Scene Spotlight

By Patricia Ho

Michele Kurihara

? Class of '03

? Political science major

? Ethnic studies minor

The idea to start a club like Sister Speaks first started out as a joke among friends, according to Michele Kurihara, one of the co-founders. "But after a while we were like, 'you know what, we could really go places with this,'" she said.

The concept behind Sister Speaks is to provide an avenue for informal discussion about issues that face women of color that are often ignored, said Kurihara, who is also co-chair of the Multicultural Center and volunteers her time at the Arrupe Center.

"There are so many problems and social issues to confront and at the end of the day you wanna just go home and relax with people who understand the same concerns that you have," said Kurihara. "You want to know that there are people who have the same frustrations as you do in the world and be content that each of you are trying to your own small part to make actual changes in the world. It's sort of idealistic, but that's where the support comes in."

With other seniors Clara Chu, Citlali Vasquez-Ramos, Toshiko Corbinook, Jennifer Rappa and Kendra Boyd, Sister Speaks was started this quarter and held their debut luncheon on Jan. 24.

One of the challenges of starting the club, according to Kurihara, was "sitting down and making sure we're on the same page about where our club is going."

Still in its infancy stage, the group hopes to hammer out the direction of Sister Speaks, be it a more community-based group or one with a heavier political emphasis, as they go along and get a feel for what students interested in joining are looking for.

Contact Michele Kurihara at mkurihara@scu.edu.

Kevin Ty

? Class of '03

? OMIS major

With his band Electric Campfire, guitarist and vocalist Kevin Ty will be competing at Wednesday's Battle of the Bands in The Bronco.

This will be the band's first time playing on campus and although Ty is unsure of how Santa Clara students will take to his band's brand of funk-rock, it is not a major concern.

"As much as we want to win and get the money and buy equipment, I don't want to get caught up in the competition aspect of it," he said. "I think that would ruin the music. I wanna just focus on having fun, playing from our soul and being the best we can."

For Ty, music provides a brief respite from the helter-skelter of everyday life.

"For however long the song is, however long the set is, or however long we're playing - for that amount of time you're in another place," he said. "You escape all the stresses and all the issues that you are dealing with at the current moment and put it on hold for a while and escape to this beautiful fourth dimension place. It's like a release-escape thing where you get away from the world and come back to it."

While Ty does not plan to have music be a full-time endeavor, it plays an integral part in his life. "I see myself working a nine to five, and then coming home and doing shows at night," he said. "I've already made a life-long commitment to music. I'm going to be making music till the day I die."

Contact Kevin Ty at kty@scu.edu.