Racheal Rowlinson’s blog

Walking  into the Halsted Center is like walking into a home for many people. The Halsted Center hosts many activities from self help groups to plays. 

Located on the 3rd floor is the Halsted Centers' Hoover Leppen Theater. On Wednesday April 23rd, 2008 the play Looking for Darna... if you were a super-hero, who would you be? was put on from 7:00p to 8:300 p.m. It was just a staged reading where the audience filled out surveys afterwards giving feedback on the play so it can be approved before it's put on for real in the summer. 

In this play the  main character Sari who is played by Angeline Mascarenas, a student at Columbia College, faces many obstacles from coming to terms with her sexuality and being raped, to fights with her mother and then ultimately losing her best friend, her grandma, to dementia. Humor is added throughout the play by adding the Filipino wonder woman, Darna, played by Ginger Leopoldo, co-owner of Cafe Aorta and an actress, who always plays the mother.  The grandma played by Lovien "Joey" Flores, an actress, adds a humorous as well as sad part to the play.  The fourth character in the play is James the guy who tries to be with Sari and who ultimately rapes her. James i played by Jon Mychal Cox, a student at Harold Washington College. 

"I am really excited for the final production of Looking For Darna. We have put so much effort and time in it that I think the final outcome will be really good," said director Giau Truong. 

Looking for Darna is being put on April 23rd and 24th in observance of April being the Sexual Assault Awareness month. 

 by Racheal Rowlinson

 Walking through Boystown one notices so many things, so finding a trend there was no easy job. After two hours of searching and asking people, one finds it's been right under their noses the whole time. Looking around one begins to notice something: everyone is walking a dog.

 As it always been like this or is there a recent surge in walking dogs?

 "I have seen people walking dogs in past years here but this year there seems to be an explosion. Usually when I walk my dog it's just us but this year we pass many dogs and their owners," said Lauren Paustian, who walks her Dalmatian almost everyday down Boystown.

 While the vast majority of dogs being walked in Boystown are small, cute little dogs with sweaters on , you do occasionally see bigger dogs. The little dogs are often wearing sweaters or some type of dog clothing. 

Even as night came the amount of people walking dogs didn't decrease like expected when people start heading to the many clubs in the area. "I will be walking to the bar at about 9 at night and I walk past dog after dog. I guess I'd just rather go the club at that time. Not walk my dog but obviously I am not part of the majority," said Ryan Garcia, who is also a dog owner in Boystown.

 Many of the restaurants in the area seem to be adding to this trend. In front of many of them are dog dishes with water in them. "Everyone seems to be walking dogs. We decided that we should appeal to dog owners and cater to our canine friends," said restaurant owner Stephen Malouf.

 When you think of Boystown with all it's sex shops and clubs, you don't normally think of dogs. However, the new trend in Boystown: Dogs. So maybe the old saying is true, "Dogs are man's best friend." 

by Racheal Rowlinson

Racism has existed for thousands of years. In an age where we have transferred our entire societal infrastructure over to computers we still haven’t gotten past the color of our skin. Barrack Obama’s recent speech brought public attention to the issue, but is anyone really seeking a solution? 

Racism has always been an issue, but until recently hasn’t been the leading topic in debates. The fact that this issue is all around us, but has been overlooked for so long creates a barrier in the progression of solving it. 

Many people these days have other things on their minds with the war to the downslide of our economy. However, what many people don’t see is that race places a key role in almost every issue. It’s importance is downplayed to the extent that people overlook it as an underlying problem in our society. 

Until society as a whole considers it a priority to solve the problem we will never see racism die. There are certain rules that apply to all people. Certain facts that exist no matter where you’re from, what you do, or the color of your skin. These basic laws of mankind need to include the acceptance of all people before we can advance as human beings. It’s time to pick up the slack and start thinking of a solution. 

Most people don’t spend time contemplating what it would take to end racism, but it’s our obligation as the current occupants of the world to make it a better place. So…what WOULD it take to end racism?

Sources: 

Mark D. Johnigan

Writer

johnigan@hotmail.com

Brittany Thurmond

Student 

brittbratt1203@aol.com

Anita Rankins

SGI-rep

1-773-506-0321

Vaughn Barber

information unavaible

Halia Penkowsky

Student

HHanow1@uic.edu

Jeroen Belg

Student

(from out of the country)