Los Lobos, or “the Wolves,” has been performing for three decades, ever since they joined together as adolescents to play at weddings and bars in Los Angeles. Since then, their music has evolved from simply rock and acoustic to traditional Spanish and Mexican songs, and finally to a combination of the both. Now their music is inspired by a mixture of varieties, including rock and roll, Tex-Mex, country, folk, R&B, blues, and boleros and norteños.

The band consists of David Hidalgo on vocals, guitar and accordion; Conrad Lozano on bass; Louie Perez on guitar; Cesar Rosas on guitar and vocals; Cougar Estrada on percussion; and Steve Berlin on saxophone. Together they form a funky, energetic show that simultaneously features thought-provoking lyrics and a look into Latin culture.

Los Lobos’ latest creation is “Los Lobos Goes Disney,” a CD that takes 13 classic Disney songs and adds to them a rock-like feel. “The kid’s record doesn’t even sound like a kid’s record,” said sax player Steve Berlin, “It just sounds like Los Lobos playing funky old songs.”

Said Rolling Stone, “With the exception of U2, no other band has stayed on top of its game as long as Los Lobos.”

Los Lobos will perform as part of the Performing Arts Series this Saturday, at 7:30 p.m., in Sauder Concert hall. Tickets for regular seating are still available for $25, $40, and $45. Goshen College students will not receive any discounts. For more information, contact the Goshen College Welcome Center by calling (574) 535-7566, e-mailing welcomecenter@goshen.edu, or visiting www.loslobos.org.

You ask me
What am I?
What am I?
What am I?
I am what eyes would perceive as a vanishing point of humanity
That couldn’t be
Because you go all the way from A to Z
Alpha omega someone once put it to me
Me a reflection of this cosmic poet’s imagery
Caught in-between the boundaries
Of metaphysical realities
And spiritualists technicalities of identity
And you ask me
What am I?
What am I?
What am I?
I am what isolated and segregated senses would reject
I am love
Love that would in fact infect
Like the fall of man brought death
Coming this time to bring life and to resurrect
With rejuvenation
Joy and jubilation
Praise and exultation
And an ecstatic elation
Of sensations so strong we couldn’t even name ‘em
And you ask me
What am I?
What am I?
What am I?
I am what idle tongues touching tidal waves say
To make the apathetic and dead raise from their graves
I am not what I say
I don’t fit into words
I am not what I do
I don’t fit into verbs
I am not what I own
Because this world is not my home
Though I stand as one I never stand alone
And you ask me
What am I?
What am I?
What am I?
I am what ice is to fire
A melting heart in the wake of your desire
Sins sweat as my forehead perspires
Nervous of this holy closeness
Eye to eye
We stare and admire
You are love love love love love love love love love
Can I say it any higher
Can I get the truth turned up to drown out this liar
You are love love love love
Love what you are
Love the smooth face and love the hidden scars
And you ask me
What am I?
What am I?
What am I?
I am
Breathing
Being
Believing in what I am
And I finally understand
I am what I am
All praise to the great I am

This poem won first place in the recent poetry slam sponsored by the English department.

Pinchpenny Press and Broadside are two literary publication opportunities for students here a Goshen College. Photo by Julia Baker.

Sarah Rich

Fiction writers and poets have been crawling out of the Goshen College woodwork in the past few weeks.

The Broadside board recently hosted a short fiction contest, which received almost 30 submissions written by students. Abe Pauls won the contest with a short story about a little boy who tries to travel to a parallel universe through the toilet.

The English department also held a poetry slam on October 30. The winning poem, written by Nathan Stoess, was inspired by the Biblical passage in which God tells Moses, “I am what I am.”

For writers on campus who missed these recent literary events, there are still plenty of opportunities for publication. Pinchpenny Press and Broadside are two publishing boards run by the English department. Pinchpenny publishes short books including collections of poetry, stories and comics, of about 40 pages. Broadside publishes short stories, essays and poems that fit on one sheet of paper and are distributed by mail to anyone who subscribes, for free, to Broadside.

Anyone interested in submitting a piece of original work to either of these boards for possible publication should contact Emily Taylor, this year’s Horswell fellow, or any English professor.

Untitled, ceramic pendant, Alana Kenagy. Photo by Julia Baker.

Sarah Rich

Alana Kenagy, a junior, remembers taking this ceramic pendant out of the raku smoking chamber her first year at Goshen College and thinking, “I am going to have to make more of these.”

Since then, Kenagy has created and then sold or given away 60 pendants, each of which is unique. She says, “It has been amazing to see which pendants people choose and how that pendant seems to have been made specifically for them.”

The distinctness of each pendant comes from the unpredictability involved in pendant-making. “I like the physicality of working with clay, and I love the guesswork that glazing requires,” says Kenagy. “It is always exciting to see what comes out after the firing.”

Patrick Ressler, front, has organized a group of students, collectively known as The Dynamics, to perform an impressive score of original a cappella arrangements at this Friday's coffeehouse. Photo by Emily Miller.

The Campus Activities Counsel has four exciting Hour Afters in store for the campus.

On Friday the 13th at 10:00 p.m., a Pop Choir Coffeehouse will feature a cappella singing from the student group “The Dynamics.” The group will perform selections from artists Justin Timberlake, The Beatles, Imogen Heap, The Wailin’ Jennys and more. Patrick Ressler, a junior, organized the event. The concert is currently sold out, but hopeful students without tickets can still come to the door of Newcomer on Friday and perhaps find an extra seat.

On Sunday the 15^th at 8:00 p.m., a musical performance called “Coming Together” will be held in the Umble Center. During the show, 15 students will sing well-known Broadway musical songs. Some of the featured musicals will be “Rent,” “Spring Awakening,” “Wicked” and “Children of Eden.” Tickets are free for those with GEEK cards and $5 for those without them.

On Friday the 20^th, Alana Kanagy will present “Alana and the Bathroom Mix Guild,” a one-night Hour After featuring music and theater. The show will be hosted in the Union gym at 10:00 p.m. with a full sound and lighting system. There will be room for dancing, so dance please, do. The gym can hold up to 300 people, so there should be plenty of seating for students.

On December 4th and 5^th at 10:00 p.m., Mark Hershberger and his roommates will perform an Hour After in Newcomer. This show is also sold out, but more information about extra seating will be available within the next month.

“The Hour Afters are going to be an all-around fun time,” said CAC organizer Tim Blaum. “They’re the perfect opportunity for students to show off talents that otherwise might go unnoticed on campus.”

The cast of Parables offers a unique worship experience incorporating skits, tap dancing and unconventional percussion instruments. Photo by David Zwier.

With diverse interests and artistic specialties, the Parables worship team comes together about once a week to share their many gifts but same spirit with congregations and other Christian functions in the area.

They recently held one such program for prospective students and local youth groups in Reith Recital Hall. After beginning the evening with an up-beat, foot-kicking African number, the 10-person group introduced their repertoire as stories from the Bible and from their own lives. “We encourage you to listen with an open heart so you, too, can find some truth in it,” said Aaron Kaufmann, a sophomore.

In their first skit, an elementary school teacher (Jay Mast, a sophomore) gave each of his students a cookie and told each one to take that cookie home and do something with it that would make the world a better place. One child shared the cookie with his classmates, one sold it to her grandmother and bought a pet gerbil for the class, one used it for an art project and one child just kept her cookie safe. The teacher affirmed all of these children for the different ways that they chose to use their individual gifts.

Just like the the children in this skit, the members of Parables have many different stories and artistic talents — singing, dancing, acting, storytelling — which they bring to the group in the hope that God will work through these skills to make the world a little better. “Any time you lump a whole bunch of arts together,” says Mast, “it’s powerful.”

The program continued with a song by Bobby McFerrin featuring a barrage of vocal percussion and nonsense sounds. Mid-way through the song, the group whipped out bright-colored plastic tubes and began waving them around and tapping them on the floor in a choreographed rhythm. During this number, Reuben Sancken, a junior, broke out into a tap dance.

Emily Bowman, a sophomore, and Molly Kellogg, a junior, both shared stories of how they have experienced God, and at one point in the program, several members of the group enacted the Biblical story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. After several other songs and stories, the program ended with a song of blessing.

Like their audiences, the members of Parables come from different backgrounds and denominations, and so their program features a number of different beliefs and experiences. They hope that every person worshiping with them will be able to take away at least one inspiring morsel that they can connect to. “My purpose in this is to have people relate to something in our program,” says Mast. “When something is powerful — it affects you — it’s because you’re relating to it.”

For Mast, the theater in these weekly worship services has strengthened his faith. “When I perform, I need to believe in it,” he says. “If I’m telling you something, you’re not going to get it unless I believe it.”

Over fall break, the Parables group toured around Indiana and Illinois, visiting the home churches of three of its members. They have also done programs for Bethany Christian High School, alumni weekend and local churches, and they will continue to share their diverse array of talents with Christian communities into May of this coming year.

Food for Thought, woodcut relief print, Ted Maust

It was the sacredly-quiet atmosphere of the Good Library that provided Ted Maust with the image for his woodcut relief print titled “Food for Thought.”

Maust, a sophomore, was assigned in his Printmaking class to discover a “sacred” place and capture it from an unusual point of view.

“I went [to the library] to see what I could see,” said Maust, “and was caught by the view of books through the spaces between other shelves. So I made a quick sketch of the books’ outlines.”

Maust then transferred the image to a woodblock and developed the black and white areas as it was carved. The versatility of the medium allowed him to modify the image at each stage of carving until he was content with the outcome.

“I like the graphic quality of relief printing in black and white because it forces the artist to develop shapes rather than just lines,” said Maust.

The Beehive Design Collective uses collaboratively created posters to raise awareness about social and political issues. Photo by Molly Kraybill.

On Friday, four busy bees gathered in an Umble Center classroom to show off a year’s worth of hard work; but instead of honey, the fruit of their labors was a massive black and white poster, and instead of flowers, their intended audience was an eager crowd of Goshen students and faculty.

These “bees” are members of The Beehive Design Collective, a 100% volunteer-driven, non-profit organization formed in 2000. The organization’s mission is to produce collaborative artwork that features images symbolic to current social and political issues. Since the artwork is non-copyrighted, it can be quickly distributed to schools and organizations. In other words, the Beehive uses art as a creative, straightforward facet for explaining complex yet crucial issues.

The process of forming a Beehive design requires at least one year of cooperation and planning. First, a social issue is decided upon, often chosen by which topics are in popular demand. Next, ideas and sketches are formed through a massive group effort, as Bees talk to community members and hear about their personal experiences concerning the issue. Notes in form of a “mind map” are made so that every concept has a metaphor, and every metaphor a picture. Eventually each image is drawn in pencil by a group of Bees—which calls for cooperation and patience.

“We have really weird arguments!” joked Erin, one of the Beehive presenters, “Like, ‘What kind of hat should that bird wear?’”

When complete and covered in ink, the image can be copied and distributed locally, nationally and globally.

In the past, issues such as free trade, globalization and biotechnology have been depicted in Beehive artwork. Each image contains no human figures to avoid any risk of stereotyping. They also contain no language, which allows the pictures to be understood by many different cultures, especially those that may be illiterate. The Beehive has even traveled to Latin America to gather stories and share its images.

The Beehive’s current project is a graphic campaign called, “The True Cost of Coal.” Intricate black-and-white images are spread over a giant poster depicting the negative effects of mountaintop removal. When folded together, the poster shows an intact mountain with clean streams and native species. But when pulled apart, the poster shows what is actually happening: destruction of communities, deforestation, and loss of valuable resources. The sections tell stories of erosion, floods and pollution—results of removing mountaintops for coal mining.

When the story behind each poster is explained, it has the ability to empower one to want to bring about change. For this reason, the Beehive is linked closely with organizations and sponsors—they can refer viewers to the appropriate groups, allowing for more direct action. The hive’s recent stop at Goshen was just one of many as they continue to tour across the United States, sharing their work.

The Beehive Design Collective is located in Maine, but its membership is open and relaxed, so that anyone can help or participate.

“We are more of an organism, not an organization,” said Kehben, another Beehive presenter.

Currently the group is on tour exhibiting their coal project.  For more information on the Bees, go to http://www.beehivecollective.org/english/front.html.

For her Drawing course during last year’s May term, Melissa Kauffman was assigned to develop an art project that contrasted light and dark color. Recognizing the graceful movement that is often characteristic of flowers, the sophomore arranged a still-life containing a vase and flower and created this print.

Kauffman brought color to the image by using varied ratios of water and India ink. By adding more water, the colors became lighter, but by adding more ink, the colors became darker.

“I like how colors can be mixed so that they play off of each other to create an image,” said Kauffman.

Kauffman took a printmaking class in high school, but she has found that printing for Goshen art courses has been significantly different. There is less time for experimenting and more of a demand for immediate, quality results. Nevertheless, Kauffman was inspired enough by her May term print that she is now taking a beginning print class.

“Printmaking is a really old form of art and can have powerful imagery,” said Kauffman, “I want to get better at it for that reason.”

Sones De Mexico will play their second concert at Goshen college with Balet Folklorico on Oct. 23. Photo provided by Public Relations.

Balet Folklórico and the award-winning Mexican folk band Sones de México will perform at 8 p.m. in Sauder Concert Hall on Friday, Oct. 23. Tickets are free with the donation of a canned item to The Window, a food pantry located on Main Street in Goshen.

The concert is sponsored by Goshen College’s Center for Intercultural Teaching and Learning (CITL) and by the Performing Arts Series.

Concertgoers are encouraged to drop off their cans at the Performing Arts Center that evening. Ed Swartley, executive director of The Window, will be present with information about the food pantry’s services.

CITL wanted to give everyone the opportunity to attend the concert, not only those who could afford it. In doing so, the idea for the food item-ticket exchange was born.

“What better way to serve the community than to provide support for locals?” said Rebecca Hernandez, director of the intercultural center, explaining the reason for the alternative ticket payment.

Last year, 700 people attended the concert by Sones de México, which was also sponsored by the intercultural center. This year, the music group returns and is accompanied by Balet Folklórico, a dance troupe. CITL is hoping to pack out the music hall with 1,000 people, not only from Goshen College, but from the surrounding area as well.

With 14 percent of Elkhart residents of Hispanic background, this concert is “a gift to the larger, diverse community,” with a specific emphasis on Spanish speakers and Performing Arts Series supporters, explains Hernandez. She hopes that the concert will draw a diverse crowd to the campus, some of them for the first time.

Funded by the Lily Endowment Program, CITL aims to make higher education accessible for more Latino students at Goshen College, to generate a diverse learning community and to research the changing ethnicity in the Midwest.

For years, Goshen College and The Window have partnered together. The Window has accepted Goshen College student interns, Celebrate Service Day workers have volunteered their time, and resident assistants have donated items from their halls. The Window offers a variety of services to the community, a few of which include Meals on Wheels and Katie’s Kitchen, a food pantry.

Swartley said that applications from volunteers who want to contribute are always welcome at the organization’s office at 223 S. Main St. “If you want to volunteer,” he said, “we’ll find a place for you!”

It was a close friend’s happy, upbeat and “life-bringing” attitude that inspired first-year Matt Helmuth to create the graphic design he titles, “Tree of Life.”

The colorful design features a tree rooted in the ground, its branches turning into hands that reach upward to catch a falling raindrop.

“My friend just brought life to people—so she inspired me to make this,” Helmuth said.

Helmuth started graphic designing his sophomore year of high school when he had the idea to create T-shirts and give them to friends as Christmas gifts. Since then, he has pursued designing in his free time, teaching himself the art of computers and graphic work.

“I like the fact that I can sit down, lose time, look up at the clock, and realize I just spent six hours on one tiny piece of the design,” Helmuth said.

In essence, graphic design is like drawing, except on a computer. It is a process of visualizing an image, forming a rough draft and then editing every detail until the image is completed.

“It takes time, but if I have an idea, I can make it happen,” Helmuth said.

Matthias Stegmann, who teaches guitar at Goshen College, joined Rebecca Hovan on stage during her “In The Parlor” recital, Saturday. Photo by Molly Kraybill.

Dressed in long sparkling evening gowns and lit by the glittering lights of Rieth Recital Hall, music professors Rebecca Hovan and Christine Seitz welcomed their audience, as friends, to their “In the Parlor” themed recital last Saturday evening.

They began their performance with a Mendelssohn piece, “Rondo Capriccioso,” with Hovan playing the flute while Seitz complemented and accompanied her on the piano. Off to the side of the stage was positioned a rocking chair, a desk strewn with books and a fern planted in a gold pot. All of these articles, as well as the slow, graceful movements of the musicians, inspired the atmosphere of an elegant, nineteenth-century parlor.

Intent on the melodies emerging from the parlor before them, the audience made not a sound.

The recital continued with the appearance of several guest musicians. Luis Varga, on the viola, joined Hovan for a graceful viola and flute duet, and Martha Councell-Vargas and Katherine Place accompanied her to form a trio of flutes. Aside from the eye contact and flicker of a smile required to commence playing together, the musicians focused only on the music before them, engrossed in creating the classical harmonies and melodies that filled Reith’s acoustic walls.

In the second half of the recital, Goshen College music professor, Matthias Stegmann, joined Hovan on the guitar. His foot propped up on a small stool so he could hold the guitar upright, Stegmann plucked rather than strummed the guitar strings. The sonata that the musicians played was transcribed for guitar by Stegmann himself and was reminiscent of the Baroque style.

In the program, Hovan explained the parlor theme that pervaded the atmosphere of the evening. “Making music in the parlor in the evenings,” writes Hovan, “was a leisure activity of the middle class during the nineteenth century.” The middle class was in the process of establishing itself and wanted to emulate previously only upper class hobbies. Taking music and art lessons, then, became a status symbol among members of the middle class. “With more and more amateur musicians,” explains Hovan, “came a greater demand for new music that was playable by this level of performer.”

Hovan herself is no amateur, however. She has played the flute for 38 years and has also dabbled in piccolo and other members of the flute family. “I love the expressive capabilities of the flute,” she says, “producing a rich, beautiful tone. I love expressing through my flute what the music is saying to me.”

Seitz, too, has been making music for quite some time. “I begged to play the piano when I was four,” recalls Seitz, “because my older brother took lessons. Finally when I turned five the piano teacher grudgingly accepted me as a student.” Seitz emphasizes that she enjoys accompanying other musicians, but is not fond of playing the piano solo. “I guess what I like about the piano,” says Seitz, “is that I have all the notes available to me, whereas an instrumentalist or singer only gets to play or sing one note at a time.”

Hovan and Seitz have both taught at Goshen College for ten years now. Seitz accompanies for musicians in the region and plays the organ at First United Methodist Church in Mishawaka. Hovan recorded her first CD, A Silver Christmas, in December 2008. Meanwhile, both women continue to grace Goshen College with their classical music.

Photo by Molly Kraybill.

On Saturday evening, Sauder Concert Hall was stuffed to the gills with a peculiar range of students.

Though half the attendees were current Goshen students sporting torn jeans and tennis shoes, the other half consisted of former students, now alumni; some with white hair, deep in conversation with their grandchildren. Despite this range in age, however, the music performed for the Homecoming Music Gala united all students, proving that Goshen continues to be a place of musical talent and personal growth.

The Gala started with an introduction by director Debra Brubaker, inviting the audience “to our place of work and play.” Director Scott Hochstetler then opened with the College Chorale, a choir consisting of 60-70 members that sing a variety of musical genres. The second song, “Alleluia” by Randall Thompson, was a beautiful song that split the choir into seven parts; the text for the whole piece consisted of the one word, “alleluia.”

Next was the Goshen College Chamber Choir, directed by Brubaker. The choir consists of 28 singers, allowing for a smaller yet more refined sound. The second song, “Gloria” from Missa in Angustiis, featured soloists Carrie Rivera, Jenni Miller, Ben Toews, Adriel Santiago, and Christine Larson Seitz on the piano.

Matthew Hill, who teaches Piano, Music History, Humanities, and Piano Pedagogy as an Associate Professor of Music at Goshen, then performed a solo piano piece. Titled “Les Jeux d’eaux a la Villa d’Este,” the piece required very quick fingers, reflecting Hill’s prodigious piano prowess.

Next the Men’s Chorus performed, directed by Hochstetler, which was followed by the Women’s World Music Choir directed by Brubaker. The men opened with an intense song called “The Word was God,” which chanted repetitive phrases. In contrast, the women opened with a lighter song, “Kuo rongo mai koe,” in which they marched down the aisles and onto the stage as they sang.

The Goshen College Orchestra, directed by Gregg Thaller, opened next with the Overture from Nabucco, an opera by Giuseppe Verdi that follows the Jews as they are exiled from their homeland by King Nabucco, or Nebuchadnezzar. For the final song of the night, all choir members joined the stage to sing along with the orchestra, performing “There Shall a Star from Jacob Come Forth” from Christus.

As the concert ended, the participants seemed to be happy with their performance.

“I think the performance went very well–there was a lot of energy, especially in Women’s Choir. It was impressive for our first performance of the year,” said first-year Jessie Gotwals, who performed in the Women’s Choir and the College Chorale.

Returning alumni also seemed to be impressed with both the facilities and the performance. Jeff Martin, who graduated from Goshen College in 1989, returned this weekend to Indiana from Pennsylvania for the first time in five years for Homecoming. When Martin was a student at Goshen, the only facilities for performing were the Umble Center and the Union—which, in comparison to the new Sauder, he joked, “now seem awful.”

“As a formal alumnus, I was impressed by the quality, the facility, and the performance. It just blows me away,” said Martin.

Emily Miller saw this old, decrepit schoolhouse across the street from her church in Waco, Tex. every Sunday this past summer.  The building was recently burned down as part of a string of arsonist felonies, but the “crackpot” lady who owns it, Miller explains, refused to let the city bulldoze it.

The remnants of this building lie in the part of Waco that is rampant with prostitution and drug-addiction. Miller sees her photograph as emblematic of the fact that “no one is willing to clean up either the physical area or the crime in this part of the city.”

Miller took this photo with a Holga camera—a kind of toy camera made completely out of plastic. “It’s the most simple kind of photography,” says Miller. “You can only press the shutter button.” Reduced to the subject matter in front of her and unable to control any other aspect of the photo, Miller says that with a Holga camera, “you never know what you’re going to get.”

Juniors Allison Yoder and Adriel Santiago are the stars of Achilles Heel, a scene from a musical written by third-year music major Patrick Ressler. Photo by Emily Miller.

Goshen’s One Act plays will open this Friday with the recurring theme of “think-for-yourself.” The plays will be performed throughout Homecoming weekend; on Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 4 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m. in the Umble Center.

The One Acts are just what they sound like–single acts of a show–and they are usually student directed. They provide an opportunity for students to practice theater techniques outside of a classroom and they allow students not acting in a main stage play to be cast in larger roles.

“Trifles,” the first play, is written by Susan Glaspell and will be directed by senior Sarah Noah. The drama features a 1900s farmhouse murder investigation based on a true story. When the men involved in the investigation decide that the tiny “kitchen troubles” of the women are not significant, the women join together and realize that when they think for themselves, they can truly have a say in solving the case. The cast includes first-year Justin Yoder, junior Kristina Mast, first-year Clare Maxwell, junior Josh Hofer, and first-year Jeff Moore.

“The Still Alarm,” the second play, is written by George S. Kauffman and will be directed by junior Laura Nimigan. The play is about a hotel that is on fire, but the guests do not respond accordingly, ignoring the urgency of the situation. The play turns into a comedy that reflects an emergency-situation in which people don’t think for themselves. The cast includes sophomore Jacob Landis-Eigsti , first-year Justin Yoder, junior Lucas Nafziger, first-year Nate Vader, and junior Josh Hofer.

“Achilles’ Heel,” the final play, is written and directed by junior Patrick Ressler. It is a comical musical scene in which two high school seniors have very different viewpoints on their first romance as second graders. The scene hints that it is necessary to think through the eyes of another in order to think for oneself. The cast includes junior Adriel Santiago and junior Allison Yoder.

The total performance will last about an hour without an intermission. Tickets cost $3 and can be bought by calling (574) 535-7566 in advance. There will also be tickets at the door for each performance 45 minutes before the show begins.

Josh Hofer plays a quiet yet comical firefighter in the second one act, The Still Alarm. Photo by Emily Miller.