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The Daily Northwestern Monday, April 24, 2023
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Drummers and dancers stage 26th spring show
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Families gather for Earth Day activities sustainability initiatives Evanston Ecology for from the city, like Evanston’s Center hosts local new off-season food and waste collection pilot environmental orgs yard as part of the city’s compostBy ASTRY RODRIGUEZ
daily senior staffer @astry_tpwk
At Evanston Ecology Center’s Earth Day Celebration Saturday morning, environmental organizations taught ecological issues. Families engaged in sustainabilityfocused kids’ activities while local businesses sold food, sweets, plants and handmade accessories Saturday morning. The event aimed to promote sustainability efforts and celebrate Earth Day and included over 15 organizations that were set up around the event. Organizations such as the Evanston Environmental Association, Climate Action Evanston and the Evanston Northshore Bird Club spoke with attendees about their advocacy work and spread awareness about climate issues and animal preservation. Evanston’s solid waste coordinator Brian Zimmerman said his team attended the celebration to advocate
ing program. “We came out to promote some of the sustainabilityrelated initiatives that the city is trying to push forward,” said Zimmerman. “(We’re) trying to build some awareness around those things and get some engagement from local community members.” Outdoor activities featured free books, an interactive bubble station and scavenger hunts. One scavenger hunt sent participants searching for animal figurines hidden around the area, and another pushed attendees to look for items found in nature, like trees, birds, worms and other species. Katie Knappenberger, who brought her three- and six-year-old children to the event, said her family engaged in many activities both “cool” and environmentally informative. “One of them is learning how to sort the recycling, which is very age
» See EARTH DAY, page 6
Photo courtesy of Seeger Gray
The Oka Homma drum circle. The Chicago-based drum singers were one of the invited drum groups at NAISA’s second Pow Wow and presented intertribal songs of the Southern Plains.
NAISA Pow Wow honors the Earth Second annual celebration brings regional Native community together By JOANNA HOU and RUSSELL LEUNG
daily senior staffers @joannah_11 / @rjleung7
Content warning: This article contains mentions of death and
anti-Indigenous violence. When the Native American and Indigenous Student Alliance learned Earth Day was an option for its second annual traditional spring Pow Wow, SESP
sophomore and Pow Wow Planning Committee co-Chair Alivia Britton, who is Odawa, said “Honoring the Land” became the obvious theme. “The land is so integral to being Indigenous and that
relationship is something that our people really value and respect,” said Britton, who is also NAISA’s treasurer. “The land is our relative, so it just makes
» See POW WOW, page 6
Mensch’s deli offers NY-style bagels NU to offer Arabic Childhood friends open Jewish pop-up shop on Chicago Avenue By KUNJAL BASTOLA
the daily northwestern @kunjal_bastola
As kids in Wilmette, Jack DeMar, Eric Kogan and Kiki Eliopoulos always dreamed of collaborating on a business. Mensch’s, a Jewish-style popup deli in Evanston, is that dream come true. “We actually all grew up together,” Kogan said. “We’ve known each other for 20-plus years at this point, and we’ve always been talking about a way to work together.” The three grew up eating Jewish food and found themselves traveling quite far to find a deli that had the classic Jewish-style dishes they wanted. They also said the Jewish population within Northwestern and Evanston was a big factor in deciding to open up Mensch’s on Chicago Ave. “Being Jewish is a large part of my life, culturally speaking,” Kogan said. “We’ve been exploring this way of how we can bring that type of food to the community, and it feels like Evanston was a great place to do it.” More recently, a trip to New
Recycle Me
York invigorated that desire to bring Jewish culture to the Evanston community. There, they visited 15 delis in the span of three days, making sure to try out various types of bagels that could inspire their own deli, DeMar said. The pop-up, located inside Evanston restaurant Picnic, opened April 15 and runs every weekend through June 11. The menu offers both sweet and savory bagels, as well as coffee and orange juice. Eliopoulos, who runs the catering business Kiki Bakes Pies, also makes pastries, including babka and carrot cake. “Getting feedback from people, it’s been really good,” Eliopoulos said. “I’ll be switching up the pastries throughout the pop-up while we’re doing it the next couple of months and seeing what is the most popular.” So far, she said, the chocolate babka is a hit. The trio chose to introduce Mensch’s to Evanston as a popup to incorporate a more interactive style of testing a new market. During the next few months, they hope to garner feedback from patrons.
minor in fall 2023 Prof. Ragy Ibrahim Activism encourages language Mikhaeel, student support for MENA Languages the movement made the difin creating the minor. to create new minor ference Arabic language classes from By KAAVYA BUTANEY
daily senior staffer @kaavya_butaney
Kunjal Bastola/The Daily Northwestern
The Mensch’s pop-up menu features a variety of bagels, including this avocado bagel with tomato and everything seasoning on top.
“Why wait till we have brick and mortar to get bagels to the people?” DeMar said. The bagels are sourced from the New York Bagel and Bialy Corporation in Skokie, a bagel shop the trio would frequent as children. Working with it is a
“full-circle moment,” Eliopoulos said. While the menu for the popup is currently limited to bagels and pastries, the co-founders hope to expand to classic deli
» See MENSCH’S, page 6
The Middle East and North African Languages program will launch an Arabic minor this upcoming Fall Quarter, the result of years of effort from students and the Arabic language faculty. The program currently does not offer majors or minors for any MENA languages, including Arabic and Persian. In Winter Quarter 2022, the Middle East and North Africa Student Association and Arabic language students sent a letter to Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences Dean Adrian Randolph requesting the school create an Arabic language minor. In total, 48 students who signed the letter said they would enroll in the minor. According to Arabic
Spring Quarter 2022 and onward can be counted toward the minor, Mikhaeel said. MENA languages program chair and German language Prof. Franziska Lys said when she assumed the chair position in Fall 2018, she wanted to gather feedback to understand whether students were satisfied with the program. In Spring 2019, Lys conducted an informal survey that asked 31 students whether they would enroll in an Arabic minor. About 83% of student respondents said they would be interested. “I really wanted to recognize students’ accomplishments because Arabic is not an easy language to learn,” Lys said. “For students who really go through a minor, I think they need some type of recognition of the special efforts they made in learning this language.”
» See ARABIC, page 6
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