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Humans of East Lansing

Greg Monahan
January 22, 2015

Inspired by the popular series Humans of New York, The State News is launching a weekly feature looking into the lives of people living and working in the East Lansing area. 

FEATURES

Students take action to reduce fossil fuels

Rachel Fradette
January 21, 2015

A carbon footprint,EMCnotes are in Gryphonthe amount of carbon dioxide emitted due to the consumption of fossil fuels by a particular person, follows a human being throughout their entire life. RF In an attempt to truly understand and take on the problems that come with an overuse of fossil fuels, five MSU Honors College students have set out to find and display the effects of each individual’s carbon footprint on the planet.RF

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Martin Luther King Jr. Day events ahead

Rachel Fradette
January 15, 2015

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the anniversary of MSU’s Project 60/50, the university and city are hosting a variety of events during the weekend. Here are some of the happenings, from concerts to luncheons, open to the public this weekend.

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The Mayhem Poets to perform at MSU in MLK event

Lauren Owings
January 15, 2015

Website: http://www.mayhempoets.com/ Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MayhemPoets?fref=ts&ref=br_tf Martin Luther King events this week at MSU: http://www.inclusion.msu.edu/Outreach/MLK%20Calendar%20of%20Events%202015.pdf Nuyorican Poets Cafe: http://www.nuyorican.org/ Project Mayhem: http://www.shmoop.com/fight-club/project-mayhem-symbol.html Having been dubbed "an amazing ride" by the New York Times, this mind boggling performance has been described as "The Simpsons meets Malcolm X at a Notorious B.I.G. concert". These theatre trained, comedically gifted, lyrical virtuosos seamlessly blend raw elements of hip hop, theatre, improv and stand up comedy to tell gut wrenching truths that leave audiences forever changed. What initially inspired the formation of this group? When did your personal passion for slam poetry start, and how did you pursue that? What other interests or skills do you have that contribute to the group? How did you discover and fulfill those interests? Why do the Mayhem Poets want to reshape society’s view of poetry? What main message(s) are you trying to get across to your audience? What are the long-term goals for the Mayhem Poets? *Ask for courtesy photos* Scott Raven: We took the name from the movie Fight Club, we basically found ourselves in college not wanting to take the usual 9-5 job route. We started off and wanted to do it around the world, definitely our love of language and appreciation for diversity as well. I grew up in a family of teachers, my mom was an ESL teacher and that was my first peek into the world of different cultures. I got from her the love of language and the love of learning. Kyle, one of the others, got me into hip-hop. I had a theatre background and we merged those two things which led to performance poetry. Stand-up comedy, theater, hip-hop, improv, film, even silent film has a lot to draw from such as Chaplin...a way of communicating without words can be helpful. Poetry has a stigma to it as well as slam poetry, traditional poetry people tend to think is boring and hoity-toity. We’re trying to maintain the integrity with our writing but also making it all come alive with performance and kind of merged it to be those poetry rock stars that still can have an appreciation for the classics, but giving it that spoonful of sugar. Positive personal expression, just being a way of kind of our emotions language is our means of doing that. Issue-wise, I would say education is what I mainly focus on. Poetry can be an accessible means of reaching other people and kind of a gateway into other cultures. The community aspects that form around a slam scene, bringing different people together and appreciate it together. We’d love to eventually get to a TV show centered around a poetry touring group, by day we tour elementary and middle schools, we all have our other, personal passions in the evening that is kind of different from what we do in the schools. One of us creates hip-hop, etc. I personally want to put out a book of sonnets on all the relationships I’ve ever had. I’d like to do some longer work as well. Mason Granger: We met at Rutgers University and the other two guys in the group, Kyle and Scott, started an open mic on the campus. They would post flyers for whoever wanted to come, and I was one of the people who started going regularly. When they graduated I started hosting the open mic, called Verbal Mayhem. Some of the other regulars graduated and one became a high school English teacher, when he got to the point where he had to teach poetry he thought of Verbal Mayhem and invited them to perform in his class. They got the idea that maybe we could do this for a living. My passion for slam poetry started with a class I took in college, we took a trip to the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. I only went on the trip because the girl I had a crush on in the class was going, and I was fully expecting a slow, boring, quiet poetry reading because that’s all I thought was out there. Then there was this slam poetry performance and I was entranced. The next week there was an article in the school newspaper about Verbal Mayhem, that’s when I started going and writing myself. I like environment a lot, I group up with the National Geographic specials and I really gravitate toward that. A lot of my poems are are about the environment and the importance of being as green as possible. I take that message and put it into a hip-hop and comedy style. Especially when we started, we’ve been doing this since 2005. Pre-facebook, pre-twitter, etc. For kids growing up in more isolated circumstances, they really had no access to poetry. We started the traveling circus of poetry. We were it, you know? Even today a lot of poetry videos are getting popular, but there’s so many people who don’t live in a town that has a poetry slam. That’s where we come in. We want people to not just see the poetry and be exposed to the messages, but also have it sink in that these are just three dudes who found that they love poetry and started doing it. You don’t have to be born a poet or pop out of the womb writing Shakespeare. I just started writing poetry because it was fun, and now I make a living with it. I made a performance poetry app called “Slam Find”, it has a directory of all the poetry slams and open mics in the country. Really connect people to live poetry. It depends on the age group that the show happens to be for, at MSU it’s more entertainment and putting messages for collegiate folks. The main thing is that everyone has something to express, and everyone knows that there are ways that you can express yourself. But most people don’t think of poetry as one of those ways. Even though it’s one of the easiest to get into, you want to write a poem, pen, paper, sit down and write and just go from there. For younger kids we try to get the fact that poetry is fun, for older folks we encourage them to express themselves too. Some 45 year olds still aren’t in touch with their own emotions and able to express themselves. We’re creatively very similar, but personally and personality wise we are different. It allows us to hit very different types of audiences, we can roll through the nerdy set, then we can roll through youth detention centers. I think that Mayhem Poets want to just continue on the path that we’re on. Doing college shows but also theater shows, to fill those and hit all the different groups. We want all of those groups in the same room having a good time together. We also want to take it to TV as well and expand in that way so we can have money to have families and children and all that one day. I’m going hard with the app and I want to connect to the US and Canada, also in the UK and Canada. I just want everyone to be aware of everyone else, sharing influences and blending styles and stuff. We get to travel a lot and see what’s out there. 

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Affordable ways to be warm but stylish in a Michigan winter

Rachel Fradette
January 14, 2015

The bitter winter weather has been in the negatives on its worst days. To keep students warm, it calls for the most durable outfits to fight the cold as they trudge to and from class. But with college students whose lives are centered around a budget, the rising prices for quality gear such as coats, sweaters and accessories has too often crippled students’ bank accounts. Several local stores have found a way to lower prices and keep students and East Lansingka residents warm throughout the winter.