Features – The Howler

LSC-Kingwood PTK’s Last Call-to-Action Against College Campus Sexual Assault

May 17, 2017

By Sam DeLeon, Perspective Photography Vice President and Gabrielle Moore, Editor-in-Chief

Guest assistant instructor Tricia Hicks (left) walks through a self defense maneuver with Lone Star College-Kingwood students Amy Jaramillo (middle) and Sayuri Hull (right) that helps them to break out of a strong hold by their wrists in Phi Theta Kappa-hosted self defense instruction on Apr. 25, Classroom Building A. Photo by Sam DeLeon.

One in five women are assaulted on college campuses. Lone Star College-Kingwood’s Phi Theta Kappa – Alpha Lambda Xi uncovered this fact in their Honors in Action (HIA) research project which focuses on sexual assault on college/university campuses.

As a way to bring their HIA project to a close on campus, PTK hosted a self defense instructive event on April 25 in the Teaching Theater (Room 114) of Classroom Building A which preceded a day before their Denim Day event involving participants to wear denim and a balloon release in support of sexual assault victims and as an act of protest against sexual assault.

“We hope that students will learn techniques on how to defend themselves in case they are ever assaulted,” Vice President of Scholarship Viridiana Gálvez said. “Most of our students will transfer to a university. We hope this [self defense instruction] will bring awareness to this issue.”

The instruction was led by a few guests from Khaos Gym in Porter, Texas, personal trainer and Brazilian jiu-jitsu purple belt Bruce McKinzie and his student and assistant instructor Tracie Hicks.

“I feel like preserving your life is important to be able to live,” McKinzie said. “So, what I teach about self-defense in classes like this is for people to go home…When you think ‘self-defense,’ you think hitting someone back, and my objective is to teach you how to get away and go home at night.”

Guest instructor Bruce McKinzie (left) coaches Lone Star College-Kingwood students Sayuri Hull (middle) and Amy Jaramillo (right) through a self defense technique to escape from a choke-hold in Phi Theta Kappa-hosted self defense instruction on Apr. 25, Classroom Building A. McKinzie recommends that people “sign up at your local jiu-jitsu school” for those seeking to strengthen their defense skills. Photo by Sam DeLeon.

Welcomed students and faculty acquired self defense techniques that are to help them escape unwanted or inappropriate grabs and holds by a potential assailant.

Second-year student Sayuri Hull found the experience to “be a really good opportunity to learn about something that’s really important.”

“I think that self defense needs to be something that everyone has a basic knowledge of because assaults happen so often,” Hull said.

First-year student Sarah Porter learns a self defense move employing her elbow in Phi Theta Kappa-hosted self defense instruction on Apr. 25, Classroom Building A. Photo by Sam DeLeon.

“I think I would feel more prepared [for a real-life situation].” Gálvez said. “At least I know some of the ways I could like get somebody off me, where before I would like just push, and that’s something they’re telling you not to do, so I know what not to do [as well].”

(From left) Phi Theta Kappa Executive Vice President Saul Vriones, PTK President Martin Perez, guest instructors Tricia Hicks and Bruce McKinzie, PTK Vice President of Scholarship Viridiana Gálvez, and Vice President of Fellowship Sonia Hackett, hosts of the self defense class on Apr. 25, Classroom Building A. Hackett hoped that this instruction “[helped] the student body here on campus, to learn a few techniques that’ll help them with possible attackers and help them get away.” Photo by Sam DeLeon.

If interested, here are a list of local places near and within Houston, Texas to attend a self defense class of various levels:

Khaos Gym
Mou Chuk – Martial Arts
Moy Tung Ving Tsun Kung Fu and Martial Arts Center
Elite Mixed Martial Arts
Legacy Martial Arts & Fitness
Elite Mixed Martial Arts – Houston
McCall Mixed Martial Arts
Team Tooke Mixed Martial Arts
Fight Back Fit
Krav Maga Houston
Lone Star Karate & Self Defense
Modern American Warrior
Gracie Barra Champions
Asian Arts & Health Center
Houston Wing Tsun & Escrima – Southwest
JDog’s PKKA
LX Jiu-Jitsu
Aikido at the Aikibudokan

Guest instructor Bruce McKinzie teaches a self defense move with the elbow to Lone Star College-Kingwood students Eric Platero and Sayuri Hull in Phi Theta Kappa-hosted self defense instruction on Apr. 25, Classroom Building A. “I’ve never really learned any self defense techniques before, so I did learn a lot,” Hull said. Photo by Sam DeLeon.

Women Writers Forgotten No More

April 25, 2017

By Michelle Lecumberry, Design Editor and Emily Slater, News Editor

Katerina Wagaman, interview courtesy

Women are a crucial part of history. Nevertheless, women are often forgotten even though they are usually the game changers.

Next semester, Lone Star College-Kingwood English Professor Joan McAninch Samuelson has a mission to bring back women’s’ writers who are often forgotten and left out of the narrative.

Samuelson said, “That’s what I want to show the students. They may think they know some famous women in history. They may not know that in their own time they were also known as brilliant writers, but that got lost due to prejudice.”

Samuelson’s English 2341 class is designed to empower women and teach them about their history. Students can sign up for the fall class now.

“I don’t want someone who’s just looking for a class…I want students who are interested, men and women…interested in literature…history…in women’s’ struggle,” Samuelson said.

Samuelson said the best Women’s Studies students are men. “ You don’t get the men involved in the marches if you yell at their faces. That’s what happened in the 70s and that’s why the movements lost ground with the men.”

The Women Writers course (ENGL 2341) will be offered during Fall 2017 on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 11:00-11:50 a.m.

Isabella Arguello, first-year student, said, “I want to major in creative writing and having a women’s writing class would be a really great experience for me and other women.”

Rose Koch, first-year student, said, “Knowing more about women writers is important.”

“I will be really interested in the women’s writing class because I think that women are often overlooked in terms of literature and that is really important to bring women to the spotlight to promote women into writing more,” Koch said.

This class includes literature from women such as Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, the Brontë sisters, Jane Austen, Elizabeth Barrett-Browning, Emily Dickinson, Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath, Isabel Allende, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Zora Neale Hurston, and more.

Cara Young, first-year student, said, “The class [Women Writers], to me as a woman writer, is meant to give names such as Hemingway and Hughes someone to stack up with. Ladies like Mary Shelley, Louisa May Alcott, and Maya Angelou deserve the respect their work inspired, and I’m happy to see someone taking an interest in it.”

Women writers using a man’s “nom de plume” is not outdated. J.K. Rowling, the writer of the Harry Potter novel series, used her initials because her publisher, Barry Cunningham, thought Harry Potter’s targeted young male audience might be put off by a book written by a woman. This phenomenon is nothing new. Charlotte Brontë, the writer of the classic novel Jane Eyre, had to publish her books as Currer Bell for her work to be taken seriously. Louisa May Alcott wrote gothic thrillers as A.M. Barnard, because that genre was considered “unladylike.”

“The class [Women Writers] helps women feel empowered and intelligent. It is a class that celebrates women’s’ excellence and changes and enhances the perception of writers in history,” Emory Aguilar, first-year student, said.

“New generations are born into equality and diversity, but [women] still have to fight some battles,” Samuelson said. “I need my students to understand, I’ve taught this class for years, but it’s never been more important than it is right now.”

To enroll in the class, students must have completed both English 1301 and 1302. The students interested must want to work with other people. It is both a history class and a writing class. Students read great works and then write about them. Aside from the the few essay assignments, students will also be required to keep a journal about their thoughts on their readings. Enrollment is now open.

Graphic design by Emory Aguilar.

When Books Talk Back

April 24, 2017

By Gabrielle Moore, Editor-in-Chief

Lone Star College-Kingwood student and employee Clayton Huff said “Everybody’s got a story, regardless of what color they are, where they’re from, what they’ve experienced in their life and you can learn a lot from different people’s stories.”

These stories are literally and figuratively brought to life in an annual program called Human Library, hosted by LSC-Kingwood’s non-partisan organization Center for Civic Engagement. Participatory individuals near and far are invited by active members (faculty and staff) of the program to tell their stories and provide informational perspectives and voices for the student-body, essentially as “human books,” as CCE refers to them.

Reaching its fourth year in the program, the Human Library was hosted on March 28 and March 29 in the Student Conference Center.

This program provides students an environment unfamiliar to them and exposes them to novel outlooks, ideas, and voices.

Every year, the human books selected come from characterized backgrounds and have individual stigmas of society that often marginalize and/or normalize their voices by either purposely suppressing or simply misunderstanding them.

Jennifer Boyd, a second-year student said, “I just went in for the grade not knowing that I would find out some interesting information, and it would open my mind to really think more on the issues.”

Second-year student Jennifer Boyd discusses “Alcoholics Anonymous” with participatory human book Cecilia M. on Mar. 29 in the Student Conference Center. After having discourse with the second human book she checked out, “Intersex”, she left the Human Library feeling “more aware” of realms that were once unfamiliar with her. Photo by Gabrielle Moore.

Boyd checked out two books during her visit in the Human Library: “Alcoholics Anonymous” and “Intersex.”

Through “Alcoholics Anonymous,” Boyd learned that the nonprofit organization “teaches people…how to help one another [without getting angry],…not making it a conflict and how to resolve issues when they arise and not try to change their person…to just let them be themselves and just be yourself.”

“Alcoholics Anonymous” was checked out by another couple of students–though with a different perspective and voice from Boyd’s human book–second-year students Michael Sodano and Jennifer Rickman, who found themselves–at first, feeling “awkward”–asking more questions than they could have preconceived of the experience.

“It was a lot like reading a book…but I thought this was almost better than a book because you get to ask them questions then and there; you don’t have to go Google,” Sodano said. “I felt like I got to learn a lot more than if I just read a book about dealing with alcoholism.”

Moreover, students started to open up their own books within themselves, as this was the case for second-year student Victoria Vargas who checked out the book “Do We Know What We Are Learning?”

Second-year student Victoria Vargas converses with Bradford Goodwin, the human book over “Do We Know What We Are Learning?” on Mar. 29 in the Student Conference Center. Although completely void of expectations of the Human Library experience, Vargas “wasn’t uncomfortable talking about the future…it’s life.” Photo by Gabrielle Moore.

“I felt very comfortable,” Vargas said. “Like, he started asking me about myself–my siblings, my family and all that, what I thought about doing in the next couple years, where I wanted to go.”

On the subject of her academic future, Vargas said that her human book left her with the advice to “always have something to fall back on” and “have it related to each other.”

As the program’s organizer for this year, Huff found that it “highly exemplifies what’s going on this campus” especially considering the “high majority of the same demographics” in the overall community.

“When you have a program like this, in an area like [Kingwood] with, essentially, one large demographic, you bring in all these demographics and all these different people and all these different religions and different ethnicities and nationalities, and different ideologies; I think it benefits that community as well, because these students here live in this community,” Huff said.

StarBursts: The Thing of Beauty and Creativity

April 24, 2017

By Hunter Llenos, Reporter

Quoted in the letter from the editors of the 2017 edition of the student literature and art magazine StarBursts, Leo Burnett once said, “Curiosity about life in all its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people.” That is what this student-led publication exhibits of and provides for the students of Lone Star College-Kingwood.

StarBursts started with humble beginnings in 2011, but because of no funding it was dropped, until English Professor Darlene Beaman who then became department chair decided she “did not want it to die”; thereby, reviving the publication in 2015 with the creation of a student editorial team within the StarBursts Creative Writing Club.

The cover of StarBursts 2017 edition. Photo by Gabrielle Moore. Click here or on the image to view the magazine online.

English Associate Professor Cindy Ross, the advisor of the StarBursts Creative Writing Club, says that a lot of the selected submissions made are “based on…the quality more so the writing.”

The student editorial team, which consists of StarBursts Creative Writing Club Editor-in-Chief Sydney Buck, Managing Editor Bay Berger, Co-Editor Amber Barfield, and Secretary Gabrielle Moore, works with Ross and co-adviser and English Professor Peter Feldman in meetings to review all submissions for the magazine. The team also works closely with Art Professor Mari Omori on the visual art selections to StarBursts.

“We have a wonderful student body here,” Ross said. “We haven’t faced [problems with censorship and inappropriateness of content] yet, even with the poetry–usually it’s really good quality, usually not politically charged; it’s nice expression. But we are looking for things like that when we choose.”

Regarding the future of the student organization, Ross envisions certain revisions to it that will, essentially, benefit both the students submitting their artworks and those working on the editorial team. She is looking to organize “editing events, and I am hoping that people would want to come to work on their own poems or their own short stories to have some time to get some feedback.”

The publication is currently located on the LSC-Kingwood website as well as available in hard copies. Although the magazine is meant for campus readers, the future of StarBursts relies on its ability to grow in ways that don’t limit the search-ability of certain publications, which English Professor Darlene Beaman hopes for StarBursts.

“Having it online I think is good, that way it’s more searchable, but I think it would be nice if the works inside the StarBursts were searchable,” Beaman said. “Right now if someone searched their name I don’t think it would show up so I think it would be very nice if it were searchable in that way.”

There is also means to get the word out more to students other than what has been used (i.e. fliers, Club Rush) to get more student involvement and accessibility.

The magazine–with the help of the visual art and creative writing faculty members–is centered around students showcase their published works of literature and art.

Second-year student Bay Berger reads a passage from her short story “The Before” during the StarBursts Reception in the Music Recital Hall, Apr. 4. Photo by Hunter Llenos.

On the evening of April 4, students, faculty, and their family and friends came together to celebrate the magazine and all the students published within it. Many of the published students got the chance to present their work on stage of the Music Recital Hall.

Stephen Garza, a student at LSC-Kingwood, published his work, “Almost Like Hope,” inspired by “the idea of someone trying to cope.”

The short story tells of a young widow learning to cope with the loss of her husband’s life. Within this life lesson, she tries finding ways of moving on until she comes upon a “chance encounter” that gives her that little hope she needs for the future, Garza said.

“I like to write about pain; it’s something that we all experience. We all experience things that are terrible, and through all that there’s still hope,” Garza said.

Cy’ria Walker, who published her artwork “Twin Trouble,” drew her inspiration from somewhere much her own. Walker said, “The objective of my piece was to find similarities between my sister and I, things we hate and things we love. So I decided to do the things we hate; washing dishes.”

“Twin Trouble” by first-year student Cy’ria Walker, published in Lone Star College-Kingwood’s StarBursts: 2017 edition.

An aspect that was refreshing was her take on what inspired her to center her work on things she hated. “I wanted to challenge myself, to create art out of something that wouldn’t normally inspire me. I started thinking about my art piece having a deeper meaning than just myself, so I combined the viewpoints of myself and my sister.”

Walker is currently working on two art pieces: “one is a conte piece focusing on the human form,” and the other is “a mixed medium to draw details of a car through the windows or mirrors.”

“StarBursts to me means a head start in my career, which ever I may choose. It is a chance to get my name out there quicker without having to jump through so many hoops,” Walker said. “StarBurst can give us the proper start we need to get our careers going.”

Magan Porter shared multiple photographic works in StarBursts. One of three of her published works can be found on the cover of the magazine titled “Alice in Wonderland.” The inspiration for this work came from “the idea that in this world of black and white she is looking for color and adventure,” Porter said. Porter finds that in wonderland, “this [is a] place of art, music, creativity, and color.”

“Alice in Wonderland” by first-year student Magan Porter featured in Lone Star College- Kingwood’s StarBurst Magazine: 2017 edition.

Regarding Porter’s other two works, “Reflection of The Soul” points to how what “we see in a mirror are different than what we see if someone showed us our soul,” and “Child’s Play” is similar in thought, but in the guise of innocence where children “color in a world of black and white.”

First-year student Magan Porter speaks on her piece “Child’s Play” in the Music Recital Hall during the StarBursts Reception on Apr. 4. Photo by Hunter Llenos.

For this magazine to show such appreciation to the students and their works is paramount to universities that strive to expand their students abilities in ways that also encourage them.

Jim Stubbs, Dean of Fire Science, Letters, Arts, and Kinesiology, and supporter of the StarBursts magazine, said that StarBursts provides him “the opportunity to really understand, level with our students” as well as “[give students] the chance to express themselves.”

Lone Star College-Kingwood students (left to right) Stephen Garza, Iris Varianti, Judith Kirkeeide, Kimberly Koltcz, Cy’ria Walker, Amber Barfield, Magan Porter, and Gabrielle Moore sign StarBursts magazines on Apr. 4 outside the Music Building. Photo by Hunter Llenos.

“I got the opportunity to put my work out there and that is an indescribable feeling that I can’t express in words, and as a student it gives us…[the opportunity] to share our passions and what we love, not only to share it with ourselves but all of Lone Star,” Porter said.

Rising Thrill

April 23, 2017

By Michelle Lecumberry, Design Editor

“Writing is the one profession that you don’t choose. It chooses you. It’s like an itch you have to scratch. You don’t have a choice.” -Stephen King

The Rising

Heather Graham is a New York Times bestselling author. Jon Land a bestselling author of 41 novels. They collaborated to create a book called the The Rising. On April 7, during the Bayou City Book Festival. The pair participated in Lone Star College’s Bayou City Book Festival with a panel discussion on their careers, and their novel, moderated by LSC-Kingwood English Professor Icess Fernandez.

Fernandez read the summary of this book as;

“Twenty-four hours. That’s all it takes for the lives of two young people to be changed forever.

Alex Chin has the world on a plate. A football hero and homecoming king with plenty of scholarship offers, his future looks bright. His tutor, Samantha Dixon, is preparing to graduate high school at the top of her class. She plans to turn her NASA internship into a career.

When a football accident lands Alex in the hospital, his world is turned upside down. His doctor is murdered. Then, his parents. Death seems to follow him wherever he goes, and now it’s after him.

Alex flees. He tells Samantha not to follow, but she became involved the moment she walked through his door and found Mr. and Mrs. Chin as they lay dying in their home. She cannot abandon the young man she loves. The two race desperately to stay ahead of Alex’s attackers long enough to figure out why they are hunting him in the first place. The answer lies with a secret buried deep in his past, a secret his parents died to protect. Alex always knew he was adopted, but he never knew the real reason his birth parents abandoned him. He never knew where he truly came from. Until now.”

The Rising by Heather Graham and Jon Land. Photo by Michelle Lecumberry.

Defining a thriller.

Land said, “I think every book is a thriller, as long as it keeps you turning the page. It is the book that you can’t put down.”

Graham said, “A thriller– It doesn’t matter what genre it is in as long as it keeps you interested,”

The Rising is defined as a Young Adult, thriller and Sci-fi. Graham defines her book as a Young Adult.

Starting a writing career.

Land said, “I’ll talk about book negative one, because we are in a college. I wrote my first book as a senior thesis independent study project at Brown University. When I went to college, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I fell in love with writing because with Brown’s curriculum I was able to explore something different. The book was not very good it was terrible but the fact that I finished it and I learned from that because before you can be a published author you have to finish a book that can’t be published.”

After having her third child, theater major Heather Graham had a typing machine that was missing the letter “e”. Once she began writing, Graham later had to fill in the letter “e” herself. Being in a desperate mood, she got published by the unexpected Harlequin Publisher.

(Left to right) Author Jon Land, English Professor Icess Fernandez and Author Heather Graham at The Rising Thrill panel during the Bayou City Book Festival in LSC-Kingwood. Apr 8 . Photo by Michelle Lecumberry

Top 7 Ways to Get to Finals Week

April 23, 2017

By Kirsten Fuller, Managing Editor

We are now riding the struggle bus for the next seven weeks to finals and we are all sporting “the struggle is real” written on our foreheads. No worries, I am about to give you the Top 7 Ways to Get to Finals Week!

Draw yourself a map– We all have the delightful syllabi all our professors have given us. The next part will be hard to swallow, but let’s use them to figure out how the heck we are going to organize our time. Not to mention, our schedules to not drowned in the six-page research papers, and the staple name “final project” of the Spring Semester.
Find a Seat– I will quote one of the great’s by saying that “Go to class. Do the Work. Get the Grade” is true. It starts with going to class even though we just realized that 8 am classes were not such a great idea.
Treat Yo self– Once you accomplish that paper, or an assignment, or even studying a chapter. Don’t forget you’re awesome, so let’s face it; you need a reward but ONLY if you finish a task… reading a sentence does not equal a 5 hour Netflix binge reward.
Big Picture . Some days are like “Don’t talk to me. I haven’t had coffee”. Nonetheless, let’s remember we are all about crossing the finish line. For some, it is graduation, others it is summer break, or it’s a two-week hiatus before summer and minimester starts. You will make it, don’t give up halfway through the race.
Apps are Friends not Food– there is a Self Control App that you can download on your Mac (possibly PC) and you can blacklist your weaknesses for the all well-known procrastination monster. There is a timer and you can’t access these websites until your timer runs out for allowing you to focus on your work. #amazeballs (I know!!)
Healthy Body and Mind– You would be surprised that what you eat and do in your spare time affects your energy levels. So, before you reach for those hot fries, think about how late you need to stay up to write 700 words.
Mrs. Teacher– Now would be the time to use office hours, conference hours and extra credit points that you can get. Hopefully, you know your professor’s name, that way when you ask to meet with them to edit an essay or look over their study guide you have cool points.

I hope these Top 7 ways find you well or at least breathing. Don’t worry guys, we are all in this together #HSM4life. If that doesn’t motivate you; remember that if you fail, you will have to take that class again. Let’s get real, if you didn’t like it the first time, then why take it a second time?

Illustration done by Keyla Lerma.

New York Times Best-selling Author, Ibram X. Kendi visits LSC-Kingwood as a guest speaker.

April 4, 2017

By Michelle Lecumberry, Design Editor

College is the time to be exposed to new ideas and learn more about the world. Students are the future workforce. They have an incredible amount of power to make a change around them.

“If you understand the past, maybe you can understand how to change the future,” said John Barr, U.S history professor.

Ibram X. Kendi is a New York best-selling author and National Book Award-winning historian. He came to LSC-Kingwood on March 9 to the Student Conference Center (SCC) to talk about his book, Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America.

“For students is a great opportunity for, one, to hear a great author, and two, hear about the racist ideas that have been part of our history,” Barr said.

Kendi speaks to the audience. On March 9 in the Student Conference Center.Photo by Michelle Reyes Lecumberry.

Angie Cervantes, an LSC-Kingwood Honors Students, introduced Kendi. She started her introduction by urging students to keep an open mind and saying that sometimes we must have uncomfortable conversations that are terrifying but help us move on as a society.

“Regardless of where you stand politically or socially, or where you stand on issues regarding race, we can all probably agree on the importance of dialogue,” Cervantes said.

Kendi tackles the notion that slavery and racist ideas were born and not cultivated in ignorance but rather cultivated by intelligence.

He defines intelligence by not just someone who knows a great deal, but on a person’s desire to learn and understand. Coincidentally, the ones with the desire to know are the most open minded and also possess the most ability to critique and reflect on their own ideas.

He said that he had yet to come across someone who is willing to admit that their ideas are racist.

Ibram continues to explain further, “no matter what they say, they say, ‘I am not a racist.’” What is interesting about that is that if you ask someone what a racist idea is, they don’t know how to define it.

Because of this lack of a definition, it allows people to claim that their ideas are not racist–
from slaveholders or people who mass incarcerate groups of people of color today by the millions.

Kendi defines racist ideas as “Any idea that suggests a racial group is superior or inferior
to another racial group in any way” and “Anti-racist ideas suggest that racial groups are equal.”

“In our society, we don’t say black people are inferior, but what people say is what is wrong with them. People don’t recognize that to say something is wrong from [with] a particular group is to say that something is inferior about them. ” Kendi said.

He uses this definition to search among the nation’s history and to chronicle its racist ideas, but more specifically to chronicle the impact of these ideas in the course of American history.

What racist ideas do is normalizes racial inequality.

Bigotry against any group causes us as a society to blame the people as opposed to questioning our own policies. Because we have been led to believe that there is something wrong with the people, we think that there is an actual hierarchy between racial groups.

This was done rather strategically. Kendi entered into his text assuming that people had come to racist conclusions because they were ignorant or that they were hateful. Then he realized in his research that that was not largely true.

Ibram X. Kendi’s book Stamped from the beginning. Photo by Michelle Lecumberry.

That idea inspired Kendi not only to write a book about racist ideas but to write a book about racist ideas showing how and why these ideas were developed and redeveloped, created and recreated over the course of American history.

He wants to explain the historic circumstances that allowed these ideas to emerge, and to figure out the motives that explain why an individual creates racist ideas.

“You cannot generalize a group of people based on the actions of one person,” said Kendi.

A Call to Reform U.S Foreign Policy

February 27, 2017

By Michelle Lecumberry, Design Editor

The Houston Foreign Policy Alliance speaks at Lone Star College-Kingwood to build support about reforming the U.S. Foreign Policy on February 14.

“The United States needs to start rejecting the role of [being the] police of the world and only use military force when absolutely necessary; only Congress can declare war,“ Allan Vogel said.

Ruby Wood, first year, said, “I am here because I hope they just state facts not based on opinions.”

Houston Foreign Policy Alliance members (left to right) Allan Vogel, Joe Marcinkowski, and Eric C. Botts speak at Lone Star College-Kingwood’s Music Building, room 101. Feb. 14. Photo by Michelle Lecumberry.

There were three speakers at the event, like Vogel who is a Libertarian, a veteran of the Vietnam War, and believes the foreign policy should go back to what the founding fathers intended and wrote about in the Constitution. Joe Marcinkowski, who used to work in the oil business and is a small business owner considers himself a Capitalist, and Socialist Eric C. Botts is an adjunct Professor at the University of St. Thomas who has no ideological belief and is interested in things working as he said. Various viewpoints were embodied in the speakers in order to deliver a neutral conference.

Botts explains the purpose of their visit by stating, “One of the reasons we are here is to reach the new generation.”

The conference starts by explaining what the foreign policy is of the United States. The main concern are the costs of the war for the U.S. First is the cost on the American people. One of the resolutions found on their website reads, “Whereas, American military personnel are being killed and wounded, and civilian casualties inflicted, in wars fought for purposes unrelated to America’s vital security interests, which the U.S. Government defines too
broadly.”

“The cost also takes a toll on taxpayers. Thousands of soldiers return home in need of special care,” explained Botts.

One of the transitions proposed on their website is, “Curtailing the bloated military budget, allowing resources to be redirected towards cutting the deficit, cutting taxes, investing in America, or any other use as Americans see fit.” Another transition proposes, “Rejecting the role of ‘policeman of the world’, ceasing military and covert intervention in the affairs of foreign countries, and using military force only when absolutely necessary to protect U.S. sovereignty, territory, and vital interests, narrowly defined.”

Vogel also said there is a need to reduce manpower.

“US military needs to reduce their installations around the world with new technology, we can replace the manpower,” Vogel said.

The Houston Foreign Policy Alliance stated that our generation is going to be the one affected by the cost of war. We need to be more politically active and express our voice to create a change.

(left to right) Allan Vogel, Joe Marcinkowski, and Eric C. Botts spoke at Lone Star College-Kingwood’s Music Building, room 101. Feb. 14. Photo by Michelle Lecumberry.

Words In The Woods

February 27, 2017

By Sam DeLeon, Photographer, Perspective Photography Vice President

Lone Star College-Kingwood’s Poetry and Songwriting club hosted an open Open Mic event for students and faculty to share an original poem, song, and/or cover song on Thursday, February 23.

Poetry and Songwriting club President Amber Barfield, third year, commences the Open Mic event, Feb. 23 at the Classroom Building A courtyard. Photo by Sam DeLeon.

Poetry and Songwriting club Vice President Zachary Cueller, third year, (left) performs his original song titled “Star” at Open Mic, Feb. 23, Classroom Building A courtyard. “Star” is a personal story about working on a relationship that was long distance, and for Cueller, still had a lot of “hope” in it. Through “Star”, and another piece he performed titled “Sympathy,” he had “[hoped] to see some smiles” in the crowd. The quote and nude model on Cueller’s guitar case (right) expresses how he feels performing, how he “feels vulnerable and exposed to the world.” Photos by Sam DeLeon.

English Professor Peter Feldman prepares to read his poem “The Imposter,” with two others to follow, at Open Mic, Feb. 23, Classroom Building A courtyard. “As humans, we are driven to share experiences because doing so helps us feel less isolated, less like we’re living only in our own heads,” Feldman said. “A shared experience is a validated experience.” Photo by Sam DeLeon.

Garrett Kneown-Keyes (left) performs an original song at Open Mic. Jacob Peterson, first year, (right) plays an instrumental song for the crowd. Peterson has a love for poetry, both writing and reading it, and decided to share one of his own titled “Suicidal Tendencies,” Feb. 23, Classroom Building A courtyard. Photos by Sam DeLeon.

Poetry and Songwriting club President Amber Barfield, third year, shares “what I believe life is” through her poem titled “Life’s Dear Message” at Open Mic, Feb. 23, Classroom Building A courtyard. Barfield often finds inspiration from church and every day life; “Sometimes I just go on nature walks and I get my inspiration from there,” Barfield says. Photo by Sam DeLeon.

English Professor and Poetry and Songwriting club sponsor Darlene Beaman speaks with student Fabio Canales about performing in Open Mic, Feb. 23, Classroom Building A courtyard. “It’s a joy to me to hear them and see them light up,” Beaman says. “I think that students need a voice, whether it is a poetic voice, a voice on the newspaper, a voice in a song, and this gives them a chance to share their work.” Photo by Sam DeLeon.

Fabio Canales performs an original poem for the first time on campus at Open Mic, Feb. 23, Classroom Building A courtyard. The one thing that Canales hope the audience got from his performance is “that they know that other people feel something just like them.” “Not everybody has all the answers, but we’re definitely here to listen to each other,” Canales says. Photo by Sam DeLeon.

Lone Star College-Kingwood Theater Department Continues to Honor the Female Playwright with “Goodnight Desdemona, Good morning Juliet”

February 27, 2017

By Gabrielle Moore, Editor in Chief

Lone Star College-Kingwood students rehearse a fight scene from Ann-Marie MacDonald’s “Goodnight Desdemona, Good morning Juliet”: Michael Pham (left) as Iago of “Othello” and Romeo of “Romeo and Juliet,” Katherine Espin (middle) as Desdemona of “Othello” and Ramona of “Romeo and Juliet,” and John Wayne Tingly (right) as Othello of “Othello”, Tybalt and Juliet’s Nurse of “Romeo and Juliet”, as well as Professor Claude Night of “Goodnight Desdemona, Good morning Juliet.” Photos by Taylor Robson.

Five Lone Star College-Kingwood theater students took on many forms in the multi-dimensional comedy of Ann-Marie MacDonald’s “Goodnight Desdemona, Good morning Juliet” this past week. Every actor played at least two characters, if not more, which contributed to how “challenging [the] script” was, according to the director of the play, Professor Kalliope Vlahos, who is also the technical director and designer of the theater department.

Another challenge of the script was the use of Shakespearean language. As the name of the play alludes, Shakespeare’s dramas Othello and Romeo and Juliet do appear in the play. In order to execute well not only the content but the characters themselves, “an immense amount of research [was] involved,” Vlahos said. The rehearsals themselves took over five weeks.

“We had to research various words and lines in the play, the variety of settings, proper props that we could then manipulate to fit within our dream world within this play, and time-period appropriate costuming,” Vlahos said.

The full cast and crew of “Goodnight Desdemona, Good morning Juliet” displayed outside of the Main Stage in the Performing Arts Center, Feb. 25. (Left) Stage manager Taylor Kenney, Michael Pham as Iago and Romeo, Alli Nauert as Constance and Scenic Design, photographer Taylor Robson; (middle) Assistant Stage Manager Joshua McElroy, Katherine Espin as Ramona and Desdemona, John Wayne Tingly as Othello, Tybalt, Professor Claude Night, and Juliet’s Nurse, Costume Designer Eric Skiles; (right) Assistant Costume Designer Marissa Mascolo, Lauren Koen as the student, soldier, and Juliet, Director, Lighting and Sound Designer Kalliope Vlahos. Headshots on display by Taylor Robson, Photos by Gabrielle Moore.

“Goodnight Desdemona, Good morning Juliet” follows English literature professor Constance Ledbelly on a subconscious journey from “modern day…to the worlds of Shakespeare,” Vlahos said. Based on Constance’s theory presented in her working dissertation, Othello and Romeo and Juliet were originally written as comedies when considering the archetype called “Wise Fool” to appear in the dramas, impeding their tragedies. Constance’s journey also involves the discovery of her true self.

Flier for Goodnight Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet. Courtesy of Lone Star College-Kingwood’s “Goodnight Desdemona, Good morning Juliet.”

“It is a great educational experience for the cast, each playing multiple roles,” Vlahos said. “The use and examination of popular Shakespeare play within this piece is also a great educational experience for our audience.”

This production of LSC-Kingwood’s theater department is the second in line of their 2016-2017 season of celebrating and honoring female playwrights. Following this production, Vlahos and theater Director Eric Skiles will put on LSC-Kingwood’s 11th annual Evening of Shorts, where the theater department opens the stage to LSC-Kingwood students to produce their own dramas for the campus. The Evening of Shorts will take place in April.

Category - Features