Category Archives: Kristopher Fraser

Kosher Halal Co-op in Jeopardy?

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By: Kristopher Fraser

For approximately twenty-five years Kosher Halal Co-op (KHC) has been affiliated with the Oberlin Student Cooperative Association (OSCA), the second largest college student cooperative in the United States. OSCA, which has been around since the 1950s, houses nearly 200 students and feeds over 500 students every year. KHC specifically caters to the dietary needs of Muslim and Jewish students and is advised by Rabbi Shimon Brand.  While only 30 or so students are KHC members, the co-op is well known around campus for its Friday night Shabbat dinners, when the co-op opens its doors to all students for a delicious Shabbat meal.

This semester, KHC’s affiliation with OSCA might come to an end.

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HIV 101

By Kristopher Fraser

On December 5, the Oberlin HIV Peer Testers in association with the Sexual Information Center (SIC) and Safer Sex Week hosted a workshop on HIV education. The workshop was led by Oberlin HIV Peer Testers Annie Nigra ’14 and Mollie Nisen ’14. I commend these two wonderful peer testers for leading a workshop that was informative, educational, sex positive, and open-minded. Continue reading →

Little Theater’s Season Opens with Reza’s God of Carnage

By Kristopher FraserOn October 11, Oberlin College’s Theater department opened the season with Yasmina Reza’s God of Carnage. The cast included Colin Wulff ’14 as Michael Novak, Miryam Coppersmith ’15 as Veronica Novak, William Hoffman ’13 as Alan Raleigh, and Lizzie Roberts ’13 as Annette Raleigh. The play tells the story of two families who come together to discuss an incident between their two children, where Benjamin Raleigh dislocates two of Henry Novak’s teeth. The show was directed by Michael Cunningham ’13, who previously directed Hypnosis for Salesman and Vessel for the 2011-2012 Little Theater Season.

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An Interview with Andrea Ritchie and Joey Mogul ’92, Authors of Queer (In)Justice

By Kristopher Fraser

F+L: My first question is, I’d like to know how you all identify yourselves? You know here at Oberlin we are very careful not to offend anyone…so any labels you’d like to give yourselves, or if you don’t like labels at all that’s fine too.

Ritchie: I’m a black lesbian, mid 40’s, yeah…

Mogul: I’m a white, butch…mid 40’s, and…I’m an Oberlin alum from ’92. Oh, as for my pronouns if you want to use he or she, I won’t mind, I won’t be offended with whichever you choose when I read it. No preference.

F+L: Okay, My next question is, why the book? What did you hope to accomplish?

Mogul: I think that, well you know, we’ve been doing this for so long, we felt it was finally time. We were frustrated with the gay mainstream and race and gender being ignored, we wanted to be able to give a voice to criminalized queers.

Ritchie: Well you know, a lot of what we talk about in the book are movements we’ve been a part of and we really wanted to come together and amplify the issue of the criminalization of LGBT people of color the national stage. Continue reading →

Fighting Queer (In)Justice

By Kristopher Fraser

On Wednesday, October 10, Oberlin College was privileged to welcome two LGBT and queer activists, Andrea J. Ritchie and Oberlin alumnus Joey Mogul ’92. Mogul and Ritchie sparked an interesting discussion about the criminalization of LGBT people of color in the United States and their book Queer (In)Justice: the Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States. 

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