Queer in the Country

VOLUME 104, ISSUE NO. 9 | STUDENT-RUN SINCE 1916 | RICETHRESHER.ORG | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2019 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Cartoonist Leela Corman speaks on visual storytelling SANVITTI SAHDEV THRESHER STAFF According to cartoonist Leela Corman, you can make a comic out of anything. She makes hers out of watercolor paints, activism and personal experiences with trauma. During her visit to Rice last Thursday, Corman talked about the process of visual storytelling with students. Her first book is a collection of short stories titled “We All Wish for Deadly Force,” after which she came out with the acclaimed graphic novel, “Unterzakhn.” Her comics frequently deal with the trauma of the personal loss of her daughter, as well as the generational trauma of World War II. During her talk, she showed examples of her work and discussed her creative process as well as her artistic influences. For me, the most inspiring part of her talk grew out of the discussion with students, when a question about the strong resonance of the memory of the Holocaust in the Jewish community led Corman to passionately and thoughtfully expand upon how experiences of the Holocaust inform her storytelling and activism in an American context. I always interrogate my use of the Holocaust in my work because there have been so many QUEER IN THE holocausts. America’s built on two. COUNTRY: Leela Corman Rice students talk LGBTQ+ identity CARTOONIST and country music “I grew up in a family of Holocaust survivors, and so I always instinctually ILLUSTRATION BY YIFEI ZHANG understood that mass traumas worldwide are connected,” Corman said. “I always interrogate my use of LILY WULFEMEYER the only representations of queer culture year of high school in East Texas, Bradford the Holocaust in my work because THRESHER STAFF in rural America. There has been a notable struggled with bisexual invisibility and there have been so many holocausts. rise in queer country music recently, with with validating her identity in a religious America’s built on two.” Leaning into Texas’ big personality the release of albums such as “Two Birds, family. It was in these teen years that she Corman is currently working on is a fun way for Rice students to connect One Stone” by drag queen Trixie Mattel, rejected the country music she was raised “Victory Parade,” a graphic novel with the state’s lifestyle and aesthetic, as “Pony” by Orville Peck and the song “Old on. But as she has grown older and more set during the Second World War in they two-step through the Houston bar Town Road” by Lil Nas X. accepting of herself, she said that she has Brooklyn, New York and at the Allied Wild West and attend parties like Don’t In the midst of this cultural movement, been indulging in her passion again. liberation of Buchenwald concentration Mess With Texas and DuncStep. But for five students from the LGBTQ+ community Later that night, she headed to a concert camp. She said that she was in the some LGBTQ+ students, living in a state speak about their experiences with Texas, by Orville Peck, a new gay country music process of working on it during a time of with a notoriously poor track record for country music and identity. sensation with the voice of a classic crooner. increasing racist and neo-fascist rhetoric respecting and protecting marginalized “Seeing someone that is very openly that accompanied the 2016 American communities can be a challenge in QUEER PEOPLE AND COWBOYS gay and also makes traditional Western presidential election of Donald Trump. balancing identity. “I live for wlw [women-loving-women] gun ballad outlaw type music — it just Corman explained that this political Music — as well as other art media — country content,” writes Brown College makes me so happy,” Bradford said. “We climate has provided new context for her can help these students carve out a space senior Sarah Bradford in a Rice GroupMe can enjoy these cultural themes and writing about World War II. for themselves in a state where everything for queer women, femmes and gender still make them gay, and enjoyable and SEE CORMAN PAGE 9 is “bigger and better.” And fortunately, nonconforming people. accessible for us.” “Brokeback Mountain” is no longer one of Coming out to her close friends her senior SEE COMMUNITY PAGE 6 NEWS Colleges introduce leadership restrictions SERENA SHEDORE positions in university-sponsored would not be able to run for a position. FOR THE THRESHER organizations, such as the Peer Academic Candidates would have to submit their Advising program, according to the Code intent to run to the college coordinator or Several colleges have already added of Student Conduct. However, a formal magisters, who would then send the list or are in the process of adding variations mechanism to enforce this has been of names to SJP to verify their eligibility. of a constitutional bylaw to create a missing at the residential college level, Brown College and Lovett College also use formal process that prevents students according to Mabe, a senior. Because this system in their legislation. on disciplinary probation from running Student Judicial Programs decisions are The details of the proposed process vary for leadership positions, according to confidential, students serving as college from college to college, but the purpose of Hanszen College President Landon Mabe. election representatives do not have the preventing students on probation from Students on disciplinary probation ability to verify candidates’ eligibility. running for leadership positions is the by Student Judicial Programs are already According to Mabe, the Hanszen bylaw same, according to Mabe. not allowed to run for any leadership would ensure that students on probation SEE LEADERSHIP PAGE 4 Courtesy SchockEN BookS 2 • WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2019 THE RICE THRESHER NEWS Student confronts convicted sex offender at homecoming event RACHEL CARLTON disturbing and triggering.” THRESHER STAFF According to Freeman, the presence of the impersonator was in no way intended Content Warning: This article refers to to negatively impact students. sexual assault of a minor. Freeman said she stepped away to The Homecoming Kickoff Rally, put inform the planning committee of Brown’s on by the Student Activities Homecoming concerns. Committee in the Central Quad on Sunday, “She worked quickly and I’m grateful featured a Michael Jackson impersonator for that, but why was this event ever who was also accompanied by a self- approved in the first place?” Brown said. reported sex offender, according to Aliza “What students thought this was a good Brown. idea to bring this person on campus?” The Facebook event for the rally said The chair of the homecoming committee students could expect photo opportunities did not respond to requests for comment at with the impersonator, along with putt the time of print. putt golf, a bounce house and free hot Once Freeman left to talk to the planning dogs. committee, Brown said she began to take a Brown, a Will Rice College sophomore, video of the Jackson impersonator and was said she was walking through the quad approached by an unidentified colleague on her way to Rice Coffeehouse when who worked with the impersonator. someone tapped her on the shoulder The three-minute video opens with the asking if she wanted to take a picture with Jackson impersonator walking around as “Michael.” the song “Ghosts” plays. “I turned around and there was a The colleague walks up soon after the fucking Michael Jackson impersonator just start of the video and speaks to Brown. standing there,” Brown said. “I was like, “Michael Jackson was never convicted,” ‘No, I do not want a picture with Michael.’ the man says unprompted. ”He’s not a Immediately, I was like, ‘this is really child molester.” messed up.’” Brown responds by saying that Jackson Jackson stood trial in the spring of was a child molester, initiating a Q&A style 2005 for charges of child molestation confrontation with the colleague. and was acquitted in June of that same Based on video footage provided by year, according to National Public Radio. Brown, Brown centers the conversation In March 2019, HBO premiered the on the accusations toward Jackson and documentary “Leaving Neverland,” in the recent discussions about sexual which two men accuse Jackson of sexually assault at Rice. A third unidentified abusing them as children. individual attempts to intervene, and the IllustratIon by DalIa GulCa Brown said she was directed by a man colleague changes the topic of the evidence that I supposedly raped this girl. present at the event but was willing to student in charge of the event to Petre confrontation. They came and locked me up, locked me comment on the incident. Freeman, the associate director of campus “You understand, I’m a Black man,” the up. Lost my fiancée while I was in jail. But “I understand why [the student events, who was in attendance at the man said. “OJ [Simpson] was accused of [the] DNA wasn’t mine.” committee] thought it would be kickoff rally. When Brown asked Freeman killing someone [and] got found not guilty. The video ends as Freeman escorts the entertaining to have the Michael Jackson why the impersonator was invited, He’s still called a murderer. You’ve got man away. impersonator,” Qi, a Hanszen College Freeman said it was part of the theme, Michael that’s been accused 30 times of “I have no way of knowing if what he senior, said. “But I would encourage which was “Thriller.” child molesting. These people still brought told me was true, but the situation was just [the committee] to question their choices “Planning for homecoming consists of their kids [to the Neverland Ranch] absolutely absurd,” Brown said.

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