Roxane Gay, a cultural critic, and feminist writer has been publishing her novels, short stories, and essays since 2011. Her most recent, “Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body” and “Difficult Women” were published in 2017 and both made their appearance on the New York Times Bestseller List.

Her most popular work, “Bed Feminist” was published in 2014 and has been taught in classrooms across the country. It contains a collection of essays that will most likely be on any feminist reading list you can find on the Internet.

Gay was also one of the first two black women to write for Marvel. She co-wrote a Black Panther comic, “World of Wakanda,” with Yona Harvey, which focused on the romance between female characters Ayo and Aneka.

If you want to know more about Roxane Gay, listen to this interview about her latest work, “Hunger”, on NPR (her voice is very soothing to listen to, though the subject matter is not), or follow her on Twitter (she is hilarious and confronts her trolls head on).

Amber Tamblyn will be joining Gay in conversation at the Englert. Though she is most known for being an actor, she is also a very accomplished poet.

Tamblyn has published three collections of poetry titled “Bang Ditto,” “Free Stallion,” and “Dark Sparkler”. In “Dark Sparkler,” she analyzes 25 female actors who died before their time in a collection of poetry.

She has also written for the New York Times (read her articles “I’m Not Ready for the Redemption of Men” here), and wrote and directed the upcoming film “Paint It Black,” which will be released in June of 2018.

Carrie Brownstein will also be joining Tamblyn and Gay for Mission Creek Festival 2018.

Brownstein is best known for co-directing, co-starring, and co-writing popular television show “Portlandia.” “Portlandia” has won multiple Emmy Awards and is extremely popular for its hilarious commentary on hipster culture.

She also wrote a memoir published in 2015 titled “Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl” about how music became her therapy.

Brownstein initially gained attention as a member of the rock band Sleater-Kinney, a group well known for the feminist revolution of punk rock in the 1990’s. You can listen to their most recent album, “No Cities to Love,” here.

We can’t wait to see you all at the Englert for a conversation between Roxane Gay, Amber Tamblyn, and Carrie Brownstein. Keep your eye out for more information on Mission Creek performances on KRUI’s website!

Check out the Mission Creek Festival website, here.

The post Promo: Carrie Brownstein + Roxane Gay + Amber Tamblyn In Conversation appeared first on KRUI Radio.

When I moved to Iowa City to attend the University of Iowa, which is known for being a VERY liberal campus, I was surprised to find that I was still hearing homophobic comments and racial slurs on a daily basis like I did back in high school.

I am from very suburban town in Iowa so it was no surprise that my high school consisted of primarily white students with barely any minorities or openly gay people. Anyway, I figured when I came here that people would be more accepting of the LGBTQ+ community and minorities, but boy, was I wrong.

I can remember one of the first Fridays of the semester when I was at a house party and I heard a frat boy call another kid a f*g.

It wasn’t in a joking way (which isn’t okay either) but in a way where he actually meant it. I was instantly filled with rage and walked my pissed-off ass right over to him and asked,”what the fuck did you just say to him?” The frat boy who had been hitting on me earlier in the night looked scared for his life (I can be pretty intimidating when I’m angry). He tried to play it off like a joke but I cut him off and continued to ream his ass on why he’s an ignorant asshole and told him if I heard him say it again that I would not be afraid to teach him a lesson. Admitted I had a few drinks in my system but I do not tolerate ignorant-ass people, especially frat guys.

This brings me to why I have RBF (Resting Bitch Face) because there are still racist and homophobic

people, especially college students, in this world. Like honestly people, it is 2016 get over yourself and your ass-backwards beliefs. Stop making excuses for yourself by saying, “it’s how I was raised.” That’s bull crap. There are plenty of people out there that have different beliefs than their parents or grandparents. There is no reason why you should call someone a name or be rude to someone for something they cannot change. Using racial slurs or making anti-gay comments to them will not change who they are so get over it.

You may say, “what they do is disgusting and immoral” when referring to gay marriage but is it really any of your business? In the wise words of Jenna Marbles, “What the fuck do you care what other people do with their genitals?”. Does it really affect you that much that you have to make it clear to everyone that it bothers you? It is legal and there is nothing you can do about it, get with the program.

On a daily basis I hear comments about the international students on campus specifically the ones from Asia. One the particularly grinds my gears was from one of my personal friends when she said, “why don’t they

just speak English? It really irritates me that they don’t” as we passed a group of Chinese students speaking to each other in Mandarin. I immediately gave her a look that resembled the picture on the right. After staring at her in amazement because of the comment she just made, I proceeded to ask her why we speak English even though we can speak Spanish and she said “well because English is the language we always speak” and I responded with one simple word. “Exactly.” That shut her right up, and she never said anything like that in front of me again.

But seriously though, it never ceases to amaze me that there are still Americans out there who think all other people in our country should speak English just because they cannot understand what they are saying. Well, all I have to say to that is why don’t you learn their language instead of being a typical lazy American and expecting everybody to bow to your wants??

That was a tad more ranting than usual but I am sure I’m not the only one who feels strongly about this subject. It is a serious issue that is very relevant in today’s society especially among our youth. If we do not teach the young people of this country and the world to be more tolerant of people that may be different than them, we’re screwed. So please raise your future children to be kind and tolerant human beings; you’ll be glad you did.

The post Reasons for the Resting Bitch Face: Homophobes and Racists appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Born in South Africa but raised in Australia, Troye Sivan Mellet has been making his mark online for a long time. A now famous Youtuber (and a winner of a Teen Choice Award alongside Tyler Oakley for their video “The ‘Boyfriend’ Tag”), Troye Sivan released a debut EP titled TRYXE in late 2014, which was a surprise hit and landed at number 5 on the iTunes charts. Having found his musical voice, he continued to create music and dropped a second EP, WILD, in September 2015, which had similar success, possibly thanks to its endorsement by Taylor Swift, Sam Smith, and Adele. Shortly thereafter, he announced that WILD was actually an introduction to his debut album Blue Neighbourhood, and I can gladly say that the full product is one of the best debuts of the year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLKkwQM7uEY

The term “post-modern” is thrown around a little recklessly in regards to all types of art, but if the touchstone for “post-modern pop” is Lorde, Troye Sivan fits in neatly beside the girl from the land down under. His music consists of synth washes, tight and snappy percussion, dance tracks and ballads both assisted by electronic production. Both of them are able to deliver vocals that turn from soft-spoken and introverted to demanding and evocative.

Troye Sivan is also as gifted at songwriting as his female counterpoint: the title of the album is in reference to the concept of feeling trapped in the homes that we grow up in, but also the melancholy that is present when we do leave our places of origin. “I’m down to my skin and bone / and my baby listens to me on the phone / but I can’t help feeling like I’m all alone,” he coos on “Ease,” illustrating the anxiety so many young adults face even when surrounded by their loved ones; “When you heard me on the radio / did you turn it up?” he asks the ones he left behind in the string-adorned closer “Suburbia.” There’s melancholy laced through all the hope, and it makes for a relatable listen.

However, Blue Neighbourhood may arguably be one of the most important albums to come out in the mainstream pop demographic for a specific reason: its honest portrayal of a young person who identifies within the LGBT spectrum. Troye Sivan came out to his Jewish parents when he was 15, and came out three years later on a video blog. While openly gay artists Adam Lambert and Sam Smith have made strides in bringing a wider world view to queer performers in the industry, Troye Sivan comes off more explicit, and all the better for it: album centerpiece “Heaven” recounts his emotions with coming out to his father and others (“without losing a piece of me / how do I get to heaven?”); “Bite” pulses with desire and sexual awakening (“Kiss me on the mouth and set me free / but please don’t bite”); “For Him” recounts nights of being lightweights and “not having to say ‘I love you’/ to say ‘I love you.'” Even better, the three music videos he released prior to the album’s release (for songs “Wild”, “Fools”, and “Talk Me Down”) create a narrative arc that covers hidden sexuality, parental abuse, and suicide. It’s impressive for such a young artist to come out of the gate with something profound to say.

Blue Neighbourhood does so many things right within the pop world: all the tracks hit that sweet spot of a three minute run time, the album doesn’t overstay its welcome (even the deluxe version, with the essential bonus song “Blue,” feels worthy of its duration), and it melds familiar and new pop sounds in order to create a distinctive voice for its precocious artist. Even if he doesn’t break through to the mainstream, Troye Sivan deserves a place in the upper echelon of pop singers.

I can’t wait to see what he does next.

Grade: A

Key Tracks: “Wild”, “Bite”, “Heaven”, “Youth”, “Suburbia”, “Blue”

Blue Neighborhood can be listened to on Spotify here.

The post Album Review: “Blue Neighbourhood” by Troye Sivan appeared first on KRUI Radio.

For some, that description alone would be enough to have them running to their locally-owned and chain bookstores to purchase this novel, with its girth of nearly 600 pages and its eye-catching cover art. Be still, my AU (alternate universe, a phrase used in fan fiction) heart. However, for the nonbelievers, I’m willing to be a little more persistent and convince you to give this gem a fair shot.

Rainbow Rowell has a been a fixture within the young adult genre for a couple years now, thanks to her breakthrough bestseller Eleanor and Park: a sweet, intelligent, and bitter novel about an overweight outsider and a vaguely popular Korean boy with a love for comics falling into the confusing and enrapturing throngs of first love. Her follow up, Fangirl, while not met with as much commercial success, was still received with critical acclaim. Focusing on a young woman named Cath starting her college career as a creative writing major and facing difficulty moving away from her works of fan fiction to more original material, Fangirl acutely observed the inner anxieties of a talented writer finding her niche in her work and in her life. More importantly, however, the novel introduced two fictional characters that the protagonist wrote about, named Simon and Baz, about whom readers were dying to read more.

However, this demand for more Simon and Baz left the author in an interesting situation. You see, Simon and Baz are characters that existed within a book series within Fangirl: Cath wrote fan fiction about “The World of Mages”, a famous book series that, on the surface, sounds very similar to our own magical boarding school series, Harry Potter. So in Fangirl there were TWO stories involving Simon and Baz: the canon “World of Mages”, and Cath’s fan fiction about them. So, instead of writing either of those stories, Rainbow Rowell decided to write the “World of Mages” as she would have written, arguably writing fan fiction for a series within her own novel where the protagonist writes fan fiction as well. I know, it’s all very meta. And, on paper, it sounds like a complete mess.

So Rainbow Rowell should be commended for how well she’s able to pull it off.

Carry On begins as Simon Snow, our main character and Chosen One, the most powerful Mage in the world, is headed for his final year of training at the Watford School of Magicks. Needless to say, he’s feeling a little anxious about it: he’s going to be stuck with his roommate Baz again for another year (Simon is convinced that Baz is a vampire), there’s a prophecy that the head of the school is pressuring Simon to complete, and there’s a nasty creature that looks like an eleven year old Simon running around and sucking the magic out of areas of Europe, creating pockets of dead air where mages can’t use their abilities. It all sounds like a lot to unpack, as Carry On is kind of an alternate universe to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and at the beginning of the novel it’s a little alienating for the reader. But once Rowell figures out how to unpack all that backstory and is able to introduce the other lead characters, Carry On hits the ground running and keeps its addictive pace going until its rousing conclusion.

Part of the reason Carry On is able to work past its issues and, ultimately, step out of the shadows of its obvious inspiration, is because of how talented of a writer Rainbow Rowell truly is. Although she is frequently compared to John Green, I would argue that she is an infinitely stronger writer: she has an ear for witty, hilarious, and heartfelt dialogue that doesn’t feel staged, she knows exactly when to throw an emotional gut punch or plot twist, and her characters are three dimensional, lovable cast members, even if their archetypes are lifted straight from classic fantasy (i.e., Simon’s best friend, Penny, starts out as a Hermoine Granger stand in, but quickly becomes a feminist witch fighting for equal opportunity for mages of all races, colors, and sexuality who I would actually prefer to have by my side over her counterpart). Rowell is also really fantastic at creating tension in situations, whether they be of the personal or more epic variety.

That’s another reason why Carry On excels and becomes, in my opinion, one of the best things to come out of the young adult fiction genre in a long time. While the novel certainly has its magical plot to resolve, Rowell loves her characters, and they drive the narrative instead of being dragged along by it. Because of this attention to character, to their personal traumas and explorations of identity, she’s created a truly subversive version of the “Chosen One” literary trope: Simon is someone who doesn’t want the power he has and is dealing with his bisexuality; Baz struggles with being a pariah within his own family even though he didn’t being his differences onto himself; Agatha, the seeming damsel in distress, discovers her own agency and is decisive in a way that most other characters, in any fantasy setting, wouldn’t be able to bring themselves to do.

And don’t even get me started on the kissing scenes. I was literally hugging the novel and giggling over it. Don’t underestimate Rowell’s ability to evoke the reader’s own memories of first love.

Despite these strengths, Carry On does sometimes buckle under its own ambitions. The world simply cannot be as fleshed out as other fantasy projects: she didn’t have over fifteen years to develop it, after all. And while its breathtaking pace is mostly a positive, its conclusion does come a little too quickly and tidy. But for a novel that gets almost everything else right and, along the way, changes the game of young adult fiction, I believe those offenses can be forgiven.

A goofy, subversive, and fantastical treat.

Grade: B+

The post Bound and Proud: Book Review- “Carry On” by Rainbow Rowell appeared first on KRUI Radio.