Dr. Greg Granger Professor of History I would like to express my gratitude to the organizers of the memorial for Dr. Phil Kidd. Phil was a one of kind person and his loss is a great blow to our community and to many individual lives he touched, including mine. TheContinue Reading
Krista Hanson Viewpoints Editor Art has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. My dad drew all the time. I have such vivid memories from going out to eat and having the children’s paper menu with its three crayons. My dad would take a crayon and makeContinue Reading
Carly Chandler Contributing Writer Dr. Sarah McFarland is an undergraduate professor of English and is on the graduate faculty at Northwestern State University. I’ve had the pleasure of being one of Dr. McFarland’s undergraduate students since the spring of 2020. In that time, she’s not only shown me that she’sContinue Reading
Christian Bell Reporter It seems like only yesterday students were attending Northwestern State University game days and walking across campus to greet their friends without a mask. This time last year, Demons were preparing for spring break when the NSU community received an email that would alter what normalcy meant for life on campus. On March 13, 2020, University President Dr. Chris Maggio cancelled all in-person university activities. “As announced Friday in response to the ongoing threatContinue Reading
Kendall Caple Reporter As an English major, one of my favorite things about poetry and literature is how it allows us to venture beyond the realm of our embodied experiences to become more understanding and enlightened individuals. One such poet whose words I find myself thinking about often is Gwendolyn Brooks. Renowned for her poetry which eloquently and angrily condemnsContinue Reading
Serena Bonnette Opinions Columnist Cicely Tyson was a seasoned American actress and model whose career spanned more than seven decades. According to Wikipedia, she received three Primetime Emmy Awards, four Black Reel Awards, one Screen Actors Guild Award, one Tony Award, a Peabody Award and an honorary Academy Award. She passed on Jan. 28. This year, Hollywood lost a legend. Tyson was mostly known for her roles and portrayals of strong Black women. These roles shattered the stereotypes of the 70s and ultimately made her a star. According to the New York Times, one of the most notable parts of Tyson’s career was her groundbreaking efforts for civil rights in the film industry. Tyson refused parts and roles that demeaned Black people and encouraged others to do the same. This notion alone is so important because even today, refusing any kind of a role in the theater or film industry is a huge risk that can cause actors to get blacklisted. Because of her refusal, early in her career she went without work but with dignity. She was a critic against film and television that only portrayed Black people as criminals and low-lives, and, according to The New York Times, insisted that Black people, even if they are portrayed as poor, should also be portrayed with dignity. Tyson became familiar toContinue Reading
Krista Hanson Viewpoints Editor The portrayal of Black people has become so uniform. This monotonous depiction of the Black community is negative in its effort of boxing in people. It changes how society perceives them. A study from Yale University showed the implicit bias preschool teachers had against their Back students resulted in lower expectations and lower referral rates into gifted programs. Black people begin toContinue Reading
Serena Bonnette Opinions Columnist “Slave Play” is a dark comedy play written by Jeremy O. Harris that premiered at the New York Theatre Workshop in December 2018. It is the recipient of the Rosa Parks Playwriting award and was nominated for a best play Tony. “Slave Play” eventually made its way to Broadway, opening at the John Golden Theatre and running from October 2019 to January 2020 for a short but impactful run. The New York Theatre Workshop says the themes center around race, interracial relationships, generational trauma, sex and power relations. The blunt, forceful, in your face production quite literally took the theater world, history and Broadway by storm. The play features three interracial couples attending role play therapy for couples on a former plantation. The set was decoratedContinue Reading
Lora Luquet Arts and Living Editor When Javonti Thomas enrolled at Northwestern State University, he originally signed up to be an English Education major. “I never really thought about communications until I was at orientation, I wasn’t an actual communications major. I actually changed the day of my freshman orientation,” Thomas said. “IContinue Reading
The musical that set the bar for COVID-19 Mary Fletcher Reporter In Jason Robert Brown’s musical, “The Last Five Years,” Brown tells the story of a struggling married couple in New York trying, and eventually failing, to make their differences work. Its small cast size allowed for artists in theContinue Reading