WEDNESDAY,OCTOBER 23,2002
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 3A
Hawk Nights party offers good time without alcohol
By George Schulz
Kansan staff writer
gschulz at gschulz.com
A committee of students met yesterday to put together the finishing touches for tomorrow's Hawk Nights scheduled from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.at the newly-renovated Hawk's Nest in the Kansas Union.
Sponsored by the Student Organization and Leadership Development Center, the event will include free food and drinks, a pumpkin-carving contest with cash prizes, a psychic and tarot card reader and free bowling.
The center organized Hawk Nights three years ago as an alcohol-free social event to entertain students.
The event has a different theme each month.
"Our event is showing that there are other things to do that don't involve alcohol that are fun," said Paige Isaacson, president of the Hawk Nights Committee.
Organizers for the event did not condemn the consumption of alcohol among students, but they did say information about alcohol abuse would be available at Hawk Nights. This week's event coincides with Alcohol Awareness Week.
Aaron Quisenberry, associate director of the center and organizer for the event, said Hawk Nights offered more than an alternative to drinking.
"I don't think we're necessarily targeting students who go to bars," he said. "If you're going to drink, you're going to out and drink. We're offering a program for students whether they drink or not."
Quisenberry said attendance at Hawk Nights had averaged about 300 to 400 students in the past.
"If you're going to drink,you're going to go out and drink. We're offering a program for students whether they drink or not."
Aaron Quisenberry
Associate director of the Student
Organization and Leadership Development
Center
Hawk Nights is funded by an annual $20,000 grant from the city of Lawrence and a yearly $5,000 allotment from Student Senate.
He said Hawk Nights events held at the beginning and end of the semester tended to have lower turnout.
The money from the city comes from an accrued city-wide liquor sales tax, which also goes to recreation and alcohol prevention programs.
Spenser Harris, Kansas City, Mo., freshman, said he had attended a Hawk Nights event with his friends, enticed by the free food and cash prizes.
Students had mixed feelings about the success of Hawk Nights.
But Eric Dunlap, Lawrence junior, said neither he nor anyone he knew had ever attended Hawk Nights.
"To me it seems like something freshmen would do," he said.
Sam Richardson, Larned junior, concurred.
Organizers for Hawk Nights will distribute free hot chocolate along with information about the event today on Wesco Beach. For more information go to www.ku.edu/~hawknites.
— Edited by Amanda Sears
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Practicing makes perfect
Aaron Showalter/Kansan
Freshmen Ashley Muir, of Memphis, Tenn. (right), Shannon Kroh, of Silver Lakes, and Adam Monk, of Lincoln, Neb., run through "Stand Up and Cheer," a KU fight song. The three saxophonists, who play in the marching band, rehearsed together last night in a practice room on the fifth floor of Murphy Hall. They were preparing for today's Basketball Band auditions and want to make the men's team band.
Author speaks about heritage
By Louise Stauffer
lstauffer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
The Malott room in the Kansas Union was filled last night as author Christina Garcia read excerpts from her novels, which circled around themes of her Cuban heritage.
Marta Caminero-Santangelo, associate English professor, described Garcia as being included in a wave of Latina writers rising to prominence. She said she was struck by the multiple and competing truths in Garcia's work.
"No one way holds authority," Caminero-Santangelo said.
Melanie Weiser, Dallas junior, said she identified with the heritage of the characters.
"My mom's Cuban, and when I read Dreaming in Cuban, it connected me with my heritage," Weiser said. She said she was inspired by Garcia and wanted to hear her speak after reading Dreaming in Cuban.
Resha Cardone, Covelo, Calil', graduate student in Spanish and Portuguese, said Garcia aptly demonstrated the multiple perspectives and complexity of the Cuban situation.
"It's not black or white," she said.
Garcia, who was born in Havana but raised in New York City, has a third novel titled Monkey Hunting due out in May.
Garcia has not always been an author. In the past she has worked as the Miami bureau chief at Time Magazine.
As Garcia read pieces from Dreaming in Cuban, she described how it began as a poem and became more and more unruly. She said the best parts of
the novel were often unplanned.
"After attempting organized writing, I decided to write for pleasure," she said. Dreaming in Cuban was somewhat autobiographical, she said.
"It sort of makes you nervous about people involved in it," she said, because one character in the book resembled her mother.
Garcia said that when she wrote, she did not worry about marketing the books in America, she simply paid attention to one factor.
"I just pay close attention to what is important to a character," she said.
Besides Dreaming in Cuban, Garcia has written the novel The Aguero Sisters and published an anthology, The Proper Study of Mankind. An Anthology of Essays.
Edited by Nicole Roché
John Nowak/Kansan
Cuban-American author Christina Garcia reads excerpts from her book Dreaming in Cuba inside the Malott Room at the Kansas Union. After doing organized writing and working for Time Magazine, Garcia says she decided to "write for pleasure." Her third novel, Monkey Hunting, is due out in May.
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