City Council Candidates Bring Answers and Awareness to Regis

Photo Source // Amy Reglin

By: Catie Cheshire, Co Editor- In -Chief

Even though many people are already thinking about the 2020 presidential election, Denver’s municipal elections are just around the corner on May 7, 2019. With that in mind the Regis Community Council, RUSGA, and Berkeley Regis United Neighborhood along with many other sponsors brought the District 1 City Council candidates to Regis on March 20.

The event served as a way for community members to learn about all the candidates and ask questions relevant to the District 1 area, which includes Regis. The candidates are Mike Somma, Amanda Sandoval, David Sabados, Prajwal Kulkarni, Scott Durrah, Sabrina D’Agosto, and Victoria Aguilar. Dominic Dezzutti, station manager at Colorado Public Television, served as the moderator. He guided candidates through one-minute opening and closing statements and asked them questions submitted by sponsors of the event and the audience.

Jenna Farley, a community member and part of Regis Community Council, kicked off the night with an introduction. Farley was one of the original organizers of the event. She discussed how city policies affect people’s daily lives and argued that City Council elections are important because they give people a chance to elect people who have a say over what happens in their neighborhoods. She introduced Father John Fitzgibbons, Regis President, who shared welcoming words and wisdom.

“They say all politics is local,” he said. “That’s true. What we do here affects everything else. What we do here is make democracy work.” After Father Fitzgibbons’ concluding remarks, Dezzutti was ready to kick off the night. He began by inviting each of the seven candidates to give an opening statement.

Most candidates spoke about their time in the district, their experiences that led them to run for office, and why they would be good advocates for people in District 1. Candidates range from Somma, a firefighter, to Durrah, a dispensary owner to Aguilar, who works at Denver Human Services.

Though the candidates are a diverse group, they all identified the same primary issue District 1 faces: housing amidst a changing neighborhood. Each candidate offered unique ideas for what should be done to make housing more affordable and preserve the character of the neighborhood. Their ideas ranged from overlay zones, to repurposing old buildings as temporary housing, to giving residents a voice in city planning.

Along with concerns about development, one question asked about transportation. Once again, all the candidates agreed that transportation is a major problem in District 1. Across the board, the issue of sidewalk maintenance arose. Currently, homeowners are responsible for the sidewalks outside their residence. Several candidates said they would like to appropriate money, or alter that policy, so that the city would fix sidewalks instead of individuals.

Another important theme throughout the night was community involvement. Each candidate said they had ideas for how to involve the community more in decision-making with D’Agosta and Aguilar emphasizing the importance of asking people how they would like to be included in decision-making and Sabados describing how technology could be used to have digital town halls that are accessible to more people. Every candidate spoke about how city council, more than any other pathway in our current government, gives people in the community a voice.

To return to Father Fitzgibbons’ theme that politics is local, having the District 1 candidate forum at Regis is just one way the university promotes political engagement and becomes a better neighbor to others in the community.

The event was streamed on FacebookLive and offered Spanish translation, ensuring more of District 1 could be included in the forum. To update your voter registration click here. For information about how to vote in the upcoming municipal elections that City Council is included in click here.

The Black History 101 Mobile Museum at Regis

Students observing the Black History 101 Mobile Museum in the Mountain View Room // Allison Upchurch

By: Allison Upchurch, Staff Reporter

Last Monday, February 18, the Office of Diversity and Inclusive Excellence along with the Social Justice and Diversity committee of RUSGA hosted a day-long exhibition in the Mountain View Room of the Black History 101 Mobile Museum. This award-winning mobile museum displayed a selection of the over 7,000 original artifacts of black memorabilia starting from the Trans-Atlantic slave trading era to current hip hop culture.

Some of the artifacts specifically on display on Monday were authentic chains used in the slave trade, original vinyl records of famous speeches by black activists, and signed pictures from famous black performers and athletes.

The collection was founded by Khalid el-Hakim, who has been collecting these artifacts for the last 28 years and decided to go public with his collection after attending the Million Man March on Washington D.C. on October 16, 1995.  “I wanted to start sharing this material in public spaces to get us to start thinking about history in a different type of way because we haven’t been taught history honestly,” el-Hakim shared during the lecture portion of the exhibition. “So this was my way of addressing that.”

His lecture, entitled The Truth Hurts: Black History, Honesty, and Healing the Racial Divide, served as an overlook about why the specific artifacts in his collection came to be created and think about how socialization and normalization has caused the racial divide in our country to persist.

“I want to just set a foundation to get us started in thinking about what this all means,” el-Hakim said to introduce his lecture. “It’s a very heavy subject, but I think that we need to be honest about what we see here on display.”

The lecture went into showing how all of the objects on display, as well as other artifacts in his collection but not on display, contribute to the history of separating by race. el-Hakim explained that most of these artifacts were created to create “disconnect” and “disassociation”, especially in objects from the late 1800’s and mid 1900’s that were created to show blacks as inferior or unwelcomed, such as soap advertisements and phrases of speech adopted by the KKK.  

Other objects in this collection told a more positive side to this narrative – one of pride and activism that even drew a connection to el-Hakim’s family. He told the story of how he came across a document from 1938 signed by Carter G. Woodson that included a list of supporters for Woodson’s scholarship research in Detroit at that time. “As I am going down this list of patrons listed, I see my grandparents listed,” el-Hakim shared. “That’s a reminder of what the greater work is.”

To learn more about the Black History 101 Mobile Museum, visit their official website or email Khalid el-Hakim at bhistory101@yahoo.com.

The Nightmare Before Finals

Director Abiel Bruhn chats with Regis student at horror film screening //Amy Reglin

By: Emily Lovell, Beat Editor and Allison Upchurch, Staff Reporter

Dead week started off with an event collaboration between the Department of Communication and the English Department called “The Nightmare Before Finals.” The event took place Monday, December 3, in the Mountain View Room and featured a showing of the independent horror film The Night Sitter, written and co-directed by Abiel Bruhn and John Rocco. If the name Bruhn sounded familiar, it is because Abiel is the son of Dr. Mark Bruhn, a professor in the English Department here at Regis. 

The Night Sitteris about a girl named Amber (played by Elyse Dufour), who poses as a babysitter for two boys named Kevin (played by Jack Champion) and Ronnie (played by Bailey Campbell) but is ultimately there to steal some money and valuables. During the night, Amber’s friends come to help her rob the house as Kevin and Ronnie sneak into the dad’s office of collectible haunted artifacts and unintentionally release The Three Mothers - witches that have been haunting Kevin’s dreams and whom are known to devour children. As it gets closer to the witching hour of midnight, the characters grapple with the realization that the witches are out to kill and work with the neighbor and paranormal expert named Vincent (played by Ben Barlow) to try to defend themselves.

The movie had its world premiere on August 26, 2018 at the FrightFestin London, England and later won three major awards at the Sin City Horror Festfor Best Kill, Best Screenplay, and Best Actress.

After the movie, Bruhn came up for a Q and A with the audience and said that the movie can be summed up as “Suspiriameets Home Alone.” In giving some fun facts, Bruhn said that the movie was filmed in only three weeks at Rocco’s childhood home in Nashville, Tennessee. 

One audience member was curious about why the movie was set around Christmas time and Bruhn explained that many of the horror films produced by his production company, Roller Disco Massacre, are set during Christmastime, so it is a way of typecasting the company. Furthermore, he said, “warmth and nostalgia are often associated with Christmas and it’s fun to mess with that.” 

Feminists will appreciate the film’s strong female lead. Unlike traditional horror tropes, Bruhn said, “I didn’t want Amber to seem like a pawn who wandered into the act. She has her own story and her own reasons for being at that house.” 

Other viewers will be mesmerized by the film’s lighting color palette: the entire house is festively lit and decorated. The colors are there for more than just aesthetics, however. “Red is used as a warning motif”, Bruhn explained. “Green represents the witches, and blue symbolizes safety.” 

There’s no better way to take your mind off finals than eating popcorn, watching a suspenseful horror-comedy movie, and having a conversation with a rising director about his new film.