By Martha Marteney - ReminderNews

In honor of Black History Month, Manchester Community College is hosting the art exhibit, “Present,” by two local artists, Chotsani E. Dean and Howard el-Yasin, in the Hans Weiss Newspace gallery. Dean grew up in Windsor and now lives in Hartford. Currently a resident of New Haven, el-Yasin lived in Hartford as a teen. At the opening reception on Feb. 2, the artists described their works and the connection they feel to their history.

“A lot of work that I make comes out of my communal ancestry,” said Dean, whose pieces feature ceramic tiles hung on the wall, reminiscent of quilts. She explained that quilting provided an outlet not only for creativity and resourcefulness, but as a way to communicate through the symbols used in the quilts. This was especially important during the antebellum period, when many plantation mistresses taught the women slaves how to quilt. Dean noted that the women sometimes also learned to read and write, which was prohibited, but the men did not pay attention to the women during their quilting bees.

“I’m particularly honored to be part of show for Black History Month,” said el-Yasin, even through he said he does not consider himself as an Afro-American artist. Rather, he likes his forms to give a connection to history both through the discarded materials he uses and through his work process, which often involves, for example, adding color and taking it away. “Things are built up, changed, erased,” he said, much like each person’s individual history.

According to MCC professor Susan Classen-Sullivan, Dean and el-Yasin were selected for this exhibit because they are both important, contemporary artists. She also felt there would be a good conversation between Dean’s and el-Yasin’s pieces, a sentiment with which both artists agreed.

This is the first exhibit specifically for Black History Month, which was first suggested by Dean of Student Affairs G. Duncan Harris more than a year ago, but took some time to coordinate into the exhibit schedule. Harris said he felt is would be important for African-American students to see they can succeed in the arts, “to see that dream become a reality,” he said.

Referring to the multitude of Dean’s ceramic tiles that make up the “quilt” installations, Melissa Steward, an MCC social services student, said, “Her pieces are talking to me.” Steward was looking for inspiration for a Drawing II project that requires her to draw the same subject 50 times.

During el-Yasin’s opening remarks, MCC adjunct professor Anthony Billard observed el-Yasin’s “Verboten” (“Forbidden,” in German), saying, “I was having a dialogue with ‘Verboten’ of the entrapment and cage-like structure.” The hanging piece is made of twigs, twine, nails and hair. According to el-Yasin, that form reminds him that in Africa, the woods is a place where people are forced out into.

“I really like the tiles,” said Linda Bradley, who teaches Drawing I at MCC. “I usually work in black and white, so I admire people who work in color.” She also appreciated the apparent simplicity and spontaneity of the installation. Dean explained that the installations change each time the tiles are hung.

We Wilmoth’s favorite piece was el-Yasin’s “Layer Weight #1,” which features the layers of paint built up and removed. “There’s so many things you can see in it,” said Wilmoth, an MCC general studies student.

Sean McKeever Talks About Upcoming Marvel Trading Cards "The Avengers Kree-Skrull War"

"This July Marvel and Upper Deack are coming together and releasing five new comics that took place during the Kree-Skrull War. But these comics are going to be told through the trading cards and are apart of real comics continuity.And they are written by Fear Itself author Sean McKeever It will be a 190 card set and will have these stories for you to put together":

- The Sacrifice, a 20-page story that focuses on Cap, Thor, Iron Man and Vision, with art by Manuel Garcia.

- Power, a four-page story about Super-Skrull with art by Carlos Paul.
- The Debt, which tells a story of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver in an eight-page comic drawn by Andy Smith.

- The Fall, which is about Nick Fury and features six pages of art by Allan Patrick.
- Soldier's Honor, a four-page story that focuses on Captain America and has art by Fabio Jansen.
and more in over 40 pgs. of comics on trading cards.

"Each card has a front and back, with nine cards fitting together to make a two-sided page. The cards will be sold with nine cards per $3 pack, and 24 packs per box. Upper Deck will also have additional insert cards in the collection, including "cover art" for the stories."

Newsarama: OK, Sean, when this was announced, it sounded more like it was about the cards instead of a real comic. But I guess since they got a real comic writer to do this, it's legit?

Sean McKeever: It is! It's a real Marvel comic. It's the first time Marvel has done something like this, and it's part of continuity. And it ties into a major storyline, with the Kree-Skrull War.


Nrama: How does it tie into the Kree-Skrull War?

McKeever: The great thing about Kree-Skrull War is that it started out in smaller stories that were hinting it, but then it grew more and more epic in scale.
So if you read the story, there are a lot of personal stories, and then once it gets big, there are a lot things going on in different places, like the big battle between some of the Avengers and the Skrull armada, and then there's Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch trapped on the Skrull homeworld.

So as they're jumping around from issue to issue, from one place to another, editor Bill Rosemann and I found these gaps in the story. And we thought, well what happens during that time? What can glean more insight into the story, and also glean more insight into the characters during that time period?

With a bushy gray beard

Health issues forced Robin Williams to cancel a planned 2009 Broadway engagement of his standup tour, Weapons of Self Destruction. So it seems oddly fitting he should arrive instead in a fascinating role that combines profane comedy, war and existentialism. Think of him as Lenny Bruce meets Friedrich Nietzsche in the body of a man-eating predator.

With a bushy gray beard, ragged clothing and no hint of a tail or stripes, Williams plays the surly old beast in the title of Rajiv Joseph’s bracingly original Pulitzer-shortlisted play, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo. He spends most of his stage time, however, not prowling the cramped confines of a mangled cage in the bombed out zoo, but wandering the burning city as a ghost, tormented by soul-searing doubts.

Contemplating his damnation over the basic primordial impulse to kill and eat, the atheistic Tiger asks, “What if my very nature is in direct conflict with the moral code of the universe?” His quest for atonement is just one of the mordantly funny philosophical threads of this imaginative work.

Set in the early days of the American occupation, the play was inspired by a news item about the Baghdad Zoo. It’s a black comedy, a grisly horror show and a metaphysical ghost story.

Two U.S. Marines guard the Tiger’s cage. Tom (Glenn Davis) gets a little too close while taunting the animal, and loses a hand. This prompts his dim buddy Kev (Brad Fleischer) to shoot the Tiger with a gold-plated pistol looted from the Hussein Brothers mansion. As opening scenes go, it’s an attention-grabber.

Cut to Kev attempting, or not, to explain the colloquial usage of "bitch" in a knock-knock joke to Musa (Arian Moayed), a former gardener at the Hussein Palace, now working as a U.S. military interpreter. During a tense night raid, Kev’s fragile equilibrium crumbles, landing him in hospital on suicide watch. A visit from Tom, returning from the U.S. with a prosthetic hand, does little to calm him. The presence of the Tiger’s ghost does even less.

Much of the play takes place in a garden full of tattered topiary animals sculpted by Musa at the behest of Uday Hussein (Hrach Titizian). “This place is lousy with ghosts,” observes the Tiger. Designed by Derek McLane against a backdrop of dusty Middle Eastern splendor and exquisitely lit in sepulchral gloom by David Lander, the garden makes an arresting, other-worldly home for those unquiet spirits. In this decayed playground, the dead gain unexpected knowledge, even if true enlightenment often eludes them.

The urge to destroy is passed from character to character and from the dead to the living. The most unsettling transactions are those between the teasing, sadistic Uday and Musa, whose sister (Sheila Vand) died at the hands of the despotic scion.

Moises Kaufman (The Laramie Project, 33 Variations) directs this beguiling play with quicksilver shifts in tone to match the volatile, questioning nature of Joseph’s writing. Scenes of macabre, circus-like atmosphere segue to dream-like fugue states; biting humor is interspersed with poetic musings; symbolic imagery abounds; shocking violence gives way to wrenching despair.

Those altered states are also channeled by the gifted cast. Fleischer and Davis, whose characters are first depicted as gung-ho grunts, grow steadily more affecting in different ways. Titizian and Moayed are standouts, the former as an egomaniac with a malevolent sense of irony, his basest instincts fed by war, and the latter as an artist whose purity of heart is perverted by cruel experience.

Williams has not given a performance this subdued in years. He commits to being part of an ensemble, never ramping up into a star turn. There’s no comic shtick in his thoughtful Tiger, yet in the animal’s eye-rolling disdain for the idiotic lions that fled the zoo early, his playful needling of Kev or his antagonistic dialogue with a God he doesn’t believe in, the ripples of humor are rich and flavorful.

School officials getting plenty of input on cuts

Proposals to close a $3.75 million gap in the Grand Island Public Schools budget provide

something for everybody to hate.

"Hate" is probably too strong a word considering the civility that has been part of the

debate so far, although it is clear that nobody likes the proposed cuts.

The district started off with a deficit of $12.8 million that it needed to close. Cutting the

first $8 million to $9 million caused little outcry, but it is the final several million

dollars, which are affecting personnel, that has caused more debate.

The Independent asked permission to see the e-mails with the understanding that e-mailers

would be called to see if they would be willing to share their views in the newspaper. While

many people were passionate in their views, everybody was very civil, both in the 39 e-mails

submitted and also in the few interviews The Independent was able to conduct.

Gary Swallow, who said he worked at a manufacturing plant for 37 years, including 10 years as

plant manager, said his e-mail suggested cutting administrators, not classroom teachers.

Swallow said he did not believe that administrators have as big an impact on what happens in

the classroom as teachers, and that is one reason he favors cutting administrative personnel.

He also said administrators make more money than teachers, so a reduction eliminating one

administrator saves more money than eliminating one teacher.

He said he was not impressed that central office administrators have offered to have their

salaries frozen for the coming year. He said that prevents costs from rising, but it does not

lower costs to help close the deficit.

Kris McElligott is another person who questions whether enough has been done to cut

administrative costs, specifically at central administration.

When questioned by The Independent, Finance Director Virgil Harden said the district has the

right to issue reduction-in-force notices to building principals, as well as to teaching

staff. He noted the RIF notices that have already have been publicly discussed include a

half-time elementary principal.

Harden said he believes the superintendent would have the right to trim personnel in the

central office. Any administrative change would need approval or at least acquiescence by the

school board.

Harden also was questioned on whether the school district could unilaterally cut

administrative pay. After thinking the question through, Harden said he believes interim

Superintendent Harrison Cass could propose a cut in pay for both central office and building

administrators. He said pay cuts would have to be approved by a vote of the school board, who

would have earlier voted to approve the existing pay packages.

The district theoretically could cut that pay because administrators are not organized as a

formal bargaining group like the Grand Island Education Association.

But Harden said that might be a short-term solution with long-term consequences. He said

employees who have seen their pay cut could be motivated to form a bargaining unit to protect

themselves in the future.

The current situation for the Grand Island school district is that central office

administrators have offered to freeze their salaries for the coming year. GIPS classified

staff members have made the same offer.

Despite that pay freeze offer from classified staff, 8.84 FTE paraprofessionals with the

Grand Island school district are being laid off, Harden said.

While McElligott joined Swallow – and other e-mailers – in concern over administrative

costs, the original issue that prompted her e-mail was the proposal to cut back the amount of

time devoted to middle school math instruction, as well as the proposal to integrate the

middle school technology program with science.

McElligott said middle school is a critical time for math instruction. She said her concern

is that only the best math students will be able to grasp the increasingly difficult math

concepts introduced in middle school, while more students will struggle.

As a result, McElligott is worried that fewer middle school students will go on to take the

higher level math courses at Senior High, which can end with some students taking AP

calculus. She said a greater number of students will opt to take the less demanding math

track in high school because they spent less time on math while in middle school.

McElligott also objected to integrating middle school technology with science because she

believes it could hinder student achievement in both subject areas. She said the applied

science and applied math in middle school technology courses can help students decide if they

want to pursue careers such as engineering.

She said the middle school modules in technology give students hands-on experience in areas

such as robotics. McElligott said another concern is that the district's investment in the

technology modules will go to waste if technology and science are integrated.

She questioned why the district is cutting back on middle school technology instruction at

the same time it is planning on greatly expanded career and technology education (CTE) course

offerings at Senior High.

If middle school students somehow manage to get all the technology they need, then McElligott

said there is a danger those students will need to learn all the basic science they need to

know.

McElligott said a secondary issue for her is that it seems as though the cuts to athletic

programs are not balanced. She wondered why school officials are considering eliminating the

swim program – which is a relatively low-cost sport – and not making bigger cuts in the

more expensive sports programs.

Mikki Vlach and her husband were among several swim parents who sent e-mails to the school

district asking that the high school swim team not be eliminated. During an interview, Vlach

said their 10-year-old daughter, Izzy, is on the Quicksilver swim team.

Vlach believes her daughter will stay interested in the sport all the way through high

school, a view she also noted in her e-mail when she wrote, "she (Izzy) is already talking

about being a member of the high school swim team even though she has only been swimming for

a year."

Vlach said swim team is a relatively low-cost program, so she questioned the proposal to end

it. Because the sport is a cooperative program involving several schools, Vlach also wondered

whether other school districts could make a greater financial contribution to the program.

It sometimes seems as though the school district focuses its resources on "at-risk" students

to the detriment of motivated students like the ones on the Quicksilver team, who have swim

practice four days per week, 10 months per year, Vlach said.

Another proposal before the board is to cut fifth-grade band and orchestra. At the time, the

proposal was presented as simply delaying student participation in band and orchestra for one

year. But Walnut Middle School band instructor John Schultz was part of an e-mail that

reminded everyone of a possible unintended consequence of the delay.

Under the current system, band and orchestra teachers travel from building to building to

give lessons to small groups of students who are just learning how to play a band instrument

or string instrument, Schultz said. But those small groups add up to big numbers. During the

current school year, 374 fifth-graders began learning how to play a band instrument and 85

students began learning how to play a string instrument.

Those fifth-graders are spread over 14 elementary schools. But as sixth-graders, those

students would be concentrated in just three middle schools, creating problems both in terms

of staffing and perhaps physical space.

"Teaching beginning students in small groups leads to a better chance of success," Schultz

said.