The Mountain West Conference women’s basketball tournament is underway at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. The Colorado State University women’s team avoided having to play in any first round games on Sunday by being the No. 3 seed. 

But the Rams had to wait for the result of Sunday night’s Boise State University matchup against Utah State University to find out who they’d play against on Monday.

The sixth seeded Broncos didn’t have much trouble with the last place Aggies Sunday, as they jumped out to an 11 point lead in the first quarter. They never looked back aside from a late push in the fourth from the Aggies, but they would never get within seven points, as the game would end in a 66-58 walk in the park for the Broncos. 

Boise State’s Mya Hansen led all scorers off the bench with 20 points to go along with three rebounds in 22 minutes. Also for the Broncos, Abby Muse dominated the boards with 11 rebounds on the night. 

As a team, the board battle is where the game was won and lost on the night. The Broncos outrebounded the Aggies 47-28. It also didn’t hurt for the Broncos to more than double the Aggies’ assist numbers.

In the two matchups between the Rams and Broncos this season, the Rams have been dominant. They’ve won both games by an average margin of 18 points. 

Both McKenna Hofschild — this year’s Mountain West Player of the Year — and this year’s Mountain West Newcomer of the Year Destiny Thurman, have been bright stars in the games against Boise State this year. Over the span of both games, the two combined for 70 points, 27 rebounds and nine assists.

But as any coach would tell you, it’s tough to beat any team three times in a season. A conference tournament is a whole new world in terms of competition and stakes. For most, it’s a matter of win or go home. 

The Rams have picked it up in the last stretch of regular season games, aside from the 76-60 loss at the University of Wyoming in the penultimate game of the regular season. In the month of February, CSU is 6-2 with quality wins over Boise State and Wyoming and a 4-point loss to fifth seeded San Diego State University.

This CSU team is battle tested and are no strangers to playing in close games. Aside from losing to the Cowgirls in Laramie by 16, all of the Rams’ conference losses have been by five points or fewer. 

The Rams, led by the conference player of the year in Hofschild — who is averaging 21/7/4 this season — will tip off against the Broncos in the Mountain West quarterfinals at 8 p.m. MST at Thomas & Mack.

Reach Braidon Nourse at sports@collegian.com or on Twitter @BraidonNourse.

Alan Sparhawk, singer and guitarist of the legendary Duluth rock band Low, is performing danceable funk sets of original material and cover songs under the name Derecho.

Other band members include percussionist Izzy Cruz, drummer Al Church and Sparhawk’s son Cyrus on bass.

Sparhawk’s wife and Low bandmate Mimi Parker died of ovarian cancer at age 55 in November. Parker’s passing came after the group canceled a series of North American and European tour dates due to her cancer treatment.

So far this year, Sparhawk has done several shows with Derecho, including an appearance at Jack White’s Third Man Records in Nashville in February. The band has played at Icehouse in Minneapolis semi-regularly since 2021 and will return for a performance there on Thursday.

The Minnesota Daily spoke with Sparhawk ahead of Derecho’s Minneapolis performance.

How long has Derecho been around?

“It’s been about a year and some change. It started with my son kind of coming to me about two years ago and asking how to play the bass part on a song. It was actually a Beck song. And then the next thing was a Curtis Mayfield song, and I was like, ‘ooh, what’s going on here?’ And then he was bringing Funkadelic and Roy Ayers, a lot of ‘70s funk.

So I was quickly doing my homework at night, learning these songs on guitar so I could play along with him. And by the time we were on our second or third song, he was hearing it and picking it up faster than I could hear it. He has a really good ear and you know, I try not to be too ‘proud-fatherly’ cliche but I do feel like he has a really good ear and he’s really talented.”

How did you guys come up with the name of the band?

“My wife, Mim, came up with it. We had hit that phase where we played a couple times and had a potential show and had to decide on a name. Mim was looking up different weather phenomena, you know, obscure words from weather phenomena and she had a bunch of names, but the one she thought was best was Derecho, which is a ‘large wind storm.’”

You play at the Icehouse a lot, you must have a close relationship with them. What appeals to you and the band about the Icehouse?

“Actually, Al Church was the one who kind of made that connection. He plays there semi-often and maybe just had the ear for whoever was booking there, asked about us filling a night. So we’ve done that a couple of times now and it’s pretty fun. It was definitely kind of the next step for a band that played a couple times up here in Duluth.”

You do a lot of funk covers, I saw a great video of a Childish Gambino cover you did last December. What other covers have been making their way into the setlist recently?

“Roy Ayers is definitely a more obscure artist that, at least, I hadn’t heard of until my son was bringing me his tunes. So we do a couple of those, a couple Curtis Mayfield songs, Funkadelic, Gambino.

There’s an Isley Brothers tune that we did, which was kind of funny because I think it came about because somebody my kids were more familiar with, it was either Ice Cube or Biggie, used a sample from this song called “Footsteps” by The Isley Brothers. My kids knew the song because of the rap tune, and then they went back and listened to the original and they were like ‘oh, we’ve got to learn this song,’ so that’s a pretty great reference there. I remember that was a challenging song to learn, it was interesting to see that even at my old age, trying to learn something that’s still hard. But it works. It works. It was a big lesson.

In the past, I think I would have been discouraged more quickly. I think the motivation to keep up with Cyrus kind of pushed me through and sort of taught me that you can teach yourself things, and it’s hard, and sometimes you’ll work on it all day, but the next day you’ll come back and suddenly it’s there.”

We’ve talked about covers you do, do you do any original material as Derecho?

“I’d say almost two-thirds of the stuff we do is original. Stuff that Cyrus and I have written.”

Are there any plans to record that in the studio at all?

“Yeah, we’ve been working on that. It takes a while, it seems like every two or three shows we’re finding new versions and new twists and new parts to add to songs. We’ll try and record and then a month later, we’ll have realized we’ve moved forward on a song. Sometimes you just need to set a deadline and just do it. But yeah, we’re working on recording.”

You mentioned setting a deadline for yourself when it comes to recording. Have you set a deadline for yourself yet, or are you just taking it step by step?

“I’m pretty determined to — by the end of April — have a pretty solid pile of things to stack up for something to release. We may do little bits, maybe put two or three songs out at a time online. Small bites.

Sometimes when you give someone a whole record they go ‘ok, well I’ll put this in the files and get to it later’ or something like that. Whereas, if you give them a couple of things, they’re like ;alright, I’m gonna listen to this while I’m taking this drive’ or whatever.

So right now, I want to turn out some music. It’d be nice to have something people could hold on to. I think by summer we’ll have something we’re either finishing or mixing or already sending out to folks.”

You guys have been doing a bunch of shows lately. I heard you guys recently played at the Blue Room at Third Man Records in Nashville. How did that show come about?

“That was some friends of mine from Austin, a band called Lord Friday the 13th, got onto a bill and asked if I would play with them. So, yeah, that worked out great. We play up in Duluth, it seems like the last few months, every other week. We’ve been getting down to the Icehouse. Just trying to keep it on our tabletop and every week it changes and every show is different. It’s a good experience.”

Did you bump into Jack White while you were there?

“No, I think Jack was, did he not play ‘Saturday Night Live?’

He sent a note to the bands that were playing and said that he was sorry he couldn’t be there but he was going to be in New York. So that was nice, but yeah everyone that works there is really nice. I run into institutions like that from time to time, you know, bigger acts, and you can really tell the people they have around them, the people that run the stuff they love is definitely a reflection of the artist and how they care about other people and what they’re doing. It was nice, really nice people there, took care of us, and made us feel like special guests.”

One thing that has appealed to me a lot about the later Low material is how forward-thinking it was. I don’t know if you had any ideas about that with Derecho, like being innovative, or is it just drawing on those funk inspirations and just doing what you know?

“In Low, we were given this rare luxury and opportunity to develop and grow as we want, do what we wanted on stage and in the studio.

It seemed like on stage we kind of gravitated toward a very raw and tactile way of performing. Keeping it real and in the moment was important to that part of what we did. Then in the studio, we were always given leeway and there was never any obligation to go one way or the other. Each record we could push as far as we wanted or hold on as much as we wanted, we could work on what we already had been developing, we could shoot for something unknown, we could bring in things we didn’t necessarily know how to use and what we were gonna do with it and we were able to work through that and come up with things that would always surprise us. I’m open to all things.

Our approach so far with the studio is finding a variety of ways we capture it and not being precious about the sound and whether it sounds like something real or not. I’m excited about the recording process because to me those two things have always been wildly open. I like the idea of pushing the aesthetic, we push the aesthetic live. Here’s guitar, bass and drums, but how slow can this be, how minimal can it be, how delicate can this be and yet still deep and heavy. It’s always how do we find it, how do we do what seems impossible and how do we create something that maybe hasn’t been created with these tools.”

What does the rest of 2023 look like for you? Any other projects or anything else going on that you’d like to talk about?

“I’m still left in a difficult situation here with what I can do creatively. It’s probably gonna be awhile before I can feel like I can be on stage and be like ‘well, here’s what I have to say next.’ I want to, and I know that there will be a time when I’m ready. I feel pretty lucky that I’m making music that challenges me in a different way. I did actually get a call from, I don’t know when they’re gonna announce it, somebody from [Minneapolis jazz band] The Bad Plus just contacted me about doing something solo with them. So that’s a good goal, we’ll see how I feel after that.”

What would you say people can expect from Derecho at the Icehouse on Thursday?

“Well it all depends on if they dance. We try to make it a comfortable place for either chatting with your friends, dancing if you’re feeling it — obviously nothing helps a band like people dancing. Something entertaining for people who want to sit back and watch musicians figure out what they kind of do.”

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Cricket is a sport with around 2.5 billion fans globally, second only to soccer. One place it is popular is India, where for the first time in history, it ranks No. 1 in the world. One player who has shaped the sport is first baseman Sunil Gavaskar, widely regarded as one of the best opening batsmen in history and India’s best player. 

Gavaskar was born on July 10, 1949 in Bombay, India, now known as Mumbai. He was named India’s Best Schoolboy Cricketer of the year in 1966 and joined the Vazir Sultan Tobacco Colts XI in the same year. In the same year, he joined the Bombay team. In the 1968 to 1969 season, Gavaskar played for St. Xavier’s College and made his debut, but made a duck, which is when a batsman fails to score a goal. He responded by scoring 114 against Rajasthan in his second match, earning him a spot on the 1970 to 1971 Indian team to tour the West Indies.

India’s national cricket team played their first Test match, which is a match between two separate countries, in 1932, as they became the sixth country to get granted Test status. However, they struggled when they first started out as they did not win a single Test match until 1952, when they defeated England by eight runs, nearly 20 years after they played their first Test. Even after winning their first match, they struggled consistently, being one of the bottom teams and winning just 36 of their 196 Test matches. Things were about to change for the better, though, and quickly.

In his first-ever Test match from March 6 to 10, 1971, Gavaskar quickly made a name for himself. While it may have been his first Test match, he did not play like it for eight innings. He scored 774 runs in total, which to this day is the most ever scored in a Test debut. In four of those eight innings he scored over 100 with an average of 154.8, including scoring 220 runs in one inning alone. Gavaskar went from a no-name to a star almost overnight.

While most cricket players stand around 5-foot-9, Gavaskar is only 5-foot-5. However, this turned out to be an advantage as he dominated short-pitched bowling as well as fast bowling.

Throughout his career Gavaskar set numerous records, including being the first-ever Test cricket player to score over 10,000 runs, the highest number of Test 100s with 34 before fellow Indian Sachin Tendulkar broke it in 2005. He held the record for the highest number of Test runs in a career with 10,122 for nine years and 105 days before Australia’s Allan Border broke it. He became the first-ever Indian player to reach 100 catches, with 108 in his career.

Alongside his numerous stats, Gavaskar won 34 Tests and became the first-ever Test player to play in 100 consecutive Tests. Back in his home country, for his team Bombay, he won 20 Ranji trophies, three Irani cups and six Duleep trophies. In 2009, he was inducted into the International Cricket Council’s Hall of Fame.

Gavaskars’ impact on the sport did not just come from the pitch. Alongside Kapil Dev and Gundappa Viswanath, he helped shape India into a cricket powerhouse and was able to inspire countless Indians in the next generation of players, including Tendulkar, to carry on what he started all those years ago. If it was not for Gavaskar, Dev and Viswanath, cricket in India would not be where it is today.

SGA President Joshua Martin, right, and his party were routed in last week’s election by Benjamin Rizk and Students Unite. Martin is now contesting the election. | Anh Le/The Cougar

Student Government Association President Joshua Martin, citing voting “errors,” is contesting his loss to opponent Benjamin Rizk in front of the organization’s high court on Monday night in yet another SGA election controversy.

The contest, which was called in favor of Rizk by the SGA’s election office over the weekend, faced technical issues that initially kept some freshmen and transfer students from voting. But, voting was extended on Get Involved and everyone who wanted to vote was given the chance to, according to SGA Election Commissioner Tochi Okoli.

“By the end of the election, even up until 15 minutes before voting closed, when students would send their information through (an online form used to solve the technical issues), every single person on that form had been remedied,” Okoli said.  “An email was sent to everybody saying you are now eligible to vote. Everybody who wanted to vote in the election was able to vote.”

Martin, who quietly overhauled SGA’s election rules last year, submitted a formal inquiry to the SGA Supreme Court on Sunday and said he believes the voting issues “potentially could have swayed” the election. Okoli assured that is not the case.

“We actually have evidence to support the fact that it did not sway the outcome of the election whatsoever,” the election commissioner said. “Just by majority alone and also by seeing at the end of each day which party was winning, it was clear from the start which party would ultimately be successful.”

In a statement, Martin said he and his party, which was routed, “will immediately concede the election to respect the conclusion of the democratic process” if their case is unsuccessful. 

Rizk, a political science sophomore, denounced Martin’s efforts to contest the race and criticized the sweeping changes the incumbent made to election rules.

“The election code was not only revised in order to make it more difficult for lower-income students to run but also easier for incumbents to win,” Rizk said. “On top of that, it created many discrepancies in regards to properly enforcing the code, which slowed down the judicial process in administering election code violations.”

Among the changes were a jarring increase in campaign spending caps, changes to term limits and an end to ranked-choice voting.

This is not the first time the SGA has been engulfed by a controversial election. In 2021, Arsalan Darbin won the presidency by default after the spiritual predecessor of Martin’s party was disqualified by the SGA Supreme Court. 

The entire organization was later upended after Darbin faced — and lost — a University-wide referendum that should have ousted him, but the organization’s justice department overturned it.

Despite the controversy, this year’s elections experienced record turnout in comparison to the past three years, according to Okoli, and Rizk’s Students Unite party won by a wide margin.

“Especially because of the political climate that we’re in right now, in terms of the nation not even just at UH, it’s becoming increasingly popular to question the democratic process,” Okoli said.

news@thedailycougar.com

—
“Joshua Martin contests SGA election loss, drawing criticism” was originally posted on The Cougar

Program will Award $60,000 in Scholarships to Students from Traditionally Underserved Populations

BOSTON, MA (March 6, 2023) – Charles River Associates (CRA), a worldwide leader in providing economic, financial and management consulting services, today announced the launch of the CRA All-Access Scholarship, which will support students pursuing degrees in business, economics, engineering, mathematics, science or technology. In the inaugural year of the program, CRA will award $5,000 each to 12 deserving students for their junior year at an accredited institution.

In keeping with CRA’s companywide All-Access Initiative, which champions the importance of higher education, particularly within traditionally underserved populations, the All-Access Scholarship is aimed at encouraging female students and students from underrepresented communities and/or socioeconomically challenging backgrounds to pursue higher education.

“Historically, economics has been one of the least diverse of all the academic fields,” said Raquel Tamez, CRA’s Chief Inclusion and Engagement Officer. “CRA’s All-Access Scholarship Program was created to help address this issue, by giving female students—as well as those from historically underrepresented communities—the financial support they need to make the most of their educational experience.

“Moreover, as a firm with offices in cities around the globe, we want to do our part in ensuring that the talent pipeline in our fields of expertise truly reflects the diversity and dynamism of the communities where we work and live.”

To be eligible for this program, applicants must be current, full-time college sophomores attending an accredited college/university and majoring in Business, Economics, or STEM with an overall GPA of 3.5. Ideal candidates will have a record of leadership and community service, exhibit financial need, and demonstrate a commitment to diversity, inclusion, and equity.

The deadline to apply for the 2023-24 CRA All-Access Scholarship is April 3, 2023. For more information and to begin the application process, visit crai.com/cra-all-access-scholarship.

This program is administered by International Scholarship and Tuition Services Inc., an independent company that specializes in managing sponsored educational assistance programs.

About Charles River Associates (CRA)

Charles River Associates® is a leading global consulting firm specializing in economic, financial, and management consulting services. CRA advises clients on economic and financial matters pertaining to litigation and regulatory proceedings, and guides corporations through critical business strategy and performance-related issues. Since 1965, clients have engaged CRA for its unique combination of functional expertise and industry knowledge, and for its objective solutions to complex problems. Headquartered in Boston, CRA has offices throughout the world. Detailed information about Charles River Associates, a registered trade name of CRA International, Inc., is available at www.crai.com. Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

Media Contact

Carissa (Miller) Willcoxon
Director of Marketing | ISTS
cwillcoxon@applyISTS.com
(615) 777-3735

Program will Award $60,000 in Scholarships to Students from Traditionally Underserved Populations BOSTON, MA (March 6, 2023) – Charles River Associates (CRA), a worldwide leader in providing economic, financial and management consulting services, today announced the launch of the CRA All-Access Scholarship, which will support students pursuing degrees in business, economics, engineering, mathematics, science or […]

The past two weeks have been relatively fruitful for Tech softball, taking five out of nine of their games. The run includes wins over Illinois, Kennesaw State, Penn State and back-to-back wins over Kent State. The wins were led by senior catcher Emma Kauf who racked up 10 hits over the span, boosting her batting average from .200 all the way up to .357. On the pitching side, senior pitcher Chandler Dennis had a stellar outing against Illinois pitching six two-score innings to help propel the Jackets to victory.

The games started with the Jackets hosting the ACC/B1G Challenge on Feb. 17, 18 and 19. Tech faced off against the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Illinois, with the University of Louisville attending to play against the other tournament teams. 

After falling to the Badgers on Friday, Tech began very well on Saturday with junior catcher Sara Beth Allen launching a solo home run at the top of the first inning. The Badgers soon responded with a three-run homer to make the score 3-1. Wisconsin added three more insurance runs and would hold onto the game 6-1. 

Tech faced Illinois later the same day and again started off hot thanks to singles from Kauf and freshman right fielder Paige Vukadinovich. Allen then drew a walk to bring up junior third baseman Mallorie Black, who notched a two-RBI double. Sophomore outfielder Auburn Dupree would finish out the second with an RBI of her own to make the score 3-0 after the first. Tech once again loaded the bases in the third and sophomore left fielder Ella Edgmon would knock in more runs to make the score 5-0. Illinois would fight back but the game ended 5-2 Tech, splitting the day for Tech.

In Tech’s final game of the challenge, the Fighting Illini would be the ones to start the game off well with a lead off home run. The Jackets fought back in the fourth with Vukadinovich knocking her second triple of the season, Kauf knocking her in with an RBI single which brought up Allen, who then hit her third home run in three days. This put Tech in the lead 3-1 at the end of the fourth. In a fight to the finish, Illinois would score three runs of their own in the fifth to make the score 4-3 Illinois. 

On Tuesday, Feb. 21, Tech faced off against Kennesaw State at home in hopes of getting back to winning ways. Kennesaw continued the trend of hot starts with a solo homer in the first. The Jackets would respond with a single by Kauf, who then stole second. Allen would continue her hot streak as well with an RBI single. With bases loaded, junior first baseman Abby Hughes knocked in two more runs to put Tech ahead 3-2. Tech built on their lead in the fourth with Vukadinovich getting on base and setting up a two-run homer for Kauf to make the score 5-2. Kennesaw State only got one more run and the game ended 5-3 Tech.

The Jackets traveled to Charlotte, N.C. for the Queens City Classic on Feb. 24, 25 and 26 to face Boston University, Charlotte, Kent State and Penn State. Tech began the tournament on Friday afternoon against Boston University in what turned out to be a low-scoring affair. After three scoreless innings the Terriers took the lead through an RBI single and tacked on a second run, which was enough for Boston to win 2-0.

The next day, the Jackets faced Penn State and Kent State. In the first game against Penn State, the Nittany Lions got on the board in the first thanks to an RBI double. In the second, Hughes and sophomore right fielder Madison Dobbins would get Tech their first run. After three straight walks which led to one run, sophomore second baseman Grace Connelly knocked in one more run to make the score 3-1. In the fourth, Penn State cut the lead down to one but Tech responded with three runs of their own thanks to RBIs from Allen and freshman catcher Reese Hunter, who hit her first career home run. Penn State would respond in the sixth with a solo and a three-run home run, sending the game to extras. Allen would then hit her first career walk-off home run for the Jackets to win 7-6. Tech finished up the day against Kent State, getting off to a hot start with seven unanswered runs at the start of the game. Kent State eventually answered with six runs of their own in the third and gained the lead with two runs at the bottom of the sixth. After a RBI triple from Kauf and a sacrifice fly, Tech managed to scrape out the win in the seventh, ending the game 9-8 Tech. The Jackets started the next day with a second game against Kent State looking to repeat their win. This time, Kent State would take the lead with three runs in the third, but Tech would answer two innings later making the score 4-2. After a chaotic seventh where the teams combined for five runs, Tech pulled out the win 7-4. The second win over Kent State earned head coach Aileen Morales her 250th win as a head coach. Looking to add on to their two wins against Kent State, Tech took on Charlotte on Sunday. Tech would once again start the game off hot thanks to two RBI doubles. Charlotte would respond at the bottom of the first with three runs of their own, giving them the lead. Tech would get one more run to tie the game, but Charlotte would take four more runs to win 7-3. 

Tech’s next tournament will be against Northern Iowa, Southern Miss and Brown University in the I-75 Tournament on Friday, March 3 in back-to-back games at Mewborn Field.

The Daily Trojan features Classified advertising in each day’s edition.  Here you can read, search, and even print out each day’s edition of the Classifieds.

Click the Classifieds icon to download the PDF of today’s Classifieds:

To place an ad, please contact an ad representative:

(213) 740-2707

USC Student Publications Student Union – Room 400

Los Angeles, CA 90089-0895

http://dailytrojan.com/ads

The post Classifieds – March 6, 2023 appeared first on Daily Trojan.

On the last day of the 2023 Utah Legislative Session, around 50 Salt Lake City community members joined the fight of 7,500 cities across the globe with their own strike, advocating to end fossil finance and protest inaction on climate change. They first gathered at Washington Square Park, marching to the JP Morgan Bank, and finally reaching the Utah State Capitol Building, where speakers gave their remarks. 

Before the event, Elena Rügemer, an organizer for Fridays for Future Utah, told the Chronicle an emphasis for this year’s strike is the shrinking of the Great Salt Lake. 

“We’re striking to let our voices be heard,” she said. “We’re fighting for our future.” 

Rügemer started organizing with Fridays for Future Utah after noticing a lack of turnout at the global climate strike in September 2022. 

“So when I realized that only so little people showed up, I thought I really needed to take action and join in and hopefully spread the word and really let our voices be heard by many people,” she said. 

She spoke about the importance of protecting the environment for future generations, calling the toxic dust storms coming off the exposed lakebed of the Great Salt Lake “terrifying.”

“I think about my kids, I think about other people’s kids, and I want them to have a normal life,” she said. “I want them to be able to just live without having all these issues that we have now.”

On the Steps of the Capitol

Alex Veilleux from Save our Great Salt Lake kicked the speeches off, unraveling a banner with a “Great Salt Lake To-Do List” painted on it. Some items included “Water to the Lake Now,” “Conservation First” and “Landback.”

“This session, they talked a lot of game, you may have heard them saying that they’re taking this issue seriously, but they had many, many opportunities to capitalize on actual action that could have helped the Great Salt Lake and most importantly, gotten water to the lake now, and they just chose not to,” Veilleux said. 

This session, legislators chose not to set a target level elevation for the lake, saying it would “put a stake in the sand.” Others cited the good snowpack this year as the reason for holding back on “emergency water-saving measures.”

However, the good snowpack is not enough to raise the lake’s levels to where they need to be. 

“Are we gonna let them get away with saying that we’re just having a good snow year so we’re not going to do anything?” Veilleux said.

The crowd responded with a resounding “No.” 

Veilleux continued on to speak about the lack of tribal leaders in decision-making bodies created for the lake.  

“Tribes are the best ecological stewards as they’ve been stewarding this Great Basin since time immemorial,” Veilleux said. “Now is the time to integrate tribal co-management and co-stewardship of Great Salt Lake into all decision-making bodies.”

Rae Duckworth, the leader of Black Lives Matter Utah, took the mic next, telling the audience, “Make some noise if you understand how Black liberation correlates with our climate.”

Duckworth said it is important to stand with BIPOC individuals in this fight because “this fight is not new to them.” Duckworth asked the audience, “If your activism does not have intersectionality, what is your activism?”

“So being intersectional is understanding every part of the intersection with climate,” Duckworth said. “So how we’re talking about amplifying the West Side? Yes, we should be. But in order to do that, we do have to press our freaking government.”

Brandi O’Brien, from Utah Physicians for Healthy Environment, started her speech by saying, “We have a saying at UPHE — ask your doctor if clean air is right for you. If he says no, you need a new one. Well, that stands for the legislature as well. The science is clear that there is no safe level of air pollution.”

Deeda Seed, the next speaker, is a mom, activist and organizer for the past 40 years and also campaigns with the Center for Biological Diversity. Looking at the audience full of young folk, she thanked them. 

“As a mom, I’m so grateful for you showing up today and for the work that you’re doing,” she said. 

London Kelley, a sophomore at the University of Utah and part of Clean the Darn Air, told the audience about being born and raised in Utah and witnessing firsthand the effects of climate change on family members. 

“My grandpa has a collapsed lung,” Kelley said. “During the winter, he can’t go outside.”

Collin Williams spoke to the audience about having meaningful, compassionate conversations with one another about change. 

“I’m going to ask you to be compassionately curious with the people you’re talking to,” Williams said. “We’re gonna be talking to a lot of people that are very wrong, but they’re gonna need a space to be wrong so that they can eventually be right.”

Nan Seymour, a lake-facing poet and advocate for the Great Salt Lake, expressed the importance of standing up for something when its life is at stake. 

To the legislators, she said “We are losing the lake on your watch, because you are not watching closely enough and meanwhile, we the people are paying fierce attention and we will keep vigil, we will walk the receding shoreline, we will count the corpses of birds.”

Bridget Raymundo, another U student, said society has lost touch with Planet Earth.

“We need to change and we need support from our world leaders and from industry,” Raymundo said. “Yes, money talks, but we should be listening to our youth activists.”

Katie Balakir with Save Our Canyons talked about the Utah Department of Public Transportation’s proposed gondola in Little Cottonwood Canyon.

“And while you might be asking what the heck does a gondola have to do with saving our lake?” Balakir said. “Well, the gondola is yet another manifestation of the same problem: greed and profit at the expense of our natural spaces.”

The speeches concluded with Vaughn Lovejoy, who told the audience to go out into nature.

“Put away your bikes, your climbing gear and go with humility and offer your life in service to the earth and listen,” Lovejoy said. 

After the event, Raquel Juarez, an organizer with Fridays for Future, told the Chronicle that events like this are about finding community. 

“To know that they’re not alone with these issues and to keep spreading the word about the climate crisis, because there’s a lot of things that are important to do, such as talking to our legislators, lobbying,” she said. “The only thing that will make that stronger and more effective is if there’s more pressure from society as a whole.”

Today’s event, she said, was about building up that pressure. 

k.silverstein@dailyutahchronicle.com

@chronykayleigh

Sayed Faisal, a 20-year-old University of Massachusetts Boston student, was fatally shot by a Cambridge Police officer Jan. 4, sparking outrage and protests across the city.