Students strolling through Dunn Meadow next week will find a challenge awaiting them -- they'll be asked to "get disoriented." \nThey'll find veggie burgers, punk rock and sex educators. They'll munch edamame and listen to political commentators and philosophers voice perspectives on a vast array of social issues. And they'll be forced to question their own thinking.\nChallenging students to "disorient themselves" Sept. 3-8, Disorientation 2001 will feature live bands, workshops, games and vegan meals. All events will be held in Dunn Meadow from noon to dusk.\nThe brainchild of student Jessica Williams, the event brings together community members, students and local businesses in an effort to raise awareness of social change. Williams, a member of anti-sweatshop group No Sweat!, envisioned an opportunity to make issues accessible to students who'd never been involved in activism.\nInspired by an activist manual circulated at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Williams enlisted the assistance of several community members and IU students to write a pamphlet with a similar message. Williams said she realized though Madison shoulders a fairly political reputation, an event discussing the issues outlined in their manual had never taken place.\nShe wasn't content with merely writing the manual to distribute; she wanted action.\n"Madison has the sort of community to allow them to distribute a manual and have an impact," Williams says. "We weren't sure if a manual would be well-received in the local context."\nShe began soliciting the support of No Sweat! members and other groups on campus and in Bloomington, slowly building the coalition to be the driving force behind Disorientation 2001. \nThe coalition includes local organizations such as Jobs with Justice, the Center for Sustainable Living, Secret Sailor Books and Straight Allys of the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Community, defining Williams' goal to "reach beyond campus." Members of the coalition have met weekly since May to write the event's manual, plan and raise funds.\nCompletely locally authored, the Disorientation manual discusses such topics as the history of civil disobedience and activism in Bloomington, tree-sits and urban sprawl and genetically modified food.\nUpon completing the manual, organizers brainstormed a list of local businesses to approach for financial backing. \nEmpowered by a summer in Mexico with the globalization program Women in Development, fundraising chairperson and student Allie Rosenblatt joined No Sweat! upon returning to campus. Disorientation serves as another outlet for her activist nature. She says coordinators wanted to enlist local support to raise consciousness about the benefits of supporting those companies.\n"When you support local business, you're supporting the income of local residents in Bloomington," Rosenblatt says. "The income is going to people in your town, not someone living elsewhere off the profit of the local community. Supporting local businesses keeps the economy strong."\nFundraisers originally planned to raise $5,000 -- a goal which proved too lofty as planners realized time was dwindling and summer was fast approaching. Many grants the group planned to apply for weren't accepting applications during the summer, so organizers agreed to stick with local bands and speakers in an effort to drive down costs.\nCoalition members and organizations will lead workshops during the week, including the GLBT-sponsored "Guess My Sexual Orientation Speaker's Panel."\nFeatured bands run the gamut from punk to pop to "spoken words bordering on hip-hop," Williams says. Organizers started by looking for music that catered specifically to Disorientation's message, but eventually expanded to encompass a more diverse spectrum of acts.\n "We think if the individuals playing support our ideas, Disorientation will provide an opportunity to showcase their individual message," Williams says. "That's part of what this is about -- meeting people and raising awareness of different ideas."\nLocal act rise over run is among the week's musical groups closely adhering to Disorientation's activist message.\nOriginally composed of lead vocalist Ian Phillips, drummer Ryan Davis and former bassist Justin Kirkwood, rise over run evolved out of Phillips' dorm room at the Collins Living-Learning Center, an atmosphere current bassist Shane Becker termed "incredibly crammed and intimate and fun." Phillips was also involved in a few other bands, one of which was putting together an album and touring in Europe. As a result, not much came of the band's early practice sessions. \nWhen Phillips eventually quit former band Horizon, he asked Becker and a few other high school buddies from Noblesville, Ind., to come play with him in a classroom at Collins-Edmundson.\nTheir first show was "pretty OK for a first try," but the band has definitely matured in the two years since, Becker says. Since adding Davis on guitar, the sound has grown much fuller, and the group's lyrics have matured also. \nCalling their sound "vegan straight-edge political pop funk," Becker says rise over run is committed to delivering an anarchist, activist and drug-free message.\n"We're not doing this to get big," Phillips writes on the group's Web site, www.tofu-equalslove.com/riseoverrun/. "You're not going to hear us on alternative corporate radio … we want to challenge people, to make them think, to start analyzing the world around the them. We want to build communities and start a place that's independent of marketing stratedgies, big business and macho posturing. We want lives inspired and impassioned, and if we can inspire one person to create something that inspires them as much as rise over run does to us, then our job is being done."\nPerformances by folk/pop musicians Robert Hoyt and David Rovics will cap off the week's events in a concert at 8 p.m. Saturday at the John Waldron Arts Center, 122 S. Walnut St. \nHoyt, a Paoli, Ind., native, specializes in modern folk music, while Rovics's style closely resembles pop/folk musician Ani DiFranco, Williams says. \nTickets will sell for $5 to $10 and can be ordered in advance at All Ears, 401 E. 10th St., and the Waldron all week.\nJeff Melton of Monroe County Green Party, a left-wing political party, also part of the Disorientation coalition, will be conducting a workshop on globalization with other members of the Green Party. He thinks the event is particularly well-timed as freshmen begin familiarizing themselves to IU and the surrounding community, a point Rosenblatt agrees with. She says Disorientation will provide students the impetus to become actively involved in a number of causes both local and national in scope.\nDisorientation will serve as an educational tool organizers hope will inspire students and community members to champion a cause, as students aren't always aware of issues on a global scale.\n"I didn't know to look for a group like No Sweat! until I'd been in Mexico and knew about the issues," Rosenblatt says. "Disorientation will give students the opportunity to learn about things and say, 'Okay, this is what interests me, and this is what I can do about it.'"\n\nDISORIENTATION SCHEDULE\nall events in Dunn Meadow unless otherwise noted
Monday, Sept. 3\n12:20-1:20 p.m. Death Penalty workshop \n1:25-2:15 p.m. Globalization workshop \n2:30-3:20 p.m. Reality Monopoly \n3:35-4:45 p.m. Bike Project workshop \n5-5:30 p.m. Free Dinner\n5:30-Dusk 'LABOR' DAY\n -Personal Experience Organization Maquiladoras-Mexican Sweatshops with Bennett Baumer\n -Workshop about labor and General Electric, Co. with Professor Purnima Bose\n -Sweatshop Fashion Show\n -Music: TBA
Tuesday, Sept. 4\n11:15-12:30 p.m. Bike Project Workshop \n1-2:15 p.m. Forest Issues Workshop\n2:30-3:45 p.m. Controlled Cocktail Consumption workshop \n4-5:15 p.m. Transgender workshop \n5:15-5:45 p.m. Free Dinner\n5:45-Dusk SEX AND GENDER\n -Guess My Sexual Orientation\n -The Poems of FAT GIRL with Jennifer Jackson\n -Music: Utopia Blue
Wednesday, Sept. 5\n12:20-1:20 p.m. Health/Food/Allergy/Digestion Workshop\n1:25-2:15 p.m. How to Use Government Statistics to Fight the Government\n1:30 p.m. Kinsey Institute Tour\n2:30-3:20 p.m. Safer Sexuality with Kelly McBride\n3:35-4:25 p.m. Preparing for S30 & Big Actions with Dave Agranov\n5-5:30 p.m. Free Dinner\n5:30-Dusk ENVIRONMENT\n -The Lorax Puppet Show\n -Stopping Urban Sprawl and Saving Green Space with Scott Wells\n -Guerilla Economics\n -Music: Robert Hoyt\n -Stopping Logging in Indiana State Forests Legislation with Sundee Earthheart
Thursday, Sept. 6\n1-2:15 p.m. Sweating in the Global Economy with No Sweat!\n1:30 p.m. Kinsey Institute Tour\n2:30-3:45 p.m. Activism 101\n4-5:15 p.m. Gender Bending\n5:15-5:45 p.m. Dinner\n5:45-Dusk COMMUNITY ACTION\n -PCUN-Oregon Farmworkers Union\n -I-69\n -Music: England Brothers
Friday, Sept. 7\n12:20-1:20 p.m. Students and Farmworkers\n1:25-2:15 p.m. Public Impressions of Activism/Activists\n1:30 p.m. Kinsey Institute Tour\n2:30-3:20 p.m. Intersex 101\n3:35-4:25 p.m. Men's Roles in Sexism and How Men are Effected by Sexism\n5-5:30 p.m. Dinner\n5:30-Dusk GLOBALIZATION\n -Female Speaker TBA\n -Music: Panapleaic Academy of Legionairs and Afronesis
Saturday, Sept. 8\n(Times TBA)\n-Burhan Elturan-Kurdish Issues\n-Death Penalty Workshop\n-Diversity Speakers\n-Music: Sabrosa Red, Echo 9, Jim Ansaodo, Sissies, rise over run and Marc Haggerty\n7-11 p.m. Robert Hoyt and David Rovics at the John Waldron Arts Center
