140 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
(04/09/09 4:25am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Thanks to Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity and a team of students, rap superstar Young Jeezy – as well as an “awesome surprise special guest” – will be added to the growing roster of artists to perform during this year’s Little 500 week.The concert event is presented and produced by seniors Jonathan Wolf and Daniel Kuniansky of Blue Ocean Productions and seniors Jehad Bittar and Zack Kranz of Revival Entertainment. The show will take place after the Women’s Race at 6 p.m. April 24 in the Sigma Alpha Mu parking lot, which the fraternity shares with Zeta Beta Tau. Proceeds of the production will go to benefit the Susan G. Koman Breast Cancer Foundation.Through his joint venture with Revival Entertainment, Wolf said he and partner Kuniansky had connections to Young Jeezy’s management. After presenting a Three 6 Mafia concert for Little 500 in 2007, things have really taken off for Blue Ocean, Wolf said. It toured cross-country doing shows at UCLA, the University of Arizona and the University of Georgia.Bittar said he hopes for Young Jeezy’s appearance to put Little 500 on the map as a cultural music festival in the vein of the annual South by Southwest music, film and interactive festival.“I think Jeezy’s appearance will be great for Little Five as a whole,” Bittar said. “I think it has really evolved into a legit music market. We hope, with the efforts of our groups, to see even bigger names here in the near future.”Kuniansky said the show will be larger than life and predicts it will run smoothly.“Security will definitely be better than DMX,” Wolf said. “And it will be much bigger than last year’s Yung Joc show.”Wolf said part of the appeal to the Young Jeezy concert will come from free giveaways and food.Kuniansky said once everything fell into place with Young Jeezy and his management, Blue Ocean and Revival came to Sigma Alpha Mu when looking for a venue.Abe Benson of the fraternity said he, along with Sigma Alpha Mu president Jeff Safferman, served as representatives for the fraternity when arranging the concert with Blue Ocean and Revival Entertainment.Benson said the Sigma Alpha Mu lot and house are great venues for large-scale events such as this, noting that the fraternity presented the Yung Joc concert last year. “All the guys are great to get this whole thing going,” he said. “Jeezy is a big name, and I think he’s gonna blow this campus away.”
(04/08/09 3:35am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>They live and grow on everything you touch, are always nearby and are found on anything you have regular contact with. And they are all around campus – in the dorms, in high-traffic areas like the Indiana Memorial Union and in student-athlete facilities such as Assembly Hall.Germs are inevitable, but preventive measures used to control the spread of germs and possible infection are what really counts, said Gary Chrzastowski, assistant director of facilities at the IMU.Chrzastowski said he manages functions of daily in-house maintenance and necessary renovations at the Union’s department of custodial operations. This includes disinfecting hard surfaces and regular restroom maintenance.“In a high-traffic area like the Union, it is hard to get everything all the time,” he said. “Therefore, all the frequently touched surfaces get paid special attention.”Chrzastowski said sanitation duties are conducted by staff for 21 hours every weekday. He said on weekends and conference periods, additional staff are employed to ensure cleanliness and sanitation for IU visitors.When it comes to where students live, constant sanitation can prove to be a challenge when students don’t clean up after themselves, said Steve Akers, associate director for environmental operations at Residential Programs and Services.“We focus on the bathrooms heavily because students brush their teeth in the sinks and take showers there,” Akers said. “In addition to emptying trash and cleaning toilets, we scrub the shower areas thoroughly once a week to remove built-up soap scum and body oils.”He said although the custodial staff spends a lot of time preparing for student arrival and departure to and from the dorms, nothing can prepare the staff for what is found when all the students are gone.“At the end of the year, students have the chance to give back, in a way, because whatever we find that can be used is donated to local charities,” Akers said. “We’ve collected everything from canned food to clothes with the tags still on ... to microwaves.”Akers said last year, students were particularly generous with what they left behind. He said that staff collected almost 30 24-foot truckloads of miscellaneous items and about 3,000 pounds of food items were collected to donate to Hoosier Hills Food Bank.And then there are the horrors of entering some rooms at the end of the year.“Sometimes a student’s hygiene may be particularly unpleasant,” he said. “You can go into a room and the odor hits you like a cloud. It’s like we need headgear to go in.”He said this used to be a big problem, but lately students tend to be more in tune with their personal hygiene because it is linked to health, which is tied to studies and academic performance.Chuck Crabb, assistant athletics director of facilities, said most student-athletes tend to understand this message.“Of course, the Red Lot could always be much cleaner after football games,” he said. “And sometimes when lockers are cleaned out at the end of the year, it’s like the students leaving are saying, ‘Thank you, Bloomington, for the past four or five years.’”Crabb said students and training staff, as well as Building Services at Physical Plant, all work together to provide a healthy and sanitary environment by mopping twice a day and immediately disinfecting any and all areas where athletes are located. He said one coach even makes players take turns cleaning and monitoring the locker rooms.Crabb said student-athletes tend to appreciate what’s been given to them.“Players may approach (their) teammates, and say, ‘Hey, I’ve gotta clean up after you,’” he said. “It’s the best kind of peer pressure. It promotes respect for those who have worked hard to keep things clean before you came.”
(04/08/09 3:33am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Junior Patrick Wilson said he wants to erase the stigma associated with picking up trash.“People see us and think that we are picking up trash by some forced hand, either because of a drinking ticket or otherwise,” Wilson said. “We’ve been doing this since we got back from spring break a couple weeks ago, and we want to make headway in providing a cleaner campus.”As public relations manager of the new student organization IU Campus Cleanup Club, Wilson wants to do just that.Freshman John Hageman, president and co-founder, said the organization got the idea of picking up trash around campus when he noticed a deterioration of the appeal and beauty of the campus. The group goes around different areas of campus and Bloomington from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturdays to pick up trash.“That was one the biggest reasons why I came here in the first place,” he said. “I remember me and my mom walking around and commenting on how beautiful the trees were.”Hageman said he became distressed by the garbage on the ground and random trash he saw in the Jordan River and decided to act to fix it.Wilson said another eyesore on Third Street motivated him to form a student group.“I was so disappointed that some frats and sororities right on Third Street have trash in their yards from parties,” he said. “There are such beautiful buildings and students should be held accountable in a way that is fun and interactive. We also wanted to be sure everyone is doing his or her part in keeping in with the prominence of the University.”Wilson said he supported Hageman’s decision to start a student group to help remedy the situation because he believes members of the Bloomington community have a duty to help out.“We come here for four years, or however long it takes us to get out,” Wilson said. “This is one of the most gorgeous campuses in the country. We can’t expect other people to get the work done, so we have to do it ourselves.”Hageman said that since this is a new group, anyone wanting a position of leadership or anyone with a fresh idea to contribute can participate.He said another idea he had would include an overall “beautification” of the campus that would involve canvassing for new picnic tables, community murals and legal graffiti areas that would allow community members to express themselves.The group wants to eventually include people from the Bloomington community.“People will walk by and say, ‘Hey, the mayor’s picking up trash, why can’t I?’” he said. “Even high school kids are welcome to help provide a cleaner Bloomington community. It would be another way to help out with the current green project initiative.”
(04/06/09 4:07am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Three positive HIV tests have been reported to the IU Health Center since July 2008, the highest number in 15 years, a health center official said. “It may seem like a small number out of thousands of people, but it means a lot,” said Kathryn Brown, a health educator at IU Health and Wellness. “Three is a large number for the IU Health Center considering that it is rare to get one case reported in a year’s time. In the last 15 years, there has not been such a number.”In 2008, 12 new cases of HIV were reported by Monroe County residents living with the disease, according the Indiana State Department of Health Web site.Senior Charise Heath stressed the importance of recognizing the prevalence of HIV. “On a campus like this, which has a lot of students who are upper-middle class, there can be a stigma about acknowledging HIV,” Heath said. “It seems like a distant thing to most people.”Heath said the reason why HIV is so distant for many people could be because of the media and their tendency to report discrepancies of information concerning HIV.“It’s important to realize that anyone can get HIV,” sophomore Maria Rasche said. “You have to get tested.”Sophomore Adeel Chaudhry, co-director of the IU chapter of Student Global AIDS Campaign, said he encourages students to get tested because HIV cases are on the rise.He said he has read articles about an increase in cases in some of the United States’ largest metropolitan areas.“I think the fact that HIV/AIDS is on the rise in major cities means that people should be concerned,” she said. “People are becoming more aware of the need to get tested and look for available options.”Penny Caudill, administrator of the Monroe County Health Department, said it is important for students to know their options when it comes to being tested and treated.The Monroe County Health Department offers confidential STD screenings that include HIV, gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis for $15. The price also includes treatment, confidential partner follow-up and referral. The screenings take place Tuesdays beginning in April from 11:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. in the Futures Family Health Clinic located at 338 S. Walnut St.Patients can meet with a clinician or nurse practitioner if they test positive or experience any painful symptoms that show signs of STD infection.Lacy Hazelgrove, disease intervention specialist of the Monroe County Health Department, said statistics reported to the Monroe County Health Department show that as of 2007, 76.3 percent of all gonorrhea cases and 83.7 percent of all chlamydia cases belong to the 15 to 24 age group.“While these people may not necessarily be students, these statistics should be relevant to the IU community,” Hazelgrove said.Junior Dannielle Grayer said that to promote safer habits among students, there should be more advertising on campus.“A greater outreach to students may encourage them to do the right thing for themselves,” Grayer said.Sophomore Sean Buckner said that people should get tested regardless of age, race and statistics.“There should be a lot of publicity for a large event on campus,” he said.Caudill encourages anyone interested in being tested to schedule appointments so that they can be treated.“The 15 to 24 age group is consistently the highest at-risk group,” Caudill said. “If you are protecting yourself, then you can avoid infection. If you are having unprotected sex and experiencing symptoms, you may be at risk for infection.”Chaudhry said he would suggest consulting Positive Link, which does testing for free, and for students interested in statistical information and facts about HIV and AIDS should consider going to the Center for Sexual Health Promotion.
(04/06/09 2:06am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The second MOSAIC Diversity Film Festival, in conjunction with the opening of the Bloomington Community Farmers’ Market, premiered Saturday at City Hall and marked 25 years of Diversity Theatre. The topics of the films shown during the festival included aging, disability and race issues.One of the films discussing disability, “We Are Phamaly,” was about a group of physically handicapped actors putting on a production of “Once upon a Mattress,” and another, “John and Michael,” dealt with homosexuality, Down’s Syndrome and the intimacy of same-sex relationships.“Phoenix Dance,” also shown at the festival, was about a dancer named Homer who lost a leg because of cancer. “As I started to get out of bed with one leg and out on my own, I started to embrace the dance of life,” he said in the film. “Who you truly are is forced to come forth when obstacles or challenges are had.”This philosophy continued with the films about aging. One in particular, “Prescription for Time,” focused on an older black woman who was experiencing dementia and received false hope from a drug advertisement that claimed to extend life for 15 years. After the films, Phil Stafford of the Indiana Institute on Disability and Community led a discussion in which he talked about the perceived dangers that come with aging.“We tend to fear a decline in independence and a sense of decrepitude creep upon us as we age,” he said. “If you were in this woman’s position, what would you do with 15 extra years?”The last group of films displayed issues of race and isolation through people who dealt with homelessness, illegal immigration and depression. “La Americana” was a film about an illegal immigrant named Carmen who left Bolivia to find work in the United States to provide a better life for her ailing daughter. She then went back to Bolivia after the Bush administration refused to grant immigrant amnesty. After the film, there was a discussion on immigration policies facilitated by Christie Popp, staff attorney with the Immigrants and Language Rights Center of Indiana Legal Services.“The way laws are now, it’s impossible for immigrants seeking a better life to come to the United States even if they just want to work,” Popp said. “People like Carmen have situations that seem impossible because of the restrictions set by the government.”Sarah Combellick-Bidney said she was at the Farmers’ Market and came to the festival later in the day to see the films. “This is great,” she said. “The festival is putting a human face on what people are going through. I think students need to know about stuff like this happening in their world and in their communities.”For festival-goer Jordan Shifriss, a real connection to the human struggle is important in understanding issues within diversity.“This is all about being connected to life, living life to the fullest, whether you have one leg, are blind or getting old,” he said.
(04/06/09 2:05am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Bloomington Argentine Tango Organization and IU Tango Club were host to “A Night at the Milonga” on Saturday with premier Tango instructor Florencia Taccetti.The Milonga served as the dance that concluded a weekend of Tango instruction from Taccetti that brought people from all over, including Purdue’s Tango Club. Taccetti teaches at the University of Minnesota, where she started the tango dance program. She travels all over the country teaching the social dance at festivals. She said she started the Austin Spring Tango Festival, where she emphasized the idea of changing partners to enhance performance and social interaction.Sofya Zemlyanova, from the Purdue Tango Club, said she was excited to come to the Milonga because of her “addiction” to tango and to meet Taccetti. She said her addiction began at a Russian party on a New Year’s Eve three years ago. “Once I saw the dance and heard the music, I went to the tango club meetings at Purdue, and I just thought it was beautiful,” she said. “It’s a social dance. It makes you feel good.”Athanassios Strigas, a sports business professor from Indiana State University and member of the Bloomington Argentine Tango Organization, said he had only been dancing the tango for eight weeks, but he was very impressed with the social aspect of the dance.“Many modern forms of dance look very individualistic,” he said. “Everything is very much inside the body and alone. In tango, you have to connect with your partner.”Taccetti said dancing in general should not be about isolation.“No matter where you come from in life, you have to make dance and the expression of it personal and real to you,” she said. “It’s not about being pretty and having an excuse to wear a nice dress and shoes. It’s about feeling something and comfort.”Taccetti said when it comes to interacting with your partner, you have to listen.“Dancing the tango, especially, is just like training in relationships,” she said. “There’s a lot of equal give and take. Give yourself to your partner, and the rest is simple.”The Milonga, to the dancers present at the tango, stressed socializing and intimacy. “You don’t have to be afraid to approach people and ask them to dance,” Strigas said. “It’s a very friendly atmosphere.”Taccetti said you do have to keep in mind that when you’re asking someone to dance, proper etiquette usually requires a dance of three or four songs where you can vary your movement, choosing to lead or follow with your partner in the dance, in time to the music. “The beauty comes from dancing socially,” she said. “It’s like any other party, where you need the good music to bring out the best in dancers so that they are really expressing themselves.”Bloomington Argentine Tango Organization member Cheryl Sweeney said being comfortable enough to express yourself by dancing tango takes a lot of time and commitment. “I heard this on NPR – an Argentine tanguero said it takes a lifetime and a half to learn all the ins and outs of tango,” she said.
(04/03/09 3:38am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In conjunction with the opening of the Bloomington Community Farmers’ Market, Diversity Theatre will celebrate its 25th year with its second MOSAIC Diversity Film Festival. The festival is free and open to the public and will be held at City Hall downtown Saturday and April 11. Free refreshments will be served.MOSAIC Diversity Film Festival consists of various short films for adults and children addressing the issues of disability, aging, race and ethnicity. Films will be shown each day from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., according to a press release. “The idea is to present a bunch of short films to the public so that they can take a second look at categories that divide us and become more familiar with people,” said Craig Brenner, special projects coordinator with the Community and Family Resources Department.Brenner said he collaborates with the city and with volunteers to help fund projects like the MOSAIC Diversity Film Festival for Diversity Theatre.“I think groups like Diversity Theatre are important to support because they involve the community in issues that some would turn a blind eye to,” he said.Audrey Heller, artistic director for Diversity Theatre, said the group was founded in 1984 by a few people who had, or worked with people who had, disabilities. “We did theater pieces that specifically pointed toward disability issues, and then we decided to expand and do other subjects of social importance,” she said. Heller said this open-minded attitude eventually led to the creation of the first MOSAIC Film Festival in 2007. “We think it will be great to open this year along with the Farmer’s Market, so we hope to lure people from there to City Hall and look at films that speak to the community,” she said. This year’s festival also includes a screening of “The Cats of Mirikitani” at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Cinemat. General admission is $3. Brenner said the film focuses on an 80-year-old who survives World War II internment camps and whose life was threatened in 9/11.Heller said what makes this year’s festival special is that students who intern with Diversity Theatre got involved. She said there are also a lot of campus and community sponsors for the event.For a complete list of sponsors for this event as well as the MOSAIC Diversity Film Festival schedule, visit http://www.bloomington.in.gov/mosaic. Specific films are for adults and for children; films for adults will be shown in the Council Chambers of City Hall and films for children will be shown in the McCloskey Room.“There is a voice from campus that will permeate this particular festival because of student involvement,” she said. “We’re really excited for the turnout. It should be an all-inclusive community and campus event.”
(04/02/09 4:57am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Arjia Rinpoche escaped from what he called a “political asylum” in Tibet in 1998. Since 2006, he has been in Bloomington promoting Buddhist teachings, educating the community about Tibetan and Mongolian cultural events, and telling his life story to those who will listen. On Wednesday, Rinpoche shared his story with students in Swain Hall East. He said his life is the inspiration for an upcoming memoir.Rinpoche was recognized as the incarnation of the father of Lama Tsong Khapa, the great thirteenth-century Buddhist reformer, and as such became the Abbot of Kumbum Monastery in eastern Tibet.He said his eventual move to Bloomington began in 1958 at age seven when the Chinese Communist government had a political campaign called “The Great Leap Forward.”“My teachers, my tutors and people who taught me all I know about Buddhism were arrested,” Rinpoche said. “Monks were de-robed and became social workers and coal miners.”He said the Dalai Lama, whom he met for the first time in 1954, escaped from Tibet in the 1960s when issues with the government weren’t getting better. He said he worked under the Panchen Lama, who was denounced by the Chinese government for being “contra-revolutionary.”Rinpoche said he worked with the Kumbum Monastery in eastern Tibet and promoted spiritual leadership until 1998. He then fled to a Chinese airport and flew to New York where he met the Dalai Lama once again. The Dalai Lama encouraged him to spread Buddhist teachings in America. Later, Rinpoche renovated the Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center in Bloomington.Rinpoche concluded his presentation with photos he had taken and said he edited in Photoshop. He created captions for each one that he said gave voice to his ultimate missions.One reads “Wishing for Democracy in China,” while another reads “Wishing for compassion and compromise. Not confrontation and conflict.”During a question-and-answer session after his presentation, Rinpoche was asked if he would go back to China if something happened there.“My hope is after 10 years, I can go back,” he responded. “If something happens, like a war, my monastery, my monks are all still there.”Students who attended Rinpoche’s presentation said they believed he had a lot to offer Bloomington.“It is cool to learn of someone who was raised like that on a special path, has evolved as a spiritual leader,” junior Ben Fearnow said.For sophomore Jamie Hammond, Rinpoche’s visit was more of a cultural experience.“Seeing something like this gives a chance to become more worldly and to learn about an experience different from what you normally experience,” she said.
(04/02/09 12:35am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Students interested in learning to dance the Argentine Tango from one of its premier teachers will have the opportunity this weekend.The Bloomington Argentine Tango Organization and the IU Tango Club are sponsoring the weekend workshop, “A Night at the Milonga” with Florencia Taccetti from Friday to Sunday at The Lodge.Graduate student and co-founder of BATO and the IU Tango Club Amaury de Siqueira said this should be a great opportunity for the community to participate because of Taccetti’s unique teaching style.“She really emphasizes body awareness,” de Siqueira said. “She makes you understand your body better. It’s not really about learning the steps.”The opportunity for Taccetti to bring her style of teaching to Bloomington originated in a friendship that began 10 years ago, de Siqueira said.“I explained to her that this was an early-growth community,” he said. “With the economy being the way it is right now, we really want people to participate, so we tried to price it accordingly. Whatever money is left over after paying for the workshop will go back into BATO.”He also said some of the extra money will be used to promote the Argentine Tango community in Bloomington as well as a sense of longevity for anyone with a fresh idea.“As usually is the case, when an organization like this is created, it doesn’t live long because when the person founding it leaves, the organization leaves,” he said. “We want anyone with an interest in tango to take on leadership roles so that this may live as long as there is always an interest in the community.”Junior Elise Boruvka, president of the IU Tango Club, said BATO and her club work to promote an all-encompassing community atmosphere where people are challenged physically and mentally.“We are trying to give anyone the chance to lead and take part in the fun of tango,” she said.Boruvka said students who are unable to participate in the entire workshop or have private lessons with Taccetti can attend the Saturday Milonga from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m.“It’s a great chance to get everybody together to meet and dance with different groups of community members and students to socialize,” she said.Boruvka said the Milonga originated as an etiquette dance between cowboys in Argentina.“There were so few women around where the cowboys were dancing,” she said. “Everyone would go to the Milonga, and everyone would check each other out. One of the cowboys would cross the floor and ask a woman to dance. If a woman turned him down, it was such a great embarrassment.”She said the cowboys then developed a system of etiquette that employs head nodding across the room to potential dance partners that proved to be much less embarrassing and socially awkward. That system still stands today.Boruvka said that today, the codes of etiquette aren’t meant to constrict people who just want to dance the tango, but of course, it is always preferred for men and women to dress up for a night out on the dance floor.“You just have to get out there and dance,” she said. “I don’t think anyone can be terrible at tango. If you can waltz, you can dance the tango.”
(03/30/09 1:00am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The fifth annual Turkish Film Festival, in alignment with this year’s
theme “Women in Turkish Cinema,” broke misconceptions about Turkish
women through the power of film in “Innowhereland,” which played
Saturday.
The film centers around the story of Sukran, a woman in her 40s, and her desperate search for her missing son Veysel.
Sukran follows clues and her own intuition from Istanbul to Mardin, a
small town in southeastern Turkey, to find her son. Mardin represents
the concept of being in a strange land and being forced to adapt to
strange customs.
The cinematography of the film captures both Sukran’s desperate plight
and the emptiness of feeling like she is in the middle of nowhere by
using color schemes of the desert during her journey in Mardin.
The dramatic irony of the film lies in the fact that all along, the
audience knows her son is dead. In the end, Sukran continues to wait
for her son, holding out hope that he will turn up someday.
“The film shows the power of a mother’s love and how it can overrule
any belief in a reality, no matter how blatant it appears,” freshman
Farrell Paules said. “Any woman would probably do what Sukran did.”
Graduate student Kako Koshino also said the film captured an issue that
was not particularly exclusive to Turkish women, but was realistic.
“A mother’s love for her son is found all throughout the world,” she
said. “It is interesting that the main character just happened to be a
Turkish woman.”
The political themes of the film rested on the reality of Sukran’s
situation once she got to Mardin. In Mardin, the only other female
character to appear was an older woman who prophesied that her son was
waiting behind a door.
Graduate student and presenter for the festival Sinem Siyahhan said the
world of Mardin, which seemed to be dominated by men, was set up
purposely and that it connected with the reality of women’s situations.
“It was a good way to show the reality of how differently women are
treated in Mardin, coming from Istanbul, which is a very liberal
place,” she said. “Women in the southeastern region, which tends to be
more strictly controlled by government and the military, are only
allowed in public spaces at particular times.”
Siyahhan said if Sukran was oppressed in any way, it was likely through her delusions of her son’s state of living.
A female character in the early part of the film sympathizes with Sukran’s maternal struggle.
“Humankind is such a low creature,” she says. “It gets used to anything. You’ll wait in vain and nothing will come of it.”
Graduate student Sobhi Mohanty said the presentation of the film
probably broke stereotypes of Turkish women for those who have never
been exposed to Turkish culture.
The festival, which is free and open to the public, continues at 8 p.m.
from Thursday to Saturday in Ballantine Hall room 109, with screenings
including English subtitles.
“Turkish women are not just these oppressed beings that people think
of,” Mohanty said. “For the most part, they are very progressive and
modern just like everyone else.”
(03/30/09 12:57am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In preparation for her first doctoral recital, graduate student Sara Ann Radke said she has to master the nuances of a foreign language, which includes elements of meaning, diction and acting.The last third of Radke’s recital is sung entirely in Russian. She will perform at 8:30 p.m. today in Ford Hall. Radke said it is the first time a graduate student has performed a recital with a Russian set in about 20 years. She said although it’s a requirement for all doctoral voice candidates to take one year of German, French and Italian, she chose to perform seven songs in Russian, presenting their own challenges for her first recital.She said the way she performs the entire recital can make or break her career as a soloist. And this recital is just one of three.“Doctoral committees attend each of my recitals and decide, based on my performance, if I have to do another one,” Radke said. “The key to each performance is preparation. You wouldn’t perform if you weren’t ready.”Radke said she is especially nervous about the Russian set, “Seven Romances on Poems,” composed by Dmitri Shostakovich from poetry by Alexander Blok.In preparation for the “very challenging” music, Radke said she is getting help from a Russian diction coach.“He has been very helpful in terms of sitting with me and speaking over the language,” she said. “When you sing you have to modify vowels in order to get the best resonance for your voice, so he’s been helping me do that.”Radke said she has also learned the importance of word stressing in a language. She said even stressing the wrong syllable of a word can completely change its meaning. Marcello Cormio, Italian diction coach for the IU Opera production “Giulio Cesare,” said communicating a foreign language to an audience also involves a special level of mastery.“The ultimate goal of singing in a foreign language is to create art,” Cormio said. “But you have to sound as though the language you’re singing is also your native tongue.”Graduate student Daniel Bubeck, who played the lead in “Giulio Cesare,” said that while there is a lot of technicality in terms of accurate diction and pronunciation, the process of singing in a foreign language is more poetic.“When we sing, we also have to be actors,” he said. “There are certain levels of emotion that go into every piece, every word that you sing.”Bubeck said there were people who came to “Giulio Cesare” just to see the onstage actions of the performers and listen to the poetic nuances of every piece. On the other hand, he said that despite the beauty of the work, an audience must be able to understand what the poet is meaning to say.Cormio said the process of performing in any language is a lot like stage makeup.“From far away it is so beautiful,” he said. “But then you see them backstage and realize how much detail goes into the makeup. Singing is a lot like that – a lot of detail for the goal of creating art.”Radke said that while singing in Russian has been a great learning experience, it can be physically and emotionally taxing.“The set was written for a famous Russian opera singer, Galina Vishnevskaya, and her husband, who was a cellist,” she said. “So it is very hard. There are moments where just on one word, or a syllable of a word, I am required to give it all I’ve got.”
(03/26/09 12:20am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Three graduate students are on a mission to dispel misrepresentations of Turkish women through the power of film in the fifth annual Bloomington Turkish Film Festival.The films will run at 8 p.m. every night from Thursday to April 4 in Ballantine Hall room 109. The festival will feature six films with English subtitles. The festival was first organized in 2005 by Abbas Karakaya and Burcu Karahan, who were Turkish doctoral students in Central Eurasian Studies, according to the event’s Web site.The event is organized every year by friends who hope to carry on the tradition.Graduate student Ozan Say said the tradition has been successful thus far.“Every year, three or four new Turkish grad students form a committee and re-organize the festival as others leave to pursue other ambitions,” he said. “We all live around each other and are still in contact. It’s refreshing to get new ideas going every year.”This year, the festival’s theme is “Women in Turkish Cinema.” When it came to deciding what the theme would be, grad students and committee members Say, Ihsan Topaloglu and Sinem Siyahhan sat down and watched a series of Turkish films depicting women in various lights.“In most Turkish cinema, women are typically portrayed one way,” Siyahhan said. “With the festival, we were hoping to show films that captured the spirit of all types of women in Turkey.”One way of doing that was by showing a range of film genres, such as documentaries and cult films, for the first time. This year, the festival is showing a cult film called “The Girl with the Red Scarf” and a documentary called “The Play,” according to a Turkish Student Association press release. Siyahhan said the documentary, which has a female director, empowers women to express themselves in ways that don’t limit them.“Ideas about women are changing,” she said. “They are becoming more conscious of who they are and who they want to be in this world.”Topaloglu welcomed the challenges of selecting the films to be presented. He said he wants to show other sides of eastern Europe.“Many films of eastern Europe can be kind of depressing and dark,” he said. “I just wanted to pick films for this year’s festival that were more colorful.”Another way of representing Turkish women in various lights was to show films that shattered stereotypes.“There is an idea that women in Turkey are always submissive,” Say said. “I thought it was important that we show that many Turkish women are also engaged in politics and have different conceptions of love and what it means to them across transnational borders.”Say, Siyahhan and Topaloglu said they all hope to introduce IU to new perspectives that will open student minds to other cultural messages. The event is free and open to the public.“Just like any country, Turkey has its problems,” Siyahhan said. “It is important, however, to understand that within any culture, in any country, there is always diversity.”
(03/25/09 3:36am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The world’s largest student festival, MovieFest, is coming to IU thanks to a student collaboration with a host of campus organizations and local sponsors.The festival provides students with cameras and laptops for free so they can create their own 5-minute films within a week, said senior Jack Shannon.“Just eight years ago, Campus MovieFest was a student organization at Emory University that was established to promote school spirit,” said Brandon Chong, director of educational programs for Campus MovieFest since 2007. “Now we tour the nation’s top universities from USC in LA to Emerson College in Boston.”Chong said this was the group’s first time touring through the Midwest, with IU being one of its first stops. He added that interest in IU was boosted through the efforts of Shannon and the Union Board. Shannon, a business student with an interest in film, said he contacted Campus MovieFest after he heard about it this summer from a friend. The prizes for the winning student team range from more than $2,000 in door prizes to iPods to Final Cut Studio software, according to a press release for the event.Shannon said his organization, Blooming Artists Agency, is a student-run production and management company that grants students of all backgrounds the opportunity to create high-quality productions. The organization contacted Campus MovieFest to get the wheels turning for its visit to IU.He said Blooming Artists Agency was able to conduct a successful fundraising campaign in January to raise money to host Campus MovieFest at IU once he confirmed it would be making the stop.“We had to rent out the Buskirk-Chumley Theater,” Shannon said. “Once the winners are selected for this contest, then it will become a red-carpet affair with paparazzi and everything else, like a real star-studded event at the theater. Friends can see their peers’ work on a big screen.”The final event will be free and open to the public at 7 p.m. April 9 at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, according to a press release.Senior Audree Notoras, films director of Union Board, said she is excited for the turnout of the final event. She said so far 50 two-person student teams have signed up to submit work to the contest.“The finale event should be awesome. In addition to all the giveaways, we’re working on having live music,” Notoras said. “This will be a great learning experience for students who are involved. Students can do something creative that they’ve never done before.”Shannon said he believes IU students have a lot to offer to this project. “There is such a great artists’ hub here in Bloomington,” he said. “There are a lot of talented students here looking for creative outlets. This is a great opportunity for students to get involved and express themselves.”Event sponsors included are the Blooming Artists Agency, Union Board, Residence Hall Association, Office of the Provost, IU Hollywood Hoosiers, Hoosier Eye Doctor, Best Buy and the IU College of Arts and Sciences. Shannon also said he believes in the potential of the work that will be submitted. The outcome of Campus MovieFest might also be a way to promote campus school spirit, which Chong said was the original mission of the organization.“Just because IU may not have the name or prestige that other schools do doesn’t mean we can’t compete,” he said. “Our work is right up there with the best students at NYU or UCLA. IU students have so much to offer.”
(03/23/09 3:37am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Freshman Christopher Bailey didn’t get much of a spring break tan.Instead of vacationing like many other students, Bailey spent part of his break in Atlanta attending and speaking at this year’s 10th annual Linkage Summit on Leading Diversity conference from March 16 to 18.Bailey said the annual conference usually centers on various workshops housing corporate managers from various companies as they strive to improve diversity at their establishments.This year, however, was different.As members of the National Society of High School Scholars, he and several other students from across the country were invited to participate in the conference, sharing opinions about what diversity meant to them to some of the nation’s top companies in several Q&A workshop forums.The students in attendance represented all future youth leaders in the 16- to 26-year-old age bracket called the “Millennials.”The companies attending the conference wanted to know what Millennials felt upon entering the workforce and what they had to offer to GenX members and Baby Boomers as diverse members of society.“The workshop that I participated in was quite full,” Bailey said. “That alone had a huge effect on me. These companies wanted to hear what the voice of America’s youth had to say.”Bailey said he brought an interesting perspective to the conference as a biracial Hispanic and white male. He also relished the opportunity to represent IU and to open people’s eyes about IU’s own diversity initiatives.“It was great to get IU’s name out there to show that we are making strides in pushing for a more diverse campus for long-term educational benefits,” Bailey said.Part of the challenge for other students speaking at the conference was to not only learn more descriptive definitions of diversity, but to decipher what diversity meant to them.Freshman Alexis Carter of Spelman College in Atlanta said the conference was a great opportunity to give a voice to the Millennials as an African-American woman and a member of the National Society of High School Scholars.“One of things we figured out was the difference between companies that support diversity and companies that accept it,” Carter said. “For example, which companies fully accept differences of race and sexual orientation? We asked that we all become accepted for who we are and what changes we can implement in the work force.”Livingston McNeer, a 2006 graduate of Emory University in Atlanta and assistant manager of member services for the society, presented on the society’s behalf well as that of his Millennial generation.The National Society of High School Scholars supports student leaders such as Bailey and Carter by offering them scholarships upon their admission to college. McNeer said this encourages other students to take positions of leadership, which impressed the companies attending the conference.“We were all speaking on behalf of the upcoming generation of young future leaders,” he said. “We are representing different locales, ages and ethnic backgrounds, as well as improving our chances to be represented fairly in terms of what we are believed to offer to the workforce.”Bailey said the conference was a great way to network and meet people with a stake in corporate America, and to him, the conference’s importance overruled getting a tan on the beach.“I did have plans to go to Panama City like everyone else,” Bailey said, “but after reading about the conference on its Web site, this was something I couldn’t ignore.”
(03/23/09 3:35am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In an effort to keep up with growing digital technology demands, the IU Press is launching IU Press Online.The program will feature about 300 titles of books and journals from five subject areas.The five subject areas being launched on the Web site are African Studies, African American/Diaspora Studies, Jewish/Holocaust Studies, Philosophy and Russian/East European Studies, according to an IU press release.Kathryn Caras, director of electronic series and publishing of the IU Press, said while the Web site is still under construction, it is important to note that the project, which is expected to be completed by the end of March or the first week of April, will not operate within a limited database.Caras said users who want to access material on IU Press Online should take advantage of subscriptions and single title sales on the database, which includes individual libraries, a combination of libraries or the whole database.“Our mission is to disseminate scholarship throughout the world,” she said. “One way to do this is to make information of global concern readily accessible to students and professors conducting research at an affordable price.”Subscriptions, Caras said, can be set at a week, a month or a year, and textual materials are even more accessible for people with handheld devices. iPhones users can download requested materials from IU Press Online and will have until the end of their subscriptions to use the information.Though IU Press Online will not necessarily take the place of student textbooks, the service will be rich enough in textual material to support research in certain areas of global scholarship, officials said.“It’s perfect for grad students doing a dissertation,” said Pat Hoefling, marketing and sales director of the IU Press.Hoefling said a source of inspiration for the creation of IU Press Online is credited to libraries’ becoming more electronic. She said many academic and general publishers that are still producing print media are migrating to the Internet and other electronic services for simpler access.“Students and professors will finally be able to access current readings from academic publishers online anywhere,” Kate Matthen, assistant sales manager of IU Press, said in an e-mail. “They will be able to download whole books, do full text research on topics, and citing sources will become easy.”She added that students will have easy, instant access to assigned readings and pages from e-books and students can use social networking bookmarks such as Digg and Delicious.While still anticipating the launch of IU Press Online, Caras said future developments include launching an extensive music library, which she said she hopes will be available by fall 2009, in addition to an anthropology library.Also possible are extensions on professors’ privileges with IU Press Online. Caras said this will incorporate a subscription plan that goes by semester and allows professors the space to review books to see if the material can be used in their classes.Accessibility of materials on IU Press Online, however, is not limited to students and faculty at IU.“What the print industry really needs is a cross platform that is all about efficiency and accessibility,” Caras said. “We want to do that with IU Press Online and make it where anyone around the world has access to simple research materials – anyone from Bloomington to Moscow.”
(03/13/09 1:16am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>They perform in living rooms, dirty basements that “violate all sorts of fire codes” and just about any place that has electricity – all in the name of live performance art. The Missoula Oblongata, a three-person, unconventional touring theater company, will come to Bloomington to perform “The Moon, The Raccoon, The Hot Air Balloon” at 7 p.m. March 17 at Boxcar Books. Admission is $5, but theatergoers can donate more to help support the group.Steven Stothard, general coordinator of Boxcar Books, said the touring company has performed in Bloomington before and sought out the local bookstore as a venue. “The way The Missoula Oblongata does performance work and high art would be similar to the way we operate,” Stothard said. “They perform radical plays that cater to radical themes found in Boxcar.”For Boxcar, this means catering to the needs of Bloomington’s artistic community. Its shelves are stocked with zines, comics and books from local artists that promote abstract ideas about social justice, politics and media, according to its Web site. The store itself is independently operated and run by volunteers.For The Missoula Oblongata, expressing radical ideas employs a similar do-it-yourself sensibility, said Donna Sellinger, co-founder and performer in The Missoula Oblongata.“Everything you see as far as set, props and lighting we made and do ourselves,” Sellinger said. “For smaller performances like the one at Boxcar or in someone’s living room, we have a 6-by-6-foot square as our stage.”Sellinger said inspiration for show ideas comes from making a list of “impossible dreams” with co-founder Madeline Fitch and director Sarah Lowry, who complete the trio. The list for their latest show “The Moon, The Raccoon, The Hot Air Balloon” includes “eating giant cakes, flying on stage and playing detective,” Sellinger said. This brainstorming process led to the creation of the characters, which are “an obese raccoon, her trainer and an allegedly Panamanian magician whose lives all collide at the World’s Fair,” according to a press release for the show.Another part of the do-it-yourself sensibility of the touring company includes promoting a political message of independence from traditional theater and inventing new ways to express oneself.“Performance artists are also social artists,” Sellinger said. “We have to be engaged, politicized critical thinkers. Our method of performing that encourages people to think outside the box and come up with new ways to create art is our political process.”Sellinger said she hopes the work of The Missoula Oblongata will inspire others to create unique theater opportunities in their own communities. “We’re always so excited to collaborate and work with other artists if the opportunity comes, but we encourage people to establish their own companies that go on tour to promote a form of live art that isn’t just music,” she said.Becky Renfrow, booking agent for The Missoula Oblongata, said Bloomington was attractive to the company because it embraces artistic expression of many kinds, and local businesses like Boxcar Books lend support to the artists of the community. “We were interested in Boxcar Books because it’s a space that, through books, encourages creative thinking and allows us to think about our place in society and how we can contribute to our communities,” Renfrow said. “I think The Missoula Oblongata does that well. It’s fantastic.”The “impossible dreams” the group lists as inspiration for shows might not be so impossible after all.“The way The Missoula Oblongata does performances is very organic,” Stothard said. “The intimacy they hope to establish with the audience should inspire people who appreciate their work to do it themselves.”
(03/10/09 3:53am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Students interested in getting an inside look at the White House will have a chance to do so through a new internship program.On Feb. 26 the White House Office of Media Affairs announced a new program in which interns will “supplement their learning experience” by attending social events, weekly lectures and community service activities sponsored by the White House, according to a White House press release.The position is unpaid, and participants are responsible for providing their own transportation and housing. The announcement has IU students and faculty united in favor of such an opportunity, regardless of party affiliation.“It’s a great opportunity to everyone to be involved in, despite what your beliefs are,” said Pat Buschman, junior and external vice chair for IU College Republicans. “No matter if it’s George W. Bush or Barack Obama, you should keep a balanced viewpoint when applying to a position like this.”Some said President Barack Obama’s internship program is a great way to call students to public service.“Something like this is great because it encourages younger people to get involved in the political process,” said IU staff member Jeff Beveridge. “There’s a lot of apathy out there.”Christine Barbour, a political science professor, agreed.“I imagine the competition will be intense, but I am all in favor of anything that gets students interested in public service,” she said in an e-mail.Graduate student Rich Powell said Obama’s influence on the nation’s youth should encourage students to apply.Last year’s presidential election drew record numbers of the youth to the polls and made Indiana a blue state for the first time since 1964.“College students were a huge part of the deciding vote in favor of electing Barack Obama president,” Powell said. “The fact that he is willing to open the White House to interns must be a good thing.”Shawn Walter, president of IU College Democrats, said there is more to earning this internship besides staking out the competition.“To me, the likelihood of earning an internship in the White House is good,” he said. “It doesn’t matter where you go to school, but rather what you do while you’re there.”
(03/09/09 2:17am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>“This struggle is not just their struggle, it’s our struggle,” said human rights activist and photographer Jonathan Moller at a reception for his photography exhibit “Our Culture is Our Resistance.”The event, sponsored by the IU History Graduate Student Association, took place Friday at the Mathers Museum of World Cultures in conjunction with the 2009 Paul Lucas Conference in History at IU, titled “Making Memory, Making History: Ideas and Identities Beyond Borders.” Moller discussed his experiences chronicling the genocide and civil war in Guatemala with an intimate audience. He said the worst examples in the past 25 years of state-sponsored genocide in Central America occurred in Guatemala against the indigenous people, who represent between 60 and 65 percent of the population. The events of the civil war left 200,000 people dead.“It began to get some attention just 25 years ago, but the world, blinded by the media and racism, never knew,” he said. Moller’s mission to expose the atrocities developed while he was in art school in the mid- to late 1980s. “My parents raised me to be conscious of social issues within other cultures,” he said. “I decided to chronicle Guatemala when I heard of the U.S. involvement in the Guatemalan civil war. I wanted to combine art and activism to depict this story.”In the eight years he spent in Guatemala, Moller took black-and-white photographs of refugees who established small, self-governed communities. He said these nomadic communities boasted the slogan “Resistir para vivir,” Spanish for “Resist in order to live.”He said that throughout his stay, many of these people went missing and were brought to United States-sponsored internment camps with other displaced Guatemalans. He said they were often killed, and their remains were scattered across the land by the Guatemalan military. Moller captured these experiences through what he called “technical photographs,” which displayed fractures and wounds on bones found in exhumations.In connection with the theme of the presentation, the power of memory, Moller shared a quote from one of the refugees with whom he spoke with about the process of uncovering the remains.“‘Exhumations should represent good news and moments of joy instead of reflections on the past,’” Moller said, reading the refugee’s words. “‘Exhumations help to heal the wounds of pain and sadness from the loss of loved ones.’”Moller concluded with another quote from a Guatemalan resident. “Would you be willing to convey our message to other lands?” the quote read.Jing Jing Chang, a presenter in the conference from the University of Illinois, said Moller conveyed his message successfully. “This presentation gave another perspective that wasn’t academic about the situation and showed the human side to the suffering of the people,” Chang said. “... He wants the pictures to speak for themselves.”Senior Sarah Anderson agreed. She said students with an interest in human rights should see Moller’s exhibit because it is “important to not forget about what happened.”“It’s powerful,” Anderson added. “It increases awareness and brings forth issues people don’t know about.”Audience member Bryce Martin said he advocates the necessity of remembering the tragic events in Guatemala.“Some of this is still going on, and as long we have amnesia about this, genocide will persist,” he said. “If more students knew about this, it may call them to action. Just seeing the photographs will tear your heart out.”
(03/09/09 2:16am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In the spirit of the recent presidential election, a new, high-energy musical premiered Friday through Sunday at Bloomington’s Harmony School as a test run before its debut in New York this summer.Ryann Ferguson, co-writer of “VOTE!,” flew in from New York to see the show. Though Ferguson was not present during the rehearsal process, she said the students involved in the show’s production brought her vision to fruition.“I wrote the show from the perspective of multiple levels of humor,” Ferguson said. “There’s something for everyone, from slapstick to political jokes to historical references. There was a physicality involved in the humor, and I knew once the show got on its feet that humor would come across. And it did.”Ferguson said she wrote the show from her own interest in politics and relished the idea of capitalizing on the “campiness of the political process” by placing the show in a high school setting. “It’s a cartoon musical masquerading as live action,” Ferguson said.Junior Sam Glover, an audience member, agreed. “The show was very lively. It should go to Broadway,” he said. “It keeps you on the edge of your seat.”Muffin Pasquinelli, played by sophomore Jen Saltiel, is the musical’s main character. She is in competition with Mark Boyd, played by sophomore David Coleman, and Nikki Murphy, played by sophomore Taryn Pryor, in a high school election for student body president. Mark is an overachiever and Richard Nixon fanatic, and Nikki is an advocate for all the good in the world.Muffin comes off like a high school version of the “Legally Blonde” movies’ Elle Woods. Her campaign manager and best friend Trish Yoder, performed by sophomore Danielle Sacks, worries that Muffin’s highly processed appearance would cause Mark to run a negative campaign against her. In a plan to sabotage Muffin’s campaign, Mark takes pictures of Muffin kissing Trish’s snowboarder boyfriend, unbeknownst to Muffin, during the song “D-Gates.” Trish’s hopes for Muffin to get the popular vote of the students are dashed when Mark shows her the incriminating evidence, and they decide to join forces. Their plans backfire when Muffin, through sheer determination, exposes her dream of becoming a stewardess, or as she said in the show, “flight attendant, the more politically correct term.”Muffin’s recognition of her actual dreams achieves the show’s larger messages of expressing individuality despite the fear of failure and understanding the impact of a single vote despite a crooked political system. Senior Quinto Ott said the musical got its message across.“It was clever for the show to have a high school venue as a way to show what the democratic process was about,” Ott said. “It was topical, but not pretentious.”Ferguson said she was impressed with the audience turnout and was glad to finally see the audience reacting positively to the subversive material in the script. Of course, she said her main mission is not to be a subject of controversy. The message hits home in the final lyrics of the show:“To vote is to try, no matter how naive, to take a chance and wear your dream on your sleeve. You can’t change the weather, but you can put on a coat! You may not like who wins, but you’ve at least got to vote.”
(03/05/09 2:09am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>“Vote!,” a “sharp, entertaining” new musical from New York about three high school students competing for the title of student body president, premiers Friday at the Harmony School in Bloomington. It’s a premiere thanks to YouTube and a series of chance circumstances.Eric Anderson, a recent Jacobs School of Music graduate and music director of several musical theater productions in Bloomington such as “Reefer Madness” and “Songs For a New World,” was searching for his next project more than a year ago when he stumbled upon a video blog post by Andrew-Keenan Bolger. The post discussed the reading of a new musical called “Vote!” in New York that was looking for help getting off the ground. Anderson followed up the post by looking for the music of “Vote!” on YouTube.“I listened to some demo tracks from the musical on YouTube and found Ryan J. Davis, who was decided to be the director, on Facebook,” he said. “I e-mailed Ryann Ferguson, one the writers, telling her I liked the show. I never thought she’d get back to me.”Anderson’s interest paid off.“I got a green light for the show back in September 2008, and I created a Facebook group,” Anderson said. “Davis got here on February 8, a month ago. We’ve had less than a month to put it all together.”Anderson said it turned out that Ferguson and Davis were good friends, and she sold Davis on Anderson’s ideas. He eventually became the producer and musical director of the show.Davis is an established director and political activist in New York. He said he had been involved with “Vote!” for almost a year in New York City before coming to Bloomington. Anderson said that part of bringing Davis to Bloomington to work on “Vote!” was convincing him of the active arts community and the big talent pool of student artists.“Bloomington found us,” Davis said. “This was the perfect opportunity for a young college cast, and Anderson offered to bring me out to do this.”Sophomore Jen Saltiel, the lead actress in the show, welcomed the chance to work with New York talent in Bloomington.“It was refreshing to have an outside opinion and a different spin on things from how productions are done at IU,” she said.Saltiel said this involved staying true to the material of writers Ferguson and Steven Jamail while being allowed the opportunity to “bring who we are to the characters.”Part of staying true to the material meant having an authentic setting. Since the musical centers around high school students, the shows will take place in Bloomington’s Harmony School, which producer Anderson said was a charming, bare-bones building that was perfect for what he wanted. Davis added that inside the building there will jumpstart be flyers and banners of candidates to further the experience for audience members the minute they walk in the door.Saltiel believed the setting, along with the multi-faceted cast, helps to capture the essence of the show and the spirit of the recent presidential election.“That event was good for a lot of people, and I believe this show will resonate with students on that level.” she said. “It’s about voting and taking a chance to make an impact on the world. It’s about who you are as a person and taking a stand.”Davis agreed.“With this great experience, we’ve learned so much about what works and what doesn’t,” he said. “It’s been a great way to bring young artists together.”