Volume 124 Issue 144
kansan.com
Friday, April 27, 2012
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DO THIS.. take a ghost tour //SARA SNEATH Learn about Lawrence's haunted history
A ghostly noise seeps out of the stone fireplace in the Sigma Nu fraternity house. Legend has it that in the early- 1900s Kansas Gov, Roscoe Stubbs, the resident of the house at that time, came home to find his mistress, Virginia, hanging from a third-floor ballroom. Stubbs had Virginia's body entombed inside the fireplace, legend says. A plaque on the fireplace adds to the tale. The plaque reads "The world of strife shut out, the world of love shut in."
This night the ghostly noises are coming from a fraternity brother who is entertaining a paranormal tour hosted by Ghost Tours of Kansas. The Sigma Nu house is the second stop on the tour, following the Eldridge Hotel. Each stop has its own history as well as several ghost stories. Olga Secvuka, a senior from Overland Park, says her favorite story was the one from the Sigma Nu house.
As Sevcuka enters the Pioneer Cemetery on west campus, she says she hasn't
seen paranormal activity yet, but thinks a cemetery is a good place to look. There are about 30 people of varying ages in the tour group. Nancy Sullivan, one of the paranormal tour guides, says Ghost Tours of Kansas chooses the ghostly locations based on interviews and investigations it conducts prior to the tours. Sullivan is also a member of the Kansas Paranormal Investigators, or KPI, which works with Ghost Tours of Kansas to verify just how haunted a place is.
KPI conducted an investigated of the Sigma Nu house in 2009. Sullivan says during the inquiry KPI recorded a disembodied voice saying "mommy." One of the KPI cameras was also dismounted from a stairwell by an unknown force, she says.
Sullivan says there will be more tours in the area as Halloween approaches. The next Lawrence tour is on June 16. For more information go to ghosttoursofkansas.com.
A Sigma Nu brother tells of his own experience with the building's fireplace.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
DO THIS...
take boudoir photos //SARA SNEATH
Capture your self-confidence in 1,000 words
PHOTO BY OH SNAP? PHOTOGRAPHY
Sara poses in just her Marine Corps blouse
I like to do things that scare me. I've joined the Marine Corps, repelled off buildings, jumped off cliffs and, most recently, taken boudoir photos.
I heard about boudoir photography from a season four episode of Sex and the City in which Samantha decides to take nude photos to look back on. The idea sounded intimidating to me until recently when I read an ABC News story about the intimate photography sessions becoming a trend. One photographer in the story said 40 percent of the brides she worked with have booked boudoir sessions.
I found three photographers in Lawrence who take boudoir photos: OhSnap!Photography, Chelsea Donoho and Atomic Photography. The average price was $225. I decided on
OhSnap!Photography, because I've had good experiences with its photo booths and event photos in the past.
Ailecia Ruscin, the owner of OhSnap1Photography, arrived at my house at 10:30 a.m., but my nervousness began much earlier. I kept wondering how I should answer the door. It was like that moment in movies when the woman says she's going to "freshen up" and the man tries to decide whether this means he should take off his pants or not. I decided to take my pants off.
Ruscin put me at ease by giving good direction and constantly asking for my approval. She told me she would take several hundred photos — 682 to be exact — and I would pick 10 photos for her to edit. She would then give me all of the edited
and unedited images on a disc, which I could print or publish.
We took several pictures in "safe posses", which Ruscin said are flattering for every body. In one such pose, I lie on the bed, pushing my chest out and put my feet in the air. Afterward, we took fun photos. In one, I put on my Marine Corps blouse. In another, I wore apple print galoshes.
I saw the photos the next day, when Ruscin uploaded them to a password protected page on her website, www. ohsnapphoto.com. They were beautiful, artistic and classy.The images gave me just as much confidence as any cliff I've ever jumped off of or building I've repelled down.
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FILM
Documentary prompts race discussion in schools
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Patrick Monroe, a senior from New Berlin, Wis., looks through a lens to focus a shot for his documentary. The documentary features the "Can We Talk" program at Free State High School, which focuses on racial issues in public schools.
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Sylvia Yimer, a graduate student in the School of Social Welfare, went to visit the program "Can We Talk" at Free State High School. "Can We Talk" is a local part of a national program. Yimer said her visit was driven by her interest in race equality in public schools.
editor@kansan.com
A group of University students is producing a documentary called, "Courageous Conversations about Race," a program encouraging high school students to face racial issues.
Yimer said the program was meant to facilitate understanding of different races and reduce the academic performance gap between white students and students of minority groups. She said she was surprised by how unrecognized the program
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Last September, Yimer brought the documentary idea to a University student club, the Documentary Film Society. The student club was just established by then. The president of the club, Patrick Monroe, a senior studying film, was excited to hear about the idea.
Monroe said it was great to know that Sylvia was as dedicated as he was to filming and directing.
"Film can be used to make change and be the outlet for voices that are marginalized to be heard," Yimer said. "These kids wouldn't get an opportunity to get their stories heard without someone giving that to them necessarily."
All contents, unless stated otherwise. © 2012 The University Daily Kansan
Yimer said Singleton was personable. The author set aside more than four hours of his day to meet exclusively with Monroe and Yimer.
was. Yinner decided to make a documentary to raise awareness of the program.
The program is inspired by the book "Courageous Conversations about Race — a Field Guide for Achieving Equity in Schools" by Glenn Singleton and Curtis Linton. In February, Yimer and Monroe flew to San Francisco to interview and film Singleton.
"It was easy to tell how passionate he was about his work and how eager he was to help us," Yimer said. "The interview with Glenn is by far the most important interview for the film."
"Since we started, we were focusing on funding and didn't have
"As a filmmaker, I hope this will be a calling card not just for me, for the club, but for KU," Monroe said. "We want to show people what KU students are capable of."
Monroe said a lot of work needs to be done to make the documentary successful and he hoped they could eventually send the documentary to film festivals. He hasn't yet announced a release date.
anything solid to work on," Monroe said. "Then Sylvia called me with this golden idea"
Monroe said the project would expand into the school year and develop into a 70-minute feature.
Don't forget
During spring break the team conducted an interview with a Free
State High School student who said to have benefitted from the program. Yimer said their next goal was to set up an interview with Tim Wise, one of the leading authors on race and racism in America.
Edited by Anna Allen
Today is the Brown Bag Drag Show sponsored by SUA, Queers & Allies and Kicker. This is the last Tunes @ Noon of the year.
Today's Weather
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Showers and thunderstorms are likely, otherwise mostly cloudy.
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Don't get struck by lightning.
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