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Identifier
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cpj_20211013
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Title
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Cooper Point Journal, Volume 50, Issue 1, October 13, 2021
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Date
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13 October 2021
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extracted text
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Swimming Against the Stream Since 1971
TESC GETS SUED - 3
HOUSING CRISIS - 5
INCEL PARADE - 7
COVER ARTIST - 10
VOLUME 50, ISSUE 1
OCTOBER 202114
The Cooper Point Journal
STAFF
Editor-in-Chief
Alice McIntyre
C r e a t i v e D i r ec t o r
Hazel Carlson
Business Manager
Jae Andersen
Arts Editor
Lee Arneson
W ebmaster
B ro c k H o l e s
C opy E ditor
Ad a m Ni c h o l s
D istribution M anager
Chase Patton
Illustrator
Sako Chapman
Writers
Caroline Keane
Clara Riggio
L Kravitt-Smith
Melisa Ferati
Michael Richards
We’re
Baaaaaaack
Welcome back, Greeners!
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News
“A CULTURE OF INCOMPETENCE”
PUBLIC RECORDS LAWSUIT SPELLS
PUBLIC RELATIONS NIGHTMARE
by Alice McIntyre
On Aug. 26, former Cooper Point
Journal news editor Daniel Vogel
filed a lawsuit against The Evergreen State College and the State
of Washington, alleging Evergreen
“systematically and repeatedly
uses dilatory tactics to obstruct
the public’s access to records that
would be embarrassing or inconvenient for the school,” in violation
of Washington State public records
regulations.
From Cameras to Courtrooms
Vogel’s suit emerges from a
series of March 2019 public records
requests made during his investigation of Police Services’ purchase
of surveillance cameras disguised
as smoke detectors. The ostensible
purpose of this purchase was in
response to office break-ins, but Vogel and others grew concerned that
this was a pretext for a crackdown
on political activity. Many students,
including staff at the Cooper Point
Journal, opposed the added surveillance.
During this investigation, Vogel
found that the installment of hidden
cameras may have violated Evergreen’s Patriot Act Policy, stating
that Police Services will “refrain
from video surveillance, with exception of retail areas on campus,
unless there is reasonable suspicion that the subjects of the video
surveillance have or are about to
commit a crime.”
When reached for comment
on the cameras and the Patriot
Act Policy, key figures including
then-President George Bridges
and all members of the Board of
Trustees did not respond. Susan
Harris, Executive Associate to the
President and policy steward for the
Patriot Act Policy, informed Vogel
that “discussion would [have to] be
for educational purposes only, off
the record,” and “[Harris] will also
need a list of questions, concerns,
and/or a proposed agenda before
scheduling a meeting.” Otherwise,
Vogel would need to go through
the Marketing & Communications
office.
Given a sterile and arguably hostile administrative response, Vogel
filed the public record requests in
question. The Washington Public
Records Act requires that agencies
“provide for the fullest assistance
to inquirers and the most timely
possible action on requests for information.” Vogel’s suit alleges that
out of over a dozen requests filed,
all but one remain open. Further, it
alleges that Evergreen “unilaterally
decided to close [that] request” after claiming the records in question,
SD card data from the cameras, did
not exist because “Police Services
was not using the hidden cameras at
the time Vogel made the request.”
When Vogel responded that the SD
cards would still have footage on
them regardless of whether or not
they were in use at the time of the
request, Evergreen then reportedly
claimed the footage had been deleted and refused to attempt a forensic
recovery of it unless Vogel agreed
to pay for it himself.
Denial
The thrust of Evergreen’s Aug.
31 answer to Vogel’s suit is as
follows: “The College denies that
it has obstructed access to public
records, failed to make reasonable
estimates for disclosure, failed to
disclose responsive records, or
failed to conduct an adequate search
as alleged by Plaintiff.” Evergreen
states that it gave Vogel “estimates
of time, which are not deadlines,”
and that “there is no requirement
to explain the underlying justification for revising the estimate of
time needed to respond to a public
records request.” Regarding Vogel’s
investigation of campus surveillance, Evergreen “is without sufficient information to admit or deny
what information Plaintiff may have
discovered.” Evergreen has also
requested that the court award it its
attorney fees.
Vogel’s attorney, Rian Peck,
stated that Evergreen’s response
“is a tactic that government bodies
use regularly to circumvent public
transparency. They say, ‘Oh, we
have these old decrepit systems. We
have staff turnover. It takes a long
time to review documents.’ But in
the end, it’s a question of prioritization and allocation of resources.”
Peck also noted that Evergreen’s re-
quest that Vogel cover its legal fees
“[is] a tactic government entities
use to punish or make afraid” those
who request documents. “I’ve never
seen a case in which a court has
said that the requester has to pay
the government’s fees. There’s not a
great legal basis for it. But it’s still
a very scary thing for someone to
see in a response,” they explained.
Evergreen is not the only institution Vogel has filed public records
requests with. Vogel states he had
also filed requests with the City of
Olympia, the Olympia Police Department, and the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office. One request
fulfilled by the City of Olympia
contained “more than 24 hours of
video footage across different cameras.” He noted, “You don’t have
to be a journalist to file public
records requests. I’ve filed public
records requests just because I’m
curious.” Vogel’s experience with
other government bodies makes
him skeptical of Evergreen’s
claims that their delays in fulfilling
his requests are genuine. “A section of the state’s Administrative
Code requires institutions that respond to public records requests to
have policies about prioritization
and how to respond to those requests. So, I filed a public records
request for those policies. It then
took Evergreen eight months to tell
me that it didn’t have any policies
about responding to public records
requests,” Vogel recalled.
Vogel is not alone in taking issue
with Evergreen’s handling of public
records requests. Public records
activist Arthur West filed a similar
lawsuit against the College on Aug.
2, alleging that “[Evergreen] has,
over the last 4 years, repeatedly
and collectively failed to make a
reasonable estimate for disclosure
on over 20 occasions, failed to
reasonably disclose responsive records, failed to conduct an adequate
search, and has asserted improper
exemptions in the absence of an
adequate privilege log.” West’s
suit notes that there are outstanding records requests from 2017 not
only to himself, but to journalists
Anemona Hartocollis of the New
York Times and Jillian Melchior of
the National Review, former Cooper Point Journal Editor-in-Chief
Jasmine Kozak Gilroy, and State
Senator Lynda Wilson (R-17)
among others.
“The fact that we filed our lawsuit just a couple weeks after Arthur
West filed his speaks to a culture of
incompetence around responding to
public records requests in the ways
that in Washington, [the College]
as a public agency [is] legally
required to do,” said Vogel. When
asked whether he thought there was
malice or intent behind Evergreen’s
actions, Vogel stated “It would be
cooler if it was malice. If I could
say they’re doing this because
they’re evil or something, it’d be
fighting the good fight. But because
of the lack of transparency, I don’t
know.”
Peck added, “From the more
cynical perspective, I do think that
government agencies typically find
a way to process records quickly—
if those records would paint them
in a good light. But if those records
are suspected to put a spotlight on
some of their bad decisions or policies, then they rely on this similar
refrain of, ‘Oh, it’s a lot of documents. It’s a lot of work.’”
The allegation that Evergreen
may be working to “obstruct the
public’s access to records that
would be embarrassing or inconvenient for the school” is not without
merit. Placed in the context of the
College’s track record on policing,
surveillance, and other issues, one
may be inclined to agree with
Vogel’s conclusions.
Police and Power
As noted by the Cooper Point
Journal in our statement against the
surveillance cameras, “in the last
two decades, the college and federal
government has responded to [student activism] by infiltrating and
spying on local and student political
organizations.” We noted the case
of military spy John Towery, who
infiltrated the Evergreen chapter of
Students for a Democratic Society
and the local anti-war group Port
Militarization Resistance in 2007.
Towery’s covert operations as an informant were, (continued next page)
OCTOBER 13, 2021 / THE COOPER POINT JOURNAL
3
News
according to civil rights lawyer
Larry Hildes, helped along by
former Evergreen Chief of Police
Ed Sorger. Hildes and Evergreen
alums Brendan Maslauskas Dunn
and Alex Bryan uncovered “almost
certainly hundreds and possibly
thousands” of emails showing
Police Services had shared information about student activists with
outside agencies. These emails
also indicated Sorger was receiving information from Washington Joint Analytics Center—the
information hub Towery gave his
findings to.
This seemed to contradict
Evergreen’s Patriot Act Policy,
which prohibits “engagement in
the surveillance of individuals or
groups of individuals based on
their participation in activities
protected by the First Amendment,
such as political advocacy,” and
directs police to “Refrain, whether
acting alone or with federal, state
or local law enforcement officers,
from collecting or maintaining
information about the political,
religious or social views, associations or activities” of persons and
organizations on campus.
Evergreen has also been criticized for lack of transparency
around Police Services’ 2017 purchase of AR-15 rifles in the immediate aftermath of that year’s convulsive anti-racist protests. Writing
for the Cooper Point Journal in
Oct. 2018, journalist Forest Hunt
reported former Chief of Police
Services Stacy Brown had requested the purchase of five AR-15s on
Aug. 1 of 2017, and that her
“...Police
Services had shared
information
about student activists with outside agencies.”
request was granted by President
Bridges exactly two weeks later,
despite Brown’s resignation. Notably, her request had also asked for
additional surveillance. Hunt’s article showed that the purchase had
been made without consultation
with the College’s Police Community Review Board, and Vice President of College Relations Sandra
Kaiser answered “Not that I know
of,” to Hunt’s inquiry as to whether there were any “announcements,
emails, pubic forums, polls, votes,
or consultations with campus
committees, unions, governance
groups, including the Geoduck
4
Student Union, Faculty Agenda
Committee, or Staff governance
structures regarding the purchase.”
Proposals to arm campus police have long been controversial
at Evergreen since first surfacing
in 1995, when moves to provide
Public Safety (as Police Services
was then known) with pistols were
met with widespread opposition by
students, faculty, and the broader
community—expressed through a
petition of 1,200 signatures, multiple protests, and a sit-in which
blocked the entrance to the Library
“It would be cooler
if it was malice. If
I could say they’re
doing this because
they’re evil or
something, it’d be
fighting the good
fight. But because
of the lack of transparency, I don’t
know.”
Loop. Despite this, Evergreen
police were armed 24/7 by 2003.
Demands for rifles were made
in 2008 following the infamous
“dead prez riot” in which Olympia
police “fought their way through
the crowd using batons, metal
flashlights, and pepper spray” after
students blocked a Police Services
vehicle in solidarity with arrested
black breakdancer Kaylen Williams,
considering Williams’ arrest an
example of racial profiling.
Student and faculty protest prevented the acquisition of rifles
until Bridges’ 2017 purchase, as
put by Hunt, “In one fell swoop,
behind closed doors...achieved a
goal [police had] been doggedly
pursuing in the face of mass community opposition since at least
2008.”
Critical eyes may find the arming of campus police with AR-15s
in response to student protests
rooted in the May 14, 2017
detention of two black students
over Facebook comments by those
same campus police to be ironic,
ominous, or some combination of
the two. Many on campus opposed
the rifle purchase, as well as a
2018 attempt to hire two additional
police officers. Students criticized
the administration for arming and
expanding Police Services amid
numerous layoffs and $6 million in
budget cuts, primarily in the arts.
Protests led by the South Sound
WWW.COOPERPOINTJOURNAL.COM
General Education Union, a campus organization of the Industrial
Workers of the World, appear to
have prevented the police hiring.
The rifles remain.
Striking Out
Evergreen has more than cops
and cameras to keep a lid on,
namely labor rights and workplace
safety. In a June 2019 article titled
“Structural Issues,” the Cooper
Point Journal reported on a slew
of health and safety complaints
filed by facilities workers. Violations included forcing employees
to work in hazardous conditions,
mishandling of chemical spills,
lack of training, and exposing
employees to asbestos. One worker, Ricky Haney, suffered a hernia after working a 51-hour shift
during that February’s week-long
“Snowpocalypse,” and untrained
student workers were directed to
refuel diesel backup generators
without protective equipment. For
their time, student workers reportedly received a Costco sheet cake
from President Bridges. Facilities
workers didn’t receive compensation pay until their union organized
a protest where 45 union members
and supporters marched into the
office of then-President Bridges and demanded it. All told, the
College was fined $135,000 for the
reported violations.
Student workers with Residential
and Dining Services have criticized
and organized against the administration since at least 2017, where
a group called Resident Assistants
Fighting for Tomorrow led a strike
in May of that year. RAFT’s strike,
concurrent with anti-racist protests,
called for increased compensation,
limits to involvement with police,
mental health services, and workers’ control of hiring and training
among other demands. The strike
was broken by mid-June, with remaining strikers fired and made to
leave their campus homes.
On Oct. 22, 2019, RAs presented
a “list of needs” to RAD Services
Director Sharon Goodman and
others. Concerns centered on adequate compensation, food security,
and transparency. At the time, RAs
received a learning allotment of
roughly $60 a week for a required
20 hours—in other words, $3 an
hour.
On top of that, RAs testified to
working far more than the allotted
timesheet since they effectively
live at their jobs, with the needs
document stating that “[RAs] feel
too uncomfortable and unsafe to
be able to say ‘no’ when asked
to go above and beyond the job
expectations.” Meal plans had also
been reduced from Gold and Silver
options to an allotment of 10 meals
a week, just half of the 21 needed
to have three meals a day, seven
days a week. By the end of the
Fall 2019 quarter, five of 17 RAs
had quit and two were removed,
leaving only 10 original staff after
just three months. After that, the
position of Resident Assistant was
shifted from paid to volunteer.
Compensation now consists of
seven meals a week and $100 per
quarter in dining bucks, in addition
to covering the cost of campus
housing.
“Facilities
workers didn’t
receive compensation pay until
their union organized a protest where 45
union members
and supporters
marched
into
the office of
then-President
Bridges
and
demanded it.”
These problems weren’t limited to RAs. One student facilities
worker, speaking with Bahi’chi
Castañeda for a December 2020
article in the Cooper Point Journal, stated that “[RAD] constantly held our jobs over our heads,
saying that a professional custodial
crew would be cheaper and that if
WE didn’t get our ‘act together’
we would all be fired.” Further,
“there would be whole meetings
where [they] would drone on and
on about how [Washington] is an
‘at will’ state and [how] we [were]
disposable to [them].”
President Who?
On Feb. 25, 2020, former President Bridges announced in “one
of the most exciting moments in
[his] career” his retirement after
five years at Evergreen. His last
day was June 30 of this year, and
he is teaching a course on criminal
justice this quarter.
Bridges’ retirement was no surprise, after facing harsh criticism
from students during the whole of
his time at the College on everything from budget cuts to cops to
the size of his salary. (continued
next page)
While in office, Evergreen faced
a barrage of negative media attention directed not only at student
protesters but at the College itself.
This media response and other
forms of fallout from the 2017
protests are widely recognized to
have exacerbated existing problems at the College. It makes sense
that the administration would like
to move on.
What was surprising was the
sudden decision of all three finalists to succeed Bridges to drop
out of the running. Finalists were
ambiguous about their reasons
for withdrawing, citing personal
reasons. If the administration and
Board of Trustees have any further
insight from the candidates, they
haven’t shared it.
For now, former Vice President of
Finance and Operations John Carmichael has been named Interim President and University of Puget Sound
professor Dexter Gordon has been
named Executive Vice President.
Carmichael will be serving for at
least two years, per a June 10 Board
of Trustees meeting. Trustee Monica
Alexander referred to the pair as a
“dynamic duo I believe will bring
great things to our college.”
Whether confidence in Carmichael and Gordon is genuine or
not, it’s clear that Evergreen is in a
precarious position. The presidential flop came after a $5.3 million
round of additional budget cuts
resulting in the elimination of 26
staff positions, as reported by The
Olympian last July. This follows
continued enrollment stagnation,
the challenges of the pandemic,
and every issue discussed prior.
“Regarding Vogel’s
investigation
of
campus surveillance, Evergreen
‘is without sufficient information
to admit or deny
what information
Plaintiff may have
discovered.’”
Getting to the Point
“I’m not someone who says ‘if
you have nothing to fear, you have
nothing to hide,’” Vogel said when
interviewed. “But when you’re
doing it with taxpayer money, then
The 2021-2022 school year
olympia
began Sep. 27. I began looking
for housing in July for anything from 1–2-bedroom aparthousing
ments to rooms being rented
out. As of the first week of
prices
October, I am still searching –
and so are many other students
local youths. Real-estate
skyrocket: and
agent Sean Gotcher recently
viral on TikTok discusszillow and went
ing the “iBuying” business
tactic utilized by companies
as Zillow and Redfin.
friends to such
This entailed an explanation
they purchase a group
homes only to pay a higher
blame? ofofpricehow
for just one – enabling
by Melisa Ferati
Are you a student or community
member struggling with housing
insecurity or having problems
with your landlord? Reach out to
the CPJ and tell your story. We
can be reached at our website or
through Facebook and Instagram.
them to raise the price of the
others.
The claim has been debated
by housing experts stating that
often when it comes to these
companies, homes are generally purchased a few percent under asking and then put on the
market one and a half to two
percent over in general; the
most common method of creating a gradual price increase
in the neighborhood – a slower process than the market is
reflecting. Even with their new
News
I think we all have a right to transparency and accountability—especially when it’s not a moral question about whether an act was right
or wrong, but whether an act was
in accordance with the school’s
own policies.”
Vogel’s lawsuit over a batch of
public records requests from two
years ago may seem like hue and
cry over nothing at first glance.
Recent history reveals it to relate
to a fundamental tension at
Evergreen between its behaviour
and character as an institution on
the one hand and its stated ideals
on the other.
“The school likes to make a lot
of claims about its relationship
to broad ideas like justice and
accountability. I think, beyond the
obvious legal transgressions in
this lawsuit, Evergreen should be
very excited to respond to public records requests in a timely
manner. I don’t know how one
can espouse those virtues without
transparency,” Vogel continued.
“It’s nice to have an Office of
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
But without giving members of the
community the right to actually audit the school’s approach to these
issues, we don’t know whether
those policies are effective.”
When asked his feelings about
Interim President Carmichael,
Vogel concluded, “A good way to
endear Carmichael to the student
body would be to settle both these
lawsuits immediately and apologize
to the campus. Not just for these
transgressions, but for many of
the actions taken under George
Bridges’ tenure, which includes
the underhanded purchase of
assault weapons for Police Services. I think Evergreen has a lot
of historical mistakes that if I were
an interim president coming into
a college that desperately needs
a change in culture, I would try
and mark the beginning of a
new era by acknowledging and
apologizing for.”
John Carmichael was not
available for comment prior to
publication.
acquirements in the local area,
not enough has been purchased
by these companies to shake
matters up in such a short period of time. If this was the case,
what could explain the rapidly
increasing rent prices in Olympia?
“Prices are jumping up in
the Olympia market in tandem
with the military population,”
veteran Hector Santiago comments - “…when Joint Base
Lewis-McChord is cranking
out a consistent supply of fresh
soldiers who receive coverage
from the military for rent, often in the $1,800-2,200 range,
it’s easy for local landlords to
take advantage.” Ever more so
apparent as we walked around
his neighborhood, the lazy
stroll found us spotting many
soldiers on their way home for
the day.
As I hunted, I saw 2–3-bedroom apartments once listed
for $1,100-1,300 jump up in
cost by several hundred over
the course of the summer - particularly July through September. The average one-bedroom
unit now goes for $1,475. Few
are the apartment complexes
holding strong in the $1,100
range. Houses sell within days.
With new complexes putting up 2-bedroom units for
$1,700+ and affordable ones
filled in a blink, the search for
a student friendly rental becomes ever more difficult.
With most places requiring
you make 3 times the rent, it’s
just about impossible to find
a spot on your own as a student. Online Olympia housing
groups overflow with students
seeking those already set up in
a house searching for people
to fill rooms and help further
divide rent – most of which
aren’t available until November at the soonest. Little can
be done beyond playing the
game of chance between daily
calls and countless waitlists;
especially for those relocating
from a distance away. With the
school year in full swing and
many hoping to snatch up a
November rental, time will tell
how the hunt unfolds.
The Cooper Point Journal will
continue to cover this story and
monitor its progression. We welcome comment and opinion from
students, faculty, and staff.
OCTOBER 13, 2021 / THE COOPER POINT JOURNAL
5
Community
A Word With the
Haki Farmers
Collective
Image: Haki Farmers Collective
by L Kravit-Smith
Mercy Kariuki-Mcgee’s passion for social justice and farming shone through my laptop.
Despite the screen I felt her
presence, much like how it felt
hearing her perform in her Afro-fusion band Mazigazi before
the pandemic. A year later, I interviewed her about her newest
project, the Haki Farmers Collective.
Kariuki-Mcgee taught at The
Evergreen State College for
eight years and did climate work
for two years at the Washington
State Department of Transportation. She has also been part of
the artistic community for about
20 years now. Her band started
as a family before growing to
nine members, and performed
frequently before the pandemic. They do African style rock
music, a mix of Afro house and
Afro beat. Kariuki-Mcgee is
also involved heavily in community activism, especially advocating for rural communities.
Through her graduate studies
she was able to focus on climate
change and sustainability, especially in Africa. Last summer
Kariuki-Mcgee did intensive
organizing in the wake of Goerge Floyd’s murder, organizing
rallies and pushing city council
and elected officials for police
accountability. Kariuki-Mcgee
spoke to me about the Capitol
Hill Organized Protest in Seattle and her appreciation for
the healing space it created for
many BIPOC (Black and Indigenous people of color) folks.
She was especially touched by
the CHOP’s garden. At CHOP
She saw messages of unity and
hope, as well as a place for people to reunite and have a cup of
coffee with one another.
Her time at CHOP spurred
Kariuki-Mcgee to reflect on
the Olympia area. She felt
there wasn’t a place here for
the community and healing she
had witnessed. “We have a lot
6
of movements and a lot of activism happening in the South
Sound, but it’s not a space for
Black and brown people to be
heard most of the time. There
is very little focus on the Black
and brown students. We make
up such a small part of the population, so at the end of the day
it really doesn’t matter. We are
not seen and we are not heard,”
she said. “Our voices were constantly being diluted in all these
protests and in all this messaging. So I felt like I needed to
find a way to channel the Black
and brown community, and
that’s how Haki was founded.”
Haki means justice in Swahili,
a commonly spoken language
in Africa. Founded by Kariuki-Mcgee and her daughter Elisa, the Haki Farmers Collective
hopes to center Black, Indigenous, Latinx, LGBTQ+, disabled, and other marginalized
community members.
Kariuki-Mcgee began working on her idea and reached out
to the community non-profit
Garden-Raised Bounty, known
as GRuB. GruB let her use Victory Farm, a garden space for
veterans unused due to the pandemic, allowing the collective
to plant and harvest. This work
at GRuB got Kariuki-Mcgee
connected to the Community
Farm Land Trust to begin looking for a larger piece of land.
She believes that farming is a
way to empower people, building a good community, access
to healthy food, and knowledge
of where that food comes from.
The collective wishes to reunite
people and bring in elders to
show old ways of collecting and
sowing the seeds, cooking the
food, and cultivating the soil.
The collective and its small
membership have had to build
up from scratch. They encourage
BIPOC people, largely pushed
from farming, to come back and
own land.“BIPOC people don’t
WWW.COOPERPOINTJOURNAL.COM
have the capability to go back
to the land, they don’t have the
generational wealth,” said Kariuki-Mcgee. “So, how do you
get the Black and brown people
to go start farming? You have to
start very small, and you have
to show them the way. Haki is
going to help lead that way in
finding the land, putting the
policies together, connecting
with resources, as well as starting to build this generational
wealth for BIPOC folks.”
Kariuki-Mcgee spoke of the
financial challenges to projects
like hers. “It is very hard to get
the money to even buy a tractor. If you look up on the web,
you see a ton of GoFundMes
for BIPOC farmers. Why do
we have to do this? White people rarely have to start funding
pages. We hope that within the
collective we can form a community of same minded people
who feel the same oppression,
who feel the same need of acquiring land and growing their
own food. We also want to see
directly how our food is grown,
because half the time, BIPOC
people are the ones who suffer
from health impacts of bad food
or eating unhealthy food due to
systemic racism.” To address
the issue, the collective is trying
to make Community Supported
Agriculture, or CSAs, accessible to BIPOC communities.
CSAs include produce and value added products from farms,
depending on what’s available.
The collective offers free CSAs
to BIPOC folks if they volunteer at the farm.
The collective is currently
working with GruB, the Community Farm Land Trust, and
the Black Student Union at
North Thurston High School.
They hope to start a program
to bring students to the farm
once the pandemic ends. Kariuki-Mcgee’s plans to work with
youth are rooted in her own ex-
perience as a child on her family’s small farm in Kenya, which
grew a wide variety of crops.
Working with young people
doesn’t come without concerns.
Kariuki-Mcgee expressed worries about the collective moving
to a rural area of Washington. “I
fear putting a load of students
in the yellow bus and having
them get attacked...We have
to always be cautious and as a
Black or brown person, you’re
always walking on eggshells,
always worried about who is
watching you, who is following you, you’re always looking
behind your back.” She continued, “We want the community to know that the existence
of Black and brown farmers
next door to you doesn’t take
away work from you. Doesn’t
change your farming habits,
doesn’t take away your rights.
All it does is help increase the
diversity of your community
and help grow their economy
at the same time.”
The Haki Farmers Collective
has created what I’ve always
dreamed of having in Olympia
and throughout the world. It’s a
space where BIPOC people and
other marginalized groups are
centered. Where we can come
together in a space that focuses
on collective healing and accessibility to our traditional
medicines and food sources. Kariuki-Mcgee’s vision
of farming and food is an act
of resistance against white supremacy and a challenge to
neoliberal, capitalist views on
land ownership. I am more than
thrilled to get a chance to work
with her community.
To Our Favorite Team of Virgins...
Thank you for visiting our
beautiful campus and leaving.
We know that your visit wasn’t
all that you hoped it would be.
Word on the street was that
your team of pseudo-reporters
were in search of pussy, among
other things. Unfortunately,
the college’s administration is
busy typing cliché PSAs and
doesn’t have time to include a
pet shelter on campus. So no
kitty cats for you.
Fortunately for people like
you, people embarrassed by
their dinky dicks and big
dreams, Evergreen is a place
to find a little bit of everything, even if your personalities are as uninteresting as
stale unbuttered white bread.
According to you, there is
“no better time than fall on a
college campus. The chicks
wanna fuck, the guys wanna
drink. Everybody has been
cooped up at home all summer.” Greeners on campus
couldn’t agree more! After a
study session of “Do Divine
Daddy Demagogues Have
Bowel Movements: From Kim
Jong Un to Donald J. Trump”
OPINION:
I
MISS
FEARING
GHOSTS
by Michael Richards
Commentary
and “How to Write a Manifesto:
Communist, Fascist, Socialist,
& Homo,” we love to go around
in search of parties. But we do
things a bit different here, as
I’m sure you’ve heard, and
that includes having fun. It’s
unfortunate you didn’t come
across any of the witch coven
orgies in the woods. We can’t
believe that you traveled so
far to see us and didn’t get
laid! Take it from us; kicking
off fall quarter by sucking fat
witch cock is delicious, like
pumpkin spice lattes. It’s a
seasonal thing.
Then again, we are aware of
your incapability of conducting
serious research, so we don’t
blame you for missing out on
the fun around these parts.
If you’re ever interested in
education, like learning about
legitimate reporting, Evergreen has options for you!
Think about it. Every day you
take another step away from
your true ambitions and closer to your meaningless graves.
Nobody wants that for you—
well, not everybody. At any
rate, by gaining basic skills,
like hygiene or fact-checking,
you won’t have to smell like
shit anymore. Yes, you smell
like shit. Students on campus
noticed the scent of fresh feces wafting around them as
soon as your team approached
them. They attributed it to the
internalized homophobia that
you express with skid marks, a
medium too avant-garde even
for us. So, consider educating yourself and letting a tiny
bit of water caress your anal
glands, will you?
While we’re on the topic
of internalized homophobia,
your team, on your cute little podcast, made jokes about
sucking genitals… a lot. Look,
no judgment, all right? Leo,
you’re entirely right; semen is
good for the skin! (We’re glad
you’ve shared your secrets
on how you maintain such
beautiful skin, by the way.)
Anyway, do you want some
advice that’ll break the ice
for you guys? Just suck each
other off already. Just go right
out and say, “I want that tinee
peenie weenie in my mouth!”
It’ll work like a charm! When
you muck up the courage to
let your homosexual needs
be met, you’ll no longer have
to waste time cruising Evergreen. The tension that hangs
in the air between you guys is
so noticeable that students on
campus have already started
drawing fan art to send you.
Just fuck, but wash your buttholes before you do, okay? Or
are you into that too? Again,
no shame.
If you ever find yourselves
on campus again, don’t forget
to visit the Greener Bookstore!
Welcome back to campus!
The first week of the school
year here at Evergreen has
brought about a lot of drama and distasteful actions as
we here hit not only with a
pile of homework we didn’t
expect and residual COVID
anxiety, but a slew of wannabe frat boy YouTubers that
have seemingly never felt
the touch of another human
being and are so pissed off
about it they harass anyone
that won’t flash them. When
I started this article, it was to
find out how students were
feeling about being back on
campus and their thoughts
on in-person classes and all
things COVID.
In a (somewhat) surprising
turn of events, most conversations I had around safety
on campus quickly turned to
something much more sinister; the safety of women and
gender non-conforming students on campus.
This is a situation that
would, according to common
sense, draw the attention of
our campus police depart-
ment to take some action and
try to assure students that
they are here to protect us
against any nutjobs that manage to get on the grounds.
Instead of doing this, campus
police decided to tell concerned students that there
was nothing they could do
because no laws had explicitly been broken. Multiple
student reports referred to
the cops saying that these idiots must be “professionals’’
because they had not done
anything noticeably violent.
Great! Cool. Sick. It’s
good to know that the only
people on campus with the
authority to remove someone that is being abusive
think that cat-calling, body
shaming, and holding a big
ol’ sign that says “These
Guys Get Pussy” think these
actions are okay. These eunuchs aren’t Evergreen students, and they flew up here
from Southern California just
to make the school look bad.
I’m not here to make cops
seem like the best way to
go about solving issues like
this, but if they are going to
take the funding and be put
in the position to “serve and
protect” it would be nice for
them to listen to students
choosing to approach them.
As a child I feared the
woods and Halloween-time
because they brought images of ghosts and ghouls and
ancient hauntings. But now,
it has become obvious that
the only ancient thing that
haunts this campus is not
something supernatural, but
the ghosts of misogyny and
toxic masculinity the world
can’t seem to shake off.
Sincerely,
Pseudo Nym
The Cooper Point Journal
welcomes any additional
comment and information
from students regarding
incidents of harassment on
campus. Please contact us at
cooperpointjournal@gmail.com
with any concerns or thoughts
you may have.
OCTOBER 13, 2021 / THE COOPER POINT JOURNAL
7
Arts & Culture
8
WWW.COOPERPOINTJOURNAL.COM
Arts & Culture
PAIGE NAKAGAWARA
ARTIST INTERVIEW PG. 10
OCTOBER 13, 2021 / THE COOPER POINT JOURNAL
9
Arts & Culture
Artist Interview:
Paige Nakagawara
by Lee Arneson
This past Thursday, I had the
pleasure of sitting down with
artist Paige Nakagawara for an
interview, who I’ll let introduce
herself in her own words.
“Hello Reader!! My name is
Paige Nakagawara, and I am a
Sophomore here at The Evergreen State College. I’m a Japanese American, queer artist with
an unsatiable love for cats and
strange over-sized earrings. I
create art to be a voice for people
with similar identities as me, and
hopefully make more voices be
heard in the long run.”
CPJ: What medium do you
use the most?
Paige: “I went to a Waldorf
charter school when I was a kid
and the first thing they do is sit
you down and give you watercolors. I have such a vivid memory
of using watercolors and I was
kind of a troubled kid who had
a hard time in public school-even as a kindergartner--and I remember being really calm while
painting. It became my favorite
medium because of that and I’ve
stuck with it ever since.”
Where do you draw your inspiration from for your paintings? Is it something that’s kinda filtered by your everyday
life, or--I know a lot of people
tend to draw on their backgrounds and the places that
they grew up in.
“I feel like my paintings aren’t based in reality very much.
I think I draw a lot of inspiration
from nature and from personal
experience than anything physical.”
What kind of personal experiences? If you don’t mind
sharing?
“I kind of represent my own
struggles with mental health and
growing up female through my
art.”
What kind of art pieces do
you normally paint? What do
they look like at the end?
“I think, unintentionally, I
painted a lot of self-portraits
Not so much recently since I’ve
been trying to get away from
10
that, but I usually paint women
or femme-looking bodies and inages. There’s patterns to them,
they tend to be surrounded by
some form of nature, and for a
while--for some reason--I was
only painting people underwater.” A quick laugh was released.
“Which sounds creepy, but those
tend to be my big projects that I
put a lot of effort and time into.
When I’m just sketching stuff it
tends to be a lot less emotionally
connected, because I do just like
to draw sometimes.”
What have you been working
on as-of late? Either in class or
just on your own personal time.
“I don’t have any personal
projects going on right now, but I
am working on a still life for the
class that I’m in which is leading
up to us doing a self-portrait and a
portrait of another person--which
I’m nervous about. I know I just
said I do a lot of self-portraits,
but they’re not super accurate because it was subconscious that I
was doing self-portraits, so now
it’s kind of making me nervous
that I have to actually try to represent myself more accurately.”
Would you say that the
self-portraits you’ve done in
the past are you sifting through
your identity in a sense?
“Yeah, I think a lot of it was
coming to grips with my identity and things I went through at a
certain age. Cause they all, kind
of, represent me from that time,
which I kind of just realized afterwards.” We share a laugh.
Yeah, that’s kind of how it
goes.
Would you say that art--obviously it’s had a huge impact
on your life, it’s what you’re
here at Evergreen for--but is it
a mode for you to also process
and make sense of the world
around you? Like the things
that you’ve gone through, other
than just to reflect on yourself.
“Yes, I think it’s about processing it, but for me it’s mostly
about healing. I’ve always used it
more to work through things internally than externally. I’ve nev-
WWW.COOPERPOINTJOURNAL.COM
er made anything that was more
about the outside world, which is
interesting because I don’t think
I’ve ever thought about that.”
Is there any art piece you’re
most proud of that you think
fully represents what you want
to do and be as an artist, in a
way?
“I think my most recent project I’m most proud of, but maybe
that’s because it’s the most recent. But I don’t think I’ve made
my best work yet, necessarily. I
feel like I haven’t really nailed
what I want to be as an artist, but
I don’t mind that.”
What drew you to Evergreen? Was this your first or
second choice for colleges or
was this like way at the bottom
of choices?
“This was actually my first
choice and the only college I
really wanted to go to. I think
we all consider really fancy art
schools, but I don’t thrive in
more elitist and competitive
environments. That’s what I
like about Evergreen--they’re
a little more open-minded and
less rigid when it comes to education--and I love the trees.”
I know Evergreen--maybe
not itself as an institution, but
the students at least and a lot
of the faculty--are very much
taken in with the land that
we’re on. I feel that Evergreen
is a very much ‘cultivate a relationship with the land you’re
on’ type of place; do you think
that mentality will seep its way
into your art?
“Yeah I think so. I think naturally Evergreen inspires me because I’m connected to nature so
much, and just being here for a
year and two weeks already has
made me feel better connected to
the land and appreciate it more,
especially being half-white and
y’know not from here originally.”
Is there anything about your
art that you just want to talk
about--that you feel like putting out there into the world?
“I don’t know--I don’t think
about my art that much.”
It’s just kind of something
you do?
“Mhm. It’s too hard when
you’re trying to make art meaningful to me; that just doesn’t
work. I’ve just gotta do it and
paint what I like--or sometimes I
get images in my head and it can
be from anything. Sometimes I
see something or sometimes I’ll
have dreams that make me think
of images, and I feel like the fun
thing about art is finding meaning afterwards. I get the fuel to
do art from my emotional state
and not anything logical inside
my head.”
Are there any closing words
that come to mind now that
we’ve talked about all this?
“I just think everyone should
try making art at some point
in their lives. I think there’s so
many people that think it’s an
elitist or closed-off thing to get
into, but the truth is humans are
meant to create things and that’s
the best part about being human-that we can make things out of
nothing and that we get to represent ourselves through art. I think
so many people would feel happier with their lives and be able
to work through a lot of things
within themselves if they let
them have that healing time and
give themselves the power to create things.”
To check out more of Paige’s
art, visit her Instagram @tereru.
Are you an artist in
Olympia or at The Evergreen State College? Do
you want your work featured in the Cooper Point
Journal? Feel free to
reach out to us via email
or social media!
Arts & Culture
An Interview with
George Galvez
by caroline keane
Over the past two years,
the walls of downtown
Olympia have become much
more colorful. Murals and
graffiti covered boarded up
shops. This shift began when
the pandemic hit and the
Black Lives Matter uprising followed. This past summer, a mural was created
on the wall of Alano Club,
where Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous
and Al-Anon meetings take
place. The mural depicts a
path leading to a bright and
luminous sun. The two sides
around the path depict very
different worlds in stark
contrast to one another. The
left side shows green and
abundant lands, with beings
radiating light, moving with
joy. The opposite side shows
a scorched Earth, with beings devoid of light, suffering. The inference can be
made that the mural depicts
the many existential crises
before us that ask on a deep
level do we take the path of
life, emptiness, or a higher
path?
George Galvez is a member of the art team of the
Thurston County Climate
Action Team. They’ve painted several murals in Olympia. He started learning how
to paint graffiti at 12 years
old. We spoke about some of
his inspirations for the mural and his own path that led
him to that work.
After getting fired from a
job he loved, George chose
to focus on art. The Alano Club, where he attends
meetings, asked him for the
mural and he gave it to them
as a gift, using a GoFund me
and personal funds to cover
the cost of paint.
CPJ: Why was this mural painted on the Alano
building-what does that
mean to you?
George: I go to AA, that’s
what I do, it’s the only thing
that’s worked to keep me
from drinking. Their formula is very spiritual. I’ve
looked into it. It’s way more
inclusive than I thought at
first.
How did this mural come
about, what was your process?
This whole process happened because I started the
mural with a specific sketch.
It was one path and the other
path and a path in the middle
that leads to like I like to call
it the aim of religion using
the method of science. I feel
like there is a common aim
to get in union with their
god, goddess, superior being, a creator, but it’s that
union, to be close to that...
The sun to me is, every religion can probably agree,
the sun is greater than them
and it’s a power greater than
them, if the sun isn’t here I
cease to exist, right? It’s got
way more power than I do.
It happened at the lowest
point, I saw the vision of the
mural and started sketching
it out and I looked at it and
it, I was up 24 hours. There
was a lot of symbolism. The
part that is devoid of color,
is supposed to be a representation and there’s this other side, this stark contrast,
there’s reduction of color.
That side was a very personal side...it was finished 9
times [the sketches]. At one
point it had a pit full of peo-
ple and these people were
trying to escape and they
couldn’t, and there was spirits coming out. I might have
looked a little crazy to people...I’ve been sober for four
years. It was tough. It was
totally worth it.
What have been some
of your inspirations as an
artist or artists you want
to pay homage to?
I love the murals growing up in East LA. They
were typically, one could
say, Mexican art, they had
Aztec pyramids and snakes,
things I wasn’t being taught,
but was curious about. I remember dancing, seeing the
murals and it would make
me dance. Then I’d see billboards all over the city, and
think dude I didn’t ask for
that billboard to be here.
When I saw graffiti writers go up on billboards and
make them pretty with colors I was like that is what
I want. There was a lot of
artists back then, an artist
named Saber is probably
one of the most influential
for me back then. Knowing
what they did for me to be
able to stand on a corner and
paint, I thank them.
more paint than I had food, I
cried at that wall. I would go
there, ride my bike at night,
look at it, question whether
I was doing the right thing
and I always knew-it’s like
that courage you know, that
breaking point. The more
people told me I was crazy, the more I knew in my
heart that I was doing the
right thing. Having a clear
connection with your heart
is important, that’s always
led me. I just started to connect with me- having compassion for myself dude,
you’re okay man. You’re totally okay. I know the world
is telling you that you need
to be a fucking mouse, but
you are like so okay. I didn’t
have that all the time, so it’s
tough. Man, just go for it.
Do it.
What is the role of art in
social change?
When there’s no words
anymore when it reaches that plateau of this is as
much as we can scream,
there’s going to be a picture that’s going to explain
it or one photograph...By art
I think it’s more of a wide
open variable than something more static, I paint or
I take pictures....I’m starting
to be a little more hopeful,
not just for my future, but
for everybody’s. I think the
needs more artists to
What words or advice world
come
out
that construct.
would you like to share They need of
to
be
pulled out.
with anyone contemplating their own path or hopHis art can be found at
ing to make their way as Georgeousmurals.net
an artist?
I’ve been so fortunate in
my life. I feel like I’ve been a
golden child in a way, where
opportunities just like here
you go, I’ve starved, I’ve had
OCTOBER 13, 2021 / THE COOPER POINT JOURNAL
11
Arts & Culture
A Still from “Dark City,” NEW LINE CINEMA
Movie Review:
“Dark City”
Still Good in ‘21
by Chase Patton
From New Line
Cinema, “Dark City”
(1998) is a classic 90’s
neo-noir masterpiece,
directed by Alex Proyas.
Alex Proyas is the
imagination behind such
movies as “The Crow,”
“Knowing,” and “I,
Robot.” “Dark City” is
a timeless film similar
in story and style to
“The Matrix” and “The
13th Floor.” Despite
its watchability, “Dark
City’’ did not gain the
mainstream recognition
its contemporaries
like “The Matrix” did.
However, it does have a
cult following—and for
good reason. The sets,
cinematography, and
sound are exquisite.
The movie centers on
the character of John
Murdoch, portrayed by
Rufus Sewell in a stellar
and genuine performance.
Murdoch is on a mission
for truth after being
accused of committing
ritual killings which he
cannot remember, like a
programmed Manchurian
candidate. This raises
questions about who is
actually orchestrating
the murders and what
precisely Murdoch’s
involvement is. Murdoch
traverses the mindbending, shape-shifting
12
labyrinth of the city of
eternal night in a visual
experience worth the
movie rental. The city is
under the secret authority
of a human-like alien race
called “the Strangers.”
The Strangers are
entities who operate
from within a hivemindlike structure deep
underground, where
they use telekinetic
machinery and perfect
their psychotronic
methodology, known
as “tuning,” which they
leverage on the citizens
of the city. They run
experiments on the
citizens of Dark City in
order to learn what it
means to be human to aid
their survival. One could
compare the Strangers’
quest to understand
humanity to other works
of science fiction, where
artificial intelligences
make similar pursuits.
Memories are removed
and replaced among
different citizens
throughout a city which
shifts its shape each day
at the stroke of midnight.
The city is like a spiral
machine literally bent and
tuned by the telekinetic
will of the Strangers,
which in turn bends the
reality of its inhabitants.
This makes the citizens
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of this shadowy city
eternal sleepwalkers,
consciously awake yet
unaware of the nightly
procedures of their
subterranean masters. The
creators of this system
of cognitive tuning
are the architects of a
grand experiment. The
Strangers are adept at
tuning or telekinesis and
use it to their advantage
against the less-adept
humans. However,
Murdoch develops his
own telekinetic powers
and wields them against
the Strangers, who
ultimately consider this
development the next
evolution for their race.
Residing within
Dark City is Dr.
Daniel Schreber
(Kiefer Sutherland), a
psychologist and ally of
John Murdoch as well as
an indentured servant to
the Strangers. Jennifer
Connelly plays the role
of Emma Murdoch,
lounge singer and wife to
John Murdoch. Murdoch
is pursued by Police
Inspector Bumstead (John
Hurt). Richard O’Brien,
of “Rocky Horror Picture
Show” fame, plays the
role of a Stranger called
Mr. Hand. The cast of
Dark City all execute
their roles in a realistic
and compelling manner
enjoyable to the viewer.
Over 20 years later,
“Dark City” is worth
watching because the
entire film is a work of
art from beginning to end.
It has aged remarkably
well and should be
watched by anyone
interested in similar films
like “Blade Runner,”
“The Matrix,” and “City
of Lost Children.” Watch
if only for the visuals
which are genuinely
award-worthy. But it’s
the creative, esoteric
story and themes which
make this movie a classic.
“Dark City” explores the
topics of consciousness,
psychokinesis, and what
it means to be a human
being in a manner which
is thought-provoking and
undeniably unique. Watch
this movie, NOW! Sleep.
Columns
“PSYCHO 2,” a Review
brought to you by Brock Holes
What better way to kick off
Halloween season, and my tenure
at Spoiler Warning than to review
a bizarre and uncalled for sequel to
a beloved classic? For this October
column, I want to introduce the uninitiated to “Psycho II” (1983).
Directed by Richard Franklin
and scripted by Tom Holland,
“Psycho II” drops Norman Bates,
(Anthony Perkins) into the world
of small town California in 1983.
What results is an interesting
look at how peoples’ conceptions
of violent crimes like Norman’s
changed between 1960 to 1983.
It’s also a time capsule for today’s
viewers on how those ideas have
evolved from 1983 until now,
mostly unchanged. Notably, it’s
been almost twice as long since
the release of “Psycho II” than the
time between the releases of the
two films.
I won’t lie to you. “Psycho
II” has a lot of strengths, but an
elegantly unfolding plot is not one.
Having seen this film multiple
times, I still can’t summarize it
coherently. Here’s a rundown of
what you need to know about the
plot. It’s 1983, and Norman Bates
is declared “sane” and released
back into society. He’s set up with
a dishwashing job at a diner, where
he meets a friendly younger woman named Mary (Meg Tilly), who
he invites to stay with him in the
empty mansion where his 1960
murders took place. Things get
weird as Norman receives cryptic
notes and phone calls, claiming to
be from his long dead mother.
The rest of the plot is a series of
twists and turns related to solving that mystery. To me, the most
interesting one is the revelation
that the source of the phone calls
purporting to be from Norman’s
mother is Lila Loomis (Vera
Miles), the sister of Bates victim
Marion Crane. Miffed that her
protest against Norman’s release
fell on deaf ears, Lila is intent on
sabotaging his social reintegration.
It is revealed that this is part of a
premeditated plot to drive Norman insane and get him locked
up again, in which she has also
wrapped up her daughter, Mary
(yes, the same Mary from before).
Given that many sequels,
especially in horror, have little if
any connection to their source
material, be they anthology series
or cash-ins on a franchise’s name,
it’s not insignificant that Perkins
and Miles are the only faces from
“Psycho” we see again in the
film’s sequel.
With Perkins reprising his role
as Bates, we can quite literally see
the 22 years of institutionalization
showing on Norman’s face. Incarceration is often treated, not just in
horror movies but in a disturbing
amount of popular media, like a
neat bow on the end of a story, a
sign that all is finally well. All
is clearly not well for Norman,
despite his freedom. Though
“sane” in the eyes of the law, the
psychological weight not just of
his crimes but his social classification as a criminal has rendered
him as helpless as he was before
his time in the mental institution.
Norman has been so thoroughly
convinced of his own inherent evil
that he stumbles over the word
“cutlery” when he has dinner with
Mary the first night she stays over,
the knife he used to murder Marion clearly still on his mind.
the fascinating topic of multiple
personalities. If Lila had a problem
with that anachronistic take on
what caused Norman’s murders,
she didn’t say it then. Curiously,
22 years later, she describes
the fact Norman was found not
guilty by reason of insanity as
“legal hocus pocus” when bursting
into the courtroom to deliver her
petition. Lila’s attitude reflects a
perpetrator/victim dichotomy that
would materialize, gain steam, and
come to a head in culture over the
span of Norman’s sentence. Like
Norman, she’s learned to identify strongly with her role in that
dichotomy. Unlike Norman, Lila
is not helpless, but determined to
make that dichotomy real, even
if it means literally driving Norman to commit the murders she
so stridently believes he’s fated to
commit again.
As for Miles’ Lila Loomis (nee
Crane), her appearance is especially significant in that her character
in the original film is pretty minor.
If there’s any scene you remember Lila from in Psycho, it might
be the (in)famous “psychiatrist
scene,” where Norman’s pathology
is laid out to her in direct, excruciating detail. In that scene Lila
stands in for the public of the year
1960s, eager to learn more about
CONCLUSION: I give it like
a 7.5/10. Definitely drags in spots.
Worth it, entirely for Anthony Perkins’ heartbreaking performance
and for the chance to reflect on the
many crimes of Ronald Reagan,
truly the scariest ghost of them all.
Dear Annie...
A New Advice Column from the Cooper Point Journal
Having trouble setting boundaries with pals? Don’t know how
to tell your roommate to stop unraveling your yarn ball?
Let me take a stab at it! Hi there! I’m Annie! I’m here
to answer all your questions and share my wisdom with the
world. I may be a feline, but I have multiple degrees in
Person Studies and am very qualified to speak on most humanly
issues. Write to me with your questions and you may see my
response in the next edition of the Cooper Point Journal.
Just email dearanniecpj@gmail.com! Talk to you soon!
OCTOBER 13, 2021 / THE COOPER POINT JOURNAL
13
Astrology
by Your Cosmic
Best Friends
Aries (March 21 - April 20):
Life may feel difficult this month, Aries,
but the full moon on October 20th is the
perfect time for you to celebrate yourself!
Because so many signs have been in your
7th House, relationship conflicts may
have been especially difficult to deal with.
This is likely because of your (sometimes
brutal) honesty. Jupiter’s retrograde in
your 11th house has also forced you to
worry about relationships’ longevity and
your future. Have no fear, Aries, you
will be there to catch yourself when you
fall. You are still a contagiously exciting
energy to be around and the balance in
your relationships will return.
Song Rec: Soulmate // Lizzo
Taurus (April 21 - May 21):
There’s a strong focus on health this
month, Taurus! Mercury, Mars, and the
Sun are all currently in Libra which
rules over your sixth house of wellness
and service. Try not to fixate too much
on what you should be doing because,
ultimately, there is no rulebook! While
you are a determined and hard worker, it
is also okay to indulge in the comfort and
calmness you often seek. Venus in your
eighth house may mean that your love
life may be in a transitory or regenerative
state. This IS a good thing! New things
that serve you will only be able to enter
your life if you clean out the old. It is okay
to grieve but it is also a time to celebrate!
Song Rec: Independent Women, Pt. 1 //
Destiny’s Child
Gemini (May 22 - June 21):
Creativity is key for you right now,
Gemini! With so much action in your
fifth house AND Mercury and Venus
forming a sextile on the 17th, it is a
perfect time to get those creative juices
flowing. If you don’t usually consider
yourself a creative person, this may
be the time to lean into a new skill or
project. People often forget the creative
spark of your cerebral ruling planet,
Mercury, but creative expression is
necessary for your well-being! Embrace
this side of yourself and allow it to
permeate the other realms of your life.
Song Rec: Under the Influence //
Snoh Aalegra
Cancer (June 22 - July 22):
Home and close relationships are
looking tough this month, Cancer. Your
emotional side is typically the thing that
makes you so unique and appreciated,
but be careful not to lose yourself in
the moodiness. As the Sun squares
Pluto in your fourth and seventh house
respectively, it is important to keep your
14
head and be mindful of selfishness. You
crave love deeply, which is not a bad
thing! It may just be the time to refocus
outside of yourself. Thankfully, the full
moon this month is in your Midheaven
of Aries! The 20th is the perfect night
for you to manifest career goals and the
things you desire for yourself. Nobody
can stop you once you get going,
Cancer! You got it!
Song Rec: Wasteland, Baby! // Hozier
Leo (July 23- August 21):
Uranus’ ongoing retrograde in your
tenth house may cause difficulty for
your career and leave you feeling
powerless. This will challenge you, Leo,
because your regal personality makes
you a natural-born leader. Thankfully,
the Aries full moon encourages you
to redirect your energy to your deeper
goals. Start that new self-help book, plan
that upcoming trip, and spend your time
focusing on the things that fill your cup!
Your chart’s ruler, the Sun, encourages
you to pour this joy into your close
connections, but be cautious and save
enough goodness for yourself!
Song Rec: Petals // TOPS
Virgo (August 22 - September 23):
Try not to confuse your head and your
heart this month, Virgo. While you
usually come from a place of analysis
and logic, Neptune’s retrograde in your
seventh house of Pisces may change
your usual pace. Lots of emotions and
feelings about spirituality are in your
future. Though it is important to feel
these things rather than push them
down, it is also vital that you distinguish
between fact and fantasy. Abundance is
also in your future, Virgo, and you may
have noticed this already. Commotion in
your second house means that finances
are undergoing lots of change. It may be
hard to balance your need for success
with your desire for ease, but you will
earn what you deserve in the end. Focus
on the positive and keep the dollars
coming in!
Song Rec: just like magic // Ariana
Grande
Libra (September 24 - October
23):
Release unnecessary guilt this month,
Libra. It’s okay to celebrate your wins,
birthday baby! It’s time to put your
time and money into what you care
about. Don’t be afraid to stand up for
yourself in one on one relationships.
A new career or health based endeavor
may be daunting, but consistency is all
you need to see a positive outcome!
Mars rules over your second house, so
WWW.COOPERPOINTJOURNAL.COM
food deeply affects your disposition,
motivation and desire. Your body may
be particularly sensitive to certain foods
as you transform your outlook so it’s a
good time to adjust your diet as needed.
A close relationship may be coming to
an end around the 20th as the full moon
in Aries squares Pluto in your 4th house
- it’s okay to be both sad and relieved.
You exist in multitudes.
Song Rec: I Love You But I Love Me
More // MARINA
Scorpio (October 24 - November
22):
You may be feeling particularly
introverted this month, Scorpio. Your
home life or close relationships may be
feeling hectic and tumultuous drawing
you inwards. It can feel as though the
needs of your loved ones draw your
energy from your personal goals and
you are striking a balance between how
much you can and can’t do. New studies
pique your interest and you may find
yourself deep-diving into a new subject
at school or hobby you pick up. Mercury
will be stationing direct in your 12th
house on the 18th - at this time you may
come to the realization there are certain
connections or vices in your life that you
have outgrown. This is a sign of growth,
not a reason to panic. Honor your gut
feelings. Remember - anxiety revs you
up, intuition is calm.
Song Rec: Life Goes On // Oliver Tree
Sagittarius (November 23 December 22):
Nervous energies may interfere with
your sleep this month, Sagittarius. Tend
to any repressed emotions brought up
with compassion. The intentions you
set this month will have lasting power
over the next 6 months. A sudden boost
of abundance in the form of resources
you have been seeking will help you feel
clearer about future plans when it comes
to work. Be careful to read the fine print
when it comes to signing any contracts!
As Saturn retrograde turns direct in
your 3rd house later this month, petty
conflicts and tension with friends and
siblings ease up. Friends from the past
may be coming back as well!
Song Rec: Vibrate On // Erykah Badu
Capricorn (December 23 January 20):
It’s time to invest in yourself, Capricorn!
Those plans you’ve been sitting on for
months are ready for you to get things
going. Don’t be daunted by the time
you have to invest in future projects and
plans. You have the slow burn Midas
touch! Now is not the time for selfdeprecation. Network your ass off and
believe in your sardonic charm. The
most transformative experiences will
be personal this month. Take time to
process the growth you’ve gone through
over the past few months in relation to
self-awareness. With Jupiter retrograde
ending on the 18th and going direct in
your 2nd house, you’ll notice finances
becoming more stable and even likely an
increase in opportunities for finding new
sources of income.
Song Rec: Grumpy Old Man // Remi
Wolf
Aquarius (January 21 - February
19):
Big decisions this month, Aquarius!
Be careful not to let authority figures
in your life manipulate your goals or
morals. Your dedication to social causes
carries greater influence this month. The
new moon in Libra is happening in your
9th house and trines Saturn and Jupiter
in the 1st house - a new beginning buds
in relation to the themes of education,
travel, and religion! Moving house is
favorable from the 18th onwards. Many
blockages experienced over the past
few months are lifting! You’ll be feeling
more optimistic about your future and
capable of making major personal
decisions independently. It’s also a
highly favored time for beginning a new
health/fitness based routine.
Song Rec: XTRA (ft. Tierra Whack) //
Willow Smith
Pisces (February 20 - March 20):
This month is potent for you, Pisces!
With Venus squaring Jupiter in your
12th house, subconscious worries
come to light - it is time to recognize
where your fears manifest in the form
of self-limitation and liberate yourself.
With your dreamy nature, fantasy can
become reality when you let yourself
work towards it and accept help along
the way. There’s a focus on increasing
intimacy within relationships as well as
attracting new romantic connections - so
get flirty, babes! Finances are looking up
this month, especially when it comes to
collaborative work. Renewed interest in
spirituality and a great time to prioritize
self-care.
Song Rec: I Am (ft. Flo Milli) // Yung
Baby Tate
Christianized
Traditions:
A Brief History of Halloween
by Adam Nichols
The night between Oct. 31
and Nov. 1 was the Celtic New
Year. Samhain (pronounced
sah-win), meaning “summer’s
end,” was a festival held to
commemorate the coming of
winter. Since the colder seasons were commonly associated with human death, it was
believed that on this night, the
veil between the spirit world
and our own was thinner than
normal and that spirits of
people who passed the year
prior could be found wandering the earth. Celtic people
would celebrate the night
with a “fire festival,” where
they danced around massive
bonfires in which they burned
crop and livestock sacrifices
as an offering to their deities.
They wore costumes fashioned
from animal skins as a way
to ward off spirits who were
looking for human victims.
During this time, druids (Celtic Pagans) would also practice
divination - often by casting
sticks, bones, or rocks onto the
ground and interpreting their
positions - which was thought
to be more effective on this
night than any other, and was
a great source of comfort for
the people of the time as they
prepared for the bleak winter.
At the end of the night, every
household would bring a flame
from their sacred bonfire back
home to light their hearth, to
protect themselves from malicious spirits, and leave out
small portions of their nicest
crops for wandering spirits
By 43 A.D., when Romans
occupied most Celtic territory,
two Roman traditions were
incorporated into the Samhain
festival. One was Feralia, a
commemoration of the passing
of the dead, which was celebrated similarly to Samhain
with feasts and offerings for
the spirits of the deceased. The
other was a day to honor Po-
Spooky Season
mona, the Roman goddess of
fruit and trees; it is speculated
that today’s Halloween game
of bobbing for apples was
rooted in this tradition.
After Christian Influence
had spread onto Celtic land
around the ninth century, Samhain was gradually supplanted
by the church holiday known
as All Saints Day, which was
celebrated as a feast to honor Catholic Saints on Nov. 1.
When they realized the traditions from Samhain weren’t
dying out very fast, they decided to dub Oct. 31 “All Hallows Eve,” which eventually
became known as Halloween,
in order to impose their own
church-sanctioned traditions
on the day. The festivities remained similar; people dressed
up in costumes (usually as angels, devils, or saints) and held
parades, danced around bonfires, and carved pumpkins.
The tradition of leaving food
outside one’s door for spirits
morphed into trick-or-treating
for costumed children.
The celebration of Halloween quickly spread throughout Europe once it had been
incorporated into church traditions, but in the colonial
United States, the celebration
of Halloween was more common in the Southern colonies
because of the strict Protestant
beliefs held in New England.
It was not until the late 19th
century that Halloween started
to become more widely recognized throughout the United
States. Today, people in Celtic
Neo-Pagan communities still
celebrate Samhain by hosting
potlucks, making bonfires,
decorating altars to honor the
dead, and practicing divination.
OCTOBER 13, 2021 / THE COOPER POINT JOURNAL
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