Christianity and Oberlin: Not So Incompatible

March 9th, 2010
6

By Angela Suico

firstchurchoberlin.org

Every Friday night at a few minutes before 7:00 p.m., a small group of students gather in the lounge of Barnard House on the famously liberal campus of Oberlin College. After greeting each other, they sink into the room’s mismatched chairs and couches and discuss typical college-life concerns—Facebook statuses, extracurricular activities and off-campus excursions.

But when seven o’clock rolls around, prayer worship begins and the students start to sing hymns praising Jesus.

Some of them raise their hands in reverence during the slower songs and clap their hands to the beat during faster ones. Between hymns, when junior Lisa Brown asks, “Is there anybody here who loves God?” they erupt into enthusiastic cheers.

This group of students—the Oberlin Christian Fellowship—is just a portion of the passionate intellectuals at Oberlin who identify as Christian.

Christian Oberlin students are well aware of the stigma associated with their faith. “People expect Oberlin to be an open-minded place, but my experience has found that to be false on the surface,” says Sam Berger, a junior majoring in Physics and Philosophy. “My friends know to some extent why I do what I do and think that it is cool that I believe what I believe, but only those [who] have seen me deal with struggles know that I am not just some Bible-thumping non-thinking hypocrite.”

The discussions at the OCF gatherings clearly subvert this “non-thinking” stereotype. During his presentation on evolution at one OCF meeting, Chase Nelson, a 4th-year biology major, asked the audience if marrying one’s relative was acceptable. His question prompted a series of critical questions from members like, “Where are we [in time]?” and “What kind of relation?” while others remarked with amusement how dissecting such an inquiry was a classic characteristic of Oberlin students.

“You’re not supposed to interpret [the question]” Chase said with a laugh.

“Stop thinking!” joked one male member, slamming his palm down against his thigh like a judge with a gavel.

But many say that out of the various reactions to their spirituality, the most common response is interest in their beliefs. “Everybody I share my faith with is at least respectful of my choices if not supportive,” says sophomore Sujata Murty. “Most of the people I talk to are actually curious either about God or how I reconcile issues such as God and evolution.”

Mieko Gavia, a junior theater major, expresses a similar sentiment.

“A lot of people just make assumptions [about Christianity], and they say something, and when you say something back to them, then you get into this really nice dialogue about faith and what it means and what it doesn’t mean and religion in general. I’ve learned a lot from other people, and I think other people have learned a lot from me.”

Such curiosity may be indicative of a larger trend in Oberlin students’ relationship to religious issues. According to the Director of the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life, Reverend Greg McGonigle, the annual survey of incoming students’ spiritual interests reported that over 50% expressed interest in connecting with the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life, while 45% expressed interest in multifaith activities. Besides students of faith, these statistics include “students who identify as atheist, agnostic, or of no affiliation—which means that even these students are searching.”

Rev. McGonigle also cites the large attendance numbers for different multifaith events—“more than 300 students at an event we sponsored on belief and unbelief, over 100 people at our campus-wide celebration of the Hindu festival of Diwali and over 40 people at a Parents Weekend presentation called “Windows to the Sacred: Iconography in Eastern Spirituality”— as another example of Oberlin students’ interest in spiritual topics.

Pastor Mary Hammond, the co-advisor of the Ecumenical Christians of Oberlin (ECO), agrees with Rev. McGonigle.

“I often feel like there is a lot more interest in religion than is evidenced by the numbers of students that participate in student religious groups. That seems clear to me when guest speakers come to campus to share about various topics in religion or a book they have written [about faith].”

Rev. McGonigle admits, however, that Oberlin has room for improvement.

“Oberlin is somewhat unconventional in its spiritual demographics,” says Rev. McGonigle, “and we do need to fight some stereotypes, prejudice and bigotry against religion and spirituality that silences people and makes them feel unwelcome.”

Students have experienced such prejudice even within their classrooms. Gavia says in one of her courses, her teacher placed Christianity within different types of mythology. And Pastor Steve Hammond, who co-advises ECO with his wife Mary, says he has heard similar stories regarding the faculty’s approach to Christianity. One ECO member, for example, reported that in her introductory religion class, the teacher only focused on the eccentric aspects of Christianity, like snake handlers and Jesus camp, while treating other religions more seriously.

“Faculty should know better than that,” says Hammond. “I get frustrated when I hear about faculty dismissing faith as something that’s contrary to academia when they have colleagues who are people of faith and they’ve studied with [individuals] who are people of faith.”

Though some students found the prominence of atheists and agnostics on campus to be no different from that in their hometowns, the transition required some adjustment for others. Christina Kwok, a junior majoring in Piano and Math, says that since most of her friends at home were Christian, Oberlin has challenged and forced her to deeply reflect on her beliefs.

Alice* is a more extreme case. She hails from Kenya, a country where a large amount of the population is Christian. Before entering college, Alice had never known any atheists or agnostics, and she says Oberlin has made her re-evaluate her own faith.

Nonetheless, several students say that attending Oberlin has actually strengthened their faith, as well as broadened their perspectives of the world.

“It has challenged me to…really think of reasons I do or don’t believe things,” says Nelson. “And I have been stretched and there are opinions that have changed a lot, but overall my faith has deepened quite a bit, so I’m grateful for the struggle.”

“I have a couple of friends who are Hindu,” says Gavia, “and it’s really interesting to learn about how they view Christianity and how they view their own religion. I’d learned about it in school, but it’s a lot different when you learn about it from somebody who’s grown up with it all their life.”

For Joseph Chou, a junior Environmental Science major, being at Oberlin has helped him embrace his homosexuality, a trait which his upbringing had taught him was “ultimately” wrong.

“[Finding out] I was gay…was a big thing for me,” says Chou. “It contrasted with a lot of things I learned back at home. Here on campus, they were open to it. This environment has been really supportive…[of] my coming out.”

According to Chou, his identity as a gay Christian has also changed other religious students’ opinions about homosexuality and helped them see that the issue “isn’t so clear-cut.”

Nelson, who is also gay, had a different experience. He says finding complete acceptance of his identity as a gay Christian from any one person or group has been extremely difficult.

“I find that, to generalize, those people that accept my sexual orientation as something to be celebrated are less than happy about the serious place Jesus holds in my life,” says Nelson. “On the other hand, those that tend to accept my Christianity are…less favorable about my sexual orientation, because they think it is sinful.”

Many of the students interviewed for this article develop their faith through one of Oberlin’s spiritual organizations. The three largest Christian group on campus are OCF, an evangelical association that welcomes all denominations; Ecumenical Christians of Oberlin, a progressive group that espouses more liberal forms of Christianity, such as affirming LGBT individuals; and Newman Catholic Campus Ministry, an organization that  seeks to develop the faith of Catholic Oberlin students.

Oberlin College was originally established for religious purposes. Presbyterian minister John Shipherd and Philo Stewart founded the colony of Oberlin in 1833 to promote the Christian values they viewed as lacking in the surrounding areas of Ohio. Named after Jean-Frederick Oberlin, an Alsace minister whom Shipherd admired, the colony became home to the Oberlin Collegiate Institute in December of the same year. The school aimed to produce pastors, teachers and other Christian role models who would spread their faith to people in the West; and in 1835, Shipherd established the Oberlin Theological Seminary, which was later incorporated into the Divinity School of Vanderbilt University in 1966.

Though Oberlin’s liberal reputation may now overshadow its religious beginnings, only a few students acknowledge having moments where they wished they attended a different school.

“If my faith can’t live through Oberlin,” says sophomore Allie Lundblad, “then I shouldn’t have it. If my faith goes through all of this argument and it doesn’t live, it wasn’t very good faith.”

*Over one year after printing, “Alice” asked that her named be changed. It was turning up when employers Googled her name. They tend to take what is written out of context.

From ExCo to Curriculum: The Peace and Conflict Studies Concentration

March 4th, 2010
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By Erica M. Lee

pacs.nonresistance.org

Peace and Conflict Studies debuted as a concentration last semester after years of work from Oberlin students, faculty, and community members, who joined forces to change the Oberlin College curriculum. Discussed in various contexts since 1840, peace studies has always drifted around the curriculum of the College.  In 2004, the successful push for peace studies to be officially organized and integrated into the College began.

The leaders tested their academic program of peace using the ExCo program.  After laborious tweaking, the concentration now consists of an introductory class, relevant courses, an experiential component and a reflective essay.

Why a Concentration?

Oberlin has many departments, although only three concentrations exist on campus: cognitive science, international studies, and now, the newly minted Peace and Conflict Studies.  According to Sean Decatur, Dean of Arts and Sciences, a concentration “embraces classes that, by definition, come from different parts of the curriculum or different departments.”  Students need majors in addition to concentrations, but concentrations appear on Oberlin diplomas like minors.

“I think it’s stronger than the alternative for many students, which is double-majoring or triple-majoring,” said Decatur. “When you double major, often what you get is two silos, two collections of in-depth exploration of a subject, but not necessarily the opportunities to build connections between them.  What I think concentrations can do is naturally provide that horizontal integration of ideas across departments in a way that having a double-major or triple-major can’t.  I think it’s a really interesting alternative to have that in the curriculum.”

The College has three main criteria for its concentrations.  There needs to be existing classes to build the concentration, coherence to the curriculum, usually in the form of a capstone project or introductory class, and enough support that the concentration will last through trials like professor sabbaticals.

Concentrations enhance the College’s academic possibilities without major increases in cost, as the classes already exist on campus.  Thus, the financial burdens of creating a new department, including hiring new professors and creating new classes, don’t apply.  Peace and Conflict Studies, for instance, has created an introductory course for the concentration, but the other courses come from Psychology, Politics, African American Studies, Environmental Studies, History, and Sociology, departments that already exist within the college.

“I think there has been interest both on the faculty side and on the student side for more concentrations,” said Decatur.  The College is currently making a new credit system, and Decatur mentioned that “having a major and a concentration” could be “an alternative to a simple 9-9-9 system.”  For this to happen, the College needs to develop many more concentrations that touch across all divisions of the College.

The History

According to Tom Lock, the historian of the PACS group, interest in peace education began at Oberlin College in 1840 when students established a Non-Resistance Society.  In the 1930s, half the student body belonged to the Oberlin Peace Society and Oberlin’s president at the time, Earnest Wilkins, wanted a peace program, but he was unable to convince the faculty.  Pressure to create an academic discipline oscillated until 2004, when students and community members created a series of ExCos on the subject.

The impetus for the ExCos started in Peace Community Church, where Melissa Hines ’07 met Al Carroll ’58.  Their mutual interest in peace education led them develop three semesters of an ExCo course called “We’d Rather Teach Peace” that started in the Spring of 2004.  Since then, the subsequent Peace and Conflict Studies ExCos have all had student and community member co-leaders.

The ExCo went into the classroom of 6th graders at Langston Middle School to teach peace four times a semester.  “It got harder and harder to do because they’re so wrapped up in tests you have to do for No Child Left Behind,” said Carroll.  Consequently, those interested in PACS decided to switch their focus from the middle school to the college.

Maia Brown ’10, who has been the student chair of the PACS Development/Support Group since 2008, explained, “The irony of that initial goal was that we’re thinking about how to teach middle schoolers and high schoolers, but we don’t have a program or a focus or a place to go at Oberlin College, except through an independent major.”

With this mentality, a new ExCo was created, called “Creating Change within Oberlin College—Developing a Peace and Conflict Studies Program” in the Fall of 2005.  This class, led by Sheera Bornstein ’08, Kara Carmosino ’08, and Carroll, studied PACS programs at other colleges and found relevant classes already being taught at Oberlin.

The course also explored how to work through the Educational Plans and Policies Committee (EPPC) of Oberlin College.  The EPPC gives advice on faculty positions, reviews every program and department in the College and considers changes to majors.  Proposals for concentrations must go through the EPPC before the College Faculty votes them on them.  The Committee is made up of eight elected faculty members and four student members who are chosen by Student Senate.  An Associate Dean of the Faculty has a seat on the EPPC and is usually elected chair.

The students in the course showed their proposal to the EPPC, which told them that  “it was a nice idea our group was thinking about this, but we needed some faculty to actually implement it at the college,” said Carroll.

Nick Jones, who was the Associate Dean of the Faculty and Chair of the EPPC at the time, explained further.  “What seemed to exist at that point was a loose set of very different courses, which in varying degrees, addressed one of the key premises, or the other, of Peace and Conflict Studies.”

Still, Carroll learned that “if you can have a document which was well-written, people take you more seriously than, ‘Boy, I had a great idea we were shooting around in a bull session the other night.’”

Continuing on their quest in the Spring of 2006, Bornstein and Carroll led and created the Peace and Conflict Studies Development Group, comprised of nine other students and community members.  The Development Group decided on three major goals for the following year: teach another ExCo, hold a symposium to promote PACS, and establish a faculty-led group.

Carmosino and Carroll taught the ExCo course, “Changing the World: Perspectives on Nonviolent Movements” in the Fall of 2006.  The course had a large enrollment, teaching 20 students and 10 community members.

The ExCo courses at this time had a twofold purpose, explained Brown.  “One [purpose] was just keeping peace and conflict studies in the forefront of at least some students’ minds.”  The second goal of the ExCo courses was “to be able to build student interest.”  The ExCo courses were integral to integrating peace and conflict studies into the College.  “I think everything came from there, and then we knew what directions we needed to go,” said Brown.

The course had another role in the creation of the concentration—connecting students and interested faculty.  Part of the class involved inviting faculty members to lead discussions, which brought together those concerned with peace and conflict studies.  As a result, many of the professors who were invited to lead discussions teach courses now included in the concentration.

The group’s second step was a symposium.  It was held from February 15-17th in 2007, with Colman McCarthy, a prolific columnist, author, and professor, as the keynote speaker.  Other participants included current professors, professors teaching PACS programs at other colleges, and students like Bornstein, who were members of the Development Group.  The symposium worked to unite interest on campus as well as connect Oberlin faculty to the faculty of other schools that already had PACS programs.  The list of acknowledgments on the symposium reports thanks everyone from reverends of local churches to deans and professors at the College, which demonstrates Oberlin’s wide range of interest in PACS and the extent to which the Development Group extended their reach.

The last step for the Development Group was the creation of a faculty-led group, whose main priority was to get the concentration passed through the EPPC.  Steve Mayer, the current head of the Psychology Department, and Steve Crowley, an Associate Professor of Politics, led the faculty group to work through the minutiae of the EPPC’s demands with Jones and delivered their proposal to the EPPC on April 19, 2007.

Although it needed more work, the proposal met with great interest from the EPPC.  The general consensus was that there were too many courses associated with the concentration for it to be a coherent structure of learning, and there was a definite need for an introductory course.  The Development Group used the advice given from the EPPC, and “they went off and came back with a much stronger proposal,” said Jones.

A big step for the Development Group came in 2008, when Oberlin’s Class of 1958 gave Peace and Conflict Studies an endowed grant of almost $60,000 for their 50th anniversary gift.  Carroll proposed the idea to his class officers and explained, “By getting this fund going, it shows the college that there’s alumni support for it.”  The fund was donated before the General Faculty passed the concentration and will be used for grants, speakers, and course development.

The General Faculty accepted the PACS concentration in March of 2009.  “We could afford it, so we could see that it was sustainable, and it sounded like it made sense,” said Jones.  “It’s so in tune with our history as a college.  It’s so utterly needed, and I think it gets our heads out of the sand, in a way, and opens people’s thinking.”

Sage Aronson ‘12, the ExCo co-chair who represents the ExCo Committee at the College Faculty meetings, voted to pass the concentration.  “I know everyone was very excited at that point.  There were a couple other students in there, and they were pretty happy about it,” he said.

Mayer’s joy came from watching the concentration develop.  “To see this grow out of the interests of the students and the community people, to get the ball rolling with such energy devoted to it, has been an amazing process.  To be part of that, and to see this happen—it’s just a great thing to have happen.”

The Debut of the New Course

The Introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies class, taught by Mayer and Crowley, debuted last semester.  The new class invites many guest speakers, much like the ExCo, and is co-taught by Crowley and Mayer, which duplicates the former Excos’ co-leadership style.

The hard work that went into creating the concentration is evident in the class.  The sheer number of guest speakers from a wide variety of departments demonstrates the number of people who have been involved with, or interested in, the concentration.

One of the many speakers who visited the class was Ombudsperson Yeworkwha Belachew.  Belachew coordinates the Oberlin College Dialogue Center, of which PACS instigators Hines, Bornstein, and Carmasino were all members.  In 2005, Belachew arranged for those taking the ExCo on creating a PACS concentration to meet with alumni who were involved with conflict resolution, including those who created independent majors for Peace and Conflict Studies.

“I have seen amazing things about conflict resolution in higher education,” said Belachew, as she addressed the Introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies class.  She described Oberlin College as “a vanguard of social justice” and declared that it was “long overdue to have a Peace and Conflict Studies program.”  Then, she brought in current OCDC members Rusty Bartels’10 and Shana Osho’10 to work through a conflict resolution scenario.

Crowley explained the appeal of bringing in speakers like Belachew.  “It’s partly to borrow from that ExCo model, but since it is an introduction to a concentration, we also wanted to introduce students to professors that they could take classes with and other disciplinary approaches to the subject, since it is interdisciplinary by nature, and basically let them know what they sort of things they could pursue if they do decide to take the concentration.”

Rebecca Witheridge ’10, who took the class last semester, agreed with Crowley about the guest speakers.  “I think the best aspect of the class was the fact that we had a lot of visiting professors come in from different departments that I otherwise wouldn’t have gotten to hear.”

Crowley and Mayer are discussing how to work out the kinks of their new class.  For example, they were unprepared when 50 students showed up for the first day when the class was capped at half that.  One possibility of restructuring the class involves a larger lecture class with smaller discussion sections to meet the demands of students.

The professors would also like to attract more underclassmen to their introductory course.  Because upperclassmen have the advantage when choosing classes, the professors are discussing whether or not they should save a certain number of seats for first year students.  The class is being offered again next fall.

Outside the Classroom

Those involved with the creation of the concentration are now transitioning their efforts into developing an already existing concentration.

The PACS Committee, which runs within the realm of the College and is headed by Mayer, decides how to use the income from the endowed fund.  It will mainly be given as support for students working on the experiential component of the concentration.  “We’ll certainly try to help students who need money to engage in some winter term activity that will fulfill this part of the concentration,” said Mayer.  Students need to write a proposal to the PACS Committee about how their project will fulfill the experiential component of the concentration to receive support.

The money will also be used to bring in speakers and develop courses.  “The Faculty noted that it would be ideal to have more courses in the humanities and natural sciences as part of the concentration.  So the PACS Committee has entertained the idea that perhaps we could use some of the funds to help support course development for new PACS courses, especially as it relates to the humanities and the natural sciences,” said Mayer.

Meanwhile, the hard work of the Development Group has not stopped.  They have renamed themselves the PACS Support Group, which consists of six students and seven community members, and they help “in any way we think we can,” said Carroll.

One triumph for the PACS group was their kickoff speaker for the concentration: Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian 2003 Nobel Peace Prize Winner.  Brown, Carroll, Mayer and Crowley asked President for a speaker, which, “through some happy accidents,” according to Carroll, resulted in Professor Mohammad Mahallati contacting Ebadi to speak at the Convocation in October.

Now, the goal of the PACS Support Group is to hire an endowed professor.  “One need, certainly, is an endowed chair, I think, in Peace and Conflict studies—a real point person for this area, for this concentration,” said Mayer.  He envisions hiring the chair with money, amounting to two or three million dollars, from donors or from the upcoming capital campaign.

Decatur was not optimistic about the endowed professorship.  “That’s not something that’s being actively worked on in any way.  The idea behind the concentration is that there are enough supporting courses and supporting faculty interested that it can function without having a fully committed faculty member.”

Students can offer support to the PACS concentration by getting involved in the Support Group or sitting in on the Committee, which has two student spots.

**Contributed Reporting by David Edward Clark

A Tale of Two Cities: Kabul in 1963 and 2010

March 4th, 2010
1

By Rachel Bouer

pictureninja.com

While the city of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan has changed regimes six times in the second half of the 20th century, past and present Oberlin students have not stopped visiting and making their mark.

Oberlin alumnus and Kendal resident Bob McCluskey spoke in the Kendal Auditorium Feb. 18 about his Peace Corps term in Kabul between 1960 and 1963.  The following day, College senior Robin Comisar presented a video he made about his winter spent in the same city.

Comisar volunteered with Skatistan, an organization that teaches Afghani children skateboarding basics and English. Comisar found the organization about a year ago and has been working for them online since. This winter term, he taught English, instructed skateboarding lessons, and helped with curricular development.

Though Skatistan certainly uses a unique approach to impact the daily lives of Aghanis, the need for international efforts is not new.

Forty-eight years before Comisar’s trip, the first Peace Corps volunteers pioneered the international service movement upon their arrival to Kabul. McCluskey said they came in with three goals: first, meeting the needs of the population they were visiting; second, fostering greater understanding by others of Americans; and third, learning more about the other populations.

In his time in Afghanistan, McCluskey did just that through everyday activities like teaching English, playing basketball and participating in other daily activities. However, life is not always sunny in Kabul. Consistent violence, harsh law-enforcement, and unforeseen demolition broaden the tension of this atmosphere.

Comisar said that children were often arrested the day before lessons; though detrimental in and of itself, is compounded by the fact that many of the female students were beaten in jail as they were in cells with adults. Furthermore, explosions near the homes of students on lesson days prevented the program-run transportation service from safely picking them up for their skateboarding lessons.

“It’s really difficult to run a school in Kabul,” he said.

As McCluskey’s visit was during the reign of Zahir Shah, a monarch who ruled from 1933 to 1973, violence was less common; the king promoted increasing education and a style of “new democracy,” as explained by McCluskey. He said that due to the many different ethnic minorities of the city, ruling over them was like “governing complexity.”

McCluskey met the King during his visit and displayed pictures of the event during his presentation. He said he was “impressed” with his charisma, and noted the Western dress of the Queen, which displayed the consistent modernization of the city.

As McCluskey was there for three full years, he received many opportunities to leave Kabul and see the country. “I was on a camel for 25 seconds,” he joked. He also showed pictures of the majestic Bamiyan statues, which are enormous Buddahs carved into the sides of mountains. Unfortunately, with the Soviet reign through the 80s, these treasures were destroyed.

Comisar was also able to travel around the city with the father of another Oberlin student, Ahmad Wahdat. In order to get around without much knowledge of Dari, the most popular regional language in Kabul, Comisar had a translator with him “at all times.” He said that this was a bit of an adjustment at first, especially in the classroom because it was “harder to get them to trust me.” He said they often would look only at the translator at not at him even while he was speaking. Eventually, they overcame this barrier and he said he was much better able to connect with the students.

McCluskey and his contemporaries also encountered similar experiences in their English classrooms. As boys and girls were in different schools and each class had 60 or more students, teaching proved to be a bit difficult at times, particularly as Afghani social stigmas toward asking questions were often incongruent with traditional American teaching styles.

250 students are currently enrolled in Skatistan programs, though 1,000 more are on the ever-growing waitlist. Though Skatistan’s approach to help in the region may appear frivolous on the surface, Comisar emphasized that their efforts are far-reaching and extremely significant.

“Skatistan has a real impact here,” he said. “It lets kids be kids again in an environment where they otherwise grow up way too quickly.”

Stevie Wonder and Bill Cosby To Open Litoff

March 2nd, 2010
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By Erica M. Lee

christybharath.wordpress.com

The Litoff Building’s Grand Opening on April 30th and May 1st will include Stevie Wonder and Bill Cosby.

The Grand Opening will include concerts, jazz films at the Apollo, and workshops.  Stevie Wonder, Bill Cosby, and Camille Cosby will also be given honorary degrees at 4:00 p.m. on April 30th in Tappan Square.

Bill Cosby will present “An Evening with Bill Cosby” on Friday, April 30th at 8:30 p.m.  As with Stevie Wonder, tickets will be assigned by lottery, with first-come, first-serve overflow seating in Warner Concert Hall.

Stevie Wonder will headline a concert at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 1st in Finney Chapel.  Tickets will be assigned by lottery, with first-come, first-serve overflow seating in the Apollo and Warner Concert Hall.

Schedule of Events

College’s Press Release

Righteous Babes Rock Finney

February 28th, 2010
1

By Charlie Landsman

Photo by David Roswell.

Ani DiFranco and her band, following solo artist Erin McKeown, performed on Wednesday night at Finney Chapel to a less-than-full house. Those who did not come to fill empty seats missed a truly memorable show.

A young, tattooed woman dressed in a sleek pants suit took the Finney Chapel stage on Wednesday. The edges of a tattoo protruded up past her V-Neck. “Who is she?” I thought, as she strapped on a beautiful pearl Les Paul guitar. Little did I know I would soon be downloading the provocative, hard-hitting music of Erin McKeown on my iTunes.

Erin McKeown. Photo by David Roswell.

Her first song, an edgy rockabilly tune about cowboys and cocaine, allowed her to show off her technical Travis-picking guitar style and catchy song-writing ability. McKeown’s voice was polished and had a lot of character; she had such a charismatic stage presence that she made a show out of tuning her guitar. She evidently loved to perform and the audience hung on her every word, even when she poked fun at Oberlin. “I wanted to go [here],” said McKeown, “[instead], I went to Brown.”

This unknown talent interacted with the audience like a seasoned veteran. “Since you all applied to Brown, you know that it’s in Providence,” she said before her second song, “I wrote this tune about a strip club in Providence called the Satin Doll. I’d go with a fist full of one dollar bills and hope that the ladies would saddle up to me. They never did.”

McKeown’s lyrics were very provocative and a tad profane, perfectly suited to Oberlin’s audience, who loved every minute of it. The songs off her new album, Hundreds of Lions, frequently referred to strip clubs, drug and alcohol use, and S&M. At one point, a crying baby interrupted her performance. “There are children in the audience?” She said, “Oh Shit! Oh well, I’m just going to do what I had planned on doing.”

McKeown closed her half-hour opening set with a classical American guitar version of Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” and got the all of Finney Chapel to sing along. This badass chick-rocker exemplifies the label that signed her, Righteous Babe Records.

After a short intermission, Ani DiFranco took the stage. She looked very fidgety and a tad uncomfortable at first. Her voice was soft-spoken but still engaging. She started her set with a few newer tunes that went almost unrecognized by the audience. “It’s only going to get weirder and more bitter from here,” she said.

Photo by David Roswell.

DiFranco prefaced each song with a story. One song she wrote about her newborn baby, another she performed at Pete Seeger’s birthday party. In the middle of her set, Difranco played a fast-paced protest song condemning nuclear power. “I wanted to play this song at the Republican National Convention,” she said, “but I had no one to ask. I have to befriend some Republicans.”

At the end of the night, DiFranco played a few up-tempo songs requested by the audience. Seemingly out of nowhere, “the freaky guy in the blue jump suit” danced his way around Finney chapel, and surprisingly, inspired everyone else to get out of their seats and into the aisles. Difranco played a double encore and finished her show with the song 32 Flavors, an audience favorite.

DiFranco is not the world’s greatest singer. She doesn’t have the smooth tone and effortless picking of Erin McKeown. Instead, her guitar work is harsh and staccato. However, while listening to her performance in the beauty of Finney chapel, I didn’t care one bit. Her songs are drenched in personal experience, and her lyrics elevate her art. The haunting dissonance of her music combined with a precise rhythm had me tapping my toes while simultaneously on the verge of tears. One thing is certain: Ani DiFranco is not a pop artist. Her inspiration comes from deep within herself. Though the audience was overwhelmingly female, her lyrics were universal and were spoke to everyone in attendance.

A word of advice to Ms. DiFranco: don’t wait another 17 years to visit again. Come back whenever you’d like.

Ladysmith Black Mombazo Fills Finney to the Brim

February 28th, 2010
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By Daniel Fryland

Photo by Sook Hyun Jang.

Ladysmith Black Mambazo filled Finney with a message of peace, love, and harmony as they performed their beautiful a capella compositions on Tuesday.  Joyous dancing accompanied warm vocal chords and rhythms before a captivated, packed audience.

Eastwood Kindergartners. Photo by Sook Hyun Jang.

I arrived at Finney Chapel early–but not early enough.  Along with a group of other students hoping to see Ladysmith Black Mambazo, I was turned away at the doors.  After some scrambling and begging, I managed to get inside just as Marvin Krislov took the stage following a short performance by students of Eastwood Elementary School.

President Krislov thanked the Eastwood students for their efforts to raise money for children in Haiti.  He then proceeded to “date himself,” by recommending that we “acquaint [ourselves] with Ladysmith Black Mambazo’s records.”  Since Joseph Shabalala formed the group in 1960, they have recorded more than 50 albums, as a group and in collaboration with others like Paul Simon and Josh Groban.

Finally, the nine current members of the band took the stage.  Joseph led the band into the first song, which had a call-and-response form with soft, sweet vocal harmonies that instantly awed the audience.  During the first song, Joseph gestured and danced while the rest of the band remained stoic.  As the performance went on, the band warmed up, and moved into choreographed dances.

Joseph Shabalala talking to the audience. Photo by Sook Hyun Jang

Joseph Shabalala introduced his band, which started in 1964 when he had a dream in which he heard a choir singing the most beautiful chords he had ever heard.  Following this dream, he gathered together friends and family members and taught them the harmonies he had heard.

Ladysmith Black Mambazo sings isicathamiya music—the traditional music of the Zulu people.  The style is characterized by sweet, warm vocal harmonies with a high lead voice, accented by a percussive feel and vocal rolls.

Ladysmith Black Mambazo sings isicathamiya music—the traditional music of the Zulu people.  The style is characterized by sweet, warm vocal harmonies with a high lead voice, accented by a percussive feel and vocal rolls.

The band displayed powerful cohesion while on stage.  Besides the incredible precision of the harmonies and rhythm, the band’s dances nearly always involved some interplay between singers.  Often, a singer at one end of the stage would perform a dance move, which was subsequently repeated by each member of the band in order down the line.

Thamasanqa Shabalala leading Ladysmith Black Mamabazo. Photo by Sook Hyun Jang.

Joseph explained the bond between members of the band by saying, “Ladysmith Black Mambazo is a family.  In my group, I have four sons—the future of Mambazo,” before introducing his youngest son, Thamsanqa Shabalala as the leader of the next few songs and stepping offstage.

The choir performed a capella and played endlessly with sound.  For a singer, one’s instrument is one’s own body.  Ladysmith Black Mambazo certainly understood this and manipulated their positioning as a way to alter and experiment with their sound.  During one song, the band stepped back from their microphones, their voices fading, until they were singing without amplification.  Then, as the band stepped forward again, their voices gradually crescendoed through the speakers, returning to their beginning volume.  Creating a similar swelling effect, the band also bowed low as they sang only to stand up straight again, jumping and kicking into the air.

Joseph came back on stage to introduce the next song and give us a translation of the words. “The following song says, ‘I miss the place I grew up.  The mountains are beautiful and the birds are singing sweet music,’” he said before stepping off stage again to let Thamsanqa lead.  In keeping with the mood of the lyrics, the song evoked a feeling of not-quite-mournful nostalgia and included bird calls from one of the band members.

During another song, the singers were all crouching and facing to their left, when the rightmost singer turned around and delivered an aggressive kiss to the cheek of the singer behind him—knocking his fellow performer over.  The mood was light, however, and Thamsanqa responded by half-singing, half-whispering “Hey guys, no kissing.  No kissing in the church.”

Photo by Sook Hyun Jang.

After this segment of the performance, the entire band stepped offstage briefly.  Joseph began the next song while offstage and then entered with the band as the song transitioned from the introduction to the main body of the song complete with playful, joyful dancing.  As the song came to an end, the band continued to dance, the energy having transcended the boundaries of the music.

Gradually, the dancing subsided, and Joseph began the next song, singing, “Come along, come along, come along to kiss me” in a voice full of yearning.  Gentle crescendos were reminiscent of waves gently receding and lightly breaking on the beach.  The song was overflowing with emotion, and the bass voices physically resonated in my chest.  I felt as if I were in Joseph’s dream in 1964—hearing the voices of a perfect choir.

Following this astounding performance was an intermission, during which the audience was encouraged to visit the merchandise table.  The audience took the opportunity to stretch out after sitting in Finney’s packed pews, and at the end of the intermission, the seating was much less cramped.  The intermission had been announced just at 8:30—the scheduled ending time of the event according to the posters.

However, one of the singers soon returned to discuss South Africa’s hosting of the World Cup this year, inviting the entire packed Finney to “stay with me.” He then surprised us by initiating a singing competition between the audience and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. The audience willingly learned the song, and after several repetitions of the two short sections, the song ended with a sustained chord from the audience.

The playful nature of Ladysmith Black Mombazo continued, as they joked about whether or not the participation of women in the audience counted as cheating. They then continued with their set—including the band’s song “Homeless,” which was written and recorded in collaboration with Paul Simon.  As the song ended and the audience applauded, Joseph knelt down as if in prayer.  This humble expression brought forth the feelings of sorrow and suffering always present in the face of global poverty.

Photo by Sook Hyun Jang.

To raise our spirits after the sobering tone of “Homeless,”  the next song was powerfully upbeat and provided members of the band with an excuse to dance.  One at a time nearly every member of Ladysmith Black Mambazo stepped forward and danced until Joseph called for audience members to join the band on stage.  Several students and community members lept onto the stage, dancing in unison to the beat of the music and the rhythmic clapping of the audience.

After this song, Ladysmith Black Mambazo left the stage.  A long, intense standing ovation called one of the singers back to explain, “We are going to leave the stage.  The show is finished.” The audience, however, was not ready for the concert to end, and successfully called the entire ensemble back for one more song.  The song was introduced as the song that they will sing at the World Cup, and featured warm, gentle chords with a powerful bass.

This time, the concert truly had come to an end.  In parting, Joseph Shabalala called out, “We love you so much.  We will miss you.  Stay in peace, love, and harmony.”

We Are Oberlin: Feminists. A Review of Intimate Apparel

February 28th, 2010
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By Sasha Schechter

Intimate Apparel was Hall Auditorium’s first show of the semester, directed by faculty member Caroline Jackson-Smith and written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage.

The evening was filled with stunning performances by the entire ensemble, emphasized by the brilliant set and lighting designs.  The set was made up of five different locations, on three moving platforms and two stationary areas.  Each location was home to one of the protagonist, Esther’s (Heather Harvey ’11) clients or friends – a distinction that is hard to make both for Esther and the audience.

The platforms and people on them would move to and from Esther, occasionally leaving her alone on stage with no location around her.  Literally and metaphorically, Esther’s network of people would come and go throughout the timeframe of the play.  This function of the set wonderfully enforced Esther’s constant loneliness and need for human connection.

While that part of the play’s message was clearly portrayed, another was not.  This show proved to be difficult to perform in an environment like Oberlin.  At a school that is so focused on strong character and progressive thinking, it’s hard to imagine accepting a female character written to be as weak and desperate as Esther is.  I think this conflict – between what the reality of the script is, and what the ideal at Oberlin is – showed in Harvey’s character choices.

Harvey created a strong, determined Esther against sophomore Ralph Johnson’s striking performance as her chauvinist husband.  The contrast of the two strong beings never fully clicked with the overarching theme of the play; since Esther’s desperation was subdued, audience members were left grasping for clear-cut answers as to why such a strong woman would let herself end up in such a self-deprecating situation.  Regardless of Esther’s character details, the show brought Friday night’s audience to its feet at the end of the show.

The acting in this production was solid and polished; there wasn’t one character on stage that the audience couldn’t understand or relate to.  Lisa Brown ’11 (Mrs. Dixon) was particularly memorable; she fit the character so well and managed to entice the audience in the handful of times she was on stage.  Similarly, Billy Ferrer ’12 (Mr. Marks) offered an honest and vulnerable performance that added subtle levels to the overall plot.

Samantha Boyd ’11 (Mayme) and Atty Siegel ’12 (Mrs. Van Buren), both friends and/or clients of Esther’s, performed with Harvey in vastly different ways that presented the complete spectrum of Esther’s social life to the audience.  These two characters are so vital to understanding Esther’s personal struggles, and Boyd and Siegel worked separately but together to showcase them flawlessly.

The production was, overall, very strong.  Regardless of the small issues with interpretation, Intimate Apparel was a comprehensive period piece.  It was informative, entertaining, and heartfelt.  The bar has certainly been set high for the rest of the semester’s main stage productions.

When Love Isn’t So Simple: Betrayal

February 28th, 2010
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By Sasha Schechter

Betrayal, written by Harold Pinter and directed by faculty member Paul Moser, opened in Little Theater last weekend.  The show starred Emma Walton ’10 (Emma), Donnie Sheldon ’10 (Robert), and Josh Christian ’10 (Jerry).

Harold Pinter is a Nobel Laureate, and is certainly one of the most influential playwrights in recent history.  He wrote Betrayal in 1978 based off of real-life experiences, and it is considered to be one of his greatest works.  Paul Moser directed this senior honors project spearheaded by Emma Walton.

To an actor, Pinter’s neutral dialogue acts as a bare canvass, on which he or she can create a character that best suits their acting style.  In this production, Robert’s subtle, sinister ways combined with Jerry’s awkward guffaws and mixed with Emma’s nervous-yet-cool composure to create a production that toyed with its audience’s emotions and built suspense in a play that is written to move backwards in time.

The set was sparse, made up of rehearsal cubes and block furniture; there were limited props, no liquid in the liquor bottles, and the lighting design was straightforward ‘up’ and ‘down.’  While the simplicity highlighted the story and the acting over everything else, the lack of liquid in their drinking glasses made it difficult to gage just how much the characters were consuming.  It was hard to imagine how they weren’t intoxicated to the point of not functioning.

Perhaps there were a few too many drinks consumed, or an overabundance of awkward guffaws, but neither of these things managed to make me dislike this production.  The actors showed remarkable skill in portraying their characters, and, despite having read the play only a few days before seeing it, they managed to keep me on the edge of my seat to the very end.

Sheldon’s performance as Robert had so many levels that he never seemed to run out of information to share with the audience.  He used every moment on stage – from the way he sat in his chair, to the way he raised a drinking glass to his mouth – to relay more information about himself and the story.  His character choices provided rich subtext to the plot, and he elicited a broad range of reactions from the audience.

Walton, who chose this play as her honors project, showed a thorough understanding of the production’s structure and overall intention.  With no visual indication that time was moving backwards – only a note in the playbill – the audience would have been lost if not for Walton’s skilled capacity to lessen her character’s knowledge from scene to scene.  The audience looked to Walton for confirmation of what we should or shouldn’t know from scene to scene, and she never let us down.


Christian’s Jerry was simultaneously adorable and slimy.  We never knew just how to feel about him, and if at any point his character seemed clear cut, he would do or say something that made us doubt his intentions.  In particular, any time a game of squash came up, Christian’s eyes would bug, and keep the audience in a frenzied guessing game as to whom he would actually play squash with–Robert? Or perhaps Casey?–and what exactly playing squash means to these people.


Sheldon, Walton, and Christian worked together to create tangible tension, evident in every word.  Between Pinter’s writing and the hard work put into this production, Betrayal was a down to earth show that glorified action over technology and design.  It was a breath of fresh air amongst flashing strobe lights and projector screens. Honors projects like these show the strength of the department’s training and of the students’ work.

From Terrorism and Beyond: Bridging the Israel/Palestine Divide

February 26th, 2010
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By Rachel Bouer

lib.utexas.edu

Thursday evening, Hallock Auditorium was full of different sides of the same story. Exemplifying this were the speakers, Kobi Skolnick and Aziz Abu-Sarah of Israel and Palestine, respectively. They shared their different stories, mutual hopes, and future plans with students, faculty, and staff, some of whom are part of either the Oberlin Zionists or Students for a Free Palestine. The stories of Skolnick and Abu-Sarah filled the room with a warm glow that lessened the burden of the falling snow outside.

The evening began with an introduction from Oberlin Zionists co-chair, Sam Kleinman, who explained that both speakers had “turned from hard-line positions to peace activism.” Abu-Sarah was involved with a radical wing of the Fatah Youth movement in Palestine at the same time that Skolnick was an Israeli soldier and settler in the West Bank.

“What is normally known in the media is that [Skolnick and I] are strongly known as enemies. At one point in our lives we probably were enemies,” Abu-Sarah said. “But today we are here together not just as partners but as friends.”

Aziz’s Story

Following this meaningful note, Abu-Sarah walked around the auditorium stage and told his story beginning in his childhood days in Bethany, a small town outside Jerusalem.

“If you grew up there, there is no childhood,” he said. By the time Abu-Sarah was seven years old, the first intifada, or uprising, had begun.

He described the confusion and questioning of his childhood in this chaotic time.

“When you’re seven, you are trying to understand what’s going on,” he said. “Who’s ‘them’ and who’s ‘us’ anyway?”

Despite his lack of attachment to the conflict, Abu-Sarah encountered serious concerns often. He said that he and his friends threw stones, not out of violent intention but merely the search for entertainment. However, this could lead to shootings from the Israeli military, which ended the innocence of the game.

When Abu-Sarah went to school each day, he had one thing more important than his books to bring with him. Each day he had to pack an onion, whose chemical properties can counteract the effects of teargas.

Though this was going on around him, Abu-Sarah said he was still able to live in a “bubble”  where it seemed that all that was bad would happen to others while not happening to him. Unfortunately, reality struck a few years later during Ramadan. The Abu-Sarah family woke up early to eat their pre-sunrise meal and then returned to bed, only to be interrupted moments later by Israeli soldiers who eventually arrested and took Abu-Sarah’s older brother for further interrogation.

Meanwhile, his family did not know why he was taken or where he was. After 18 days of agonizing waiting, the family heard that he had been arrested for throwing stones and would remain in prison for the following year. After his sentence, Abu-Sarah’s brother’s health had declined sharply due to poor prison conditions and brutality immediately following his arrest. Days after his release, Abu-Sarah’s brother passed away at age 19 in a Jerusalem hospital.

This devastating loss was the impetus for Abu-Sarah’s greater involvement with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Unlike his actions today, his first response at the time was one of anger, bitterness and violence.

“The idea of peace and reconciliation seems like such a stupid idea in that moment,” he said. “I felt it was my duty and my reason for life to get revenge; if I’m a good brother that’s what I have to do.”

In order to use this emotional response in an active way, Abu-Sarah decided to get involved with politics. By age 16, he was writing twice or more per week for a newspaper in Jerusalem.

“The articles were about how we should never compromise or talk to the enemy,” he said.

By the time he finished high school, Abu-Sarah said he was “so radical” that he refused to listen during the mandatory Hebrew classes his school offered. Ironically, because he had to then learn it later to get around the city and eventually go to college, Abu-Sarah stumbled upon his first ideas for peace.

He attended an ulpan, which is a Hebrew school for incoming Jews to Israel. Abu-Sarah was the only Palestinian in the class, and he went in with the plan of simply learning the language and leaving. He thought, “I’m not going to talk to anyone, I don’t like anyone here.” However, the simple nature of the class frustrated this strategy.

“You have to work in groups so they force you to have conversations about who you are, where you are from, what you like,” he said. “As you start having those conversations something starts changing. You start figuring out something kind of weird and strange— you have some stuff in common.”

Abu-Sarah explained that this brought down some of the walls he held between him and Israelis in general. He explained that before you really get to know someone from the other side, you “dehumanize” them.

“[You think to yourself,] they’re not as ethical and moral as we are. It’s true we do some bad things too, but our bad are a little less bad,” he said. “It’s therefore ok to kill them, ok to wish them ill. After you get to know them that argument doesn’t really stand.”

For Abu-Sarah, it was initially nothing monumental that brought him closer with his Jewish classmates, rather his love of country music. Over time, these realizations grew from casual conversation to startlingly deep insights. “Our blood color is the same, our tears are as bitter, and our pain is as personal.”

Kobi’s Story

Like Abu-Sarah, it took Skolnick a while to reach such an understanding conclusion. His background also began with a strong community and a mistrust of the other side. Skolnick grew up in as an ultra-Orthodox Lubovitcher, or someone who practices a specific branch of Hasidic Judaism.

Skolnick explained that this lifestyle had many boundaries.

“The education system was very strict,” he said. “I first watched TV when  I was 14 and first read the newspaper when I was 16.”

In this sheltering environment, Skolnick was introduced to ideas from others who were reflecting on their lives and roles in their religious communities. One weekend, he met a friend who introduced him to a new philosophy of Judaism, Kahanah. It entails a much more militaristic view toward the Israeli Palestinian conflict than most other Jewish philosophies.

“If Palestinians use violence, we should show them we can use violence as well,” Skolnick said. “It was definitely a sense of empowerment.” After learning and studying, Skolnick and his friends took to action.

“We ended up in Hebron city. We’d go to the streets in groups of three or four… and throw stones at Palestinian cars. Every other weekend I was doing that because it was something new and fun,” he said.

Skolnick continued his ultra-religious education at a Yeshivah high school in a settlement in the West Bank. His life consisted of occasional violent acts, but they did not stand out as noteworthy at the time because it was just “part of [his] day.”

Upon turning 18, Skolnick joined the Israeli Army for his mandatory service. After basic and advanced training, he was in the same city of his rebellious youth, Hebron. However, it was not full of the fun and games he had experienced as a child.

“I was starting to see that training is not like getting shot in real life,” he said.

As he paced through the same streets he ran down as a child, he frequently encountered Palestinian children throwing stones. One occasion brought the horrors of the conflict into sharp focus for Skolnick. A large stone nearly hit his head, but if it had he “would not be here today.” The normal response to such action would be to fire rubber bullets; however, loading rubber bullets is time-consuming so Skolnick had a minute to reflect. In that time, he realized that what he was witnessing was not normal.

“I looked at those kids who were seven or eight and I realized I was there a few years ago. I started to realize something was wrong here and I needed to think about it,” he said. “From that moment on I started asking questions.”

Soon after, tragedy struck Skolnick’s life as well. One of his closest friends was shot by a Palestinian gunman during the Second Intifada. His friend was survived by his wife and five children, with one more on the way. Skolnick decided to live at their settlement with them, where he became an elementary school teacher.

Not long after, a gunman came into the school and shot at the children, some of whom were wounded or killed.

After working to save as many of the children as possible, Skolnick noticed that the now-dead gunman was not past age 17.

“I thought to myself, if we could do something that wasn’t fighting or talking about this, if we could just play basketball together or something, maybe this wouldn’t have happened. Not that we would be able to live happily together in peace, but if we met somewhere else, would that take place?” he said.

After this, Skolnick began his career as a peace activist, by looking to answer questions about the origins of such hatred and violence.

If we bring people together and create a new perception, something will change,” he said.

“Showing People We Are All Human”

The pair met a year-and-a-half ago in the United States and since then have been doing activist work in Israel and Palestine. Abu-Sarah explained that they saw the greatest need for peace work among the youth population. Since then, they have traveled to 1,000 high schools per year, reaching approximately 30,000 students in Israel and West Bank.

They speak with the students about the other side and ask them for their perceptions, which usually are “not positive” due to media influence, Abu-Sarah explained.

One other project they have started involves Israelis donating blood to Palestinians wounded by Israeli soldiers and Palestinians donating blood to Israelis. Abu-Sarah said this received much criticism from the media.

“They said, ‘how could you do this? You are donating blood to the enemy!’” he said. “But it is better to donate your blood to the enemy than spill it on the ground.”

In order to accomplish these tasks, something different needed to be done.

“There are Arab groups and Muslim groups that work for peace and Jewish groups that work for peace but it is hard sometimes to get them to work together,” he said. We need an alliance of Arabs and Jews and Christians to show that we can do projects together and we can dialogue together.”

Though both men have since faced difficulties in their families and communities about their work, this does not outweigh the benefits of their actions.

The evening ended with a story by famous Israeli author Amos Oz as told by Abu-Sarah which exemplified his and Skolnick’s ideas and intentions for their peace work.

The story relates the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to walking by a building on fire. When one sees this, they have three options. First, they could run away because the issue does not involve them and they want to save themselves and their families so they choose to ignore it. Second, one could create a committee to investigate who is to blame for the fire and by the time have convened, all of the people in the fire would be dead.

The third option is to take a bucket and throw it on the fire. If you don’t have that then you fill up a cup with water and throw that on the fire,” Abu-Sarah narrated. “If you don’t have that you get a spoon. You fill it with water and throw that on the fire. Don’t think I’m naïve to think that actually a spoonful of water could put out a fire of a building, but imagine if enough people would carry their spoons and would decide to do something to put out the fire. If everyone does the little thing they could do then fixing that mess over there is not that hard.”

Stevie Wonder and Bill Cosby Update

February 26th, 2010
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By Erica M. Lee

christybharath.wordpress.com

Oberlin College intends to have Stevie Wonder and Bill Cosby grace the Litoff Building opening, although contracts have not been signed.

Without a signed contract, Oberlin College cannot officially release the news.  However, “We do anticipate that Stevie Wonder, as well as Bill Cosby, will be with us that weekend,” wrote Marci Janas, Director of Conservatory Media Relations, in an email.

“Stevie Wonder has communicated to members of the Oberlin College community his intentions to participate in our celebrations during the weekend of the Litoff Building’s opening,” wrote Janas.