ARTS&CULTURE
6 • The Daily Beacon
SYRIA continued from Page 5 “I am boycotting the vote,” Syria-based activist Mustafa Osso told The Associated Press by phone. He added that previous “reforms” have made little difference. Assad’s government revoked the country’s official state of emergency in April, but the crackdown on dissent has only intensified. The referendum on the new constitution allows at least in theory for opening the country's political system. It would create a multiparty system in Syria, which has been ruled by the Baath party since it took power in a coup in 1963. Assad's father, Hafez, took power in another coup in 1970. It also imposes a limit of two seven-year terms on the president, though Syrian legal expert Omran Zoubi said Assad’s time in office so far wouldn't count. That means he could serve two more terms after his current one ends 2014, keeping him in office until 2028. Such changes would be unthinkable a year ago, but since Assad’s security forces have killed thousands in their effort to end the uprising, most opposition groups say they’ll accept nothing short of his ouster. In the capital Damascus, a regime stronghold where many in the business class and religious minorities support Assad, the Information Ministry took foreign reporters to visit polling stations. Many said they were eager to vote, though the proximity of government minders who accompanied journalists could have prevented them from speaking freely. “This is a good constitution.
It calls for party pluralism and the president can only hold the post for two terms. These did not exist in the past,” said civil servant Mohammed Diab, 40, who waited with four others to vote in the posh Abu Rummaneh neighborhood. Jaafar Naami, 28, who works for a private insurance company, said: “I am here to say yes for the new constitution. This is not the time to say no. People should unite.” Fewer voters turned out in the areas of Rukneddine and Barzeh, where anti-government protesters have recently demonstrated. In Barzeh, about 20 percent of shops were closed, apparently in compliance with the calls for a strike. Turnout was very low at a polling station in the area, with individuals trickling in to vote every few minutes. One man said he had come to vote at a center away from the district's center, where he said there was “pressure not to vote ... intimidation and calls for public disobedience.” He did not give his name for fear of reprisal. In Rukneddine, turnout in the morning was low, but picked up in the afternoon. Still, people cast ballots as they arrived with no need to stand in line. A Syrian-American voter who only gave her first name, Diana, said after voting yes: “My friends attacked me for voting. They said, ‘Don’t you see people are dying?’ But for me, voting is my right. The president is on the right track. When someone hits you, you have to hit back.” She added: “Syria is under attack.”
Monday, February 27, 2012
Bluegrass opens doors for young musicians The Associated Press OWENSBORO, Ky. — A new program is teaching children about bluegrass music. Not only are the children learning to play instruments, they are also learning about a man who was a major influence in how the music sounds. The International Bluegrass Music Museum in Owensboro said it has joined forces with the Neblett Center on the Arnold Shultz String Music Project, the MessengerInquirer reported. The initiative begins March 1 and is aimed at teaching youths ages 7-10 how to play guitar, fiddle and mandolin. It will also highlight the life of Shultz, a black Ohio County musician who is sometimes called the “godfather of bluegrass” because of his influence on Bill Monroe. “This is one of the most exciting things I’ve ever done,” Gabrielle Gray, the museum’s executive director, said at a news conference announcing the project. “Since I came here in 2002, I’ve been wanting to integrate the community more.” Neblett Center executive director Greg Black said the hope is to create a children’s bluegrass band that could play at the museum’s annual ROMP: Bluegrass Roots & Branches Festival in June. Museum market director Danny Clark said he would also offer banjo lessons if any children are interested.
“There’s nothing I love more than teaching children to play bluegrass,” Clark said. Gray said this would be the first tribute the bluegrass community has paid to Shultz. “There’s more to the African-American influence on bluegrass than the banjo,” she said. Shultz was born in 1886 and has been credited with putting the blues in bluegrass. He worked in the coal mines by day but by night he played guitar or fiddle at roadhouses and barn dances. In 1922, he joined a band headed by drummer Forrest “Boots” Faught and played for dances in Ohio and Muhlenberg counties. “It was a four-piece outfit then and Arnold made five,” Faught recalled in 1980. “He was the only colored man in the band. He was the first man I ever heard play lead on the guitar.” Faught said he got complaints about having a black fiddle player. “I told them, ‘You don’t hear color. You hear music’.” A couple of years later, Monroe began working with Shultz as a mandolin player at country dances. Before he died, Monroe talked about how much people loved hearing Shultz play music. Shultz died in 1931 in Morgantown from organic heart disease.
Tara Sripunvoraskul• The Daily Beacon
Cathy Oler, senior in photography, works on a sheet during a class on papermaking in the Art & Architecture Building on Monday, Feb. 20. Papermaking lets students experience the entire process that goes into a single sheet, including pulp dyeing, casting, and sheet forming.