cnne Friday, October 8, 1982 BENNETT COLLEGE, GREENSBORO, N. 0. Vol. XLIV, No. 2 Artist to bring beauty A Woman of Vision: Frequently-honored painter Varnette P. Honeywood is bringing her bold perspective to campus this month. Her art derives from a deep emotional response to Impressions culled from the black community. Honeywood’s goal is to give permanence to constantly shifting reality. 3 Belles excel During program b> Sharon Allen and Jackie McNeill Three Belles earned major honors for their presentations in the “Eighth Annual Eve ning of Public Speaking” held Sept. 28 in the Science Assembly. Lynda Jones, Vicelia How ard and Melissa Mitchell were winners in the competition jointly sponsored by the In terdisciplinary Studies Pro gram (ISP), the SGA and the Debate Society. Jones distinguished herself with the oration “Stumbling Blocks or Stepping Stones” in the category of “A Speech to Convince or Persuade.” Also delivering an original speech was Karen Renee Tay lor, whose entry was titled “Reaganomics.” Howard was honored in the area of “Dramatic Interpre tation” for her performance of “Marriage Greed.” Linda Ward’s “The University of Our Lord” and Robyn Wal ker’s “Think” were the other offerings in this area. Mitchell won in the cate gory of “Interpretation of Original Poetry or Prose” for her presentation of “Mighty Mouse.” Monica Jones also delivered “Being Alive.” Judges for the evening, which continues to be one of the most popular occurrences on campus, were Dr. Mar- sheena Baird, Dr. Robert Mil ler, Dr. Lynn Sadler, SGA president Robyn Dessaure and Leslie Monique Barr, junior class president. The panel of judges is selected by students. The annual competition is arranged by the ISP 151 class, which is responsible for invitations, introductions, staging and refreshments. Many students have con sidered “The Evening of Pub lic Speaking” so entertaining and educationally valuable that Debate Society president Lisa Murray, a sophomore from the Bronx, N. Y., has urged the creation of a sec ond night of speeches and interpretations. by Sheila Foxworth and Kimberly McKnight Be prepared to have your con sciousness expanded when ac claimed artist Varnette P. Honey- wood, a celebrator of the black experience, makes a three-stage appearance on campus. Her itinerary includes three major events: the Fall Faculty Forum Oct. 25; a brown-bag lunch for teachers Oct. 26; and an ex hibition of her work along with a lecture in the David D. Jones Student Union foyer Oct. 27. The forum will feature a highly praised film about Honeywood’s life and creations, “Varnette’s World,” followed by a discussion between the artist and a faculty panel at 8:00 p.m. in Pfeiffer Science Assembly. Honeywood, who has won num erous awards, attended Spelman College where her dynamic re sponses to black life were encour aged and reinforced. “I try to illustrate the strong, reassuring and free expressions of proud black people,” the artist explains. The community is the inspira tion for the Los Angeles painter. Her subjects arise from the scenes she observes on the street. Insti tutions as apparently plain as a playground or a church have pro vided central images to the artist. “If you’re walking down the street in a black community, or in church, you’ll see color, and so I try to reflect these same colors in my paintings,” Honeywood says. Honeywood feels that her mis sion is to capture these “docu ments,” which she fears might otherwise go unrecorded. Accord ing to Dr. Alma Adams, chair person of the Art Department, Honeywood has adopted the term “Black Lifestyles” as an umbrella caption for all of her work. Art instructor Norman Barbee likes to place Honeywood within the context of world art: “She paints with realism, but her work is in the vein of social commen tary. It’s similar to the painting of (Honore) Daumier (a 19th Century French master of carica ture) but Honeywood uses a dif ferent technique. She editorializes in her work.” Honeywood and the faculty will discuss two of her most important works—“Gossip in the Sanctuary” and “African Women.” These paintings represent a merging of community experience with spir ituality, the underlying force that has helped a people to survive. Dr. Ruth Lucier, chairperson of the Mellon Committee, which is sponsoring the visit, believes that a significant dialogue will arise from the brown-bag lunch. “In this informal luncheon setting, I hope that faculty will '•’eel free to ask probing questions about the role of art in society,” she states. Lucier suggests these questions as provocative sources of inquiry: “Should art be used to reinforce our prejudices, or should it force us to see things in ways that are new? Is there anything in visual art that corresponds to the use of street language in literature? Can art be obscene? Must good art always be beautiful?” No teacher needs to be a painter in order to participate in the dis cussion, according to Lucier. “In fact, I hope some faculty from all areas of the college will be able to attend so we can enjoy dis cussing art from many different perspectives,” the chairperson observes. The event will occur at noon in the Fine Arts lab. Coffee, tea and dessert will be provided at the luncheon. Honeywood will also make selected class visits. Dessaure distrusts policy by Melinda Lowery SGA president Robyn Dessaure feels the College could stand many reforms. “Bennett has the foundation to be a darn good school. We have very good teachers and a bunch of bright girls. We have all the right qualities to make Bennett the best but something is not mix ing, because Bennett is not one of the best,” perceives the senior chemistry major from Freeport, N. Y. She senses a pessimism on cam pus. “B'ennett is falling everyday and those of us here can see it. We feel like coming here every day is a chore. Yes, college has its labors like everywhere else but it should not be an agonizing grunt ing feeling that you are wasting your money and time,” Dessaure explains. She wants to solve the mystery of “what is going on at Bennett that demotivates and creates such a negative whirlpool of feelings about it?” The senior feels that one of the main problems is nepotism. Ac cording to Dessaure, the Bennett family employs too many rela tives. She is concerned about whether kinship or expertise has influenced the hiring of some faculty and staff members. “I want the administration, faculty, and staff to know that we are aware,” she says. Dessaure was motivated to seek office by the desire to answer a hard question: “I need to know if it is (because of) the school or is it that we are not working together as an administration and faculty, or is it that Bennett is not a good school, and I do not believe the latter is it. I believe the problems falls in the type of administrative policy that we have. The attitude of the admin istration, faculty and staff towards the students,” Robyn indicates. She is distrustful of the power structure. “I feel exactly like Prince Machiavelli, ‘Absolute power corrupts absolutely,’ You . . Support Other Women” Dorsett keys festival by Theresa Lipscomb Speakers at the Political Awareness Festival stressed the importance of commit ment to the political process. Keynoting the new event Sept. 25 were Dr. Katie Dor sett, associate professor of business education and ad ministrative services at A&T, and attorney Joe Williams, a former District Court Judge. Dorsett, who recently lost a close race for a seat on the Greensboro City Council, em phasized personal responsibil ity for the political decisions affecting our lives. “You need to be accountable politically to help yourself and to help the less fortunate.” She believes in involve ment: “The first thing you must do is register to vote and get involved in the Doliti- cal campaign. Instead of com plaining to one another about what is going on, write a let ter or phone in. Most of all, encourage women to support other women.” According to Dorsett, the accountable person should be aware of local and national issues, should join political rrganizations and should make her views known to the candidate she supports. The professor also under scored the significance of promoting the candidacies of black women. Williams was concerned with black unity. “The ma jority of blacks are too busy trying to get luxuries to see what is really happening around them,” he said. “In this society, it is all about sticking together.” He claimed most blacks do not employ one another as professionals — an indication of disunity. “The only thing blacks trust each other with is their deceased,” Williams declared. Education and involvement are the keys to racial coher ence, the attorney insists. may not be a corruptible person when you go into office and you have total power, but after ten or twenty years of total power, something is bound to happen,” Robyn states. Robyn, who won the election without campaigning, has some qualms about the Pilot Program, recently renamed Academic En richment Program. “My reason for not agreeing with the Pilot Program is because we pay $4100.00 a year. With a student taking nine hours per semester, she will not graduate in four years. She can barely graduate taking, 16 hours per semester and that is with no failures, and a person cannot go through life without failing. ‘A man who makes no mistakes is a man who has not lived,’ ” she claims. “The P'ilot Program is good in the sense that it gives students who do not have the academic status that is required by most colleges a chance,” Robyn continues. Her solution to the Pilot Pro gram is to give freshmen a min imum of 16 hours of college prep aratory classes. “It may still take the student five years but they are not blowing an entire year on nine hours which still have not prepared them to go into a class with college level students,” she insists. Dessaure has other grievances: “The SGA has the right to be on the Board of Trustees and we plan to utilize all of our rights. How ever, the biggest problem here at Bennett is academics. The worst thing about Bennett is depression. It is not the average depression but an acute depression where the students just do not care anymore.” She says the SGA plans “to make the students aware of the necessity to put 100% in their school work, to encourage the student to take an active role in her education, and to have a positive mental attitude. The goals of the SGA are to put Bennett on the map.”

Page Text

This is the computer-generated OCR text representation of this newspaper page. It may be empty, if no text could be automatically recognized. This data is also available in Plain Text and XML formats.

Return to page view