Renegade Rip Issue 1 Feb. 10, 2021

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Features Page 4 The Renegade Rip www.therip.com Wednesday Feb. 10, 2021 BC choirs find a new way to perform By Teresa Balmori Perez Reporter The Bakersfield College Choirs have adapted to a safe and virtual environment while still being able to rehearse and perform in an outdoor setting, while following safety precautions. The BC choirs have decided to begin their semester through Zoom due to the high cases of COVID in Kern County. However, they are planning to meet in person for rehearsals this spring semester. “We will begin with each section coming in to meet with me in the outdoor theatre. This will include about eight people or less at a time.” According to Jennifer Garrett, the choir director at BC “each of us must do the health questionnaire and be approved to come onto campus.” To insure the safety of the students temperature checks are required before anyone enters the rehearsal, Garrett explained. “I even prop open all of the doors so that no one has to touch a door and everyone uses hand sanitizer anytime they come out of the building.” It has been a challenge to conduct during the pandemic due to not being able to hear how the person is pronouncing their vowels or the tone of their voice because people are not side by side, Garrett explained. They have also had problems using Zoom. “ We all are well aware, the latency on Zoom makes it impossible for us to unmute and sing. It is utter chaos,” Garrett said. “ This can be quite discouraging and unfulfilling to someone who signed up for a choral or instrumental music experience.” Despite all the challenges through conducting a choir online, it has been surprising how the students have dedicated themselves to continuing to make music and finding ways to share music with each other, Garrett explained. “Music is a big part of who we are and to not have that avenue of expression has caused many to suffer from significant depression and anxiety,” Garrett stated. As for adapting to conduct in a virtual environment, Garrett explained that students were able to put together a virtual concert entitled “Becoming Us.” The virtual concert premiered on YouTube Premium on Nov. 30, 2020. The students were able to do this by prerecorded music through their phones and through the engineering software, Logic Pro X. They then filmed the concert at the BC Outdoor Theater, Hart Park, and through pictures of students holding up inspirational signs all while socially distancing, Garrett stated. According to Professor Garrett, the choirs will be doing a virtual concert on May 15 at 7 p.m. The concert will be named “Of Things That Matter Most” and will premiere on YouTube Premium. “ This concert will be a little different than the last concert,” Garrett stated. “We are rehearsing over Zoom and also in small groups, socially distant in the Outdoor Theatre.” Professor Garrett explained that she is grateful PHOTO COURTESY OF JENNIFER GARRET The Bakersfield Choirs rehearsing through Zoom while holding up inspirational quotes. for her students that continue to share their talents with other students and the world. She hopes that they will continue to lift each other through any challenges they face. Garrett looks forward to seeing more people join their choir for the fall semester of 2021. For more information on the BC Choirs, students can email professor Garrett, or one can go to the BC website and look for any events or additional information. Students can also go to their YouTube page, “Bakersfield College Choirs” for any live or prerecorded performances. PHOTO COURTESY OF JENNIFER GARRETT The Renegade Chorus singing in the Outdoor Theater at BC. PHOTO COURTESY OF JENNIFER GARRET The Bakersfield Choir Chamber Singers at Hart Park. BC’s theater program goes virtual By Jaylene Collins Reporter The Bakersfield College Theatre Department students and professors are working to create two productions for this spring semester. Complying with BC’s COVID-19 guidelines, most rehearsals are now held over Zoom. “It’s not ideal,” said Brian Sivesind, a theater professor at BC. “But we are able to work with small groups and talk in theory about how the shows will look.” During these Zoom rehearsals, everyone is preparing to record segments of the play with small groups that will meet in person later in the semester. These clips will be put together to create a full show that can be watched safely from home. Still, putting together productions virtually comes with a new set of challenges. The department is not able to do everything they were able to do in rehearsal pre-COVID through Zoom; they are unable to focus on the looks, blocking for the show and actors are no longer able to practice in the environment where they will be performing. “For the direction, it’s really a challenge to communicate when we aren’t in person,” Sivesind explained. “The screen limits interaction and we can’t really see the whole picture. We focus on how things sound and how actors deliver lines, but even that isn’t completely clear when coming through the internet.” Sivesind added that they also had to carefully select the productions the department would be putting on. The shows could not have any crowd scenes and had to be capable of being split up evenly between the actors. Sivesind also said they did not focus on the pandemic for this semester’s theme because they think people need some escapism right now. However, virtual production has not been all negative; Sivesind stated a positive to recording productions is that students are now able to learn more about the film and television-based aspects of acting instead of just the live theater acting. Despite the setbacks that come with the pandemic, Sivesind said the department is working through it, trying to find the positives and learn new things that can be applied to the department in the future. Although the pandemic makes everything more stressful, Sivesind said it is still important to pursue art. “While survival is always the priority, art is an essential element of society that we too often take for granted,” he said. Productions planned for this spring are: “Fairy Tales,” by Angela Carter that will be directed by theater professor Cody Ganger and “The Last Days of Judas Iscariot,” by Stephen Adly Guirgis which Sivesind will direct. The productions will be premiering in March and April, respectively, and they will be available on the streaming platform Vimeo.
Features Page 5 The Renegade Rip www.therip.com Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2021 BC student organizations have incorporated the app Discord for virtual connections By Teresa Balmori Perez Reporter The Bakersfield College Government Association (BCSGA) has come up with the idea of adapting to the free chatting service called Discord. The Bakersfield College Discord was first established in the fall of 2019 for testing services, but soon became public and popular among students at the start of the pandemic in March 2020. The Discord currently has over 800 members and around 5 clubs at the moment. The clubs consist of Women in Science and Engineering (WISE), Computer Science, Ethics Bowl, Japanese Culture, and Sexuality and Gender Acceptance (SAGA), according to Benjamin Balderrama, Student Life Programmer Manager at BC. Discord also has a few professors on the app. “Discord is more like a chat server where people talk or text in real-time and acts like a virtual common space everyone can go to,” according to Balderrama. “Just like you would go to the huddle, a class, or bench, you can just go visit and start talking.” Their rules for the messaging service are simple at the moment due to students not causing any harmful activities, Balderram explained. However, they do require students to follow the basic rules that Discord has set in place. “I try not to play big brother and let the server go about its business and help students when directly contacted,” Balderram stated. BC also tries to remove any content that violates the rules and withdraws or bans any users that are not following them. Balderrama was encouraged to use the chatting service after moderating different YouTubers and streamers. “Discord is helpful for online games so people can play like they are right by each other,” Balderrama explained. “You can have so many different channel topics so everyone can feel invited.” He has been familiar with the messaging app for 4 years now. According to Balderram, Discord does have some similarities with the Surviving BC Facebook page. “I do have a feeling the Discord will be the younger traditional-age college students and gamers while Facebook can have older students or students not so much into games,” Balderrama stated. They both allow students to socialize and get to know each other. As for the future, Balderrama still hopes to be moderating the app and will continue it, even after the pandemic ends, he explained. He believes that it would still be a fun and interactive way to communicate with other students. For more information about Discord, one can go to the BC website and search for events or discussions happening on Discord. One can also contact Program Manager Balderram through email for more information. Renegade Events Campus Events Feb. 10: Renegade Fitness, from 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm on https://cccconfer.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ggUBfbxVQkWkqJtaBTnEEw. Feb. 10: Among Us Live Stream on Twitch/ Discord, from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm online at https://discord.gg/5VuFBJZ. Feb. 11: Renegade Fitness, from 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm on https://cccconfer.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ggUBfbxVQkWkqJtaBTnEEw. Feb. 11: Discord Discussions: Aftermath of Stock Market and Reddit, from 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm online at https://discord.gg/5VuFBJZ. Feb. 11: A2MEND Welcome Session, from 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm on Zoom. Feb. 12: Renegade Fitness, from 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm on https://cccconfer.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ggUBfbxVQkWkqJtaBTnEEw. Feb. 15: Renegade Fitness, from 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm on https://cccconfer.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ggUBfbxVQkWkqJtaBTnEEw. Feb. 19: CPR, AED & First Aid Certification Courses, from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm at Performing Arts Center Room 101. Feb. 24: Energy-Water-Food-Nexus Webinar, from 10:00 am to 11:30 am, Location: Online BC Sexuality and Gender Acceptance club host new series “My rainbow road” By Saioa Laverty Reporter Bakersfield College SAGA (Sexuality and Gender Acceptance Club) had guest speaker Jude Salas-Jackson to talk about his experiences as a transgender manas part if the club’s new series “My Rainbow Road”, on Feb. 3. The series will have a new guest speaker every Wednesday of the spring semester to share LGBTQ+ success stories in the local community. Jude is a former Bakersfield College student and member of the SAGA club who now works in the field of biology. SAGA stands for sexuality and gender alliance, and the club has guest speakers weekly to discuss personal experiences related to sexuality and/or gender and share their wisdom to people in the club or anyone who is interested. To start off the meeting, Jude was asked to share his story and some details about his life. He began by sharing how he identifies. “My preferred pronouns are he/ him but I am also okay with they/ them pronouns” Salas-Jackson said. Jude goes on to explain that he was born female, and for the first twenty years or so of his life he tried to embody society’s definition of what it means to be female, which he felt “never quite fit”. Jude was exposed to the terminology that described how he was feeling in a medical terminology course he was enrolled in at Bakersfield College. The course was discussing something called “Gender Identity Disorder”, which is now an outdated term. Jude said that he related to many of the descriptions of “Gender Identity Disorder” which helped him to fully realize that he is transgender. After Jude shared a little bit about his experience with determining his gender identity, he gave everyone in the meeting an opportunity to ask him any questions they have or share any other additional comments. There were many questions asked, which Jude was able to clearly answer. There were also many faculty members who came to congratulate Jude on his transition and also share his involvement in their class or whatever it was they were in charge of. One question that PHOTO COURTESY OF HELEN ACOSTA BC SAGA guest speaker Jude Salas-Jackson. Jude was asked was if his studying of biology ever contradicted with his identity. Has being trans changed his view of biology? Jude answered that studying biology has actually allowed him to even further confirm his identity. He elaborated that a professor he had told the class that “sex and gender were social constructs”. There are traits that are more associated with being female and others more associated with being male, but these were all determined by society. In reality gender is more of a spectrum rather than an option between one or another. Jude’s story about his gender identity and discovering who he is was an inspiration to many, which is evident from the amount of faculty and students who came to congratulate him. His contentment with being himself was evident through his welcoming and warm personality which he maintained throughout the entirety of the meeting. Jude was confident and comfortable with who he was which was an incredible thing to see from a young transgender man.
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Renegade Rip Issue 1 Feb. 10, 2021

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