volume 66, edition 9

By Matthew [email protected]

Imagine sitting in the bath-room stall on campus. As you look over, you notice an eye peering through a small, roughly carved-out hole invading your privacy.

For almost two decades, this has been a possibility on campus.

A series of peepholes, drilled out holes that people can see through, have been made in at least three of the men’s bath-rooms at ARC’s main campus.

The largest peephole can be found in the science department men’s bathroom, and smaller holes can be found in the liberal arts breezeway and Davies Hall.

Sergeant Mike Olson of the Los Rios Police Department implied

the bathrooms are active spots for people to meet up to engage in sexual activities with one an-other.

“It has been a problem in my time here for over 15 years,” Sgt. Olson said.

Maria Arambula, a custodian, said that the peepholes have al-ways been an issue on campus in the 19 years of her working at the school.

Said Olson, “We will prosecute anytime that we can apprehend someone, but it is exceedingly dif-ficult to catch someone in the act of using those or creating them.

“We have to rely on a report from a person who using the bathroom, or someone who saw

SEE PEEPHOLES, PAGE 2

News pages 2 & 3Sports pages 4 & 5 A&C page 8

Feature page 6 Scene pages 9 & 10Opinion page 11

TUBDRAGGERPAGE 9INDEX Two-piece psychedelic band made of ARC students

describes their music as ‘lethargic.’

ARCurrent.com @ARCurrentfacebook.com/ARCurrentcom @ARCurrent

“People ask me sometimes how many children I have, and I don’t know how to answer that. I had two, I have one left, or do I still have two, and one’s in the ground? How do I answer that?”

Kameron Schmid / [email protected] and Vee Arroyo, both ARC employees, lost their daughter almost five years ago when she was murdered on March 13, 2010.

ARC’s 15-year peephole battleSTALLS IN MEN’S BATHROOMS CAN’T BE REPLACED, SO HOLES JUST GET COVERED UP

By Kameron [email protected]

Bill and Vee Arroyo know their daughter, Monica Anderson, wasn’t perfect. They just wish she was alive.

As the five year anniversary of Anderson’s March 13, 2010 murder approaches, the married couple, both ARC employees, are taking the slow and diffi-cult steps to living their lives with the weight of loss on their shoulders.

Anderson, then 26, was killed that night by friend and former roommate Lan Anh Le, then 20, after a night of partying that included heavy alcohol and

cocaine use. Le stabbed Anderson 91 times and is currently serving a 25 years-to-life sentence.

Bill, Anderson’s stepfather, was on his way to church that morning when he says he felt an over-whelming need to go back home to Vee. He joined her on a trip to drop off laundry to Anderson’s apartment.

“We went over there and came up on it as they were investigating the crime scene. To this day, we don’t know if the body was there when we were,” Bill said.

Added Vee, “I was walking up to the crime scene

Shattered heartsPARENTS OF MURDERED DAUGHTER, A FORMER ARC STUDENT, TRY TO RECOVER FROM LOSS AS THE FIVE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY NEARS

Family photoMonica Anderson was once an ARC student, but died at 26 years old after being stabbed 91 times by her former roommate.

Vol. 66, Ed. 9 • March 11, 2015

american rivercurrent


On the opening night of Ameri-can River College’s recent theatre production, “Blues for Mister Charlie,” the opening scene fea-tured heavy and emotional use of the N-word with no prior warn-ing, and director Sam Williams admitted to “dropping the ball.”

There were no warning signs or parental advisory guidelines for the play, and after intermis-sion, about a quarter of the au-dience was gone, mostly parents and their children.

Audience member Juliana Nassr said, “I remember people were shocked that there were kids.”

The lead usher and theater major Xristina Potouridis said, “I had to warn parents who brought their kids there was strong lan-guage.”

Williams claims to have warned people in his opening speech, but there are a handful of people who don’t seem to recall such a warn-ing, including Potouridis and Nassr.

From the first scene on, “Blues” is a play that tackles race in a heavy manner. Based on the mur-der of fourteen-year-old Emmett Till, written by James Baldwin,

SEE ‘BLUES,’ PAGE 8

Racial language prompts walkoutDIRECTOR SAYS HE ‘DROPPED THE BALL’ BY NOT WARNING AUDIENCE

MARCH IN MARCHPAGE 6

Matthew Wilke / [email protected] biggest of the peepholes in men’s bathrooms on campus is routinely covered up by maintenance staff with any scrap metal they can find.

SEE ARROYO, PAGE 3

Peepholes: No solution to problem for nowthem taking a drill or something like thing, or seen them engage either of vandalism or other activities considered to be illegal,’ said Olson.

That difficulty is partly due to the private nature of bathrooms, where cameras are not permitted for obvious reasons. As far as the actual procedures with removing or fixing peepholes, the difficulties appear budgetary.

Preston Harris, head of maintenance de-partment, said that the department has only been able to manage the problem so far by covering up the holes with metal sheets screwed onto the stalls.

Harris said that “(the) only thing we

can do is cover them up and make it more dif-ficult, it’ll go away for a while.”

The easiest solution would most likely be installing drill-proof metal stalls, instead of the current wood. But that would cost con-struction time and funding, which are difficult

to get approved. “It is a social issue rather than a mainte-

nance problem,” Harris said.Culinary arts student Mtayari Umoja said, “I

don’t agree with homosexual lifestyle. I have a serious problem with a dude looking at me.”

NewsMarch 11, 2015

Editor-in-ChiefKameron Schmid

Managing EditorJohn Ferrannini

News EditorJoseph Daniels

Sports EditorsMatthew PeirsonKevin Sheridan

Arts & Culture EditorsMatthew Wilke

Cheyenne Drury

Scene EditorsBrandon Nelson

Jose Garcia

Opinion EditorCameron Weaver

Web EditorEmily K. Rabasto

Multimedia EditorBryce Fraser

Copy EditorLena DoBynes

StaffNoor Abasi

Miranda BolarNicholas Corey

Meredith DurhamMychael Jones

Mary-Ann MyersAlex Panasenko

AdviserWalter Hammerwold

Photo AdviserJill Wagner

POLICYThe Current is produced by the students of College Media Production, J410-413. All opinions are signed and not necessarily endorsed by the Current staff. All letters and articles appearing in the Editorial, Opinion or Forum sections are not necessarily representative of the Current staff or American River College policy. All articles are the property of the Current. Letters must be typed and can be submitted by mail, e-mail or in person at the following addresses:

The American River Current4700 College Oak DriveLiberal Arts, Room 120Sacramento, CA 95841Phone: 916-484-8304Fax: 916-484-8668E-mail: [email protected]

PROUD MEMBERS OF THE CNPA & JACC

american rivercurrent

Censured for substance abuse at GABy John [email protected]

The Associated Student Body Student Senate voted Thursday without opposition to censure Jeremy Diefenbacher, president of the ASB Clubs and Events Board.

Diefenbacher was censured after being sent home from the General Assembly of the Student Senate for California Commu-nity Colleges last November after what ASB Student Senate Direc-tor of Public Relations Cameron Weaver called an incident “re-garding substances.”

Also censured was David Hyl-ton, who resigned two weeks ago as Senate director of activi-ties, and who was also sent home from General Assembly for a mar-ijuana-related incident.

Sen. Garrett Kegel introduced the motion to censure the two high-ranking members of Ameri-can River College’s student gov-ernment.

“I feel that the board needs to address what happened at Gen-eral Assembly,” said Kegel. “From what I know, both members violated number ten of the stu-dent travel standards of conduct which is ‘the use or possession of drugs or alcohol is not prohibited under any circumstance.’”

A censure is a parliamentary procedure whereby a legisla-tive body decides to “reprimand (a) member with the hopes of reforming him or her so that he or she won’t behave in the same way again,” according to Robert’s Rules of Order.

Nevertheless, Student Senate was unrestrained in its praise for Diefenbacher.

“I’d like to remind the board of Diefenbacher’s outstanding dedication to the student body he is sworn to serve. His leader-ship has seen CAEB through the good days and the bad days,” said Kegel.

“He’s a very, very charismatic individual and he has an extreme, extreme amount of passion for the students here on campus,” said Cameron Weaver, Senate di-

rector of public relations. “He likes to speak up for groups

that might be disenfranchised even in 2015. I hope he chooses to remain to be here until when-ever he may feel fit to leave.”

“I want to thank President Dief-enbacher, Jeremy, who we love so dearly. It’s one thing what we’ve read in the papers about what he’s been accused of and it’s an-other thing what I have seen,” said Senate vice president Leslie Milan Fisher.

Weaver was questioned as to the positive tone expressed by the senators during the censure.

“The way I look at the whole college experience, this censure and him getting kicked out of General Assembly is a learning experience,” said Weaver. “In the real world, this stuff cannot fly.”

When asked why he voted for the censure, Sen. Jose Garcia said it was because Diefenbacher and Hylton had done so much for ASB.

“Same reason as people were giving,” he said. “They do put in a lot of work so what they have done might not have been ap-propriate or right to do, but as far as the work they put in for ASB I think they do a lot.”

When it was clarified what censuring was he said “I thought

I did (know). I guess I did not.”Hylton was smirking and

laughing during the proceedings. When asked about this behavior, he said that he doesn’t know why he reacted in this way.

“I don’t know,” said Hylton. “I’ve never been part of a censure before. I didn’t even know what a censure was.”

Tamara Dunning, who is acting as ASB Student Senate president, didn’t say how she would have voted if she had been called upon for the tie-breaking vote.

“I’m glad senate was able to ex-press their ideas and I’m glad we can move on,” said Dunning.

Hylton confessed to and apolo-gized for the wrongdoing and says he paid back the student money spent on him at General Assembly.

Diefenbacher said he also paid back the student money, but showed less contrition when asked about his actions after a CAEB meeting Friday.

“I’m sorry for my actions but I do think they were blown out of proportion,” he said. “I feel like certain members of the local me-dia vilified me as a public official due to a mistake.”

When asked which local media vilified him, Diefenbacher speci-

fied it was the Current.Diefenbacher had no comment

as to whether he had used drugs or alcohol, how many drinks, if any, he had consumed at General Assembly or what, if anything, was untrue of media reports on him.

Justin Nicholson, CAEB repre-sentative for Fierce, asked a re-porter from the Current to stop asking Diefenbacher questions.

“If I may assert, we are having an open and inclusive meeting and your questions for Jeremy are becoming a little exclusive,” said Justin Nicholson, a member of Fierce. “I’m not saying you’re not allowed.”

“Would you like a chair?” of-fered Diefenbacher to the report-er.

Diefenbacher has said that he is not stepping down from his po-sition as ASB CAEB president.

LeslieAnn Dameron, the direc-tor of activities for the Clubs and Events Board, defended Diefen-bacher.

“People apologize in different ways,” she said. “That’s all I have to say.”

Matthew Wilke / [email protected] out holes in the bathroom of the science department building have been a recurring issue for almost 20 years, according to Los Rios Police Department Sgt. Mike Olson.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

CAEB PRESIDENT AND SENATOR RECEIVE HIGH PRAISE BEFORE THURSDAY’S CENSURE

John Ferrannini / [email protected] President Jeremy Diefenbacher (center) was censured by the ASB Student Senate Thursday as Dean of Student Development Manuel Perez (left) and Senate Director of Public Relations Cameron Weaver (right) look on.

with Monica’s laundry in my hands, and they told me to stay behind the tape. I said, ‘You don’t understand, my daughter’s overslept, she’s going to be late for work.’ He said, ‘Who’s your daughter?’

“They thought I was going to die be-cause I collapsed in the parking lot. My body was going into shock.”

Since then, every day has been a toss-up for how Bill and Vee will feel. How much they’ll think about their lost daughter, and whether or not those memories will make them smile or bring them to tears.

They both wonder how Le, someone they had known previously for a year, could commit such an atrocious crime.

According to Vee, knowing it was an act of impulse and not an accident weighs heavily on her mind.

“To know that somebody intentionally did that to your child, that’s what kills you inside,” she said.

Though they spent time with Le, from dinners at their house to Bill driving her to work a few times, the sad details of her life before meeting Monica didn’t come to light until the trial, two and a half years after the murder.

Le was raised by struggling Vietnam-ese refugees in a crowded home with 10 siblings. She seemed to have been getting her life together in a social program at 16, but aged out.

Le and Anderson met through mutual friends, and soon moved in together.

Six months before the murder, Vee received a call from Anderson, saying that Le had attacked her, giving her a black eye and a bruised arm.

“The police said they’d submit paper-work to the district attorney to see if they

would press charges, but nothing ever came of that,” said Vee. “(Six) months later, Monica’s dead. And they ask, do you feel that justice was served? No, I don’t.”

Vee and Bill had two wait two and a half years for the murder trial against Le to begin. When the details began to be presented, they were forced to live through the worst day of their life all over again.

Though Vee communicated with Le’s parents without incident, other members of Le’s family “made com-ments” toward Vee during the court proceedings, often in defense of Le. Grisly photos were shown of the crime scene.

For Bill, just being in the same room with the killer of his daughter was almost too much to bear.

“There was a moment in time where I wanted to grab her and take care of it my-self,” he said. “But the Lord spoke to me, and said ‘Let me take care of this one, Bill.’ Otherwise, I would have done it. (Monica) was my little girl.”

It’s been over two years since Le was convicted. She’s serving her sentence in the California Institution for Women in Corona, California. And in Bill and Vee’s tidy home, few photos of their daughter are left out. Vee says they make her sad.

“I think about what her last few min-utes were like,” she said. “Being stabbed, with her arms up pleading ‘Stop, stop.’

“And people say, ‘Well eventually, you have to move on.’ And I always think, ‘Would you trade places with me, and let me tell you that?’”

There are days where going to work is impossible. Casual conversation can easily turn into grief and confusion.

“People ask me sometimes how many children I have, and I don’t know how to answer that,” Vee said.

“I had two, I have one left, or do I still have two, and one’s in the ground? How do I answer that?”

There are happy memories though, of course. They remember how caring a per-son Anderson was, since she was a child.

Vee describes how in her youth, An-derson mowed her grandmother’s lawn for six months in order to earn enough money to buy a gold necklace for Vee on Mother’s Day.

Vee wears that necklace every day now, and said it feels like carrying a piece of her daughter with her.

Before the murder, Anderson had just been promoted to manager at the O’Reilly Auto Parts store she worked. Her work uniforms are now teddy bears, made by Remember Me Bears, a non-profit group started by another grieving person who lost family.

It’s been a long, complicated road for

both of them. Vee spent a long time ignor-ing her emotions, and blacking out from stress. They’ve been to support groups and seen therapists, but both know that recovering will take time.

“I look back and I’m surprised she’s alive,” Bill said of his wife’s perseverance.

“I see the pain, and the shatteredness of her heart, and I see God trying to mend it. I don’t know how long it’s gonna take, it may take a lifetime. But I’m not running from it.”

News March 11, 2015

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Arroyo: Learning to move on is difficultCONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Photos by Kameron Schmid / [email protected], Monica Anderson’s senior portrait sits between two teddy bears made from her work uniform at O’Reilly Auto Parts. Right, the necklace that Anderson bought for Vee, which she now wears every day.

SportsMarch 11, 2015

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Americans eat 100 acres of pizza each day.

By Cheyenne [email protected]

They can look across the soft-ball diamond at each other and know what the other one is think-ing. American River College soft-ball coaches Lisa and Darin Del-gado are siblings with a shared passion for the game.

Growing up, the Delgado sib-lings played many sports. Lisa played volleyball, basketball and softball while Darin played foot-ball, baseball and basketball.

Lisa is an older sister to Da-rin and said the two were close growing up.

“We supported each other. I was his biggest fan,” said Lisa.

Both Darin and Lisa played col-legiate sports at the College of the Siskiyous. Lisa played basketball and softball while Darin played baseball.

After their respective playing careers at community colleges, Lisa went on to play softball while Darin played baseball at Chico State University.

Their coaching career together started at Butte College, where Lisa was coaching and Darin came out to host batting practice.

Slowly, they became a unit. Lisa began coaching softball

at ARC in 2003, but says what brought her to Sacramento was her brother, who was living in the area at the time.

“I’m in Sacramento because of Darin. If Darin wasn’t in Sacra-mento I wouldn’t have applied (to ARC),” said Lisa.

While Lisa is the head coach for ARC’s softball program, she was her brother’s assistant coach from 2008 to 2011 for a local competitive softball team, the California Breeze.

“We reminisce about the Breeze a lot. Coaching 65 games plus and traveling to places like Colorado, Tennessee and Geor-gia. It’s also really cool because a lot of the kids we coached have moved on to the highest level,” said Lisa.

In regards to coaching, there is an uncanny amount of under-standing between the siblings.

“We can look at each other and know what the other is thinking,” said Lisa.

Added Darin, “It’s all about re-spect for us. We get along really well and I feel that’s what most coaches lack and since we’re sib-lings we have that mutual respect and trust in each other and it’s awesome because it’s not a job for us, it’s fun.”

The siblings spend just as

much time together off the field as they do on it.

“We’re very family orientated. Our parents have been at the last eight out of 10 games this sea-son and as for me and Darin ... out of 100 days there might be a five minute period where we dis-agree,” said Lisa.

Both Lisa and Darin have high expectations for their players and they have everything managed

between each other.“He works infield and I work

outfield and he takes lead on bat-ting and it all works out,” added Lisa.

Lisa says the two are always trying to improve their craft.

“ESPN is always on at my house and we’re both always watching softball together, always learning, always growing, and always com-ing up with new ideas,” said Lisa.

Family ties attributed to success BROTHER-SISTER SOFTBALL COACHES STAY TOGETHER THROUGH THEIR CAREERS

Cheyenne Drury / [email protected] Delgado, center, and Lisa Delgado, right, instruct infielder Lolly Rothenberger-Conway on her batting.

I’m in Sacramento because of Darin. If Darin wasn’t in Sacramento, I wouldn’t have applied (to ARC).”

LISADELGADO

“

Baseball stands at 8-7 entering Big 8 playIMPROVING TEAM STILL LACKS DAILY CONSISTENCYBy Matthew [email protected]

American River College’s baseball team stands with an 8-7 record and began con-ference play this week, looking to com-bine the talents of starting pitcher Matt Gunter with a much-improved offense from last season to improve.

The team currently stands at fourth place in the Big 8 Conference, led offen-sively by freshman slugger Kirby Broad-bent and sophomores Alex Gaskin and Jimmy Lunardelli.

Gunter, a sophomore, has had a strong second season for ARC, accounting for a 4-1 record in six starts with his only loss coming in the season opener.

Gunter leads the team in innings pitched with 37 ⅔ logged, and has also accumulated a team-leading 33 strikeouts while holding opposing batters to a .231 batting average.

Offensively, Broadbent leads the team with a batting average of .422 and is slug-ging .644 while holding a .540 on base percentage.

Along with Broadbent, Gaskin and Lu-nardelli, ARC second baseman Cameron Bennett is hitting over .300, on fire as of late to hold a .383 batting average.

The team is looking for better results than last season in conference play, when it started with a 10 game losing streak en route to a 4-17 conference record and last place finish.

For the remainder of the regular sea-son, through April 24, ARC plays a three

game series each week against a fellow Big 8 team, starting with three games this week against Los Rios rival Sacramento City College this week. The results of Tuesday’s game were not available as of press time.

Tuesday’s game as well as Saturday’s are at Sac City, while ARC will host the matchup Thursday at Beaver Field.

Road kings or sick of home?ARC has won six straight road games,

winning the final four games of a six game road trip as well as its last two away games prior to yesterday following a home loss to Diablo Valley College on Feb. 26.

The team won at both Modesto Junior College on March 3 and Diablo Valley Col-lege last Friday, but fell to Cosumnes River College Thursday at home.

ARC has not won at home since defeat-ing Solano Community College on Feb. 10.

Broadbent cooling off, but still on fire

Broadbent still leads the team by nearly 40 points with a .422 batting average de-spite cooling from a state-leading, top-ranked pace.

He currently is 20th overall in the state with his current batting average, and is no longer slugging over 1.000 percent, but still holds 11th overall in slugging and currently sits at 10th in on base percent-age.

Upcoming scheduleARC held an identical 8-7 record to Sac

City heading into this week’s series, and will face San Joaquin Delta College next week, who has started the season unde-feated at 14-0.


American River College’s men’s basketball team has shown huge improvement from its last sea-son.

It ended last season on a 15 game losing streak and finished last in the Big 8 Conference (3-23 overall, 0-14 conference), the sec-ond worst season in head coach Mark Giorgi’s 17-year tenure.

Following a strong and strict recruitment of players and an overall attitude and mental ad-justment by the team, ARC re-bounded to finish its next season with a 15-11 overall record and 7-7 in conference play to advance to the playoffs.

Sophomore guard Jarvis Wat-kins led the team in scoring with 11.7 PPG, with fellow guard Keishaun Sinclair also averaging double figures at 10.6 PPG. Sin-clair also led the team with 2.6 assists per game.

Defensively, Sinclair led with 4.6 rebounds per game and aver-aged 2.2 per game in steals.

Giorgi kept it simple when asked of the difference between his team this season from last.

“We just got players. We didn’t have any basketball players last year,” he said.

“We lost a lot of close games last year (and) that kind of killed us, but we just had better play-ers.”

After having mostly a small team last season, ARC had three players this season that towered 6-foot-8 or higher.

“It played a great factor,” said forward Austin Lobo of the size difference. “Defensively, it al-lowed us to play a more freely.”

The team’s season ended in the game against Foothill College, a 78-67 home loss in a play-in play-off game, a game the team and its coach believes it could have won and advanced deeper into the playoffs.

“We were 14-42 front the 2-point line,” said Giorgi. “That’s basically telling you that you missed a bunch of shots.”

Had ARC won the game, the team would have traveled to Fresno City College, the top team in Northern California.

Lobo, a 22-year-old freshman, said he thought the team would have at least reached the final four had it beaten Foothill.

“Yeah, 100 percent,” said Lobo of ARC’s chances of beating Fres-no. “If we would have won that Foothill game, I have confidence that we would have gone to the final four, at least.”

Foothill defeated Fresno after its game at ARC, and advance to the final four after winning at San Joaquin Delta College, despite be-ing the lowest seed in the entire playoff bracket.

ARC took its time recruiting and building the roster, accord-ing to Lobo.

“I was the first one here, as far as recruits go,” said Lobo. “They were being very calculated and methodical. (They) made sure everyone was comfortable, ev-eryone was on the same page.”

Lobo is older than most of

the other freshman players who came to the team straight out of high school.

Freshman point guards Mar-celas Perry and Richard Reed said players such as Lobo and the 27-year-old Eugene Crockett helped them grow as players and people.

“They taught us how to become men at a young age. Both on and off the court,” said Perry of the older players.

“They looked out for the young

guys,” added Reed.One of the team’s biggest fault

was its shooting in games away from home.

“We didn’t shoot well and it af-fected our energy and our focus. I don’t want to say it caused us to lose a game, but anytime some-one loses focus, it’s going to affect the overall performance,” said Lobo.

Giorgi does think the team needs a few more shooters for next season, but said commit-

ment and consistency are the keys to improvement.

“Guys were late to practice. (We have to) get guys more dedi-cated to the team,” he said.

Lobo, who will return next sea-son, thinks as far as skillsets from players, the team is in very good shape and that many players will be returning.

“Jarvis, Eugene and Keishaun will be missed,” Lobo said.

Sports March 11, 2015

SPORTSUPDATESMEN’S TENNISThe men’s tennis team is 8-0 after winning its most recent match at home against Foothill College. ARC won two of three doubles matches, while losing the singles matches 6-4. Its next match will be at home against Diablo Valley College.

SOFTBALLThe softball team won both games of a doubleheader at home against Sac-ramento City College by scores of 7-4 and 9-7. The wins moved the team’s overall record to 13-5 and a 2-0 record in conference.

Kevin Sheridan / [email protected] men’s tennis team is 8-0 and 4-0 in conference play after winning its most recent matchup against Foothill College. Both tennis teams next play at home against Diablo Valley College.

WOMEN’S TRACK AND FIELDARC’s women track and field also took part in the Beaver Relays. Freshman Jenica Dodge finished first in the 5000-meter dash with a time of 18 :17.27. Fellow freshman Maria Rojo also set a personal record in the same event with a time of 21:39.19.

MEN’S TRACK AND FIELDAmerican River College hosted the Beaver Relays on March 7. In the event, sophomore runner Robert Ellis finished first in the men’s 100-meter dash, and fellow sophomores Logan Stahl and David French finished first and second in the 800-meter run.

UPCOMING HOME GAMES03/12 Baseball vs. Sacramento City 2:30 p.m.03/13 Tennis vs. Diablo Valley 1 p.m.03/13 Swim, Big 8 Invite 11 a.m.03/14 Softball vs. Santa Rosa noon.03/14 Softball vs. Santa Rosa 2 p.m.03/17 Softball vs. San Joaquin Delta 3 p.m.03/17 Baseball vs. San Joaquin Delta 2:30 p.m.03/19 Tennis vs. Chabot 2 p.m.03/20 Tennis vs. Folsom Lake 1 p.m.03/21 Baseball vs. San Joaquin Delta 1 p.m.03/24 Softball vs. Diablo Valley 3 p.m.

Playoff loss caps strong yearARC FINISHES ’14-’15 SEASON WITH AN OVERALL RECORD OF 15-11, JUST ONE YEAR AFTER FINISHING 3-23

Bryce Fraser / [email protected] head coach Mark Giorgi, center, coached his team to a 15 win season after last year’s 3-23 finish.

FeatureMarch 11, 2015

By Meredith [email protected]

The smell of marijuana and the sounds of sirens and drum beats were heavy in the air as about 100 protesters assembled at the capitol for the annual March in March rally Monday.

Coordinated by the Student Senate for California Community Colleges, the March in March is an annual demonstration held downtown where students from up and down the state protest about community college issues.

Several students displayed their home made signs and ban-ners on the west steps of the state capitol building. Some had never been to Sacramento or northern California before.

“It’s definitely much bigger than I thought,” said Dominique Campbell, a student from Los Angeles Southwest College. “The history of it is cool, and I (had) never been to Sacramento to see all the government buildings, so its fun.”

Students from San Bernardino Valley College were among the first to arrive, and drove through the night to reach Sacramento in time for the rally.

“We left around midnight and barely got here,” said Mario Aguayo, a San Bernardino stu-dent.

“We want to make college a lot cheaper,” said Emily Campos, also from San Bernardino Valley Col-lege.

According to Tamara Dunning, who is acting as American River College Associated Student Body Student Senate president, 23 stu-dents checked in at the ARC booth

as having attended the event.While this number is up from

2014 – when only 10 ARC stu-dents attended – the total num-ber of students from around the state attending the demonstra-tion was visibly down from pre-vious years. The event has been held at an annual basis since 2009.

Students who gathered at the capitol’s west steps facing the Tower Bridge marched along sidewalks south to the California Community College Chancellor’s office.

A microphone was set up and several students of diverse backgrounds spoke passionately about reaching out to other stu-dents in need of a voice.

The most pressing topic for most was the need for affordable education for low-income indi-viduals.

Ricardo Rivera was among the protesters who lamented the troublesome circumstances of low-income school districts.

“What am I going to be able to tell my children when they can’t go to school, because of money, and they tell me, ‘why didn’t I do something? why didn’t I act?’ That’s the reason I’m here: (be-cause) if we don’t do something, no one from where I’m from will get an education.”

Once the open-mic session ended, the demonstrators re-turned to the capitol steps to hear speeches from students including some involved in the SSCCC.

Dunning, who supported ARC’s student senate’s move to spend up to $17,000 on this year’s march, was disappointed that the protest march along Capitol av-

enue had been cancelled and said she felt this year’s event had been poorly planned.

“I got an e-mail from Omar Paz, the president of the SSCCC, and he admitted they had dropped the ball,” said Dunning. “They said they’d have a march if ARC would facilitate it. We hadn’t even discussed it with them.”

Photos by Miranda Bolar / [email protected] year’s March in March protest downtown did not draw the numbers it has in the past and did not include the traditional march from the Tower Bridge to the west steps of the state capitol.

MARCH PROTEST LOSES ITS STEP DESPITE OUTREACH EFFORTS OF ARC’S STUDENT GOVERNMENT, THE ANNUAL CAPITOL PROTEST IS DECRESING IN PARTICIPATION

Above: ASB senators Cameron Weaver, left, and Jose Garcia, right, march with signs at the annual March in March rally. Below, groups from all over California who journeyed to participate in the protest.

ON THE WEBRead the full story

on ARC’s ASB taking part at

March in March on our website,

arcurrent.com

March 11, 2015

Paid Advertisement

the play is heavy in racial subject matter and tension.

Not everyone felt that there needed to be a warning sign and they felt that if people knew the work of playwright James Bald-win, they could have foreseen the language that was used.

Some believe that everything that was said or portrayed helped capture what it was really like for African-Americans during the civil rights movement.

Wally Hawkins, who played Joel “Papa D” Davis was born in the Civil Rights era and was alive witness to racial remarks direct-ed to him.

“I had started singing with a singing group called the Ambers,” recalled Hawkins. “One night while they were out on tour… we were in San Antonio, Texas trying to check into a hotel and the clerk said he only had rooms for the three of you guys (point-ing at the three white members) and told Hawkins to go to n***** town. One of the members Berry Tompkins told him well there are

four of us … were all n****** and we’ll all leave.”

Hawkins holds the belief that this play really captures the era.

Jesse Hesan, recording and commercial major, was in the audience and agrees that every-thing portrayed in the show was justified.

“It’s supposed to be a racially tense play,” said Hesan. “It’s cool (the) dynamics from then to now, I like how they dove to the main

point.”Hesan also added, “Taking the

language out would have made this a kid’s show … this is a col-lege campus.”

Williams said, “I like mostly that James Baldwin tells a story of an ugly subject matter that sheds light on the oppressed.

“This story is based on the bru-talities for every African-Ameri-can that suffered.”

Arts&CultureMarch 11, 2015

Cheyenne Drury/ [email protected] band members of Tubdragger, Quin Darcy, left, and Garrett Wootton, right, descibe themselves as a progressive-experimental-psychedelic-jazz band, with an emphasis on slow, lethargic music.


ARC students and Commercial Music Recording majors, Quin Darcy and Garrett Wootton dedicate their time to learning music theory and applying that knowledge to their progressive-experimental-psyche-delic-jazz band, TUBDRAGGER.

The name of the band comes from a sto-ry Darcy’s girlfriend’s dad told him about having to drag a tub up a flight of stairs.

“I liked the sound of it because it con-veys that slow and lethargic tone that rep-resents our music pretty well,” said Darcy.

Darcy and Wootton met a few years ago in level one recording at ARC and by level

three recording they formed their band and have been working on material for roughly a year now.

They are currently working on an LP - a vinyl record - with about 10 songs.

Said Wootton of the record, “All of the songs will be self-produced and right now we’ve got six songs completed.”

Darcy added, “The title of the album is ‘Fruit for the Depressed’ written for sad people by sad people.”

Darcy’s cousin gave him his first guitar 11 years ago has been playing ever since.

He is also learning to play other instru-ments such as the fiddle, mandolin, banjo and flugelhorn.

Wootton has been a self taught drum-

mer for the past three years. Darcy draws influence from American

jazz pianist and composer, Bill Evans and Joe Pass, an American virtuoso jazz guitar-ist.

Wootton’s main influence is drummer Chris Collis from the math rock band This Town Needs Guns.

Darcy and Wootton also have some shared musical favorites including Alt-J, Grizzly Bear, and This Town Need Guns.

It wasn’t until the age of about 16 that both members began to appreciate music and both are huge advocates for learning and understanding music theory.

Said Darcy, “For us it’s all about putting forth the effort to appreciate and under-

stand the complexity of what you might be doing,”

Added Wootton, “Once you understand the theory enough you begin to be able pick apart music and you find yourself searching for more challenging material.”

Tubdragger experiements with taking it slow

Courtesy of ARC TheatreThe final scene of James Baldwins’ “Blues for Mister Charlie,” a racially tense play from start to finish. A quarter of the audience, most of whom had brought their children, had to leave before the second half due to the strong racial language and violence.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

‘Blues’: ARC play tackles big issue

ON THE WEBFor more theatre arts coverage,

including an article on the ‘Blues for Mr. Charlie’ backstage crew, go to

ARCurrent.com/arts-culture

ON THE WEBCheck out Tubdragger’s

music at soundcloud.com/

tubdragger

Scene March 11, 2015

ARC celebrates Black History MonthDAY’S FESTIVITIES INCLUDED LIVE MUSIC, SOUTHERN THEMED FOOD, GOSPEL INSPIRED DANCING AND VENDORSBy Brandon [email protected]

Live music, themed food, dancing and vendors selling various items could be found in the student center Wednesday in recognition of Black Heritage Celebration Day, an event hosted by ARC to acknowl-edge Black History Month.

The student center was decorated with posters of famous African-Americans, such as Harriet Tubman and Tiger Woods as well as Martin Luther King Jr., whose poster was accompanied with his famous, “I have a dream”, speech.

Students were treated to live dance per-formances by praise dancers invited by Stu-dent Personnel Assistant, Frankie Johnson, at the Center for Leadership and Develop-ment.

Said Johnson on the center’s relation-ship with the Center for Teaching and Learning, which offers informational college hours to the campus, “We are not affiliated with the college hour sadly… we need to be though.”

Johnson is also responsible for planning an upcoming Earth Day event.

Johnson made announcements at the event that ranged from a menu for the food

which included black-eyed peas, fried chicken and cornbread - to a list of vendors.

Jackie Douglas was one vendor among

many present at the event.Douglas, who sold goods from South

African countries at the event, represented LiBush International African Imports, a family business located on K St.

The goods ranged from nativity scenes and wooden carved masks made in Kenya.

Oils, which were used as perfume were also for sale, as well as small trees made of banana leaves which are used for holding earrings.

“Today we have baskets from Ghana, all proceeds from the basket sales go back to Ghana to help drill drinking water wells,”

Douglas said. One of the students browsing the

merchandise was Tonya Dorsey who en-joyed the celebration.

“Today is a proud day...it’s a positive celebration to recognize African-Ameri-cans,” said Dorsey.

Mary Ann Myers/[email protected] heritage masks were for sale on Black Heritage celebration day on Feb. 25. Students could buy the masks durring the days festivities.

“My mom because she raised four kids as a single mom and shes been my motivation to get through school and life.”

-GABBYCHAVEZCriminal Justice

CAMPUSPU SEL“Sally Ride, because she was the first American woman in space.”

-ANDREWHARTMANEngineering

“My grandma, because she came over from Croatia at a young age and was still able to be successful.”

-NICHOLEGLOVER Undeclared

“Hedy Lamarr, because she invented wifi frequency on a bar napkin.”

-ALYRIGGINSFuneral Services

It’s Women’s History Month. Who is the most influential woman in your life?

AR Review continues work on its publication

By Miranda [email protected]

The American River Review is an annual magazine compiled by students in Art New Media 358 and 359 as well as students in English Creative Writing 450 that features artwork created by stu-dents around campus.

Betty Nelsen, a former profes-sor on campus who has assisted the student-run magazine since 2005, spoke about the process selection which allows for two days set aside during the spring semester for students to enter as many as five pieces of art for a spot in the magazine.

“We have photo stations in the Kaneko Gallery for 2-D and 3-D artwork and at the end of those two days all the photographic work is collected and renamed and then the rest of the semes-ter the job of the class is to se-lect somewhere between 70-100 pieces of artwork that will be sent forward to the design class in the fall,” said Nelsen.

Production of the AR Review is split into three courses: ARTNM 358 and 359, which deal with the

overall design of the magazine, and ENGCW 450, which handles the editing and selection of sub-mitted pieces.

Professor Michael Spurgeon, an English teacher on campus, teach-es the ENGCW 450 course this semester where students also cri-tique the works of art that have a possibility of being published for the AR Review.

When Spurgeon was asked what the AR Review meant to the student body he said, “It pro-vides a showcase for the creative talents of American River College students so it provides a place for students to share their work and be recognized.”

Spurgeon added, “American River College is an exceptional California community college and is widely recognized as such, but there really are only a handful of programs on campus that have national prestige, and the Ameri-can River Review is one of those programs.”

Thomas Smith, editor in chief of the magazine, agreed with Spur-geon when he said, “I think it’s great to have like this professional level of publication here on cam-

pus because it really gives both us as the staff and the students of the college this opportunity to experi-ence both what its like to actually submit to a publication, what its like to run a publication and what its like to see this incredible body of work put together by students.”

One of many artists being con-sidered for the final magazine is Betsy Harper. Harper has previ-ously submitted three poems for this year’s AR Review.

“I used to be with the literary magazine - I just got done with four semesters sitting in these chairs so this is very cool to be on the other side,” said Harper.

Although the AR Review is mostly conducted by students, it is the teacher’s job to oversee the process and give his or her input.

Said Nelsen about her job of as-sisting students in the production of the magazine, “All the faculty, both in English and art new me-dia, we really have felt that our role is to be an advisor and we create a container in which we can get the get the stuff done, but the students are doing virtually all of the work.”

Nelsen added, “We look over

the shoulder and go, ‘think about this, think about that’.”

Spurgeon is proud of the work done by all the students involved with the AR Review as well as the positivity the magazine reflects upon the campus as a whole.

“Anytime you can make a col-lege more well known both on a local level and on a national level it brings prestige to everybody who attends that college not just the people that are involved with the magazine.”

Miranda Bolar/ [email protected] Michael Spurgeon introduces his class to Betsy Harper, who was beginning the critique process for the American River Review.

DEADLINE FOR ITEMS TO POTENTIALLY BE PUBLISHED IN THE AWARD WINNING MAGAZINE WAS MARCH 6

By Alexander [email protected]

Vocational training classes of-fered on campus allow students to work hands-on in fields they are interested in.

PREAP 111, an eight week, introductory-level course, cov-ers various aspects of commer-cial and industrial infrastructure construction work in five appren-ticeship areas: carpentry, sheet metal, drywall and lather, electri-cal and ironwork.

Students learn about work-place safety and various materi-als including power tools. The knowledge that they gain is ap-plied during the lab portion of the class.

Students participate in activi-ties such as shoveling gravel, cut-ting wood, tying construction knots, practicing on an excavator simulator as well as on an actual small crane donated to the pro-gram by ARC’s diesel technology department.

Earlier in the semester, pro-fessor Stoker’s students in the PREAP 111 class made their own

tool boxes, painting and decorat-ing them as they wish.

Welding Technology major, Amber Johnson found the class to be an enjoyable experience where she was able to learn a lot.

“The hands-on, the lab, the playing with the tools,” said John-son when asked what she enjoyed the most about the class.

Anthony Andrews, a construc-tion major also spoke highly of the course.

“It’s great. You get to learn some things,” said Andrews.

Andrews went on to say that he is taking this class, “to be more valuable in the workforce,” and that the class teaches the skills he needs to have so that he opens his own business.

Stoker makes his class fun and will help students get the re-quired material.

Said Andrews of the pre-ap-prentice professor, “Rick takes time with you to show how it’s done.”

By taking PREAP 111, students have an opportunity to work in their desired careers and receive feedback from their instructor and peers in order to improve

their craft. When asked what he wanted

students to walk away from his class with Stoker said, “Con-fidence. Confidence that they know what their career goal is [in the industry].”

Knowledge of math (fractions, multiplication, division, etc.) is needed in the class because mea-suring and calculations are re-quired tasks in the field.

In addition to PREAP 111, other classes are available in the

vocational program that cover residential construction and offer other choices of professions.

“We give them (students) expo-sure to as many different trades as possible,” Stoker said about the programs available.


Former Unabomber suspect, William Vollmann, made a guest appearance at American River College to talk about his non-fiction novel “Poor People”.

Vollmann is an American novelist, jour-nalist, war correspondent, short story writer, and essayist.

Christian Kiefer, an English professor at ARC and good friend of Vollmann, asked him to come out and speak from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. last month in Raef Hall room 161.

The book that led to Vollmann being a suspect in the Unabomber case is entitled “Fathers and Crows”, the second novel in a seven-book series called “Seven Dreams: A Book of North American Landscapes”.

“Fathers and Crows” delves into the relationship between French-Jesuit mis-sionaries in New France (Canada) and the Huron and Iroquois people in Canada and present-day New York state.

“Someone denounced me for ‘Fathers and Crows’ - apparently in the novel I was too sympathetic toward terrorism even though the novel was written in a time pe-riod before the United States was created,” said Vollmann.

Having the history of being a suspect for the Unabomber case on his permanent re-cord “makes it easier for me to be brave,” said Vollmann.

The students who attended the informal question and answer seminar asked Voll-mann about his inspiration and reasons for writing “Poor People”.

Said Vollmann, “I was interested in ask-ing, ‘Why are you poor?’ and the answers varied from region to region. Thai cleaning ladies said they were bad people in a pre-vious life while women from Mexico and Columbia said it was because the rich had stolen from them.”

Vollmann expanded on a few of his other novels as well.

In the novel “Rising Up and Rising Down: Some Thoughts on Violence, Freedom and Urgent Means” Vollmann examined the causes and effects of violence.

Vollmann used his reporting experience from places such as Somalia, Cambodia

and Iraq as inspiration and knowledge to write the novel.

Vollmann told of many personal ac-counts, including the time two of his friends were killed by snipers.

“I felt really sorry for my friends, but we chose to be there and we took the risk. But the people who don’t choose to be there I have to feel more sorry for,” said Vollmann.

When a student asked whether or not he would choose life or death if asked to join a terrorist group Vollmann said, “I would certainly rather die than do harm, but if I could pretend to do harm then escape that’d be ideal.”

Said Kiefer of Vollmann’s work, “He’s maybe the greatest living American novel-ist.”

American River College student and

early childhood education major Natalie Tucker has also enjoyed works of Voll-mann’s.

“I became so engulfed in his book (Poor People) that I looked up one day and re-alized I was thirty minutes late for class,”

SceneMarch 11, 2015

TAKETHISCLASS

Alex Panasenko/ [email protected] Stoker shows power saw operations in an Infrastructure Pre-Apprenticeship 111 class on Feb. 18. PREAP 111 covers aspects of commercial and industrial infrastructure construction.

Unabomber suspect turned novelistDURING SPEECH AT ARC, ‘GREATIST LIVING AMERICAN AUTHOR’ DISCUSSED HIS CAREER AND HIS NEWEST BOOK

Cheyenne Drury / [email protected] Vollman, second to right, came to talk at ARC about his new novel last month. He is a good friend of English professor Christian Kiefer.

PREAP 111:Infrastructure Pre-Apprenticeship

Opinion March 11, 2015

Students need to get more involved outside of their classroomsBy Jose [email protected]

When individuals are enrolled in college, it seems their focus is only on completing their classes and heading straight back home.

Why is this, one may ask? Nu-merous explanations arise, in-cluding the lack of available time to commit to extracurricular cam-pus activities and students being oblivious to these same activities occurring in the first place.

At the end of the day, students have a choice in how to spend their time, and as recent stud-ies have revealed, they have the time to commit to ARC and truly expand on the knowledge they gain from the classroom outside of the typical lecture, assignment, and test.

“The only resources I use are the ones the library offers. I don’t have the time in my schedule to find out about any other resourc-es or activities our campus has to offer,” said Diamante Robles, a current ARC student and busi-ness majors.

The argument that a student cannot allocate the appropriate time to invest in their campus stands on weak water when sev-eral factors are acknowledged.

College students on average spend 3.6 hours a day on their cell phones and smartphones alone, according to the latest Colle Explorer study from re:fuel, a leading media and promotions firm.

More importantly, they spend approximately three to five hours on social networking – daily.

The stark reality is that, while things like children, jobs, and marital and social obligations can and often do get in the way of investing further time into the college campus, accountability is what is truly missing.

According to the Education Department’s Integrated Postsec-ondary Education Data System, or Ipeds for short, only 50 out of the more than 580 public four-year institutions report on-time graduation rates at or above 50 percent for their first-time, full-time students.

At some point, students have to look in the mirror and really ask themselves how serious they are taking their college education, and more importantly, how much they may be neglecting the col-

lege experience.“They [students] don’t get in-

volved … if they had something to look forward to when coming, they would,” said Frankie John-son, who is the Student Person-nel Assistant at the Center for Leadership and Development on campus.

“They believe getting involved will take up too much of their time - you have to be willing to commit yourself to something,” she added.

Is there a lack of club activities on campus that might be contrib-uting to this mindset that seems to plague the student populace? On further review, this is not the case, and student apathy remains a prime culprit for blame.

A quick look at the ARC active clubs list online currently shows a whopping 55 clubs currently active, with clubs ranging from video game interests and veg-etarian lifestyles to political party affiliations and religious beliefs.

Think about it - you could share your love for the tenants of Bud-dha while enjoying the exchange of other students who follow the parables of Jesus Christ - even in the same day.

Although time is always a con-flict and one asset students will never be able to buy, making the effort to pass up on more time-wasting activities that don’t lead to anything productive and in-vesting that time into campus participation shouldn’t be seen as a hindrance or annoyance – the experiences make it worthwhile.

Even if students are busy throughout the week, ARC con-sistently holds a range of events on campus.

Yes, even on weekends. Next Friday, Blues for Mister

Charlie, an ARC play directed by Sam Williams and based off of James Baldwin’s original 1960s play of the same name, is set to premiere at the Fine and Applied Arts theatre at 8:00 PM.

The story centers around a black man who is a former junkie and, upon his return to his south-ern town of origin, is killed by a poor, illiterate white man.

The entire setup, from the mur-der and eulogy to the trial and acquittal are presented through dramatic music and acting, with the fury and passion that have made plays a cornerstone of the ARC theatre performances.

CURRENTEDITORIAL SHOCK AND AWE‘BLUES FOR MR. CHARLIE’ IS JUSTIFIED IN BRINGING SENSITIVE SUBJECTS TO LIGHT, REGARDLESS OF REACTION

Cameron Weaver/ [email protected] Theatres on Greenback is the closest thing near ARC that offers any semblance of entertainment.

ARC has the culture, now it has to branch out it’s surroundingsBy Kameron [email protected]

Think about how you get to class every day. Do you drive? Do you take the bus? Do you jaywalk across College Oak or Myrtle?

Now focus on what you see ev-ery day around American River College. Fast food places, gas sta-tions, stores and shops and not much else.

But there’s one thriving, living and breathing place that has all the activities and amenities that any person could desire.

Yep. Good old ARC.Culturally, the area around

ARC is barren. Besides the movie theater on Greenback, your next closest destinations for anything arts-based is in Arden, downtown Sacramento, or farther.

While those places aren’t nec-essarily far away, there are many ways that ARC can contend with them in general.

Do you like classical music, or have you been meaning to try and listen to it more? Go see one or more of any number of concerts that ARC’s music department puts on throughout the semester. There’s plenty more than classi-cal, too, including jazz, hip-hop, the Acoustic Cafe event and more.

Live theater is a cornerstone of creative expression in history as a whole, and it offers the audience experiences that television and

movies can’t replicate. It’s live, and you’re there.

Real, living, breathing actors on stage in front of you, performing scenes and songs they’ve been rehearsing for months — it’s ex-hilarating.

The dance department puts on performances throughout the year ranging from styles such as hip-hop, classical, ballet, and ev-erything in-between.

Last semester, ARC hosted the Urban Hip Hop Class Competi-tion, and invitational dance battle between groups from three sepa-rate Los Rios Colleges.

Sports are a huge part of Amer-ican culture. How many ARC stu-dents realize that all home games on campus are free for them?

In a school with 28,175 stu-dents currently enrolled as of Spring 2014, there could be a much more active presence cheering on our athletic teams, who are often quite good, with ARC’s football team being one of the top ranked amongst commu-nity colleges statewide leading up to the playoffs.

It is true, though, that ARC could be doing a better job to embrace their role as a cultural center for it’s own neighborhood. Some out-reach of any kind beyond just the campus doesn’t hurt at all.

There is plenty of on campus advertisement for the arts at ARC, but can these departments, or the Fine Arts department as a whole,

figure out a cohesive way to move these efforts past 4700 College Oak and out into the community?

While the endeavor could be-come costly, extending advertis-ing and outreach to other outlets and publications outside of ARC like local newspapers and broad-cast stations would go a long way in extending the outreach of ARC’s campus culture.

One can only imagine the in-creased enrollment of students and their involvement in campus activity if advertisements high-lighting ARC’s diverse campus culture were shown across the screens of Cinema 16 on Green-back before movie-goers indulge in their movies.

ARC seems committed or, at the very least, interested in expand-ing extracurricular events and ac-cess to them for students on cam-pus, but it hasn’t fully embraced outreaching to prospective stu-dents.

Enrollment and participation on campus could increase ten-fold if ARC could figure out a way to appeal to individuals who might not have entertained the thought of college initially, but find them-selves drawn into the lively cam-pus atmosphere that encourages expression and exploration.

So, next time you’re looking for something to do, do some digging on ARC’s website and find your-self something to do.

I guarantee you’ll have fun.

We tend to want to look away from things that make us uncomfortable.

Sometimes, however, something is so un-comfortable that we not only need to look, we shouldn’t be warned or miånce words.

American River College professor and theater director Sam Williams’ decision to provide a warning before the opening of the play “Blues for Mr. Charlie,” due to the fact that the N-word is used and harsh violence is represented, was the wrong decision.

Williams said he “dropped the ball” on not posting warning signs before the start of the play opening night. But did he? Or was the

original intent of this play to shock and af-fect people enough to make them think?

“Blues for Mr. Charlie” is loosely based on the murder of Emmett Till. Till was an African-American fourteen-year-old who was brutally beaten and murdered in Mis-sissippi in 1955 after allegedly whistling at a white woman.

The play was written by African-Ameri-can playwright James Baldwin at the height of the civil rights movement.

The N-word is arguably the most offen-sive word in the English language, but it has a place in history. It is a reminder that the

single biggest issue that has defined Ameri-ca’s history is race, bar none.

It is an offensive word; it is dehumanizing and wrong. Nobody knew that better than Baldwin, who dedicated the play to the fam-ilies of Till and Medgar Evers, a civil rights activist who was assassinated in 1963, the year before the premiere of “Blues for Mr. Charlie.”

Williams knows all of this. He often picks plays that deal with issues of race and equal-ity, such as Freedom, Hairspray and Domes-tic Crusaders. And he should be more eager to defend his artistic right to shock, and say

that he needn’t apologize for continuing a conversation that will always be necessary in the United States.

Sometimes we need to be offended. We need to see things that are dehumanizing and wrong. We need to see it unadulterated and without filters, without warnings.

Only then can these things move from vul-gar to affecting. Only then do these things make change.

“Blues for Mr. Charlie” is the type of art that is meant to make people think, and that is something that doesn’t require a warning or an apology.

Left: Takylya Johnson, a social science major on campus, breaks out in a sweat during her hip-hop performance. Johnson was all smiles while she danced for the audience. Right, kinesiology and sports medicine major Jonathan Healey performs an acrobatic feat during the hip-hop number. Healy used his flips and spins to show off his moves to the audience.

A group of dancers perform a swing number for the audience. The event was a College Hour meant to highlight the influences of African-American dance on all other dance types.

THE HEARTBEAT OF ALL DANCE

THE DANCE DEPARTMENT PRESENTS COLLEGE HOUR, ‘AFRICAN-AMERICAN INFLUENCE ON DANCE,’

IN HONOR OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH

Photos by Lena DoBynes

Adjunct professor of Kinesology Hanadi Alkhayyat belly dances for the African-American Influence on Dance event. Alkhayyat has taught the belly dancing class for two semesters at ARC.

ON THE WEB

Read the full story about the influence of African-American dance and it’s influence on all dance types

at our website,

arcurrent.com

volume 66, edition 9

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