The Volante
THE STUDENTS’ VOICE SINCE 1887 VERVE (B1, B2)
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Theatre department presents final show of spring semester, “Triumph of Love”
New additions are made to the Coyote basketball teams
USD’s theater department finishes off their season with “Triumph of Love”.
New men’s head basketball coach Eric Peterson adds two new assistant coaches to staff and new women’s head coach Kayla Karius adds new player to roster.
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MFA THESIS EXHIBITION “WOMEN UNRAVELED: MOMENTS OF RESILIENCE” Machaela Freeman
Machaela.Freeman@coyotes.usd.edu
This year’s female Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) students at USD presented the “Women Unraveled: Moments of Resilience” Exhibition which concluded April 14. Each student specializes in a different form of art, but they brought together their different forms to create an event for celebrating women. Natalie Higgason, an MFA student, specializes in sculpture. She sculpts using different metals that are meant to interact with the audience. “My thesis works are a representation of the emotional response to experiences that have had a significant impact on my physical and mental health these past several years,” Higgason said. Higgason displayed her works in many different ways. Some were hanging from the ceiling, some were on pedestals and one was attached to the wall. To fully understand each piece, the audience must move around these works and view them from different perspectives, Higgason said. “Within all my work the one thing that is true, no matter the dilemmas and experiences, I have grown an appreciation for the knowledge that I have developed of myself,” Higgason said. Another NFA student, Yazmin Moktan, specializes in painting. The paintings she chose to display show women in natural positions, but with the added feature of dogs. “I am depicting honest states of being, focusing on agency, defiance and weariness, all while attempting to stay true to my own conflicted identity as a brown woman in America,” Moktan said. All the paintings Moktan chose to feature included women of color. Moktan said she uses the gaze, pose and environment to ensure that her subjects are in control of the moment. “Within them are themes of rest as resistance, rejection of patriarchal ideals and subversions of motherhood. This is to directly oppose historical depictions of brown bodies,” Moktan said. Moktan’s paintings comment on the history of and depictions of women in art, as well as the history of pitbulls in current society.
“The parallels between the exploitation of this breed and the exploitation of women are painfully apparent. My intention is to present these traditionally masculine symbols resting alongside women as a way to combat harmful notions that oppress both,” Moktan said. Sonia Perea Morales, an MFA student, also specializes in painting, but her paintings focus on a different message than Moktan’s. Morales included her artist statement in both English and Spanish at the exhibition for viewer’s to read. “My work is a visual thoughtscape of mental health awareness, childhood and resurfacing memories,” Morales said. Morales uses iconography to show different meanings throughout her works. The plants in her paintings aren’t just decoration, but rather are representing the body and the process of self-nurturing, Morales said. Morales also took some inspiration from Mary Oliver. Oliver was a poet, and her poem that hit home the most with Morales was “The Uses of Sorrow” where Oliver wrote, “Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this, too, was a gift.” “My newer paintings are a conversation between discarded objects that were once considered precious and memories that caused me great heartbreak as a young girl…I want to honor my inner child by validating her feelings about all the ugliness we faced,” Morales said. Morales’ paintings are on a much smaller scale than Moktan’s which helps to differentiate the two. Her meaning and intentions behind these paintings also creates a different emotional response from the audience. “This collection of work is a mixture of the stories I have told, the person I have been and the relationship between people and plants. I show how our connection with the natural world can be utilized to establish identity and emotional understanding within the self,” Morales said. These three artists used different mediums Machaela Freeman| The Volante to express their emotions and thoughts The Women Unraveled exhibition displays the stories told by three women graduating from behind what it means to be a woman. USD with Masters of Fine Arts degrees through their artwork. “It is a way to find healing for myself and to let others that have gone through what I have gone through know they are not alone,” Morales said.
Denim Day panel to provide sexual assault awareness
Bennett Clary | The Volante
Bennett Clary | The Volante
USD honors April as Sexual Assault Awareness Month with events like the Denim Day The Denim Day panel focuses on the problem of victim blaming and how sexual assault is handled by authorities. panel and the Clothesline Project. Bennett Clary
Bennett.Clary@coyotes.usd.edu
April is sexual assault awareness month. On campus, this month will be acknowledged with the first Denim Day Panel presentation. This panel will be held April 20 at 1 p.m. in Farber Hall and livestreamed on Instagram and Facebook. ICARE director Shalea Schloss said Denim Day goes back to the Italian Parliament when a woman’s sexual assault conviction was overturned. The judge said there was no way the perpetrator could have taken off her tight jeans without her help, therefore she consented to the incident. After that, people have protested by wearing jeans or any form of denim to show their support for the woman.
“Victim blaming in regards to sexual assault is a really big issue. Victims are constantly blamed, whether it’s male, female, non binary. Somebody was either too drunk or she was dressed inappropriately or he did something and there’s just victim blaming all around,” Schloss said. “And that’s basically the premise of Denim Day is to bring awareness to victim blaming. Doesn’t matter what you wear, it doesn’t mean that you are inviting anybody to violate you in such a way.” Schloss said when she started working, many students approached her because they didn’t know where to go for resources or help. The purpose of the panel is to walk the audience through how sexual assault is handled with the police, Title IX, the Clay County state’s attorney and anyone else
that may need to be involved by using a case study as an example. “Through that conversation of people putting in their piece to the puzzle, that will help bring reality to what we’re talking about. People will be able to follow where people’s pieces are and how things work,” Schloss said. ICARE is on campus for students and Schloss said she wants students to attend the panel with any questions they may have. The event is open to all of Vermillion and can help people learn how they can help the campus community and how students can help the Vermillion community, Schloss said. “I want those individuals to come to this panel to learn but at the same time, know that they are not being left in the dust. We do care about what
happens. We do want to support them and we want to provide them services,” Schloss said. Jean Merkle, the Title IX director, will also be at the event for students to talk to about any concerns or to report an incident, but she will not be involved in the panel. “We are having her be there in case somebody wants, in case somebody feels compelled to report a sexual assault that they may not have reported and so we wanted her readily available for those opportunities,” Schloss said. There will be a denim quilt raffled off at the event for the audience to win. More information about the quilt can be found on ICARE’s social media.