Author: Laura Crowley

Jonestown Speaker

Laura Crowley

Prior to the 9/11 attacks, the Jonestown massacre held the record as the deadliest massacre in American history, with 909 fatalities in 1978. Despite this fact, it has received almost no attention in comparison with other tragedies. On April 3, journalist and writer Julia Scheeres discussed her new book “A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Jonestown” in her talk “Narrating Jonestown and the Peoples Temple.” This lecture was part of the spring lecture series, Jonestown: Reconsidered, that sheds light onto the tragedy that is brought to the University by the the Griot Institute for Africana Studies.

The Jonestown Massacre resulted after religious leader, Jim Jones, hoaxed hundreds of his church members into moving to Jonestown, Guyana to volunteer their services to locals and to live in an idyllic socialistic society that would be free from the malignant forces of race, class, gender and so forth. The good-doers were soon in trouble, as their charismatic leader, Jim Jones descended into madness and drug addiction, according to Scheeres. The volunteers were prohibited from leaving the intentional community of Jonestown and tortured to the point at which they agreed to suicide.

Scheeres was moved to write her book due to several parallels she saw between her life and the Jonestown story. Scheeres, who grew up in Indiana not far from Jones’ church, was sent to reform school in the Dominican Republic along with her adopted African-American brother. Both Scheeres and her brother experienced what she described as physical and psychological punishment.

Like the survivors of Jonestown, Scheeres struggles with demons from the past. Now an adult, Scheeres has moved to Berkley, Calif. in an effort to seek progressive thinkers like herself. While writing her book, Scheeres sought out several victims and witnessed how each survivor grapples differently with his past. One victim named Stanley is now in a mental hospital because, according to Scheeres, his present life fails to satisfy him as he experience in Jonestown, in which he sought to live in perfect socialistic harmony, as the “heyday” of his life.

In her book, Scheeres retells the story of five of the victims of the massacre, in an effort to present a humanistic view of the massacre. According to Scheeres, this approach “felt good” as she was finally able “to give these people a voice,” people who, she stressed, were not unlike you and me. Too many accounts of the story, she said, focus on Jim Jones and ignore the viewpoint of the hundreds of victims. Unlike other authors of the massacre, Scheeres described Jones as “boring.”

Additionally, Scheeres holds that too many accounts of the massacre view the event as a “mass-suicide” when it was really a “mass-murder.” The victims of the massacre didn’t simply “drink the kool-aid” as most people would argue. Rather, they were subjected to physical and psychological torture until they were so worn down that they consented to suicide. The victims of this massacre, Scheeres said, were not victims of themselves or of convoluted utopian thinking, but were strictly victims of Jones.

While members of the cult suspected Jones may not have been of such reputable character prior to the massacre, the members of the church in Indiana would “dismiss the quirky things he said because he would do so many good things for community.”

“A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Jonestown” presents us with a tale of suffering, manipulation, race and tragedy. The lecture series will continue on April 10 with “A Response from Students in the Jonestown Class” in the Terrace room at 7 p.m. and on April 17 with a lecture titled “Jonestown: Yesterday and Today” at 7 p.m. in Hunt Formal.  Stephan Jones, who is one of the children of Jim Jones, will host the latter event.

Choreographer’s Showcase Performance

By Laura Crowley

This weekend, students will perform dances that range from modern, jazz, tap, ballet, hip-hop and Irish dance in the annual Choreographer’s Showcase. This dance performance is directed by Samantha Gosnell ’13 and Catharine Cipolla ’14 and features dances choreographed by students and professors alike.

While professors do contribute to the performances, the event largely reflects students’ personal work.

“The Dance Department allows [dancers] to operate autonomously,” Elyas Deen ’13 said. “They allow us to explore concepts important to us. Yet efforts from other members of the community are still present, as alumni guest artists and dance faculty have contributed to the choreography.”

Choreographers were selected by members of the dance department: Associate Professors of Dance Kelly Knox and Er-Dong Hu, and Assistant Professor of Theatre & Dance Dustyn Martincich.

According to Cipolla, the dancers were selected in an audition that consisted of “a warm up, combinations across the floor and then a final short combination made up of a few phrases of dance.” In the end, students were asked to improvise in order to show off their personal styles. After watching the dancers, students of the Dance Composition class, the student choreographers and faculty members selected dancers. Dancers from the Bucknell Dance Company are not allowed to participate in the dances, yet they do comprise some of the choreographers.

“The dancers in the Dance Composition class have never choreographed at Bucknell before,” Cipolla said.

The novelties in the performance will bring “new ideas, themes and creativity to each of their dances” Deen said. The work that will be presented is a “kinesthetic representation of how we understand our world and relationships with others, from the joyous to the somber,” Deen said.

This representation is extended to costumes that were selected to best match the themes of each dance piece. According to Cipolla, the costumes vary by piece since each dance tells a different story.

“Each semester presents a unique experience because there are different dancers, different choreographers and different motives,” Cipolla said. 

The performance will be held in the Tustin Theatre tonight at 8 p.m. and tomorrow at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Tickets are $5 and may be purchased at the Box Office or at the door in cash.

Morgan Slade

Contributing Writer

Curator, to curate, curatorial. I was unfamiliar with this role, practice and verb until I delved deep into my art history major. In my field of study, it refers to the act of organizing, taking charge and pulling together works of art to create a finished product–an exhibition.

In the context of the University, it is something that every member of the class of 2013 has done during his or her four years here. Whatever your discipline, you have effectively navigated through this University with the ability to arrange all of these pieces into something that makes sense, that fits your curatorial taste.

This curatorial taste may have taken some time to develop–after all, the first exhibition is rarely the most coherent and successful.

Most of us came to campus in August 2009 as young and inexperienced curators. Maybe you didn’t get to choose your exhibition space. You wanted to show in the newly renovated, swanky halls of McDonnell or you preferred the more historic, cozy feel of Larison. Whatever the case, you made due; you familiarized yourself with the security guards (RAs), learned the lay of the land and organized the space with an arrangement of colorful new friends and acquaintances.

As you continued your work, you began to take on more responsibility by joining clubs and intramural teams, essentially committing yourself to a few more exhibitions a year. Some of us even chose to curate letters across our chests (i.e. joined a Greek organization).

Each year, we are promoted to a higher and higher position of responsibility, but at the same time, we assume a greater sense of independence, taking liberty in how and where we organized our lives.

While some continued to hone their skills on campus, others decided to travel their exhibitions abroad to Cape Town, London, Florence and China; some taking their colleagues along for the ride.

Soon enough, we become authorities in our fields. We know the ins-and-outs of each gallery and each object from the permanent collection.

Like any notable curator, we take from the world around us–our professors, our peers, the environment–but we still manage to make it our own. We also rely heavily on the curators that have assumed these roles before us: the alumni that have built this foundation and will continue to be mentors, familiar faces and symbols of achievement.

But like any exhibition, there is a duration. A time for enjoyment, to gather meaning from this specific composition of similar yet different components at this specific time in this specific location.

We will move onto the next exhibition, the unknown, and will leave behind the campus that we have molded and formed for the next set of curators.

The exhibition may be archived, but the individual works and artists that made them will travel to different cities like New York, Chicago, London or Hong Kong. Many will come back here to work, to reminisce and to visit children that follow in their footsteps; maybe soon and maybe 30 years from now.

The class of 2013 fits nicely into this plot of land in Lewisburg, Pa. The walls of this figurative gallery may be painted over, but the memory of our class will be forever imprinted in the audience’s eyes. Who curates? We do.

30 Minute Italian Wedding Soup

Per cup (no meatballs): 52 calories, 1g of fat, 9g of carbs, 2g of protein

Each Meatball: 15 calories, 0.5g of fat, 1g of carbs, 2g of protein

Makes 9 servings

Ingredients:

1/2 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 cup finely chopped carrots

1/2 cup finely chopped onion

1 cup finely chopped celery

2 Tbsp finely chopped garlic

4 cups (1 bunch) escarole

1/4 cup dried pearl barley

2 Tbsp parmesan

1/2 Tbsp oregano

1 tsp each rosemary and thyme

 

For the Meatballs:

1/2 pound 94 percent lean ground turkey

2 Tbsp parmesan

2 Tbsp Italian breadcrumbs

1 Tbsp minced onion

2 cloves minced garlic

1 egg white

1 Tbsp chopped fresh basil

 

Directions

1. Over medium heat, cook olive oil, carrots, onion, celery and garlic for five minutes until soft.

2. While vegetables are cooking, heat oven to 350 F. Mix together all meatball ingredients and roll into 30 mini meatballs. Bake 10-15 minutes until fully cooked.

3. Once vegetables are soft add 10-12 cups of water, escarole and spices. Let cook for 20 minutes then add barley and meatballs.

4. Finish cooking for five more minutes, stir in parmesan and enjoy!

Peterson Creek: the Platypus Place

By: Caroline Confort, Mackenzie Smith, Danielle Post

            Have you ever heard of mammals that lay eggs? They are called monotremes and there are only three species of these animals left in the world today. The best known of these three species is the platypus, found only in Australia. With webbed front feet, and a duck-like bill these animals have dark colored fur that is denser than a polar bear’s! Platypus are mostly nocturnal, sleeping in burrows during the day and swimming and foraging in the water at night. When they forage, they close their eyes, ears and nose relying only on their bill which has receptors to detect minute electrical signals from their prey. Typically they eat aquatic invertebrates and occasionally small fish and frogs. These characteristics make them well suited for their habitat of river banks and lake sides.

Unfortunately, natural predators are not the only threat to these monotremes. While they are considered to be common in Australia, platypus habitat is extremely vulnerable to human activity. Water pollution, river damming, and live stock grazing continue to pose serious threats to habitat. More specifically, live stock grazing causes run-off of fertilizers and animal feces into platypus habitat. The addition of these substances into the water can cause nutrient levels to rise disturbing to the natural ecosystem. However there is increasing evidence indicating that this rise in nutrient levels is not always detrimental to the platypus. This moderate increase supplies an excess of food for the invertebrates that platypus prey on, creating a steady and reliable food source. Certain fishing methods including yabbie (freshwater crayfish) traps have also affected populations in the past. Land clearing and bank erosion decrease vegetation within their habitats; a substantial amount of vegetation is necessary for the platypus to line its burrow to protect its eggs from flooding and predators. In addition, surrounding vegetation provides shade, cooler, well oxygenated water, increases prey populations, and creates burrowing opportunities within its roots.

Peterson Creek is a well known platypus habitat near the town of Yunguburra in the Atherton Tablelands of northeast Queensland, Australia. Though cleared for farming and agriculture in the early 1900’s, more recently a restoration project of the site began in 1998. Today the natural ecosystem as a whole is recovering successfully and its trails are frequented by hikers, runners, and platypus enthusiasts.

In order to assess platypus populations in Peterson Creek, we conducted a visual monitoring survey. Our group of 19 students with synchronized watches recorded any platypus sightings in a continuous portion of the creek that stretched 814 meters. The study took place over a period of 3 days for 4 hours total. 3 hours of data were collected in the early evening and 1 hour of data was collected in the early morning. For each platypus sighting we recorded the time of day, time spent above and below the waters surface, and direction the animal was traveling. This information is important because time spent under water usually means the platypus is foraging and dive times can be an indicator of ecosystem health. All data collected were also pooled and analyzed to determine the minimum number of individual animals seen.

In a study done by Milione and Harding, it was determined that relatively shallow, slow moving, water is preferred habitat for platypus. The sections of Peterson creek observed in our study consisted almost entirely of this ideal platypus habitat. By comparing data on the time of sightings and the direction each platypus was headed, we conservatively estimated the minimum number of platypus in the sample section of the creek to be 5 individuals. In a study done by Kruck it was determined that decreased dive time relates to high foraging success. A small ratio of time underwater to time on the surface indicates high prey density. In the study it was found that there was higher insect levels in the streams that experienced agricultural runoff, and these sites found platypus dive times to be the lowest. Our study found the average ratio of time spent underwater to time on the surface to be 4.49. This ratio is relatively low, indicating that platypus in Peterson Creek do not have much difficulty finding prey when foraging.

Our study demonstrates that Peterson Creek is a suitable habitat for platypus populations to thrive. As more studies are being done, more evidence is appearing that platypus are increasingly inhabiting areas that are affected by farming and urban runoff as compared to areas of natural undisturbed vegetation. This may be caused by increased sediment and nutrient runoff that increases food resources for the platypus in streams and lakes. More studies must be done to determine if there are any negative effects of high runoff levels, but for now the platypus are safe and will remain an Australian icon for years to come.

Australian director Cate Shortland’s second foray into feature film has produced the visceral “Lore.” The period piece is set in Germany immediately after the death of Hitler, and tells the story of a family of children traveling over 500 miles to reach safe haven in Hamburg.

“Lore” is short for Hannelore, the name of our heroine, a 14 year-old daughter of Nazi parents, suddenly forced into a role of adulthood. While she was a member of Hitler Youth, Lore’s father was deeply involved in the Final Solution, and her mother equally complicit. Before leaving for their own punishment, the parents warn Lore to remember who she is, an ominous enough beginning by itself, but heightened by the audience’s modern understanding of exactly how wrong everything is that Lore has been taught.

The film has a sort of fairy-tale superstructure: the parents are gone and a family of five children, one an infant, must travel by foot through the black forest to make it to grandmother’s house on the other side of the country. And, like any good fairy tale, there’s something rotted and evil at its core: a flailing country’s guilt and confusion over what has happened, what they have done and their uncertainty about what will happen next. Germany has been divided up by the Allies and there are borders to be crossed and guards to watch out for, and the children, we soon realize, are woefully unprepared.

Then, help arrives from the least likely quarter: a boy of little more than Lore’s age, called Thomas, steps in to prevent the family from disaster and becomes their new leader. The problem? Lore has seen his papers, which label him a Jew. As he provides again and again for her family, Lore is torn between gratitude to be relieved of so heavy a burden and the hate that she has been bred to harbor for him. Her confusion is compounded by her burgeoning sexual awareness, her conflicted hatred of his people and her own mounting desperation as food becomes scarcer and the journey seems never-ending.

The scenes of the countryside are very revealing, especially as we see them through the shocked eyes of Lore and the half-comprehending viewpoints of the younger siblings. One woman, who houses the children for a day speaks of the beloved fuehrer, and how “he loved us all so much.” Another group of disbelieving people discuss the “faked” pictures from the internment camps, a conversation some continue today. Bodies are discovered in empty buildings, full suitcases dropped the moment they could no longer be carried; it is a state of flux and still the children march on. They are forced to commit their own sorts of atrocities in the name of survival and after one particularly brutal scene, Lore asks Thomas “What have we done?” She means it immediately, of course, but that question hovers over the entire film, and continues to be asked in our own time.

Saskia Rosendahl, the newcomer playing Lore, delivers an interesting and compelling performance, effectively coupling rage and doubt in the moments where she is given dialogue to voice her character’s feelings. Most of her role is silent contemplation of her new discoveries or the explanations she gives her siblings for the things they have seen. Her beauty, even as their journey continues and the children grow more and more ill, seems pointed and poetic.

Shortland’s ending is unapologetic and unromantic, with little evidence that the characters have learned all the lessons we wanted them to. World War II period pieces abound, this is not the best or the worst of the lot. “Lore” is, as the title suggests, a story, it’s just not the one I was expecting.

“Bison Confessions” Deemed Not Entertaining Enough

By now, there isn’t a single University student and hardly an alumnus who has not heard of “Bison Confessions,” the Facebook page that allows members of the University community to anonymously confess, console and condemn. It has become the Jerry Springer or Maury Povich of campus, and students can’t get enough of it. In the wake of House Party Weekend 2013, it would appear that the need for a new, not-so-anonymous Facebook page has arisen. For this reason, Jerald Montagnais preparing to create “Bison Boasts,” a Facebook page that will allow students to let the University know exactly what juicy things they do and precisely who does them.

“I think it’s going to be a great success,” Montagna said. “The new page will address the biggest problem students have with ‘Bison Confessions’–the anonymity. We all know that #381 is a male in the class of 2014 and that he had a three-way on the roof of the library, but who is #381? How do we congratulate him? Who do we high-five? And when #407 says she’s gotten stoned in every academic building while wearing nothing but the head of the Bucky the Bison costume, we can only assume she is longing for us to know her identity.”

Indeed, it must be frustrating for #379 to have slept with  “at least one girl from each sorority” and received not even a single fist bump from his bros for his effort. Likewise, #327 must be upset that, while she “has a job after graduation because [she] majored in something useful,” those who remain jobless cannot applaud her and tell her how superior she is to them.

“Bison Boasts” will have another feature that “Bison Confessions” lacks. In addition to a name, each user’s room and mailbox number will be included. This way, commenters will also have the option of sending fan mail or leaving congratulatory bouquets outside the user’s door. Those that disapprove of a user’s actions/remarks will not be limited to bickering and name-calling as they are on “Bison Confessions.” Hate mail and bags of feces will now be options as well.

“I just want to optimize the amount of attention both users and commenters can generate for themselves while allowing them to do so in a venue void of anybody who has actual problems and/or advice to post,” Montagna said. “That’s the problem with ‘Bison Confessions.’ Its entertainment potential is hindered by the fact that some of its content is serious and should be respected. My page will cut straight to the good stuff.”

Trend Report: Spring Denim

By Kate Jansen

As winter slowly melts into spring, it’s time to shed leggings and sweats for this season’s latest denim trends.

White Denim: The old fashion proverb to not wear white pants after Labor Day does not apply this spring! White cropped skinny jeans are definitely a wardrobe must. Paired with patent heels, a flowy blouse, statement jewelry and a blazer, traditionally taboo jeans could look sophisticated and chic. For a more casual look, pair white denim with a simple V-neck tee and a menswear watch.

Printed Denim: Last fall’s sensation has hit major retailers again this spring. Printed denim is another wardrobe staple. They come in a variety of patterns and colors that are sure to revive your outfit. My favorite printed denim are polka dot shorts from Free People and pinstriped shorts from Madewell.

Distressed/Vintage Denim: Do you have a pair of ancient boyfriend jeans with a hole in the knee? Don’t throw them away–break them out this spring! Distressed, aged denim pants look great when paired with neon sandals and a neutral top. Cuff the bottoms of too-long pants to create a more unique look.

Denim Jackets: I am obsessed with my denim jacket. What I love the most about these jackets are their timelessness. I’ve had mine for five years and it hasn’t gone out of style. I love pairing denim jackets and vests with floral summer dresses. If you’re bold enough to pull off the denim-on-denim look, try pairing your jean jacket with printed denim.