"From back to front"/"Tips for the homeless or hungry"

Well, Towson University is certainly a healthier environment than my home. Here's what campus events I've been up to.

Last Thursday you may remember that I went to Cedric Jenning's talk which I really enjoyed. One thing that is very striking about campus events is that many, many of them are catered. Very expensive food, often times enough to make a meal of. This is why I titled my piece what I did.

So, for those of you (which probably amounts to zero) who are homeless or hungry, I highly encourage you to read University newspapers in the town you live in, go to the events and in many cases get well fed.

After Jennings talk (which was catered with expensive, excellent food) I went to student open mic. where there was free coffee, tea and sweets. One real pain in the ass aspect of most events is that there are lots of flashing camera lights, most likely from the University reporters.

In the case of most events the photographer shoots photos throughout the talk or performance, you feel the lights flashing in your eyes, and the photographer is not placing himself discreetly at all, so it takes your attention away from the performance. This was true with Jennings, open mike, and "Voices of Darfur" which I went to yesterday and where there was also free dinner.

"Voices of Darfur" (well, it's obvious that they are Darfur genocide survivors) started 30 minutes late but the speakers were very interesting.

FROM BACK TO FRONT!

This will probably really surprise you. I went to an on campus Rosh Hashanah service (Jewish new year) where at least I knew how to hold the book! I hadn't remembered whether or not I had ever attended a R.H. service initially, but then remembered I did attend one at Hopkins University in 2000. If you think it takes guts to show up at these events which are largely attended by people under 23, you are absolutely right! I don't usually speak to anyone unless they speak to me. After the service, there was an excellent catered meal. (which we paid full price for and was well worth it) I was the only non student who showed up with the exception of one boy who came with his mom. Oddly, these Jewish kids got in the food line and kept asking questions like:

"what's that food?, what's THAT food?"

Remarkably, I remembered and announced "gefilte fish!" "kugel!" There was always gefilte fish in my house growing up, which primarily my mother ate, who is not Jewish. And I believe that my father's mother may have introduced me to kugel (did I spell that correctly?) but I'm not sure, I can't really remember much about her. She was a practicing Jew who lived on Park Heights Avenue, but my father kept very little contact with her, so I didn't know her well. (this is the adoptive family I'm referring to)

Today, I went to the Speech and Debate team event which I was really looking forward to. Neither team showed up! so 2 young students attempted to rescue the event by debating with each other, and turning it into a group discussion on the Israeli-Palestine conflict. They welcomed us to join in and make it a discussion. I asked a couple of questions which seemed to get the ball rolling. There were 3 people in the audience from the Israel Palestine area who were quite knowledgeable and better communicators then the official debators.

Then at 6 I went to another event entitled: "Farmworker Justice" Easy for me to relate to the housing, health, wage and exploitation challenges and experiences of the farmworkers. Remarkably the event started on time.

Dinner was free; spuds and chicken quesadillas! Yummy!