TV Pg 4: Jack Matthews Soundtrack for Awareness Thoughts on Wayne Kennedy Shows

Page 6-9: Campus • • • • • • •

Pg 6: Abandoned cats of Trent Pg 7: TCSA and the student voice Pg 8: Part-time instructors Pg 8: Sharing teaching practices Pg 8: Ashley Fellow Rayner Pg 8: Open Chair Project Pg 9: Roots and Routes

Page 10-12: Africa is Not a Country Page 13-14: Black Heritage Month Coverage • Pg • Pg • Pg • Pg

13: Afro-Latinos 13:Tribulations of Ethiopian Jews 14:Beyond the Veil 14:#BlackMusicMatters

Page 15: Community • Pg 15: Homelessness in Peterborough • Pg 15:Seeds of Change

Page 16-17: Arts • Pg 16:Hollywood at Home: Deadpool • Pg 16: Bruce LaBruce film screening • Pg 17:Trent Film Society

ARE YOU AN ARTIST? WANT TO MAKE IT ON ARTHUR’S COVER & WIN $200?

SUBMIT FOR ARTS WEEK! THERE ARE CASH PRIZES AND LOCAL GOODIES! IF YOU ARE A STUDENT OR COMMUNITY MEMBER WHO IS INTO THE ART THING, CHECK OUT OUR BACK PAGE FOR MORE DETAILS!

Dan Morrison • Laura Schindel • Boykin Smith • Paisley Spence • Sarah Galagher • Zafer Izer • Andy Carroll • Berfin Aksoy Contributors are encouraged to attend our weekly story meetings (Mondays at 4) at the Trend Pub at Traill College, or to contact the editors if considering submitting to an upcoming issue. Our email address is editors@trentarthur.ca.

Submission guidelines Articles

Articles should be submitted via email to editors@ trentarthur.ca, in the body of the message, or as an *.rtf, *.doc, *.odt, or *.txt attachment. Deadlines are every Thursday at noon. The body should be approximately 800 words. Listings, announcements, or briefs should not exceed 100 words. Feature pieces can be up to 2000, but must be arranged in advance with the editors.

Images

Images should be submitted via email, Google Drive, Dropbox, or some other filesharing site. Please save as *.tif, with a dpi of no less than 300 pixels.

Letters

Limit letters to the editors to 500 words. Letters longer than 500 words may be published but Arthur reserves the right to edit for length and clarity (but not content),

WE NEED YOUR WORK! ALL FORMS OF ART WELCOME. Correction from Issue 16: Troy Bordun was the sole writer of The representation of sexual violence in two new films. We cited a co-author who did not work on this piece.

A big thank you to all those involved in creating the Africa is Not a Country campaign! It has been an honour to run this campaign in the paper!

A shout out to: Ruth Kyeremeh who is featured on the cover of this issue. & TACSU TCSA Boykin Smith Betelhem Wondimu for organizing this campaign and working together to make it happen!

Thanks to the photographer Paisley Spence for providing these photos.

2

Opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of Arthur staff, volunteers or its Board of Directors. Contributors are encouraged to attend the story meetings or contact the Editors to discuss story ideas. All article submissions are due Thursday at noon. Letters, Listings, Classifieds, and Events are due Thursday at noon and should be sent to listings@trentarthur.ca. Advertisers are encouraged to contact advertising@trentarthur.ca for ad rates and contracts.

www.trentarthur.ca

Black Heritage Month may be over, but we want to keep the conversation going. Please submit to us if you have any opinions, ideas, or rants you would like to go on regarding race politics! The dialogue is not over.

Opinion pages

A plea from the elephant in the room Academic Principal at Traill College last hope for college system

By Jenna Pilgrim

The problem with the reformed college system is that no one is willing to address the elephant in the room: the transformation of the college system in Summer 2013 did not work. We gave it the benefit of the doubt last year, because, well, they were just getting settled. This year nothing has gotten better.

The main campus colleges have gone down a road that I do not know if they can come back from.

Being placed in the unfortunate position of working under Nona Robinson, these college heads are subjected to a significant amount of scrutiny; they are forced to adhere to watered-down, sedated, onesize-fits-all student engagement outcomes.

Robinson’s model aims to parent students – something that we all know does not bode well with 18 to 22 year olds. They were guided to plan academic events that were aimed to “improve your skills” or “help you with homework” … something a student does not need from its college office.

They threw money at learning outcomes, college macro-goals and lame events with low attendance – similar to a prostitute who aims to get work by wearing a sweat suit.

The only college that has succeeded at the reform is Champlain, and this is likely due to the fact that they are the only college

with a college head that is not significantly close in age to its students. She knows how to forge a path given Robinson’s strict rules and uniform mandates (none of which are supported by actual students).

Melanie Sedge came into the role knowing she had big shoes to fill after Mike Alcott and she took these challenges in stride – this year she has grown into a great figurehead for Champlain.

Working for a long time with Trent Summer Sports Camp, Sedge already knew how to relate to similar-age individuals in a fun learning atmosphere. She understands students’ need for intelligent validation, and the fact that they are adults, requires planning events that reflect that: fun, outrageous and/or academically stimulating.

Through all this reform, Traill College has been the shining beacon of hope for the College System at Trent. The key thing here is that its position as a mainly graduate college means that its students do not consider themselves students – they consider themselves members of the academic community.

As soon as you decide to go into graduate work, you move from the realm of the undergraduate vocational track into the world of being an academic. Because of this transition, an academic college head presiding over this body of students is crucial. If you place someone who has anything less than a PhD as head of Traill, stu-

dents will laugh and scoff in their face.

This is the same for undergraduates who are members of Traill, since they are commonly upper-year students looking to join a more academically driven community.

College dinners at Traill are commonly attended by academic fellows, professors, community members (for example, Founding President THB Symons, Mayor Daryl Bennett, and MPP Jeff Leal) and students, engaging in the 900-year-old tradition of interdisciplinary discourse.

In the 50’s when THB Symons was named Dean of Devonshire House at the University of Toronto, he was given a similar challenge to that of Michael Eamon at Traill.

At Devonshire, the collegiate environment had been spat on and disregarded, but Symons brought it back to fruition through the inclusion of faculty and community members in college activities. Eamon, over the last two years has brought new life to the Traill community – ask anyone who is a member and you will find out the same.

A truly collegial community cannot be fabricated by college programs or company mandates, and Eamon has created and revitalized this perfect type of community at Traill College. This is what is possible in an academic community run by an equally academic and passionate individual.

Why should someone who has been a college head and principal for five years, devoting his life to studying “the collegiate

way” (Chair of Collegiate Way International), possessing a PhD and chair of the Heritage Committee at Trent, not be qualified to be the director of colleges at Trent?

It is simply organizational politics, meaning he did not fit with “the Nona Way,” something that should not sway the decisions moving forward in the case for colleges.

As the last two Directors of Colleges have been from larger universities, they have no idea the challenges that Trent faces as an institution, or its innate ability to welcome students just by being a close-knit community.

For example, the newest Director of Colleges, Stephanie Muehlethaler, mentioned in her acceptance release that she was excited for “the opportunity to help strengthen the four main campus colleges is truly an exciting one” … Is she that under-researched or naïve that she just forgot about Traill? Or does this imply subtly that Traill is not a part of the university’s future plan?

They are aiming to fit a triangular block into a square hole and they just keep hammering and hammering.

It is my hope that the right decision will be made regarding the future of the leadership at Catharine Parr Traill College – bringing a shining light to the glaring omissions in the services of the main campus colleges.

Editorial: Colonial residue and beauty standards in Pakistan

By Yumna Leghari

As a Pakistani-born Canadian, I often think about race politics and colonization. Black Heritage Month examines these topics and allows me to reflect on my “browness” and what that means.

There are forms of racism that find themselves in non-white majority countries; this is the kind of racism that I will be discussing…Racism in Pakistan, which is tied closely to a colonial history and classism. The way this racism affects women is especially troubling, as beauty standards reflect this prejudice and have a detrimental effect on the future successes of many women in Pakistan.

Growing up, my co-editor Zara and I were told that we were very “fair” in praising tones. We were told to stay out of the sun so that we didn’t tan. We never questioned this at the time.

In retrospect, as young Pakistani women who are aware of colonialism and white privilege, we now understand that these

comments were the side effect of a severely skewed societal standard of beauty.

The nuances of race in Pakistan are a topic of discussion that often leaves our tongues.

The Oxford Dictionary defines racism as: “A person who shows or feels discrimination or prejudice against people of other races, or who believes that a particular race is superior to another.”

Racism is institutional, and permeates every aspect of daily life. It appears every day within Pakistani society through the media, comments made by friends and family members, as well as classist and sexist approaches to what is deemed beautiful.

Pakistan was once a part of India, a nation that was under British colonial rule for hundreds of years. The residual affects of colonialism exist in Pakistan today, and the mainstream beauty standards reflect this colonial history. Within this context, the idea of what is considered attractive is inexplicably tied with the notion of white as beautiful. The fairer one is, the more

A Fair and Lovely ad (note how sad the darker woman looks)

beautiful they are considered.

One would assume that the preference of light skin is acknowledged in subtle ways, so as not to offend anyone. This is false.

Pakistani (and Indian) media is brimming with advertisements for skin creams and ointments that promote skin lightening, commonly known as skin bleaching.

These advertisements are framed so that the subject, a dark individual, is leading a mediocre life until they discover Fair and Lovely. As soon as their skin becomes whiter, their life quality immediately improves. They get their dream job, the sun shines brighter, and most importantly, they find the love of their life.

These ads are primarily targeted towards women.

Fair and Lovely is produced and marketed by the monolithic corporation Unilever, which is also the umbrella company for Dove. Dove has become known for its body positive campaigns that have gone viral.

Unilever profits upon the insecurities and destructive social norms of beauty standards in Pakistan by further embedding “whiteness” as ideal into people’s heads.

Flip to a channel on Pakistani television and you’ll see the fairest of people. Pakistan is a big country with the sixth largest populace in the world. The vast variety of languages and roots is staggering.

Thus, there is no one face that can define what Pakistan looks like. Despite this, anchors, soap opera stars and even politicians are extremely fair, representing only a portion of Pakistani individuals and perpetuating the damaging idea that white is better.

If someone does have dark skin, they are usually playing a lower class, or villainous character. The dark skinned person is

essentially the “bad guy.”

Imagine the damage this has on young minds, and how it affects their self-esteem.

Why is whiteness the crux of civility?

When did that become a norm? We discuss North American colonization and the erasure of visible minorities in the media; imagine this taking place in a nation where there are barely any actual white people, yet whiteness is the pinnacle people strive for.

Such is the case in Pakistan.

These beauty standards affect young women in Pakistan, especially. In a country where marriage is often arranged, or at least strategized, the preference for fair skinned girls in engagements negatively affects the marriage prospects of girls with darker complexions.

Men have a better chance of being financially stable and independent, and can find a woman to marry whether or not he is dark. In comparison, women are crucially judged on their appearance before any commitments are made.

Due to the sexism that also exists in Pakistani society, to be more marketable (to be more fair-skinned) is stressed more on brown women than men. Women are more likely to be subjected to scrutiny over their darkness.

Though brands like Fair and Lovely have recently started targeting men, the onus falls on women to make themselves more attractive by not being kala - the word for ‘dark- skinned.’

Prejudice must be pointed out and contextualized.

Post-colonial nations are still dealing with the ripples and aftershocks of colonization, and the human body at the most intimate level is the target of this oppressive history.

Volume 50 | Issue 17 | February 22, 2016

3

opinion

They’re listening: the screen on the wall

By Keith Hodder

Just this week a slew of the world’s news networks reported that Samsung, a giant in the home-tech world, has been listening to its customers - and not in a response-toa-filed-complaint sort of way.

The company recently reported that its SmartTVs – meaning the televisions equipped to connect to the Internet for the use of applications like Netflix and recognize voice commands – has been not only acknowledging the vocal prompts, but has also been recording them and sending them to a third party.

Cue the tired Orwellian comparisons.

What is both mind-boggling and frustrating is that the report came from Samsung, not as an admittance of guilt and shame, but as a warning. The company warned it’s customers not to discuss vital and important information as the information would be submitted to another company, Nuance, who then turns the voice to text. According to CNN, Samsung claims that the information is deleted im-

mediately, but this begs the question – why the hell is the information downloaded and sent in the first place?

Sure, maybe many of us don’t have anything to hide. Maybe Samsung and Nuance are gathering incredibly boring conversations from a couple struggling over what to make for dinner, or maybe they know what sort of porn you’re into judging from how you taunt the nude figures on the television.

But what this comes down to is a matter of principle. What this comes down to is the fact that we’re buying a slew of technology that is downloading and caching our every move and spoken word.

So, think about it for a few minutes.

Think about what you say in front of your television; think about what you say to a friend or family member over the phone.

Maybe as you read these words the horror is beginning to dawn on you that everything you’ve said and shared is never truly gone or forgotten.

Our governments have it and now many of the companies we pay during an unbeat-

able Black Friday sale have them, too.

Am I scared about what these companies and what our governments will do with this information? No, but I pity them for the fact that they may have records of hundreds of phone calls with my friends as we talk about Star Wars lore and action figures. That’s just a waste of digital space.

That’s a damn shame.

But what about the hackers?

Last year Home Depot, JP Morgan and Sony were tapped into by crafty computer folk and all of their dirty laundry was hung out to dry.

I’m not scared of the companies; I’m scared of the anarchists who have found a key to the back door.

You should be too. You should be mad, scared and frustrated not only at the hackers, but at the companies like Samsung who don’t try to rectify the problem, who simply have the gall to tell us, “Oh yeah, by the way, with each of our televisions comes a man who stands outside of your window and watches you sleep. Sorry.”

I’m not so much an activist as I am a

cynic and pessimist who believes humans, at their core, are eternal and forgetful hypocrites.

There’s a company out there that has told us the truth and doesn’t apologize. Instead they just carry on doing exactly what they want to do and many of us continue to support them.

And they aren’t the only ones doing it.

It’s worth mentioning that the only reason this issue came to light is because a journalist at the Daily Beast stumbled upon it.

Go figure.

So, where do we go from here? To be honest, I don’t know. I’m just acting as the messenger, the spark to light the flame that will hopefully burn the whole house down.

I refuse to believe that we’re all OK with this. I refuse to believe that we’ll continue to take a step into the pages helmed by George Orwell.

The voice command features on the TVs can be disabled, which means Samsung, Nuance, and whoever the heck else, can’t listen. With that said, how do we know that’s the truth?

Jack Matthews: preserver and integrator of cultures in Peterborough

By Ryan Newman

Laying the foundation of the Trent International Program (TIP), Jack Matthews planted the seeds of internationalization, which allowed diversity at Trent to prosper.

By doing so, the image of our university shifted and many students were benefitted by effect. Today, hundreds of international students are provided with a Canadian experience at Trent; thousands of domestic students exchange their knowledge in return. Socially, linguistically, culturally: we grow together.

Now this may seem all fine and dandy, honey-flavoured and sugar coated at the surface.

Forgive me if these remarks tend to romanticize diversity at Trent. Indeed, we are caught and yanked by different dilemmas, confronted with different challenges. Matthews recognized that among many challenges commonly faced by international – and domestic – students, is integration.

Orientation can make or break one’s initial transition to university. Language and cultural barriers pose additional challenges, especially for international students. Matthews served as Headmaster of Lakefield College School, an institution that is notoriously known for its immersion program.

From personal experience, I can confirm the effects. In November I visited Lakefield College School on behalf of the World UniPictured: Dalal Al-Waheidi

4

www.trentarthur.ca

versity Service of Canada. It was apparent that for many students this was a prelude to post-secondary education. Matthews is endued gratitude for easing the process, which many international students experience.

Finally we move on to the creation of the Canadian Canoe Museum.

We all acknowledge Matthews’ contributions to the founding of the venue. Moreover, we should commend these efforts to showcase Canadianism. It is a beautiful thing that while cherishing other cultures, Matthews never forgot his own. Perhaps many Canadians can take a lesson here.

Dalal Al-Waheidi was selected to deliver the Jack Matthews Fellowship Lecture on Jan. 27. Known for her work with Free the Children, Al-Waheidi admits that she is irritated by the term ‘future leaders’ because change begins today.

I believe that change is not a hand on the clock; rather, it is a foot on the ground.

Our next step forward leads us into the future. The 2016 Fellow adds another branch to the Jack Matthews tree.

Pride can be drawn for the local-changesmade-global; however we should take note from these honourees in progressing forward.

Special thanks to SAAT, SAID, TISA and TCSA for this collaborative event, in addition to Trent University, Lakefield College School and Canadian Canoe Museum for continuing this tradition.

opinion

Accountability in local music: Soundtrack for Awareness

By D Dmuchowski

Last Friday folks from around town came together for the first Soundtrack for Awareness event at the Spill, a fundraiser that aims to raise funds for local non-profit organizations through music.

All proceeds collected at the event go towards a local cause. For the first show, the Kawartha Sexual Assault Center (KSAC) was the beneficiary. A total of $210 was raised.

Wayne Kennedy, a local events promoter, organized the event.

“Last year I did a couple fundraising shows. At the last one I got the idea to do charity shows every few months, getting the entire community involved. Every few months we will do a show, and every one will be about raising money and awareness for a local cause.”

Sexual assault is defined as being any unwanted act of a sexual nature imposed by one or more persons upon another, including rape and unwanted touching.

Conservative statistics document that one

in two women and one in five men will be sexually assaulted at some time in their lives. This is not to mention the rates of assault that trans-binary and non-binary people face, in which statistics are not as readily available.

Punk scenes and other musical communities that are seen as being alternative can have a higher likelihood of being discriminated against in direct proportion to the degree they are perceived as deviating from social norms.

In these communities misogyny and sexism may be more rampant because the degradation of the feminine is a widely culturally sanctioned indicator of masculine strength and power.

It is incredibly important to begin to dismantle these mentalities in all communities, these ones especially.

“To me it’s a good thing to do, to show that there are musicians that do care and watch out for each other. In music, especially in the punk community, there is sexism and misogyny. The point is also to show that musicians care and are not just

assholes,” Kennedy commented.

However, good intentions and a lack of active effort to make the community inclusive is just another barrier in creating safe and equitable spaces for everyone.

Some local music scenes in Peterborough have a reputation for sexism, with many women and trans*/non-binary community members citing instances of physical, sexual and verbal assault.

A point of contention that arose was the lack of women and gender variant musicians in attendance at the show; two bands with female members were contacted, but neither could make it.

At an event where the purpose was to raise awareness around assault, more of an effort could have been made to include female/trans*/non-binary musicians. This also would have acted as a way of reclaiming the spaces and venues where assault is so common.

Lastly, it becomes difficult to endorse a show that aims to benefit and raise awareness around an organization like KSAC, when the record label of the organizer is

“Folk You In the Face;” an uncomfortably clear reminder of sexual violence.

The Soundtrack for Awareness is a great cause that is worthy of support, and an excellent and accessible way for people to give back to the community.

The show would have been an excellent forum in which to address all communities who contribute to the epidemic of violence against minorities. The show was in a unique situation to bring to light problems regarding assault in the music scene.

Having someone speak about the organization being featured also would have been helpful in bringing awareness to the cause.

We look forward to seeing the cause grow, improve and begin to further support the minority populations these organizations aim to assist.

If you or someone you know has been the victim of sexual assault, KSAC is available for crisis support, individual counseling, groups and workshops, advocacy and accompaniment. They can be reached at 705-741-0260, or at 411 Water St.

Thoughts on Wayne Kennedy’s punk shows

By Roger Corman

Wayne Kennedy, organizer and frequent performer at the $2 Punk Shows hosted at The Spill, has recently come under a lot of heat for a couple of reasons.

Three main complaints have come against Kennedy and the punk shows, by a variety of sources.

First, people were concerned with his lack of female punk artists at his shows and the misogynistic undertone that it creates.

Secondly, building off of said sexist concerns was the fact that many people, specifically females, have stated that not only

do they not feel safe at these punk shows, but also some actually have been touched, grabbed or hit on in a way that constitutes sexual assault.

Finally, the third complaint has to do with Kennedy’s original name for his record label, ‘Folk You in the Face,’ and the concern that such a name promotes, or at the very least, reinforces rape culture.

All of these problems, although not necessarily fixed easily, can be fixed.

However, Kennedy’s initial reaction was to cancel the shows all together. A Facebook status stating all of the problems was posted, but no solutions were proposed.

Rather than attempting to change the culture for the good, Kennedy’s initial reaction was to simply succumb to any problem by not addressing it and canceling any good that the punk shows were doing.

Before we go any further, let’s address the fact that although these problems occurred within the scope of the two dollar punk shows, the punk shows had, in fact, been doing good.

The monthly event brought people together in an environment that allowed for emotions to be released. Every month a dying music genre was presented to anybody that wanted to attend.

The cost of two dollars also allowed for people on a low budget, or no budget at all to attend with very little difficulty.

Many Peterborough events costs upwards of five dollars, but Kennedy made sure that every one of his punk shows cost two dollars.

He also always advocated for people to donate canned goods to various Peterborough food drives.

This created not only an environment for Peterborough music to grow, but also a place where fans could accumulate in their appreciation for this genre of music.

However, all of the good vibes were made dim by the accusation that the punk shows were a place that sexism and assault occurred.

At least initially, Kennedy provided no support to the problem and reacted in an illogical manner.

Responses to this were mixed. Many people were frustrated with the punk shows being cancelled. Some placed the blame on Wayne himself; others placed the blame on so-called ‘PC culture.’

Others were happy with the cancelling of the shows, as this would make sure that no one else is harmed, at least in the context of the two dollar punk shows.

After a few days of deliberation, multiple Facebook posts regarding the future of the shows and Kennedy’s position on the continuation of the shows, he stated that he would be carrying on with the shows.

However, more emphasis would be put on finding female bands to perform. To be honest, this problem, however very evident is not solely Kennedy’s fault.

There is a lack of female bands in the punk scene. He can only make so many phone calls before he has to begin to fill

spots regardless of gender.

That is not to make an excuse for Kennedy, but to point out that certain things happen based out of necessity.

I can also say with the utmost confidence that none of these unfortunate circumstances happened deliberately.

This also applies to the even more serious situation that is sexual assault and safe spaces. The Spill is one of the safest bars in Peterborough.

Unfortunately due to the nature of punk rock (aggressive), it is not out of the realm of possibility that negative things can occur.

Punk rock and its aggressiveness tend to draw in masculine douchebags, and sometimes these people act on their masculine douchebag tendencies.

Most of the time these things can get caught and acted on. I have seen many people thrown out of the bar for sexist or homophobic remarks, and acts of general douchebaggery.

Due to the number of people that attend the punk shows, not everything gets noticed or acted on. Kennedy’s statement on the continuation of the punk shows addressed this, and he has said that he will make an increased effort to pay attention to, and make an example of, anything negative that happens at these shows. Furthermore, Kennedy’s record label has been changed from the uncomfortable name of ‘Folk You in the Face’ records to that of ‘Vacant Music.’

I know that many of these problems are troubling to a lot of people, and I know Kennedy does have some fault in this.

However, as of right now, the right things have been put into place in order to fix said problems.

The punk shows have their problems, but they also have created a lot of good in the community.

Kennedy has taken the right steps, and now the onus is on the punk community.

People in the punk scene have the obligation placed upon them.

If we want to truly keep these punk shows going, each person that attends needs to be on the lookout for any assholes causing or looking for trouble.

If the scene, as a whole, works together to create a safer space, then punk will thrive. If we fail in doing so, punk, at least in one sense, will be no more.

Volume 50 | Issue 17 | February 22, 2016

5

Campus

The abandoned cats of Trent University

By Reba Harrison

You are officially an adult with your legal ID, and attending university. You may be planning towards your first apartment if it is not already your place of living. Hey! I think I will get a kitten, you may think to yourself.

Stop.

Over the past five years, Paul Cordeiro suspects that the Food Service workers at Trent University have caught up to 60 felines. An employee himself, Cordeiro was hired at Aramark in 2013 and caught 39 cats outside of the university. Most were kittens born in spring or summer.

Colleen Carter is the Union President for local 3205 and wrote to Arthur, concerned about educating the students on campus at Trent University. Representing the Food Service Workers at Trent, Carter explained that students could decide to keep a kitten.

However, the kittens will often escape the dorm rooms, get outside and become

6

www.trentarthur.ca

lost.

The issue is especially concerning for multiple kittens, as they grow, reproduce, birth more kittens and can all die during the winter from a lack of shelter, warmth and food.

“It is heartbreaking seeing these cats have litters of kittens in the cold with nothing to eat...When the temperatures plummet we become greatly concerned for their [lives],” wrote Carter.

She believes that abandonment is not intentional by students; however, it is hard to imagine students of post-secondary institutions acting so irresponsibly towards the lives of kittens.

It is further curious that the residential Dons have not presented cats as an issue.

The Humane Society across Canada has long felt the burden of students adopting kittens and abandoning them, usually without adequate health care.

The student community fosters this cruel treatment of cats, but the same community can reverse it.

Students have the power to make change amongst each other. As of now, it appears that students living on campus are not making the efforts of the Food Services workers easy at all.

Rescuing these poor animals appears to be a Food Service team effort.

Cordeiro explains that his fellow employees have donated money and cat food to him, as well as helped to foster, and even adopt, some of the rescued cats.

Before employment with Aramark (now with Chartwells), Corderio volunteered at an animal rescue organization.

When Peterborough Regional Health Centre let him go, the cost of feeding the cats day and night, seven days a week, became much more difficult. Corderio explained that his wife is not working, but neither of them are holding back from caring for the cats.

Corderio describes receiving incredible help through the donations of the owners of Pet Valu at the Brookdale Plaza on Chemong Rd. The owners believe that

every animal deserves a second chance and are working with local animal rescue initiatives.

However, the Lakefield Animal Welfare Society (LAWS) has taken on the majority of the foster care and healthcare of the felines.

“They also deserve most of the credit,” said Cordeiro.

Donations of dry cat food or money can be delivered to Cordeiro at Otonabee College after contacting him at 705-9770300.

Donations can also be brought to the Brookdale Pet Valu store as they take many of the caught felines.

Still want to adopt a furry feline friend?

Make sure you can afford food, shelter and all health expenses, including medications and vaccinations.

When you do not spay or neuter your cat, they reproduce and even more kittens are born without a home. In the case of Trent University, many kittens are born in the snow and do not survive the winter.

Campus

Trent’s external reviews: TCSA and the student voice rises up

By Alaine Spiwak

Dear Pres. Groarke, I am writing to you because of growing concerns that myself, the TCSA and students have about the external reviews the university is conducting this academic year: internationalization, retention and Traill College.

These review committees consist of an outside member, faculty and staff, but are missing a very key player: a student. If the university is going to be taking direction from the recommendation of these review committees, it is imperative that a student be present to represent our voice. No one can better reflect what is actually happening on our campus than a student who experiences Trent University first-hand.

In regards to the review on internationalization, it is especially important that an international student be involved in this conversation. International students face many barriers unknown to those who do not experience similar circumstances, which is why their particular voice is needed at the table.

As you already know, the TCSA has been lobbying for our international students as they are heavily burdened by rising tuition fees, and we want to make sure this concern

stays at the forefront of the committee’s mind when looking at international programing. Excluding international students from this process is exceptionally damaging to the relationship between international students and the university.

In regards to the review on retention, it is quite obvious to me that students have the best ideas as to why we may choose to stay at, or leave, Trent University. We experience the various struggles of post-secondary institutions such as tuition fees, housing and connection to student life, mental health, availability of campus supports and services, etc.

Just as the retention committee has a wide range of student voices at the table to help improve Trent’s retention rate, we should also have a voice at the table during the retention review.

I would also like to echo the concerns our Vice President of University and College Affairs, Pippa O’Brien, brought up about a single individual being responsible for the review of Traill College.

As a former colleague of yours, regardless of his previous involvement as a student of Traill College, this review is far from the level of transparency and credibility that students expect and deserve. We highly urge you to reconsider your decision and

involve a student on the review committee.

I hope we can sit down together some time before Dec. 22, to speak about these issues, as I do not want this review process to be taking place without student voice while we are away for the winter holiday.

Best, Alaine Spiwak President Leo did meet with O’Brien and myself to address our concerns, but ultimately he decided to remain with a single external reviewer and not further incorporate students into these reviews.

The TCSA is passionate about including students in these review processes as external reviews are taken very seriously by both the president and the Trent Board of Governors.

We may be comforted by hearing that no decisions can be made without all the usual decision making processes, but these usually happen at the Trent Board of Governors meetings, out of reach of students in closed session.

Students: time to have your voice heard!

As you may already know, the TCSA is facilitating a student-led review of Traill College, but now we are also launching a

student-led review of internationalization.

Our hope is to compile student feedback/ideas and not only bring them to each external reviewer, but have student recommendations ready for when the external review results reach the Trent Board of Governors.

The internationalization student-led review will be facilitated as a chapter of our Fairness for International Students Taskforce.

The next Fairness for International Students Taskforce meeting is Feb. 26 at 1p.m. in the LEC Pit. If you cannot make the meeting but would still like to be involved, please contact Boykin Smith at boykinsmith@ trentu.ca.

If you are interested in volunteering for the Traill Review taskforce, please email Pippa O’Brien at vpuc@trentcentral.ca or contact any of the college cabinets.

Also, please keep an eye out for our online survey about Traill College that we will be circulating through Cabinet newsletters and on social media.

The reviews launched by Pres. Groarke this year will no doubt result in changes around the university. Let’s make sure students voices are heard on these very important topics.

Trent Central Student Association elections are coming up!

By Stephanie Laing

Have you considered running for a position on the TCSA Board of Directors? Or maybe you have thought about putting a question forward for referendum. Now is your chance!

The 2016 Spring General Elections are kicking off with some exciting events and big changes, the biggest of all being a brand new Executive position: Vice President Clubs & External Affairs. Be sure to keep an eye out on our website, Facebook page and Arthur for full details on all upcoming elections events. All Executive and Equity Commissioner positions are available and full descriptions of each can be found on our website at trentcentral.ca/elections.

Nominations are open as of Monday, Feb. 22 at 9a.m., so if you’re interested in running for a position, you can pick up your package in the TCSA office or download it from our website (trentcentral.ca/elections).

Have a referenda question you would like to see on the ballot? Referenda questions can be put forward to determine the stance of the membership on issues of importance, to determine membership in or commitment to pay any corollary fees of other organizations, to overturn decisions of the Board or to enact or amend the by-laws of the corporation.

Referenda instigators can begin collecting signatures for their petition at the start of the nomination period. All completed referenda petitions and nomination packages are due in the TCSA office by March 4 at 12p.m. For more information, please visit our website or email Chief Electoral Officer, Stephanie Laing at elections@trentcentral.ca. It’s your choice, use your voice.

Volume 50 | Issue 17 | February 22, 2016

7

campus

Recognizing the contributions of part-time instructors

By Zachary Cox

Until March 1, the Centre for Teaching and Learning is accepting nominations for the CUPE 3908-1 Award for Excellence in Teaching.

This is the perfect time to recognize the instructors that have made a substantial difference in your education.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 3908 Unit 1 is Trent’s branch of the union for many part-time instructors.

Diane Therrien, the CUPE 3908 president, believes that the award is an important way to highlight the work done at Trent by instructors that work part-time.

“People aren’t always aware of their instructor being part time,” she said.

“There’s often the assumption that all instructors are tenured faculty, which is not the case. [This award] is a good way to increase the profile of the local instructors as well as the immense amounts of work that go into being a part-time instructor,” Therrien explained.

The recipient of the award is determined by the CUPE Teaching Award Committee, and will be awarded $750 and a framed certificate. The award will be presented at the Celebration of Teaching Excellence on March 31.

The committee is looking for nominations that provide clear examples of teaching excellence, so stories that illustrate how an instructor has positively impacted you are the best way to nominate.

Established in 2000, the CUPE-39081 Award for Excellence in Teaching has highlighted incredible instructors for years. Recipients have said that receiving recognition for their commitment to student success through teaching excellence is an incredibly humbling and inspiring experience.

“I have such a huge sense of thanks to the Trent community to be regarded as such,” said John Dale Purcell, recipient of the 2014 award.

“It was certainly a big confidence boost.

I am very grateful that there is such a rec-

ognition for teaching.”

It was a similar experience for 2015 award recipient Robyne Hanley-Dafoe, who works for the Centre for Teaching and Learning and has been teaching part time at Trent every semester since the spring of 2007.

“I was incredibly humbled. What makes it so significant for me was that it is the voice of the students who felt that I was deserving of that.”

These part-time instructors are teaching because they are passionate about it and often go well beyond their job descriptions in the process. Each hopes to make a positive difference in the educational experience of their students.

“My goal is for students to enjoy learning and to use their knowledge to be creative,” said Jose Miguel Garcia Ramirez, who was selected to receive the award in 2012.

“Paper can be used for many things. If you use it to light a fire, you can keep warm until the flame is gone, but if you use it to write a poem or make a flower, you can

dream and make others dream your whole life.”

“I went into teaching because I wanted to foster a teaching practice where students have the opportunity to be successful,” said Hanley-Dafoe.

“It was important to me to be the type of teacher who helps establish a learning environment where students can find their strengths and where they can be themselves. I really wanted to foster curiosity, especially in undergraduate students and really encourage them to have deep learning.”

These attitudes are exemplary of the outstanding part-time instructors at Trent, and truly do make a difference in the student experience. As such, it is important to take the time to recognize the contributions of these instructors. If they are eligible, nominating them for the teaching excellence award is a great way to do so.

Nomination forms and the eligibility list can be found on the Centre for Teaching and Learning website, trentu.ca/teaching.

the sharing of teaching practices and experiences between instructors and across disciplines. Thus, the Open Chair Project was born.

The premise is simple: instructors who are willing to be a host have a scheduled lecture where there is an ‘open chair.’ The Centre for Teaching and Learning will then arrange to have another instructor who is interested in experiencing the teaching practices of someone else sit in on the lecture to observe. Rather than an evaluative process where the guest is grading the instructor, the project encourages self-reflection.

“It’s really driven with the spirit of learning and community learning as opposed to in any way evaluating,” says Hanley-Dafoe.

“It’s to give people the opportunity to see teaching in action.” Following the lesion, guests are encouraged to take some time to speak with the instructor to further in-

spire self-reflection and consideration of pedagogy.

The first project involved eight host instructors. This time around, some host instructors are returning and some new ones are on board. A diverse range has been selected in order to showcase pedagogy across a variety of disciplines.

Currently, the project operates in six-week blocks that fall during the second half of the semesters. This is so that host instructors have a chance to get settled in their class environments before having guests.

Hanley-Dafoe suggested that future iterations may open up the full semester, but for now the Open Chair Project will operate in the six-week segments.

The initial series of sessions received some tremendous feedback. One guest described it as “an incredible opportunity,” while another said that “[the instructor] had me hooked right out of the gate. I find myself

wondering how to learn more. Thank you for this rare opportunity to have a window in. I learned a great deal from [the instructor’s] excellent modeling.”

For both this session and future iterations of the Open Chair Project, Hanley-Dafoe encourages anyone interested to get involved. “An open invitation goes out to all instructors and faculty who would be interested in serving as a host,” she says.

“It’s an open call to anyone who would like to take part and then anyone, any faculty member, instructor, graduate student, or demonstrator – anyone is absolutely welcome to attend.” The Centre for Teaching and Learning takes care of the administrative work so there is little burden on either the host or guest.

A full list of the second session’s dates and more information about the project can be found on the Centre for Teaching and Learning website, trentu.ca/teaching.

Open Chair Project: Sharing teaching practices

By Zachary Cox

After a successful pilot run during the fall semester, the Centre for Teaching and Learning is preparing for the second installment of their Open Chair Project. This initiative encourages instructors at Trent to experience the teaching practices of their peers, and launches February 22. With sixteen sessions taking place throughout the semester at both the Peterborough and Durham campuses, there are plenty of opportunities for Trent instructors to take part in an innovative pedagogical experience.

“It was a new idea to try and break down the isolation of teaching,” says Robyne Hanley-Dafoe, the Centre for Teaching and Learning’s leading force behind the initiative. With teaching typically done behind closed doors, Hanley-Dafoe sought to find a way to encourage interaction and

Learning about ourselves with Ashley Fellow, Stephanie Rayner

By Laura Schindel

At the end of January, the colleges had the great pleasure of hosting Stephanie Rayner as this year’s Ashley Fellow. For those who aren’t familiar, the Ashley Fellowship is a fund established by the late Professor C.A. Ashley, long-time friend of the university and fervent proponent of the College System.

Professor Ashley believed that the opportunities and the informal connections made through college life played an integral role in the pursuits of the university and its students.

Therefore, Professor Ashley bequeathed the school a fund to bring a visiting scholar to the university yearly, as a guest of the residential colleges.

However, the term scholar was to be broadly interpreted to mean anyone that could benefit the students and enrich their university experience in some way.

Nominations may come from any of the colleges or from individual departments within the university in conjunction with one of the colleges. This is a wonderful opportunity for the university community to benefit from the presence of a distinguished intellectual who can enhance our academic programs and collegiate life.

8

www.trentarthur.ca

This year we were lucky enough to host the extremely talented and insightful Stephanie Rayner.

Rayner is inspiring on so many levels. From humble beginnings, her father told her she would never be an artist, that women did not belong in art, but like any true artist she found her path to creation.

Without any formal post-secondary schooling she has gone on to build an impressive portfolio and speak at many prestigious locations including The Luxun Academy of Fine Arts in China, Stanford University’s Center for Advanced Studies and now Trent University.

We were more than lucky and humbled to have this experience. She has a talent for combining religion, literature, mythology, science and anything else you can think of, in her practice. She often builds gigantic installation pieces that take not only years to make, but take an extremely personal and physical toll her. She throws everything she is and everything she could ever be into her artworks.

Her most recent, and probably last piece, The Boat of Eternal Return, is over 30 feet long and took over 20 years to create. Her works are astonishing and stunning testaments to science, art and religion; in short, she builds monuments to the human spirit

and to progress and evolution.

While Rayner was visiting Trent she gave lectures in a few classrooms and ran workshops with groups of fortunate students. These lectures were based on pieces that she had completed, but they were also deeply philosophical commentaries on human nature and resilience.

Bewilderment is a weak word to describe the feeling Rayner left behind. She has a way about her that makes you feel fulfilled and accomplished just from simple conversation.

She had a knack for inspiring people and making them question their motivations. She started a dialogue that encouraged change and ideological evolution.

After her first lecture, two of the students in attendance were literally speechless.

Yes, that word is overused and has lost some of its meaning, but the students were really and truly, literally, speechless. The way Rayner theorised the beginning of human creation and resilience of the human spirit forced students to re-evaluate their own actions and ways of thought.

One of the most profound and lifechanging things Rayner said came from her first night on campus at an intimate dinner with some representatives from Lady Eaton and Champlain College

Cabinets in the Champlain Living Learning Commons.

Rayner came to this school technically and professionally as a visual artist, but more as a role model and inspirational speaker.

However, her background as a visual artist may have stopped some people from coming to her public discussions and workshops, for the same reason kids hate art class; they’re not artists or they’re “no good at art.”

She acknowledged there are very few true artists, but everyone is innately creative and we’re just teaching it wrong.

You wouldn’t teach someone to write and then expect him or her to write amazing pieces of literature, so why teach someone to paint and ask for the Sistine Chapel?

Rayner inspired these few students to follow their creativity, for this is the only way to be truly human.

We are homo sapiens sapiens, those that know that we know. That is what separates us from the apes: our ability to knowingly create and be so profoundly inspired.

Rayner’s brief trip can be summed up to this: we were extremely privileged to have been able to spend those few days with such a profoundly talented and inspirational human being.

campus

Roots and Routes conference sheds light on global refugee crises

All Photos by Berfin Aksoy

By Dan Morrison

In hindsight, it is so obvious. There were the Vietnamese and Cambodian “boat people” of the 70s and the boats of Rohingyas from Myanmar (Burma), pushed around last year in geopolitical pinball last summer by Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.

And the millions of Palestinians since the creation of Israel. And all the Iraqis, and Afghanis, and Somalians and Eritreans displaced and the list goes on and on and on. Of course there was a refugee crisis before the current Syrian one.

So why had it taken activist Harsha Wallia to point this out?

It was like she actually pulled something from the back of everybody’s mind right through the brain to the front, it was quite a shock.

Walia was speaking as the first keynote address at this year’s Trent Community Movements Conference, Migration: Exploring Roots and Routes. This is the Community Movements’ ninth annual conference, this year taking on an increasingly pressing topic where there is little grounds for optimism any time soon.

There have been plenty of think pieces in the media over the past year, The Atlantic and The Economist both running articles saying we should let all refugees in, if only for the economic benefits.

This conference sought to understand migration, the refugee crisis as a whole and the crisis since the Syrian civil war, with particular focus on Canada’s treatment of refugees and migrants.

The conference kicked off with a rousing keynote address by Walia. Walia, described by award-winning Canadian author Naomi Klein as “one of Canada’s most brilliant and effective political organizers,” is the founder of the Vancouver branch of No One is Illegal, a group that represents non-resident immigrants who are at risk of deportation.

As well as her activist work, she has addressed the United Nations and has written widely, appearing in journals, maga-

zines and anthologies.

Walia spoke on three main themes, all of which have direct relationships to each other: that the refugee crisis not merely a Syrian one, but a global one; we must question the role that our governments plays in this; and that border imperialism is based in racism.

Wars and government action, in which western governments are implicated, have led to mass displacements.

With wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the dislocation of Palestinians since 1948 and Rohingyas persecuted in Myanmar all as examples, it was nothing short of a refugee crisis prior to the Syrian civil war.

In these examples and more, there is a trail of western involvement through direct action and or explicit support for administrations yet, as Walia opines, Canada’s policy of unlimited detention for undocumented migrants does nothing to improve the situation, only worsens it.

Thus, we must question our governments’ role.

There seems very little explanation as to why this should be so, other than what Walia sees as the inherent racism of the global north.

If you are supposedly unskilled and do not fit the image of that country, you are not welcome.

That moves us nicely into our second

keynote, Refugee Coordinator of Amnesty Canada Gloria Nafziger, who talked about refugees in Canada.

As the End Immigration Detention workshop highlighted, Canada’s record on detaining migrants and refugees is not great.

Despite the admirable welcoming of Syrian refugees, Canada still detains many undocumented migrants, in the Lindsay superjail for instance.

The End Immigration Detention Centre website noted, “between 2004 and 2011, 82,000 people were locked up in immigration detention.”

Despite robbing them of their liberty, often the detainees have not committed any crime. As the website continues, immigration offences such as staying too long are not criminal offences, but administration ones akin to a parking ticket.

So while Canada, by recently welcoming many Syrians, is not doing too badly, it should be doing a lot better according to Narfziger.

Other events and workshops included The New Canadian Centre’s Michael Vanderherburg talking about the relocation of refugees in Canada. Through various sponsorship programs, government and private, The New Canadian Centre helps to resettle refugees in Canada, finding them housing and helping them to settle

in.

On the same day, there was a Student Panel, where students discussed research papers and case studies of migration. The themes ranged from statelessness to medical migration.

With the policies of states like Myanmar and Bangladesh, statelessness for people like the Rohingya and Cham people is a rising problem.

Statelessness takes three forms: De jure, where a person is without any state nationality; De Facto, a person has a nationality but are illegal in their current location; and effectively stateless, where you cannot prove formal nationality and legal status despite having both.

The panel described the fate of children in the Malaysian state of Sabah, where the children of ‘illegal migrants’ are rendered stateless, leaving them with a precarious existence.

There are two main lessons to take from the conference.

Firstly, the refugee crisis is much greater than many realize and indeed would care to admit.

With Jordan and Lebanon already strained by its Palestinian refugee populations, the influx of Syrian refugees serves to show how poorly the world is dealing with a continually evolving crisis, which deflects attention from forgotten peoples like the Rohingyas.

Secondly, the co-chairs and students showed that millennials are not the layabouts that a recent Financial Times article would suggest, but there is a strong core of young people who are passionate and driven to make positive change.

They are not just passionate though, they are wildly competent at what they do, too.

Phil Giurlando, who spoke on the Syrian crisis in particular, said he “was impressed with the way it was organized.

[The] students did an absolutely fantastic job in arranging everything from the speakers to the food.”

If these folks are the future of activism, political change and human rights, then they are in the strongest hands.

Volume 50 | Issue 17 | February 22, 2016

9

|Black Heritage Month|

Self Love Week

Self Love Week

“Africa is not a country!”

By Betelhem Wondimu

…Were the words I wanted to scream out loud while watching Blended, a romantic comedy starring Adam Sandler, in addition to addressing the other gross stereotypes and plainly racist innuendos used during the characterization of Africans and “their homogenous culture.”

How about “Uganda be Kidding Me” by Chelsea Handler, a stand-up comedy special “recounting her African adventures?”

I couldn’t even make it to the five-minute mark!

What made my blood boil even more were the common references made throughout the aforementioned about this illusive “Country of Africa.”

My friends’ response to my utter frustration was that, “it’s just comedy.”

After a few not so very pleasant conversations with my friends, I realised that they did have a point; it is indeed just a comedy film, an artistic device of entertainment consisting of jokes and satire used to bring light to different issues within society.

It was then that I realised that my frustration, which many other Canadian-Africans share, was misplaced; I am frustrated with the power of media that is used and abused by leaders, friends, teachers and society at large.

We are living in the 21st Century! Where there is this magical portal called the Internet that enchantingly gives us, frequently misleading, answers that still keep referring to Africa as a country.

Case in point: Bill Clinton tweeted in 2013, “Just touched down in Africa with @ChelseaClinton.

Excited to travel for next 10 days to @ClintonFdn projects. #Africa2013.”

But this is not a rant; after all I don’t want this to be “Betty’s rant.”

I want to go back to a lesson that Trent professors taught me. After submitting our papers on philosophy and social justice we had to ask ourselves “So what?”

Why should we, as Canadians, care about whether or not Africa is not a country?

After all, the Western perspective, be it fostered through the media or otherwise, is the dominant perspective, giving us no particular incentives to care.

Besides developing the skills of critical thinking, a very integral component of a university education, I believe there is a lot more that we can learn as global citizens.

Globalization through elements such as technological advancements has broken down many of the barriers that existed before, and our lives are more intertwined than ever.

The aromatic Starbucks coffee that you enjoy every morning…the coffee beans have been farmed by Ethiopian coffee farmers. The very clothes you wear might be made from imported material from Uganda, Kenya or South Africa. The oil that fuels your engine might very well be crude oil imported from Nigeria.

10

All of these countries are only five out of the 54 states in Africa.

There are decisions we make that affect these countries, and there are decisions made in those countries that affect us. This, in my opinion, is an incentive to educate one’s self-regarding different issues in our society.

In contrast, isolating one’s self from the potentially enriching experiences unique to different nations and nationalities around the world is a huge loss.

On a more positive note I am happy to see that TACSU and TCSA worked to address this issue. The Africa Is Not A Country campaign has been launched.

This campaign was inspired by the efforts of the African Students Association of New York’s Ithaca College. It aims to challenge negative misconceptions and stereotypes perpetuated towards people from different African countries. In fact, it raises awareness of common generalizations and prejudices towards the continent.

Unfortunately, I have had interesting conversations with individuals that felt that this was an attack on white people and that it triggers white guilt.

Africa Is Not A Country couldn’t be further from it, as it seeks to build social consciousness and create platforms for critical and engaging conversations to exist. Let’s hope this is a beginning to a healthy conversation this Black Heritage month.

www.trentarthur.ca

Africa is not a land ridden with disease, poverty and war.

Africans are not “untamed” and “wild.”

Africa existed before colonialism.

Africans do not all look alike.

I dont speak “African” because “African” is not a language.

Africa is not a jungle, or a desert, filled with wild animals, warriors and fast runners.

Volume 50 | Issue 17 | February 22| 2016

11

Black Heritage Month

African women remain strong and active participants of their own history.

Africans are not “primitive”or “backwards.”

There is no homogeneous African culture.

Africans don’t need to be saved.

Reject the saviour complex.

Africa is not defined by poverty.

12

www.trentarthur.ca

Black Heritage Month

Muted voices: the invisibility of Afro-Latinos

By Adriana Sierra

The Afro-Latino experience is often invisible. Despite the deep intersections between Black and Latino identity and the impacts of Afro Latinos in Latin America’s social, cultural, political, religious and economic fabrics, Afro-Latino voices remain largely muted.

The term Afro-Latino complicates the meaning of ‘blackness.’ Afro and Latino are often thought of as mutually exclusive categories, and as such, black identity is oversimplified.

But Afro-Latinos constitute an important part of Latin America’s history and are at the forefront of redefining national identities and challenging the preeminence of Eurocentric ideologies that continue to favour mestizaje (mixed ancestries), and to largely ignore the presence of Afro-Latinos.

As a recent article on Buzzfeed celebrating Afro-Latinos stated, “just because people are both doesn’t mean they are less of one…”

In fact, although “blackness” is often discussed in a North American context, approximately 95 per cent of Africans arriving to the Americas during the slave trade arrived in Latin American colonies.

The Afro-Latino concept is a transna-

tional struggle against the anti-Black racism within the Latin American community itself.

In the constructed racial hierarchy, blackness falls below Latin American mestizaje. In response, Afro-Latino communities have risen in the form of civic, cultural and community organizations to assert their rights and identity.

Despite the continued racism and silencing towards Afro-Latino communities, it is important to note the way in which Afro-Latinos have shaped and influenced Latin American culture.

Samba, most commonly associated with Brazil, emerged from Afro Brazilians who lived in impoverished conditions. In addition, Dominican Republic’s merengue is also influenced by African rhythms. Cuba’s Santeria religious traditions can be traced back to Nigeria’s Yoruba and Puerto Rico’s Mofongo (plantain dish) is a direct result of West Africa’s influence.

Despite the challenges that many AfroLatinos face in the context of identity struggles, racism and mistold histories, Afro Latinos have made a mark in the world.

One of the most famous Afro-Latinas is Ursula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso, better known as Celia Cruz.

As the most popular Latin artist of the 20th Century, the Cuban singer earned the title of “Queen of Salsa.” Cruz produced 23 gold albums and is said to be the most influential female figure in the history of Cuba and Latin music.

In addition to Cruz, Arturo Alfonso Schomburg is another prominent AfroLatino. A Puerto Rican historian, writer and activist, Schomburg was an intellectual figure during the Harlem Rennaisance and strived to raise awareness on the contributions that Afro-Latinos and African Americans have made to society.

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture was named in his honor and features a number of his collection of literature, art and slave narratives.

Ilia Calderon has become an admirable Afro-Latina. As a Colombian journalist, Calderon has been a news anchor in Telemundo and Univision, two of Latin America’s most widely known television channels.

In addition, through her twitter account, Calderon is an active female voice in defining the challenges that Afro-Latinos face: “One day, in a park, a boy says to a girl: ‘You are ugly, you are black.’”

Her response was more intelligent than any of us could have imagined:

“‘Then your heart is the color of my skin.’ What a profound feeling, knowing that just seven years old, I had to learn to answer in this way.

“I am worried that we live in a world between subtle comments, common in the hallways, the family reunions and in the workplace. No one says anything.

There is a double morale. There is a fine line, often trespassed, between critique and satire and the offensiveness towards someone who did not choose their skin color.

Let’s focus on the true difference, which is to make a difference across the new generations.”

The Afro-Latino population, which spans approximately 30 million across Latin America, is a voice that needs to be heard, a demographic that needs to be included and a heritage that needs to be celebrated.

The term “Afro-Latino” is a reflection of the complex intersectionality between Africans and their descendants in Latin America.

It is a reassertion of Latin America’s diversity in response to homogenizing attempts at nation building, and an attempt to transform the narrow exclusive definitions of what it means to be Latino and of what it means to be black.

The tribulations of being an Ethiopian Jew

By Betelhem Wondimu

In 1973, the state of Israel acknowledged the Beta Israel, also known as Ethiopian Jews.

These are Jewish communities that developed and lived for centuries in the area of Aksumite and Ethiopian empires as one of the ten lost tribes; referring to the ten of 12 tribes of ancient Israel that were said to have been deported from the Kingdom of Israel after its conquest by the Neo-Assyrian Empire circa 722 BCE, thus their acknowledging their Jewishness.

In April 1975, the Israeli government of Yitzhak Rabin officially accepted the Beta Israel as Jews, for the purpose of the Law of Return, an Israeli Act that grants all the Jews in the world the right to immigrate to Israel.

The mid 1970s marked the Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jewish) exodus, marred by the turbulence created by the coup against the monarch that was led by a pro-communist military junta known as Derg.

Derg’s rise to power followed totalitarian-style governance with mass militarization of state, funded mainly by the Soviet Union and Cuba.

The new regime gradually began to embrace anti-religious and anti-Israeli positions, as well as showing hostility towards the Jews of Ethiopia.

Civil war in Ethiopia prompted the Israeli government to airlift most of the Beta Israel population in Ethiopia to Israel in several covert military rescue operations, which took place from the 1980s until the early 1990s.

There are an estimated 125,000 Ethiopian Jews living in Israel, one of the largest Ethiopian population outside of Ethiopia “While they are supposed to be full citizens with equal rights, their community has continued to face widespread discrimination and socio-economic difficulties, according to its leaders,” stated the independent Israel Association of Ethiopian Jews (IAEJ).

“About 81,000 of Ethiopian Israelis were born in their home country, while 38,500 were born in Israel, according to

official records.

“Between 1985 and 1991, more than 30,000 were airlifted in three rescue operations after years of civil war and famine had driven hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians into the capital, Addis Ababa and refugee camps in Sudan.

“But more than 20 years on, many Ethiopians still face economic hardship and social problems in Israel,” the IAEJ said.

According to the Brookdale Institute for Applied Social Research, about 52 per cent of Ethiopian-Israeli families live below the poverty line, compared to 16 per cent among the general Jewish Israeli population. Also according to the Brookdale Institute, only 65 per cent of Ethiopian Israelis were employed, compared to 74 among the general Jewish population in 2010.

“About 60 per cent of all Ethiopian families are still in a welfare program partly due to juvenile delinquency, which is four times higher than the Israeli average, and domestic violence, which is estimated to be 2.5 times higher than the average.”

The Israeli government places an emphasis on how much the unemployment gap has narrowed between Ethiopian and other Jews significantly, and the strict human rights laws placed to prevent acts of discrimination.

Nonetheless, Ethiopian Jews insights on their everyday struggles of growing up in Israel provide a bleak picture.

“Growing up was an everyday struggle,” said Sium, a member of the independent IAEJ. “For those who are different, the Jewish people can be a very closed community.

Simply because I am Ethiopian, life has been harder than it is for others.

“Raising a kid is tough for everyone in Israel, but it is even tougher for us,” he continued.

“Once, my five-year-old kid asked me after a demonstration why the people on the street are shouting. I couldn’t tell him that it is because the white people don’t like the black people. I didn’t want to give him the feeling that he is not good enough.”

Shula Mola, chairwoman of the independent IAEJ, believed that Ethiopian Is-

raeli youth have it even harder today.

“My kids are born here. They face the same problems, but don’t have the excuse of being new immigrants. Whatever the problem, people automatically see it as a distinct Ethiopian feature,” Mola explained.

Such branding, as well as poverty and a difficult family background, often contribute to the youth’s disaffection from society.

“Many are hopeless. When facing difficulties at school, poor and uneducated families usually can’t support their kids,” Mola said, adding that today’s Israeli education system puts more and more responsibility on the family.

Police brutality has been an issue faced by many Ethiopian Jews in Israel.

This issue was highlighted in April 2015 when the arrest of an IDF Ethiopian soldier, Damas Pakedeh, following accusations of him attacking an Israeli policeman, was overturned as a result of a video tape of the alleged attack.

The video showed that the IDF Ethiopian soldier was a victim of an unprovoked and allegedly racially motivated attack.

Pakedeh believed that the incident was racially motivated and that if the video had not been taken he would have been punished.

“I strongly condemn the beating of the Ethiopian IDF soldier, and those responsible will be held accountable,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced.

Following protests and demonstrations in Tel Aviv that resulted in violence, Netanyahu planned to meet with representatives of the Ethiopian community.

Discrimination and racism against Israeli Ethiopians continues to be perpetuated. However, this is yet to be acknowledged by the Israeli community as a whole. Since racism is not seen as a cause of the injustices committed against Ethiopian Jewish communities, “bureaucratic ineptitude and a cultural gap between a traditional community and a modern, technologically-advanced, highly-competitive nation,” as stated by Director of the Anti-Defamation League Harry Wall, are oftentimes seen as cause of such in-

justice.

Israel was accused, by feminist organizations, of a “sterilization policy” aimed towards Ethiopian Jews, whereby Ethiopian women were given the contraceptive shot without full explanation of its effects; some felt they would be denied entry unless they received the contraceptive.

Thirty per cent of the Provera shots were administered to Ethiopian women, who only make up one per cent of the population, stated Dr. Yifat Bitton, a member of the Israeli Anti-Discrimination Legal Center. Such tragedies are examples that highlights the disconnect that exist in terms of understanding barriers Ethiopian Jews face.

Since then the Israeli government has acknowledged the concerns, has launched investigations and has instructed gynecologists to only administer Depo-Provera after the patient has fully understood the purpose and effects of the medicine.

Amidst such struggles, there seems to be a glimmer of hope among the Ethiopian Jewish community. This glimmer of hope is rooted within the younger generation.

“The generations are different in dealing with problems,” Sium said.

“The old generation is quiet. We have witnessed many demonstrations, but saw hardly any older people there. It is the young people who move things forward today. The elders understand that our situation is changing.”

Change has come sooner than many expected as Israeli government officials have called for mutual coexistence.

“We, the state of Israel, should say thank you to immigrants from Ethiopia, and not vice-versa,” Israeli President Shimon Peres said after the protests in Kiryat Malakhi.

“In the meantime, activists say they will continue resisting what they see as racism.”

“Right now, groups of activists are sitting together to see what we can do to fight the current situation,” Yalou, a member of the independent IAEJ said.

“Further protests are in the process of being planned… We hope to make changes,” added Yalou.

13

Volume 50 | Issue 17 | February 22, 2016

Black Heritage Month

Beyond the veil: free your mind, free society

By Sara Gallagher

We have to talk about liberating minds as well as liberating society – Angela Davis In the past two weeks there has been a strong backlash against Beyoncé’s performance at the Superbowl Half-Time concert from the white, conservative media and its audiences.

Media, especially mass media, has long acted as a deferral of the real (in this sense, the real real).

Reality as it looks from the perspective of a black family in Flint, Michigan rightabout-now-real. Or perhaps how it might have looked for anyone in Detroit during the 1967 Detroit Riots. Or, as the “Formation” video shows in its rendering of police brutality against the black youth of America: in the martyred figure of a boy facing a formation of police officers.

The boy is, in many ways, an embodied Ferguson; a microcosmic image for a macrocosmic shift. And this is the power of harnessing imagery: it leaves a state-

ment in the mind that is hard to rid of once it is there.

The cause of the backlash against Beyoncé’s half-time show is the searing imagery of the Black Panther Movement that she employed with her dancers, including, perhaps most symbolically, the X formation the dancers got into at the end of the performance, alluding to Malcom X and his call to action in his famous speech, “The Ballot or the Bullet.”

The Black Panther Movement still continues to be villainized.

It is, according to the FBI, a terrorist organization. More truthfully, however, the Black Panthers were a nationalist group that armed itself, both physically and symbolically, against white supremacy in its many form(ations): the KKK, police brutality, segregation, systematic racism, and neocolonialism.

After the Superbowl, media outlets compared Beyoncé’s Black Panther imagery to the KKK; a subtle, but not-so-subtle, example of symbolic supremacy and a perhaps intentional misrepresentation of non-white history and iconography for irony’s sake.

Neither groups are benign: both the Black Panthers and the KKK are militant regarding their beliefs and ideologies.

Both herald a political extremism.

Both wear uniforms – or at least clothing designating a particular ideology. Both utilize imagery to convey an unspoken message to a specified receiver (the fist and the burning cross).

However, the KKK maintains an unchecked violence in its past that led to the terrorization and murder of thousands by

civilian execution (during the Jim Crow era, these murders were referred to as “vigilante justice” by the local printing presses). The KKK has never been officially designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government or abroad by the Canadian and British governments.

They have rarely served individual sentences for their crimes, ranging from harassment to lynchings. The Black Panthers, on the other hand, were dismantled, labelled a terrorist organization, and continue to be as evidenced by the reaction of white audiences to last week’s concert.

The table is clearly tilted. One amazing thing about my own white privilege is the ability for me to ignore. To look away. To disassociate and desensitize.

We can see beyond Dubois’s Veil, while simultaneously being blind to its effects.

We can defend symbols of historic violence as emblems of bravery, war ethos and tradition.

One thing we can’t do: tie down liberated minds and liberated bodies. Because, hey: manacle a mind that is free and you will have a radical, a revolutionary, and a game-changer – history has shown this much in Ms. Angela Davis, imprisoned for a crime she was found not guilty of, the former Black Panther has devoted her life to teaching and activism against unjust imprisonment.

Her work, along with the manifold voices of civil rights leaders and activists, continue to remind everyone that a voice can and does transform a nation by forcing it to see itself for what it really is and not for the veneered rhetoric of its power structures.

rap album of the year by critics, and containing an abundance of significant rhetoric on the struggles of black culture in America, it lost.

Lamar lost best rap album to two white musicians: Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.

He left empty handed, losing an award to two white musicians, in a genre founded on, and by Black culture.

In 2015, Lamar released another album.

In 2014, Swift did as well.

Now, any arguments that can be made against good kid, m.A.A.d city vanished upon release, and subsequent analysis of Lamar’s new album.

The album, entitled ‘To Pimp A Butterfly’, built off of what good kid, m.A.A.d couldn’t accomplish. It blended genres, being influenced by jazz, blues, electronic, hip-hop and spoken word.

It addressed black culture, black consciousness, crime, art and revolution, all the way from its first track, entitled ‘Wesley’s theory’ (an analysis of the exploitation of black artists), to its last track Mortal Man (a call to awareness of the deaths of the black and innocent).

The title, ‘To Pimp A Butterfly’ is even a critique of society and its subsequent limitation of black culture asserting that black people (the butterflies) are exploited for all they’re worth (pimped), and then left to squander by the industry.

If there were ever an example of this in the music industry itself, it would be what happened at the Grammys, which occurred on Feb. 15.

In 2016, three years after Kendrick Lamar lost to Macklemore for best rap album, three years Lamar used to work, and stew and perfect. Three years, with even more black people being killed by corrupt police, and even more alleged “opportunities” for black culture to grow, Lamar lost

best album yet again, to a white person.

He lost best album to Taylor Swift.

Now, the problem here isn’t Swift herself. She is a prominent activist for feminism and female rights, and any wrongdoing here isn’t her wrongdoing.

However, when a year that a black artist releases an album that specifically arranges itself to comment on black culture, society, racism and its dire consequences is the same year that the country in which said artist resides in has the largest rates of black deaths by police, the fact that their art is overlooked becomes troublesome.

Lamar arguably releases two of the best rap albums of the past 10 years, and both times, is held as a runner-up to a white artist.

The first time, by a white artist residing, and performing, in a predominately black genre.

The second time, by a person that had previously enlisted said artist to help them out on a song, one of the songs on the same album that said artist lost to.

Now, if that isn’t exploitation of black culture, then I don’t know what is.

It is true that the Grammy’s are overwhelmingly white. Not many will find that a surprise, it being an awards show and all.

Out of almost 60 years that the Grammy’s has existed, a black artist has only won Album of the Year 11 times. This is either due to them being snubbed out of an award by a white artist, or snubbed out of the nomination process altogether.

However, it’s almost more troubling to note that black culture is exploited when needed, but then ignored when not.

The Grammy Awards have no problem using black artists as performers, to draw in crowds and viewers, but when presented with the opportunity to actually

acknowledge their talent on a larger scale, they flounder.

The Macklemore case aside, black artists usually win in black genres. Blues, sometimes jazz, rap and R&B are not dominated, but are more often than not, won by black artists.

This is almost white culture saying to black artists: be happy with winning in your genre, but don’t dare trying to take ours.

Unfortunately, this article comes to a close with no real answer to this problem.

Black music, especially rap and R&B is chiefly overlooked by those in the critical community, and scoffed at by almost everyone over a certain age, or leaning towards a certain side of the political spectrum.

Black artists are held back through the process of exploitation and used for their talents, but not their viewpoints.

How can the race situation change when those with the largest voices are not celebrated and recognized for what they have created, said, completed or attempted to do?

How can we evoke change, when any movement towards change is disregarded?

In our society, a society plagued by racism, how do we acknowledge those that have something to say?

Well, this question can be answered easily: just fucking acknowledge them!

The first step towards eliminating racism is simply by acknowledging that it exists and attempting to fix it. The article above acknowledged the racism prevalent in society and the statement below attempts to fix it, even in the smallest way.

Here we go.

Kendrick Lamar deserved album of the year, but lost it, to a white person. That is the truth.

The pit and the pendulum: #BlackMusicMatters

By Tyler Majer

1989 is an album by Taylor Swift. 1989 is also the opening line of the Public Enemy song, ‘Fight the Power.’

Well, actually, the full line goes “1989, the number/another summer/sound of the funky drummer.”

Anyways, the song was released 26 years ago. Swift was born 26 years ago. I’ll let you consider which is more important.

Before that last statement makes you flip the page, let me outline a few more facts. In 1989, Yusef Hawkins, a 16 year old, went to Bensonhurst, New York to inquire about a car.

He ended up dead, murdered by 10 to 30 white youths armed with bats, knives and guns.

Another Public Enemy song entitled ‘Welcome to the Terrordome’ contains a quick dedication to this young man killed.

It also contains the lyric, “Caught in a race against time/The Pit and the Pendulum.”

Basically, Chuck D is saying that as time progresses without an effective plan enacted against racism, racism will become accepted again.

In 2009, 20 years after Taylor Swift’s birth, and Public Enemy’s statements on the importance of a seminal black rights movement, Oscar Grant was killed in Oakland California.

He was killed when an officer claimed to see him touch his waistband, even though he was shot in the back. The officer in the case was charged with involuntary manslaughter, not murder. This situation spurned a movie that was released into 2013 called Fruitvale Station.

Also, in 2013, Lamar was up for a Grammy for best rap album. It was for his album ‘good kid, m.A.A.d City.’

Although generally considered the best

14

www.trentarthur.ca

community

The imminent issue of rising costs and homelessness in Peterborough

By Jordan Porter

Peterborough is no stranger to the issue of homelessness.

Walking downtown, it wouldn’t take long to spot a few disenfranchised souls wandering the street, sometimes offering a friendly “hello,” and a gracious “thank you,” as the change you’ve decided you can spare hits the bottom of an empty coffee cup.

These types of homeless people are the ones that come to mind when we begin to ponder the issue; however, this is just one form of homelessness.

The Toronto Star published a comprehensive article on Feb. 15 entitled Family homelessness on the rise and outlined many of the issues that contribute to the emergence of homeless families, whether it be a layoff at work or a disability forcing parents into welfare programs and devastating their way of life.

For students, it’s well known that our futures, unfortunately, are eerily unknown.

For most of us living off campus, we are on our own when it comes to buying groceries, or finding a way home for the weekend or holidays to see the folks or significant others; both of which are expenses that are steadily rising in price

every year, which furthers our generation’s label as the “failure to launch” era.

For those feeling the squeeze at the grocery store, specifically with fruits, veggies and some meat products, with pork rising the most drastically, there are a few different explanations as to why you’re emptying your bank account just to have a decent meal.

Researchers from the University of Guelph Food Institute have chalked this inflation up to the decreasing value of our loonie.

“The main driver is the value of the loonie, which has fallen 14 per cent to just above 73 cents US. With 81 per cent of vegetables, fruit and nuts imported from outside of Canada, all of these grocery items are more expensive and are set to become even pricier as the loonie falls further.”

Other researchers have attributed this inflation - in part with the decrease of the loonie - to the drought this past summer that swept through California and other Western States.

So, unfortunately, until the loonie recovers from it’s drastic decline, Canadians will continue to bite the bullet at the grocery store.

When it comes to transportation, some Trent students don’t realize how good a deal they are getting with the city transit

Seeds of Change a community hub

By Troy Bordun

Seeds of Change is a community hub operating out of George Street United Church just north of the downtown. They deliver programs that cultivate social justice, spirituality and artistic expression, and offer affordable, accessible space for activities.

On Feb. 26, from 5p.m. to 7p.m. at The Spill, Seeds of Change is holding an evening of dialogue, art making, music and games focused on housing affordability.

The event, titled with the hashtag #settling, is intended to encourage community members to share their lived experiences, both positive and negative.

According to Elisha Rubacha, the Project Developer for Seeds of Change, the hashtag plays on its two opposing connotations. She asks, “Are you settling in, or settling for less?”

When it comes to maintaining our housing, we’re often faced with making compromises.

Seeds of Change is curious about what trade-offs you make to afford your home, but also, what benefits your home provides.

passes, but for those tasked with taking GO transit home to loved ones, there is one thing that could drastically cut back your expenses.

Get a Presto pass today. Metrolinx approved yet another fare increase that came into effect Feb. 1.

However, with this increase they also approved increased savings for the Presto users, especially student Presto users, who will enjoy a savings of up to 18.4 per cent per trip!

Unfortunately, students are not only subject to a relatively impoverished lifestyle while in school, as many are not able to work more than about 20 hours a week, and that is if they are very lucky.

With the Peterborough economy the way it is, many leave Trent with distressing amounts of debt.

This puts those who are afflicted at a serious disadvantage when trying to make their way in life after school.

With the employment rate at a depressing low, it will force most Trent graduates out of Peterborough, and for those venturing to the GTA it wouldn’t be expected that many will be able to afford to buy their own home within the next ten years.

As the housing market skyrockets seemingly by the hour, future graduates

will have no choice but to bunk with loved ones for a while or continue to rent and say good-bye to that money. And so the snowball begins to roll.

Fortunately most of us who graduate with higher education won’t succumb to severe poverty, although the future is never clear and any number of things can happen to disenfranchise you or your family at any moment.

That’s why there has been such a steady increase of activist groups that are tackling this issue to work for the people that need it most.

One example in town here is the Warming Room, a small group of volunteers doing all they can to help those that need it most.

There are other groups, such as Raising the Roof and the Toronto-based Young Parents No Fixed Address (YPNFA) that are there to address the issue and raise awareness.

If you’re interested in these topics and would like to learn more about the economic state of Peterborough, I would suggest looking into an article written

by Electric City Magazine’s David Tough entitled Three Faces of the Jobs Crisis.

I guess the good news is, those who believe us to be the “failure to launch” generation have low expectations for us.

Let’s prove them wrong.

“I’m interested in what people are giving up, and what they’re gaining,” Rubacha said.

The project intends to gather qualitative data, which will then inform the development of future programming at Seeds of Change.

The event will facilitate individuals in their personal expressions about their housing situations, housing views and lived experiences.

Rubacha wants participants to share their stories, draw pictures and play a round of monopoly.

Illustrated survey booklets will be available and Evan Gentle will make the audience swoon with folky tunes.

If you are unable to make it to The Spill on Friday, it is still possible to be a contributor or to participate.

Twitter and Instagram posts using the hashtag will appear on the Housing Dialogues page of the Seeds of Change website, and larger submissions of writing or art can be submitted to Rubacha directly.

For more information, email Elisha@seedsofchangePTBO.org or visit seedsofchangeptbo.org.

15

Volume 50 | Issue 17 | February 22, 2016

arts

Copycats: Hollywood and its lust for Deadpool

Hollywood at Home is a weekly column by filmmaker, writer, and critic Keith Hodder that highlights the variety of films and television programs that Netflix has to offer, along with recommendations of what to watch next and his opinions on the world of entertainment. Follow him @KeithHodder and feel free to suggest a film.

If you’ve been following the recent box office news you’ll know that Marvel’s recent outing, and biggest risk, Deadpool had a hell of a weekend.

The film surprised analysts and critics by gunning down the rest of the competition and earning $150 million in its opening weekend and $300 million globally. That means Deadpool has had the best opening ever for a R-rated film within a three-day span.

As Deadline Hollywood reports, it also surpassed all expectations at Fox, its home studio, as it not only destroyed the record previously held by Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, but also their conservative prediction of $65 million for Deadpool.

Now Hollywood is going to want to copy this success as much as humanly possible, to the determent of the properties they milk and the viewers who believe they’re getting their money’s worth. Sound familiar?

They’ve been doing this for decades.

The reason Deadpool’s success came as such a surprise is due to it’s R-rating and the fact that all of Disney’s Marvel properties are family friendly. That’s how they’ve broken records in the past,

maximizing the potential to fill seats, and that’s how they’ve found so much success with merchandising. You won’t be seeing Deadpool movie merchandise in Wal-Mart any time soon.

With that said, as much as the rating catered to fans who know the merc-witha-mouth and his raunchy brand of ha-ha, it totally alienated a huge fraction of their dependable audience. Despite the odds working against them, the film triumphed; not to mention it had a hell of a marketing campaign.

But like any success there are pros and there are cons.

The pros that will come of this success is that many studios, including Marvel, will begin to explore more R-rated content and empower its chances by putting some more money behind marketing campaigns and outreach; they’ll take more risks with content.

It’s an exciting prospect, but it’s also a double-edged sword as pointed out

by James Gunn, the filmmaker behind Marvel’s Guardian of the Galaxy and the upcoming sequel.

Last week Gunn set his phasers to kill when Deadline Hollywood, one of the industry’s most dependable sources,

featured a Hollywood executive who quoted the reasons why Deadpool was such a success: “The film has a self-deprecating tone that’s riotous. It’s never been done before.

It’s poking fun at Marvel. That label takes itself so seriously; can you imagine them making fun of themselves in a movie?

They’d rather stab themselves.”

Gunn, who broke the Marvel mold by tapping into characters that most people didn’t even know existed before the film, wasn’t keen on the quote and voiced his opinion on the matter.

“After every movie smashes records people here in Hollywood love to throw out the definitive reasons why the movie was a hit. I saw it happen with Guardians.

It ‘wasn’t afraid to be fun’ or it ‘was colorful and funny.’ And next thing I know I hear of a hundred film projects being set up ‘like Guardians,’ and I start seeing dozens of trailers exactly like the Guardians trailer with a big pop song and a bunch of quips.

Ugh. “Deadpool wasn’t that. Deadpool was it’s own thing. That’s what people are reacting to. It’s original, it’s damn good, it was made with love by the filmmakers and it wasn’t afraid to take risks.

“So, over the next few months, if you pay attention to the trades, you’ll see Hollywood misunderstanding the lesson they should be learning with Deadpool. They’ll be green-lighting films ‘like Deadpool’ – but by that they won’t mean ‘good and original’ but ‘a raunchy superhero film’ or ‘it breaks the fourth wall.’ They’ll treat you like you’re stupid, which is one thing Deadpool didn’t do.”

Gunn is correct in every stretch of the imagination. To shorten his prose, in Reddit fashion, he’s stating that Deadpool’s success will lead the studios to want to find and green-light projects that are very similar to it, in the belief that it will guarantee a

similar box office payout. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

Gunn believes that Deadpool’s success came from the fact that it wasn’t trying to be anything else, but instead it took an original approach that helped it stand out.

Its originality was its calling card.

What’s fascinating is that this situation is very common in Hollywood and has created a tired cinema climate that has directly influenced movie theatres and what we’re paying to see. With the success of Star Wars came Roger Moore as James Bond in Moonraker, a Bond film based on a brilliant book that had nothing to do with space, and with Avatar came a torrent of films that were released in 3D – hiking up ticket prices overnight. These are just a fraction of the examples that a curious researcher could find.

The biggest point here is Gunn’s belief that Hollywood sees us as stupid audience members who are willing to spend our money on anything.

Unfortunately, he’s right, and we haven’t done much to separate ourselves from this grand generalization. At the end of the day we’re the ones buying tickets and driving to the movie theaters, thus we have a say in what we want to see. If we pay for a Deadpool copy next summer we’re doing exactly what the studios predicted and being even stupider than they thought.

Filmmaker Bruce LaBruce to screen Gerontophilia

By Troy Bordun

I’m happy to announce the first in what I hope to be an annual visiting filmmaker series.Nationally and internationally successful director Bruce LaBruce will be in Peterborough on Feb. 25 and 26 for a film screening of his most recent featurelength film and a seminar.

But who is Bruce LaBruce? For some, a provocateur that we are still too unfamiliar with.

For film scholar Eugenie Brinkema: “Cinephile, pornographer, former graduate student in film theory, founder of the ‘homocore’ movement in Canada – an effort to introduce erotic anarchy into the sexually complacent (and not a little homophobic) punk movement – LaBruce is simply too many things.”

By 2013, we can also add to this list that LaBruce is a director in the romantic comedy genre.

The title of LaBruce’s latest film is appropriate for its story; Gerontophilia, taken etymologically, would mean the love of old men.

In this film set in Montreal, 18-year-old Lake discovers his budding sexual interests in older men while working in an old age care facility.

What initially begins as sexual desire then turns into a deep emotional attachment for 82-year-old Melvin Peabody, wonderfully portrayed by Walter Borden. In the middle of this relationship is Lake’s girlfriend, Desiree.

This love triangle gives LaBruce much

16

www.trentarthur.ca

terrain to explore social mores (norms) and taboos, as well as demonstrate a loving gaze on the bodies of older men.

While the film is within the confines of the romantic comedy, LaBruce is clearly after something more than laughs. As Desiree tells Lake, his relationship with Melvin is nothing short of revolutionary.

This film will be screened at Market Hall on Feb. 25 at 8p.m. The film is rated 14A. Dr. Ger Zielinski, a researcher at the Frost Center, will facilitate a question and answer period with LaBruce after the film. (And there will likely be an after-party!)

The following morning, Feb. 26 at 10a.m., LaBruce will hold a seminar at Traill College in the Senior Common Room, in Scott House; the overflow room will be Bagnani Hall.

He will present a short film for discussion, converse about the transition from celluloid to digital, social media and the use of the pornography genre in his earlier work.

BE Catering will provide an abundance of food and drink for the seminar.

LaBruce’s stay in Peterborough is sponsored by: Trent Film Society, Traill College, Canadian Studies and the Frost Centre, English Literature, Cultural Studies and Gender and Women’s Studies (Trent), Trent Graduate Student Association and Peterborough Pride.

For more information visit the Trent Film Society Facebook page, troybordun. wordpress.com, or email troybordun@ trentu.ca.

arts

Trent Film Society Presents: The Dreamers (2003)

By Amy Jane Vosper

We at Trent Film Society would like to thank everyone for coming out to our screening of Amélie at Market Hall.

We are continuing on with our theme of French cinema with Bernardo Bertolucci’s 2003 film, The Dreamers, starring (a very young) Eva Green and Michael Pitt.

The Dreamers is Bertolucci’s love-letter to French Cinema.

Bertolucci transports us back to the spring of 1968; a time of social upheaval in France, a time of the Cinémathèque Française and a youth passionately involved in the French New Wave cinema; a time of change and promise.

American exchange student Matthew has come to Paris to learn the language and experience the culture, while quickly

befriending siblings Théo and Isabelle.

Matthew finds himself caught up in their world of social activism, intellectual discourse and fanatical fascination with the cinema.

But it quickly becomes apparent to Matthew that this brother-sister duo is radically unconventional, and harbours a codependency for one another that borders on obsessive. As Matthew grows closer to Théo and Isabelle, he is included in their strange games involving film, passionate debates and sex. As the stakes increase, Matthew begins to realize how dangerous their game has become.

The Dreamers is a film about films, a delightful indulgence for cinephiles. Clips from famous moments in film history are sandwiched between scenes of sensuality and eroticism, punctuating the film’s nar-

rative and progressing the storyline.

The characters play to this fascination; re-enacting their favourite scenes, usually with some perverse twist. The film caters to the most voyeuristic of viewing pleasure; the audience is made to feel as though they are privy to some secret, private moments, never meant to be public.

The taboo content of the film can cause uneasiness, but it’s the power of the depiction of sexuality and sensuality that speaks to the complexity of the film’s impact. This has been called, “a charged sensory experience- a cinematic turn-on,” “a real pleasure” and “a provocative, sensual feast.”

Most reviews focus on the depiction of sexuality, a recurrent theme in the film, but others still look past the visceral pleasures of the film to get to the point: Terry Lawson said, “… it effectively explains why we obsess over movies and rock and roll and honest communication long after those passions have been hijacked by parodists and advertising agencies.”

And Mick LaSalle called it, “… an ambitious and exciting piece of work, a movie about sex and movies made by a filmmaker who understands the power of each to set off fantasy, create addiction, incite danger and transform the spirit.”

Set against the backdrop of the May 1968 protests in Paris, the film offers a unique and rather unflattering depiction of some of the Parisian youth active in the protests.

Involved in their community, in cinema and in protests and at the university,

these young people are representative of the youth of their generation. However, living comfortably with wealthy parents, they are active politically when it suits their own agenda, often flittering from one cause to another without ever effectively engaging.

Their activism is a charade, meant to contribute to an image; that of the concerned, political and intellectual French youth. Convinced they are acting as voices for their generation, they instead turn inward and place focus on themselves exclusively.

This obsessive, narcissistic behaviour fuels their hedonistic lifestyle and serves to further isolate them from the city, their peers and their community.

We will be screening The Dreamers on Feb. 24 at 8p.m. at Artspace and as always, this screening is 100 per cent free.

You can find an event page on Facebook for more information. Please note, due to the graphic content of this film including nudity, graphic images of sexuality and substance abuse, we would like to issue a trigger warning to anyone who may find this content upsetting. Stay tuned, as up next, we will be showing another French cinema classic, Cléo de 5 à 7.

The next day, on Feb. 25 at Market Hall, we are helping to present Bruce LaBruce’s film Gerontophilia (2013), with the director in attendance. Finally, we are very excited about our upcoming short film festival, Snowdance, held at Market Hall on March 16. To learn more, or to submit your film, check out our Facebook page!

and LeBlanc each seemed to capture the essence of their characters and were able to deliver their monologues as if they were theatre veterans.

The exchanges and light verbal abuses amongst the characters were increasingly amusing, and the conclusion to the play – the train had gone absolutely nowhere geographically but the characters have perhaps taken an inner journey (or not) – situates it within a tradition of absurdist theatre. Both plays had a mix of practiced and non-professional actors.

The success of these plays surely rests on the shoulders of Turner-Semchuk’s directing of this troupe – in his written play, he was able to get emotionally rich performances and with McGlade-Ferentzy’s play he found ways to keep the characters moving whilst remaining in a stationary location. They were both always exciting, and either disturbing or hilarious, respectively.

I hope the Peterborough theatre scene sees more of this band of writers and actors.

Journey through self and time with a double feature at TTOK

By Troy Bordun

From Feb. 11 to Feb. 13, The Theatre on King was home to two short plays directed by Simon Turner-Semchuk: When I Sorrow Most was written by TurnerSemchuk, and Quinn McGlade-Ferentzy penned Sinking’s Better Than Standing Still.

When I Sorrow Most begins with James (Dan Smith) and Alice (Hillary Wear) arguing about their jailed son, Jim (Jeff Curtis). As one might expect, the father disowns his offspring and the mother reiterates her ownership of the child regardless of his murderous deeds.

Jim, a young adult, had taken to killing his lovers. Acts two, four and six are flashbacks of one murder scene set entirely in the dark (except for front-of-house lights). Setting the act in the dark was a bold move; the actors must convey their emotions without an appeal to body language or facial affects. Everything rests on the voice and I think both Curtis and Kelsey Gordon Powell managed to do the scenes justice.

In the first and second flashbacks, Jim has taken a nameless man (Powell) to his house or apartment. The two flirt and engage in conversation about their sexuality and their parents. The darkness pays off here. While the flashback acts all occur in a fixed time and space with this one particular man, without seeing this individual the seduction (and eventual murder) may very well be any of the other victims.

In act three the mother visits Jim in jail for a heated debate about why he committed murder. Curtis’s delivered response, “Because I liked it,” aptly captured the character’s disturbed state of mind.

The fifth act has the father finally visit Jim in prison. While long overdue, the main reason for his visit was to inform the son that his mother had a stroke and survived. There is a fatherly apology and

the act ends on a high note with a fatherson reconciliation possibly in the works.

The final act has Jim’s lover-turnedvictim scrambling in the dark in an effort to hide from the crazed Jim. The man, already wounded, dies in the midst of an attempt to call his mother. The production ends with Jim dragging the corpse away.

Smith played the loud and hostile father well, and Wear played the compassionate mother figure competently. Curtis’ performance was exceptional as well.

I’ll surely feel a pang of fear whenever Jeff brandishes cooking knives at our mutual place of work (Jokes! you were great Jeff!).

When I Sorrow Most is also rich with meaning and I assume Turner-Semchuk wanted us to appreciate the work literally as well as allegorically.

Both plays were staged in the round, something few venues are able to accommodate. While Turner-Semchuk’s play had his actors disengage from the audience, McGlade-Ferentzy’s humorous Porter character, played outstandingly by Wyatt Lamoureux, occasionally engaged the audience with eye contact and even a touch here and there.

The gender-bending Porter, employee, and perhaps proprietor, of the railway line Trans Rail Rail Trans, a line running from Eastern Canada to the West, was outstanding. Porter’s tasks were to converse with the three characters aboard the train as well as maintain the momentum of the story.

Three women, identified as Youngest (Skylar Ough), Middle (Lyne Dwyer), and Oldest (Shannon LeBlanc), meet in the train compartment and each relates their tale of recent hardship. Youngest is dumped mid-journey by the girlfriend she is en route to visit, Middle has just emerged from an abusive relationship and Oldest’s father has just died. Each act has its own respective monologue from one of the lead characters. Ough, Dwyer,

17

Volume 50 | Issue 17 | February 22, 2016

comic by Ad Astra comix

18

www.trentarthur.ca

listings Clubs & Groups Trent Ukelele Club: Practices are Fridays at 2pm in the Champlain JCR. Bring ideas for music and activities you want to do throughout the year. There will be FREE PIZZA! Bring your ukulele if you have one and there are extras if you don’t. Ukulele club perks include- ukuleles, free lunches at the seasoned spoon on Fridays whenever you go there to jam, usually snacks or pizza, stress relief, amazing quirky friends, a non-judgemental safe space, as well as HAPPINESS and JOY that follows ukulele playing and the ability to spread it Monthly Open Mic Friday evening 8pm at the Trend pub in Traill college on February 25!

Hosted by the Trent University Music Society. Bring your instruments or just come to listen for a night of good music and good company. Free admission, all welcome! More info: trentumusic@gmail.com.

Sadleir House Critical Play Seminar: Thursday , February 25, 7pm – 10pm. The Sadleir House Centre for Pixel Culture is dedicated to the preservation, collection, study, and appreciation of video games and related ephemera as important cultural texts. Through talks, seminars, and curated play exhibitions, the Centre for Pixel Culture encourages interaction with these pixel texts and promotes recognition of the video game medium.

Come visit the Sadleir House Library Open Mondays 11am-4pm, 6-9pm, Tuesday 1-9pm, Wednesday 12-9pm, Thursday 1-6pm, Friday 11am-5pm, Saturday 11am-4pm in Room 107 (wheelchair accessible). The Sadleir House Library is a free lending library open to all students and community members. With over 4000 books covering general academic interest and 2000 films focusing on international titles, documentaries, art house, and LGBT interest.

The OPIRG Free Market. Wednesdays 3-5pm, Thursday & Fridays 1-5pm. Located in the basement of Sadleir House, right across from the Food Cupboard at 751 George St. N. Thanks to the dedication of OPIRG volunteers, the Free Market and Food Cupboard are open several days a week, year round.

We now have a drop off bin permanently located at the entrance of Bata Library. When you have clothes, household goods, books or non perishable food…drop them off in the Free Market bin at Bata library, Trent University or bring them to the basement of Sadleir House. All items will end up in the Free Market, to be given away at no cost to whoever needs the items.

SUDOKU

Improv Class with Matt Davidson: Wednesday, February 10, 7pm-8:30pm. Want to try improv? Come out to Intro to Improv for Wednesday night drop in classes. Improv is fun, come out and join in! (Please note that this is a drop-in space, so while you’re more than welcome and encouraged to come for the entire two hours, you’re also more than welcome to stop by for a shorter time!) Adults: $10 Students $5

Queer Coll(i/u)sions: Friday March 4, 12am to Monday March 7, 12am. The Queer Coll(i/u)sions Conference invites people from a variety of perspectives on queerness to discuss, interrogate, and explore LGBTQ2 and Queer perspectives whether academically, artistically, or through activism. We hope to provide space for the collision of different queer discourses and push the boundaries of the traditional conference by allowing for different modalities of expression and examination.

Traditional academia often limits the potential modalities for expression of critical queer questions and our hope is to push beyond the traditional modalities, to queer academic practice.

Weekly Sunday TUMS Jazz Band: Sunday March 28, 7pm-10pm. The Trent University Jazz Band meets weekly at Sadleir House from 7:30 to 9:30 for rehearsals. Any potential vocalists/instrumentalists are welcome. We adjust rehearsals to the skill level of our group members.

Introduction to Babe-lesque: February 25 at Sadleir House, 6pm. Intro to Babe-Lesque is a class for anyBODY. The class is designed to teach the fundamentals of classic burlesque all while helping to develop of a love and appreciation for your own beautiful body. This is an 8-week class, running on Thursday evenings at 6pm starting on February 25th at Sadleir House. Cost is $80 for all eight weeks, or $15 drop-in rate.

TO REGISTER: Simply send an email to burlesque.PTBO@gmail.com with your name, the level of class and your request to join.

Trent Writer’s Society: Thursday February 25, 7pm. Did you have a bad valentines day? Do you have some old poetry? were you a terrible poet? Are you a terrible poet?

Welcome to TWS’s Bad Love Poetry Slam of 2016. Come out for a night of love, bad love, laughter and drinks (alcohol or otherwise)! We will be in Sadleir House dining hall, spilling our guts out. Feel free to join. If you would like to be part of this nights talented line up, please email us at trentwriterssociety@gmail.com

Trent

Walkhome—Trent’s safe walk service. Late class? Working in the lab? Call us for a walk; 25 minutes from Symons or Traill (downtown) Hours of operation: Monday to Friday: 7pm to 1am, Saturday & Sunday: 9pm to 1am 705-748-1748 Walkhome—Pre-book your safe walk. Do you regularly have practice Monday night, work in the Library Tuesday night or go downtown Friday night? Our team of volunteers walkers can meet you, on campus or downtown. Monday to Friday: 7pm to 1am, Saturday & Sunday: 9pm to 1am. Call us 705- 748-1748 or email walkhome@tretnu.ca to Prebook a walk.

Worried about a course this semester? We want to help! Register for the Academic Mentoring Program to request an upper-year student mentor. Mentors meet regularly with students to discuss course concepts and build an understanding of course material. To request a mentor, or to volunteer, visit trentu.ca/academicskills/ peermentoring.php.

send yours to listings@trentarthur.ca

Do you find your class readings overwhelming? Could you use a little help organizing your study time? The Academic Skills Centre is the best place to come to get your daily academic life under control! Book an appointment online through your Student Experience Portal at trentu.ca/sep. Click on “Book Appointments” and select “Academic Skills”. We’re located at Suite 206 in Champlain College and our services are always free!​ Dreaming Up a Student Housing Co-Op: February 25 at LEC Pit at 2:30pm. Join the Peterborough Student Co-op for an exploratory arts-based visioning event. The Peterborough Student Housing Co-op is a Trent-affiliated organization working towards establishing a student and community housing co-operative/residence community in downtown Peterborough. Have ideas about what kind of community space you would want a student housing co-op to be? Have bad experiences in housing and want to imagine something different? Really like discussions and creative activities? Come add your voice to the conversation! There will be snacks.

Trent Lands Plan Public Information Session: February 23, 5:30pm at Gathering Space in Gzowski College. Trent University, in partnership with the City of Peterborough, invite students, staff, faculty, alumni and the community to attend a public information session on Tuesday, February 23, 2016 to share updates on the developments underway on Trent University’s East Bank including the arena, sports field, and Trent Research and Innovation Park.

Performance and Workshop with Slam Poet Rabbit Richards: Friday, February 26th, 11am. Rabbit Richards is a Montreal-based performance poet. Her stories and poetry blend the politics of race, love and gender with the emotional grounding of lived experience. She is a member of the Kalmunity Vibe Collective and staple in the Montreal poetry scene. Living Learning Commons - Champlain College (Near the Great Hall, beside the Seasoned Spoon) Coffee and Tea will be provided.

Local Peterborough Museum & Archives presents: Ornamenting the Ordinary: Crafts from South Asia is an exhibition on loan from the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) on display from Dec 19, 2015 – Mar 27. This exhibition brings together the craft traditions of South Asia. Most of the objects are taken from the collections of the Royal Ontario Museum. They include ornate decoration such as woodcarving and enameled metalwork; others are objects without decoration whose overall shape, line and colour convey a sense of design that is aesthetically pleasing itself.

Free Nights at the Canoe Museum: Thursdays, 5pm-8pm. Tour starting at 7pm.

Don’t miss out on this unique opportunity to visit this amazing collection of canoes, kayaks and paddled watercraft absolutely FREE! Watch for Upcoming Events listings for news and dates for seasonal holiday activities on select Thursday evenings at canoemuseum.ca/upcoming-events.

Thursday Thursday

Wednesday Writing Workshop hosted by Peterborough Poetry Slam: Sadleir House every other Wednesday from 7pm-9pm. Free of charge, and hosted by various members of the Peterborough Poetry Collective.

Come out to reflect on time and for an opportunity to share your words with a small group if you so choose.

Naturalista Campaign: Finding Home Here: An online campaign running throughout the month of February that engages students by capturing how they perceive themselves in their natural habitat/being, with the hopes of creating an album of photographs that would be available online.

This campaign is more than just a celebration of natural hair, but also a celebration of loving one’s self the way you were made - being at home in the castle of your skin! Submission from the general community is welcomed, send to tacsugroup@gmail.com, or tag us/use the hastag #tacsu on your IG posts for a repost!

Arts Canadian Filmmaker Bruce LaBruce visits Peterborough. On February 25th, LaBruce’s Gerontophilia (2014) will be screened at Market Hall at 8pm. The fictional film tells the story of a young man’s relationship with an elderly man. On February 26th at 10am in the SCR at Scott House, Traill College (310 London St.), LaBruce will give a seminar about his work. Film and seminar are both FREE. Free food and drink at the seminar. Sponsored

by Trent Film Society, Traill College, Canadian Studies, Trent Graduate Student Association, and BE Catering. For updates email troybordun@trentu.ca Black History Month Slam Featuring: Rabbit Richards: Thursday, February 25th, 2016 The Peterborough Poetry Slam in partnership with the Community and Race Relations Committee of Peterborough is proud to present our annual Black History Month Slam featuring the 2015 Canadian Underground Independent Slam Champion, Rabbit Richards. Richards is a New York born performance poet who is currently based in Montreal. Her stories and poetry blend the politics of race, love and gender with the emotional grounding of lived experience. She is a member of the Kalmunity Vibe Collective and a practiced improv artist. 7:30 p.m. Sign-up; 8:00 p.m. Start; The Spill Cafe. All slammers welcome, regular slam rules apply. Open mic will preceed the slam as always.

Overflow Art Gala: February 27, 8pm12:30am. Active Minds would like to welcome you to attend a fundraising event in support of Team 55 & CMHA’s suicide awareness campaigns. This is an opportunity for students and community members alike to express ourselves, relieve stress, boost self-esteem, appreciate amazing local talent, make friends, and change the conversation about mental health. There will be many incredible performers: slam poets, musicians, full bands, and there will also be a silent auction for visual art and photography. 50% of the proceeds for the silent auction will go to the artists and 50% will go to CMHA & Team 55! Snacks will be provided! This is going to be a truly exciting night!

Friday Friday

Saturday Saturday

• Emily Burgess Blues • The Operators with • February Folk Folly Night @ The Garnet Kennedy Cult @ Red Dog @ Downtown Peterborough (10pm) (9pm) (1pm) • Jan Schoute @ Mc- • Dusk Scored Dark, Thirsty’s Pint (9pm) Elms, Garbageface @ The Spill (9pm) •Travis Berlenback @ Riley’s (9pm) • Lucinda Williams Tribute Night @ The Garnet (7pm)

This Weekend in Live Music: presented by ElectricCityLive.ca

• The Sadies with Express and Company @ Gordon Best Theatre (7pm) • Overflow Art Gala @ Sadleir House (8pm)

• The Price Brothers @ • The Venisons Tankhouse Pub(9pm) Sun Rarara @ Pig’s Tavern (10pm) • Jordy Jackson @ Bourban Barrel Saloon • Terra Lightfoot (9pm) Grey lands @ Red (9pm) •Country Night @ Junction (10pm)

and Ear and Dog

Volume 50 | Issue 17 | February 22, 2016

19

Want to be on the cover of Arthur Newspaper?

Submit to our Arts Week Issue!

Send us your visual work and you could win the following

1st place: Cover and $200 2nd place: $100 3rd place: $50 towards a downtown business of your choice We are also accepting: creative prose poetry & personal pieces pertaining to the world of art and what it means to you because like, art is subjective, man.

Submit to: editors@trentarthur.ca

Deadline: Thursday February 25 at Noon