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





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)
on Racism: Think About It