Sept. 8, 2006
FEATURES
www.guilfordian .com
Pase 5
Greensboro. N.C.
Greenleaf serving the community, not just coffee
By Kip Reynolds | staff writer
Sometimes, late at night,
you just get that craving
to drink coffee, or play
16 games of Scrabble
at once, but you don't
want to risk
your
life
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Diesel Robertson performs a song
DURING HER TURN ON THE KARAOKE
MACHINE
dodging traffic on West Friendly
Avenue to arrive at Starbucks'
door. The Green-
leaf will solve
your problem.
The Greenleaf
is a coffee shop
located on cam
pus in the base
ment of Mary
Hobbs Hall.
Its purpose is
"to provide
organic fair
trade caffeine
and community
source to the so-
cially-conscious,
sleep-deprived
Greensboro popu
lace," according to ju
nior Chelsea Simpson,
a Greenleaf shift leader.
The Greenleaf only
buys organic fair-trade
coffee. Organic coffee has
no man-made chemical
pesticides or fertilizers
sprayed on it while it is
growing. By selling fair
trade coffee, the Green
leaf supports a sustain
able global economy
that pays coffee farmers
a suitable living wage.
"Do you know that
underlying bouquet that
you taste at Starbucks?
That could be the blood,
sweat and tears of the
Colombian people," said
junior Diesel Robert
son, also a shift-leader.
Guilford community
members feel that fair
trade coffee is ethically
sound and connects with
Guilford's core values. As
sistant Professor of Philoso
phy Vance Ricks, who teaches a
class on ethics, said he would buy
a cup of coffee at the Green
leaf because he would "feel
better about the purchase."
The Greenleaf is fairly
new on campus, and is just
beginning to bloom. "It's al
ways evolving," said Simp
son and junior Mary-Nevin
Hobgood at the same time.
Even though the Green
leaf has hit
some speed
bumps,
it's still on
a steady
course to be
ing a co-op.
The
Greenleaf
began when
a group of
students
moved into
Jazzman's
Cafe, now
the Under-
ground,
and sold
fair-trade
organic cof
fee. When
Jazzman's
closed in
2003, the
students
had no
where to sell
their coffee.
After a few tough years, part
of the basement in Mary
Hobbs was opened and refit
ted. In April 2005, the Greenleaf
opened its current incarnation.
The Greenleaf is a co-op busi
ness powered by volunteers and
work-study students. The Green
leaf holds meetings open to the
public at 4 p.m. on Sundays in
the Greenleaf. Decisions are
made by consensus, so everyone's
voice is heard. The Greenleaf co
The Greenleaf
LocationiBasement of Mary Hobbs Hall
Hours of Operation:
Mond^-Thursday 8am-llpm
Friday 8am-9pm
Saturday Noon-9pm
Sunday Noon-llpm
Photo by Landry Haarmann
Greenleaf employee Faith Josephs prepares a beverage
DURING THE GrEENLEAFS OPENING CELEBRATION ON MONDAY
EVENING
op does not have a hierarchy.
The Greenleaf is open to the com
munity. Student artwork hangs on
the walls. Clubs use it as a meeting
space. Open-mic nights abound.
There are 16 Scrabble game sets,
multiple chessboards, and, in one
comer of the dining area, a small
library. Some speakers, including
Patch Adams, spoke there last year.
The Greenleaf has bold plans
for the upcoming year. First, the
staff want more events: more
open-mic nights, music festivals,
art on the walls, club-sponsored
events — anything. The Greenleaf
wants a wide variety of events, and
they want you to suggest them.
Volunteer benefits are plen
tiful this year. Volunteers will
get a 25 percent discount on all
drinks, free t-shirts, a catered
dinner every month, and a 15
percent discount on all food.
The menu is expanding to
include food like yummy cook
ies, spectacular baklava, crisp
potato chips, delicious hum
mus and wonderful wraps.
Simpson said that there is also a
"renewed passion for consistency."
The Greenleaf is a great place
for community with the space to
hold many people in a friendly at
mosphere. If you have not checked
out this wonderful shop, do so any
time between 8 am and 11 pm from
Monday to Thursday, 8 am , and 9
pm on Fridays, noon and 9 pm on
Saturdays, and noon and 11 pm
on Sundays. You won't regret it.
Send an e-mail to the
Greenleaf
(greenleaj@guilford.edii)
with your event ideas,
suggestions, and comments.
Books for prisoners and freedom to question
By Laura Milot | staff writer
"Prisons are land-locked slave
ships," said James Robertson, a pris
on abolitionist from Chapel Hill, N.C.
"Generally speaking, prison book col
lectors like ourselves from around the
country see themselves as a first step in
prisoner support, which ultimately is a
part of prison abolition. Anybody who
believes that prisoners deserve to have
books to read can and does participate."
On Aug. 30, Books for Prisoners came
to Guilford College in the form of a punk
rock concert. However, the show was not
just about raising books for prisoners. It
discussed radical issues ranging from sup
pression of Native Americans to veganism.
Prisons are a sensitive topic within so
ciety. They raise issues that have been dis
cussed for generations amongst Americans.
"We feel like the prison system exists for
• more reasons than we're taught that itex-
ists," said Dustan Drum, a 24-year-old grad
uate of the University of California at Berke
ley and lead drummer in Gather, one of the
four punk rock bands featured. "Any one of
us can turn into a so-called 'political pris
oner' by standing for our beliefs at a protest
and getting arrested or smashing the win
dow of a company that we disagree with."
Gather is an ac
tive group of radi
cal thinkers who
support organi
zations such as
Books for Prison-
en their world view and reexamine a lot
of things which they take for granted
or things that never occurred to them."
"The show wasn't just about Books for
Prisoners," said junior Andy Freedman. "It
was about creating a safe place to share new
ideas that one might never have thought
,,-r, , about before."
It costs more per year to send a
person to prison than to
Harvard University."
■Eve Goldberg & Linda Evans
^S. ® "The Prison Industrial Complex and the Global Economy"
Drum, prisoner
support is the number-one benchmark of sympathize, but at the same time
how supportive a radical community canbe." '
"It's a good cause, said Andrew Breunig,
a sophomore. "Books are (a) highly un
derrated resource for whoever would use
them in terms of what they can bring to a
person as education, and 1 think that lit
erature in books almost always serves as
an agent to encourage people to broad-
"It's put
ting a lot in
front of me,
and I've got
a lot to pro
cess," Breunig
said. "I
. ^ I
feel like this anger and these militants in
many ways represent an equal but differ
ent enslavement which is really bother
ing me. ... They're seeking to brainwash."
"There's a lot of anger," according to
sophomore Gabriela Spang. "I understand
that feeling, and 1 choose not to go with it.
You can't release anger by expressing an
ger. Tm sort of overwhelmed; the passion
and the anger and the sadness that goes
into their songs is really touching, and it
really comes out in the music as well."
For Freedman, who is concentrating in
women's studies and gender issues, the is
sue of prison raises heaps of powerful emo
tion. "It seems like jails and police systems
are more concerned with protecting pri
vate property than they are, for example,
about protecting the lives of women."
This raises a conflicting question. On
the one hand, the activists want to get rid
of the prison system altogether; but on the
other hand, how will criminals be punished?
"There are so many more effec
tive ways to deal with criminals than
to basically lock them in a jail cell for
the rest of their life," Freedman said.
According to "The Prison Industrial
Complex and the Global Economy", a pam
phlet written by Eve Goldberg and Linda
Evans, "it costs more per year to send a per
son to prison than to Harvard University."