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WWW.GUILFORDIAN.COM
F EATU RE S
Civil Rights history comes to life in "Periphery" play
PERFORMANCE EXPLORES HUMAN SIDE
OF GREENSBORO’S CIVIL RIGHTS HISTORY,
DRAMATIZES WOOLWORTH'S SIT-INS
By Meg Holden
Staff Writer
"It was personal. We really hadn't planned on starting
anything."
With these words, an unnamed character introduces
the audience to "Periphery," Ed Simpson's play about the
Woolworth's sit-ins in 1960. A small audience gathered in
the Community Center Multi-purpose Room on March
2 to watch the play, brought to campus by the Bonner
Center for Community Learning.
Subtitled "Conversations about the Greensboro Four,"
"Periphery" follows characters on both sides of the sit-
ins. Black and white protesters alternate scenes with
characters who oppose the sit-ins and those who cannot
understand why the protests are happening.
"The play puts a human face on every point of view,"
said actor Thomas Barker. "It isn't, if you'll excuse the
expression, a black and white issue."
Barker played the role of Jerry, a protester who
opposed the Woolworth's sit-ins. According to Barker,
everyone has the capacity to act like Jerry.
"If we get scared enough, if we feel like our rights or
our way of life are being attacked, it's easy to turn into
Jerry," said Barker.
Though the play encompasses characters in many dif
ferent situations, the two central protagonists are Mike,
a white student at Guilford College, and Eugene, a black
student at The Agricultural and Technical College of
North Carolina (now North Carolina Agricultural and
Technical State University). The young men struggle
with the decision to join the protesters. Eugene explicitly
defies his father by joining the sit-ins.
"I need to be a better man so I can make a better
world," said Eugene, played by Bobby Pittman. "I need
to join them."
The climax of the play comes when Mike and Eugene
are arrested and their fathers meet at the jail. Phil, Mike's
father, and Nate, Eugene's father, must reconcile their
sons' idealism with their own conceptions of what is
moral and appropriate.
The play's portrayal of characters who are not central
to the sit-ins gave the play its name, "Periphery," which
refers to the edge or boundary of an area. According to
Barker, the characters in the play are all people "on the
edge" of the Woolworth's sit-ins and subsequent demon
strations. Even the 1960's were situated on a periphery:
the end of one era and the beginning of a new one.
James Sims, who played Nate, said that his participa
tion in the play was a result of reading the script and
being affected by its powerful narrative.
"Once I knew the story, I just had to be part of it," said
Sims.
Lee Wilson, a first-year at the University of North
Carolina at Greensboro, portrayed Mike.
"It's very important to remind people what happened
(during the sit-ins)," said Wilson. "Especially people who
haven't heard the story, who aren't from around here, or
young people."
According to Director of Community Learning James
Shields, "Periphery" is an example of the power of the
arts.
"We should be using the arts to educate the youth,"
said Shields.
The young people in attendance — James and
Washington Weah, 11 and 12, and Marie and Claudine
Mukome, 11 and 13 — said that they enjoyed the play.
"I liked the way they showed the story and the way
they acted," said Washington.
"I didn't know the story already," said Claudine, "but
I liked it a lot."
Guilford students are told that they can "become
more." In "Periphery," Mike uses what he learns about
social responsibility at Guilford to stand up for what he
believes is right. He quotes Gandhi, reminding the audi
ence to "be the change you want to see in the world."
An intimate audience gathered in the Community Center Multi-purpose Room on March 2 to witness the production of “Periphery,”
Ed Simpson’s play about the Woolworth’s sit-ins in I960. (Left) jenny (played by Alison Williams) acts sophisticated while Mike
(Lee Wilson) tries to make a move. (Right) Lawrence (Woodrow Bumbry) tells his son Eugene (Bobby Pittman) that his
place is not in Woolworth’s, but in his father’s business.
Changes to housing applications make process more clear
By Meg Holden
Staff Writer
Ryan Sanders was returning from study
ing abroad in Munich when he applied to
live off-campus for spring 2011.
"I thought I would be approved because I
was almost 22," said Sanders. "I had senior
credits, I didn't have any judicial violations,
and I wrote this really long essay about why
I should be allovyed to live off-campus."
Sanders was not approved to live off-
canipus. So, he tried again.
"I got documentation from the Financial
Aid Office showing that I had a lot of debt
from student loans and that it would be ben
eficial financially for me to live off-campus,"
said Sanders. "Campus Life still said no."
While we do not all have stories like
Sanders', every traditional student at
Guilford has to deal with housing applica
tions, deadlines, and the lottery at some
point. The process began in February, and
will continue until every student is housed
— which may be as late as July.
"It is a long process," said Associate Dean
for Campus Life Jen Agor. "This allows us to
check on and fix glitches, and it allows stu
dents to do everything they need to do, like
clear holds and pick roommates."
Finding roommates can be a more dif
ficult aspect of the housing process. With
this in mind. Campus Life will hold a room
mate mixer on Wednesday, March 23, said
Residential Living Coordinator Kris Gray.
At this event, students without roommates
can connect with each other.
According to Gray, the general process
for being housed has not changed much in
the past several years. Students select room
mates and apply for housing and meal plans
through BannerWeb.
Students who want to live in a theme
house or Hodgins Retreat must fill out a
paper application. New for this year are
paper applications for Pope House and
mixed-gender suites in Bryan Hall.
"The paper applications are as much for
approval from Campus Life as they are for
simple computer purposes," said Gray. She
explained that the applications are neces
sary to ensure, for example, that everyone
applying to live in Hodgins is a junior or
senior.
The paper applications to live off-campus
have been around for a while, but this year,
there are increased restrictions for who can
live off campus.
"The new system is actually more like
what we had in place several years ago,"
said Agor. "When our enrollment num
bers were up, we didn't have room to
house everybody, so we relaxed the restric
tions and made it easier for people to get
approved. Now we have the space, but the
approval process is so subjective that it's
hard to explain why one person may be
approved and another denied."
Gray does not foresee a change in the
number of applications to live off-campus or
in the number of people who are approved.
"Essentially all we've done is made the
process more black and white," said Gray.
"The process will be clearer and fairer,"
said Agor.
Sanders approves of the revised require
ments for off-campus approval.
"I like that it has been reformed to be
clearer," said Sanders. "I probably would
have been approved to live off campus
under the reformed system."
Nevertheless, Sanders is on campus now,
and plans to stay on-campus until he gradu
ates.
"I realized that I do want to be a 'part of
the on-campus community," said Sanders.
"I like being on-campus and being close to
everything."