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Serendipity features a change in set up, and controversy
By Jack Sinclair
Staff Writer
There has been a lot of compari
son of this year's Serendipity to the
ones of the past. There has been a
change in the concert venue from
the lake to the Armfield Athletic
Center, weather permitting. If there
is rain, the concerts will be moved
to Ragan-Brown Field House.
There has also been worry over
the increased security. There will
be more RAs and Public Safety
officers on duty. No bags, purses
or containers, including Nalgenes,
will be permitted at the perfor
mances.
Despite these changes and recent
criticism, the Campus Activity
Board (CAB) is still hopeful for a
successful Serendipity.
"It's ten times better than
last year," said sophomore Tim
Lindberg, who has been working
with CAB, especially on the Battle
of the Bands event. "This is because
there were only three bands and
Common last year. This year there
are 16 bands over two nights."
This year's Serendipity's acts
were decided by the genres that
they fit under.
"There is a change in focus," said
Andrew Herz, a member of CAB.
"There will be a larger variety of
performers and themed nights."
Friday night performances are
rock-themed with performers such
as former Guilford student Bria
Kam's band. Sky Filled Balloons,
Fractured, The Holy Liars, New
Familiars, and The Clay Pigeons.
The last two performers of the
night will be the winner of Battle of
the Bands, with headliner Recycled
Percussion ending the night.
The Battle of the Bands was
scheduled for March 29, but due to
weather was postponed to a date to
be announced.
Saturday's performances are hip
hop themed with performances by
a techno DJ, Jadon Success.
"I hear that Mickey Avalon puts on good live shows. There is no need to protest. People
are making a huge deal out of nothing; he is performing last for only one hour."
Tim Lindberg, member of CAB
Endless Mic, who performed at
Guilford in October, is also return
ing for Serendipity.
"We had a great time playing
with RJD2 a few months ago, so
when we were asked to come back
and play at Serendipity we were
pretty stoked," said Ryan Maiani,
known as Zano of Endless Mic.
"We didn't know much about ser
endipity before being asked, but
everyone says it's a pretty rowdy
event."
On Saturday there is a Battle
of the Sexes Game Show early
in the afternoon. Other perform
ers for Saturday include Rise,
Guilford College Beat Boxers, H/
N / X, Flaming Faeries, and Mickey
Avalon, who has been at the cen
ter of debate about Serendipity
because of some of his controver
sial lyrics.
"I hear that Mickey Avalon puts
on good live shows," Lindberg
said. "There is no need to protest.
People are making a huge deal out
of nothing; he is perfdrming last
for only one hour."
"It's that there are serious con
cerns about the context and mate
rial of this performer," 5aid senior
Katie Yow, who helped organize
a discussion on March 30 about
Avalon's performance. "We need
to talk about how we are bringing
someone to campus who raises all
of these concerns."
Other concerns about Serendipity
include a rule forbidding open con
tainers of any kind from any of the
performances and increased Public
Safety and RA presence.
"Last year, there were cans
thrown at the equipment," Herz
said. "Campus Life is trying to
make a balance between fun and
preventing harm."
Despite the issues over some of
the performances and an increase
in security, most people are looking
forward to Serendipity.
"Personally, I am looking for
ward to Recycled Percussion,"
Herz said.
"I think Recycled Percussion
seems pretty cool, and I know the
Clay Pigeons are good," said Sam
Howard, a first-year ready for his
first Serendipity experience.
Tranny Roadshow: laughs and loarning about dofving gendor norms
By Megan Feil
Staff Writer
With many unique performances
including an anecdote about a child's
surprise encoimter with rabbit guts, a
reflective piece on incorporating and
rejecting different versions of mas
culinity, a penis monologue, a story
about lion costumes and marriage,
an acoustic guitar performance, and
an underground garage rock music
act, the Tranny Roadshow celebrat
ed gender variance on March 29 in
Dana Auditorium.
The show reunited during their
year-long break from touring spe
cifically to present their "multime
dia performance art extravaganza."
Artists who self-identify as trans
gender combined their interpersonal
knowledge and talent for humor to
stir distinctly pronounced laughs,
pockets of chuckles, and several
bouts of clapping from the audi
ence.
Guilford welcomed them to a
stage where expressing individual
ity - something that can either tran
scend and/or mingle with gender
- is not shunned.
Performing her spoken word
piece, one performer, Ryka Aoki,
admits to ultimately loving her penis
as a part of herself. However, some
times she wishes it were easier to
wear that "cute Hello Kitty bikini
from Hot Topic."
"Don't think of it as cutting off,
think of it as rearranging or turning
around," she said, explaining the
idea of a sex change to her penis.
"It's something we're going to go
through together. Whatever we
decide to do will be for us."
Another act exemplified a univer
sal idea: people can decide which
aspects of any gender to attribute to
their identity.
Playing a recording that tracked
the tone drop in his voice over two
and a half years at various intervals
of male hormone injections, Kelly
Shortandqueer, co-organizer of the
Tranny Roadshow, shared part of his
transformation with the audience.
He struggles with seeing "most
versions of masculinity as slightly
ridiculous" and concurrently feels
that "female socialization has a
monopoly on (his) insides."
"I have to decide what I want to
incorporate and what I want to let
go of," he said.
Sara Eisenberg and Joe Pelcher,
who organized the show at Guilford
with the help of PRIDE, Senate, and
Gender Equality Now, support this
sentiment.
"Something that draws me
into the (GLBTQA) community
is the emphasis on individuality,"
Eisenberg said. "You have to come
to find your own identity - that's
the deal."
Though it's a collaborative show,
the artists in the Tranny Roadshow
concentrate on showcasing who they
are as individuals.
"Being transgender is the link
ing factor between the performers,
but it's more about who you are,"
Pelcher said. "It's about how that
coincides and is affected by being
transgendered."
Jamez Terry, co-organizer of the
Tranny Roadshow, compared his
outlook on life to a flower boy at a
wedding who confidently strutted
down the aisle, not bothering to look
back, and tossed petals into the air.
"Being married is like wearing
a costume all the time, a costume
of being straight," Terry said while
dressed in his lion outfit from his
own costume-themed wedding last
Cloud Gamble/Guilfordian
Red Durkin (Above), a storyteller
and author, and Ryka Aoki de la
Cruz (Right), a musician, perform
during the Tranny Roadshow March
29 in Dana Auditorium.
summer. "Being straight is not as
much fun as being a lion."
At the end of his act, he unzipped
his costume to reveal a shirt that said
'felon' and jumped off stage, grin
ning and powerfully flinging flower
petals from a basket as he walked
up the aisle.
Not all performances pointed to
transgender issues; some simply
illustrated hilarious situations.
Red Durkin described a scene from
her childhood as a backup vignette
because of sound problems.
One day, she began to chase a
rabbit, yearning to make a pet out of
this creature in her backyard. "I real
ized why kids normally can't catch
rabbits," she said. Approaching and
picking up this rabbit only yielded
bunny guts and blood on her hands.
"The Tranny Roadshow is about
presenting transgender people as
multi-faceted and multi-talented,"
Kelly Shortandqueer said after the
show. "Being transgender is a part of
who we are, but it's not everything.
We want this show to be about any
and all of the pieces of who we are."
Many people recognize the impor
tance of this avant-garde show's
place in the Guilford community as
well as in the larger context of the
world.
"It was an amazing show," said
senior Sam Sklover. 'That's what
Guilford stands for: expanding on
what gender and sexuality means."
"It's unfortunate that artists who
make good art aren't allowed on
stage because they are discriminat
ed against," Pelcher said. "It's not
an easy life and bringing them to
a college campus is a wonderful
thing."