The All State

» By CONOR SCRUTON -cscruton@my.apsu.edu

While many college students set their sights on graduate school or a workplace, alumna Kaley Drew took a slightly different route, opting to start her own business instead.

The Couture Crush is a clothing boutique located on the second floor of 109 Franklin St. in downtown Clarksville above Mildred and Mable’s. As described by the store’s website, it is “a collection of unique clothing designs and labels with artful accessories ranging from traditional to chic.”

The Couture Crush prides itself on having a wide range of fashion choices. Shoppers can find clothes and accessories for any piece of a wardrobe, and choose between a variety of vintage and modern styles.

Drew described the store’s style by saying, “My goal for each season is to fill Couture Crush with a blend of trends hot off the runway and traditional favorites.”

The boutique also carries many brand names normally found only in bigger cities, such as Judith March,
Glam and Frenzii.

Drew, a Clarksville native, has been working in fashion since she was 9 years old, when she began making jewelry and selling her products at local craft fairs.

“One of my favorite things is to provide the customer with personal style advice and excellent customer service,” Drew said.

After attending high school at Clarksville Academy, Drew enrolled in APSU to study marketing, business and photography. She opened The Couture Crush in the middle of her final semester at APSU, opting not to wait around for her diploma to start her dream job.

The Couture Crush is located in historic downtown Clarksville, just down the street from Clarksville landmarks such as the Blackhorse Pub and Brewery and the Roxy Theatre.

In the same corner of town that hosts the Downtown Radio Show and monthly ArtWalk, Drew has placed her boutique in the midst of many other small businesses that have set an example for success. The Couture Crush is open Monday-Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. TAS

» By CHRIS COPPEDGE- ccoppedge@my.apsu.edu

For Elizabeth Kurtz, APSU’s Americorps Vista representative, the issue of service-learning on the APSU campus is a deeply important one.

“This conference is a huge step in terms of exposing our faculty to the service-learning already in place at other Tennessee Board of Regents and Tennessee schools,” Kurtz said.

APSU held the Service-Learning Forum Friday, Jan. 20. The Forum’s main goal was to educate and inform the campus faculty about the service-learning program and its benefits.

Speakers and presenters at the forum included Provost Tristan Denley, Tennessee Campus Contact Executive Director Mani Hull, instructors and students from Southwest Tennessee Community College, Sen. Tim Barnes and the facilitators of APSU’s service-learning program Clark Maddux, Alexandra Wills and Kurtz.

According to Maddux, service-learning is a teaching and learning strategy integrating meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civil responsibility and strengthen communities.

APSU’s goal is to have a permanent, centralized service-learning office on campus within the next few years and, with it, a fully realized service-learning program as outlined by the forum.

“This forum will bring service-learning to the forefront of our pedagogy,” Kurtz said, noting it will help coordinate relationships between community partners and classes who might be interested in working with them.

The service-learning program has a certain criteria that must be met for those who wish to participate, according to Maddux.

It requires 13 to 15 hours of mandatory volunteer work during the semester.

This work must benefit the community at large, not principally the needs of an individual or company.

The designation for service-learning participants will be pre-approved by a service-learning committee or the Provost’s designee.

Students must provide at least two different forms of reflection on the work they have done and their experience.

These can come in many forms, including journals, case studies, portfolios, presentations, papers or online discussions.

In order to assist systematic campus tracking, students will also complete a pre-survey and a post-survey regarding their experience in the service-learning program.

The presence of service-learning at APSU is a fairly recent development, according to Wills. It was not until 2009 that the program began to take shape on campus.

“Student Affairs created a position to enhance student experience with the community through service and volunteerism,” said Wills.

Academic Affairs was also involved, creating undocumented service-learning courses, the Provost’s Service Learning Advisory Board and an inventory of existing service-learning classes and activities.

They developed definitions, criteria, a course proposal process and a proposal for institutionalizing service-learning at APSU as well.

Student Affairs has been involved in helping engage the community, including hosting service-learning themed introductions to college courses, acquiring paperwork and liability forms and tracking service hours.

The work has not always been easy.

“We’ve had to introduce an entire culture of service-learning, educate our faculty about it and get community partners on-board,” Wills said. TAS

» By TRENT SINGER – tsinger@my.apsu.edu

The Govs headed into Saturday night’s Jan. 21 game on a four-game winning streak and came away victorious with a 76-64 win over the Eastern Illinois Panthers.

Led by senior guard TyShwan Edmondson, who ended the game with 24 points, the Govs won their second-straight road game.

Edmondson’s play highlighted the night, making 9-of-18 from the floor and finishing 4-of-7 from beyond the arc. He played all 40 minutes of the game, as well as contributing four steals to the winning effort.

Junior guard Jerome Clyburn scored 18 points and was nearly perfect from the free-throw line, going 12-of-14. Senior guard Josh Terry finished with 11 points, six rebounds and five steals, and senior forward Melvin Baker contributed 10 points, eight coming in the second half.

The team’s recent success began last week, after beating conference opponents Eastern Kentucky, Jacksonville State and Tennessee State at the Dunn Center. That success has carried over for the Governors while playing on the road, winning two road games by at least 12 points against conference opponents SIU Edwardsville and Eastern Illinois on Saturday.

The Govs are currently tied for third place with Eastern Kentucky at 5-3 in the OVC standings and sit behind only Southeast Missouri State (5-2) and the NCAA’s sole unbeaten team in college basketball, Murray State (8-0).

Despite losing 13 of their first 16 games, the team’s five consecutive wins is the conference’s second-longest active streak behind Murray State, who continues to climb the college rankings.

The team will continue to take to the road by traveling to Southeast Missouri on Thursday night, Jan. 26, in what should be an intriguing OVC matchup between second-and-third-place teams. Following that game, they will play UT Martin on Saturday night in the Dunn Center. TAS

» By CONOR SCRUTON – cscruton@my.apsu.edu

As college students, we all get stressed. Whether dealing with mountains of homework or long work hours, the obligations just seem to pile up sometimes. That’s why Clarksville is full of places to just hang out and relax after a long week.

One such place is Tarboosh, a restaurant and hookah bar on 117 Franklin St. in downtown Clarksville. It’s only been open for a few months now, but is already popular with APSU students for its atmosphere and homemade menu items, which range from Italian pasta and calzones to Mediterranean hummus and gyros.

Much like last week, I had smoked hookah and tried plenty of food in Clarksville, but had yet to visit Tarboosh itself.

Having heard plenty of good things about it, I went with some friends who were adamant I try a few of the specialties Tarboosh had to offer.

For hookah smokers, Tarboosh has 25 flavors of shisha tobacco to choose from. While I tend to prefer minty flavors, fruitier tobaccos are usually good if you’ve never tried it before.

For extra incentive, Tarboosh has a special way of preparing one hookah that involves filtering the tobacco through an orange rind I would particularly recommend.

As I’ve mentioned, one way Tarboosh is unique is that a full menu of food options is offered in addition to hookah. I’ll admit I was a little apprehensive of this at first — I wasn’t completely sure I wanted to buy food at the same place I was smoking.

Quite the contrary, though. Tarboosh has a lot of very good entrées, as well as many appetizers that are the perfect size for sharing over hookah smoking. The hummus and pita bread were especially good, and the Tarboosh blend tea was excellent.

While Tarboosh can be a place to relax and talk with friends early in the night, they haven’t forgotten the partiers.

For students looking for a more active way to let off steam over the weekend, Tarboosh offers shows such as belly dancing on Friday nights.

Once a month, you can go to a “Boom at the Boosh” party, which features hookah and pizza specials all night and performances by local DJs. Open from 6 p.m. to 5 a.m., Tarboosh is fit to serve even the most nocturnal of you night owls. TAS

» By CONOR SCRUTON – cscruton@my.apsu.edu

Growing up in Virginia with a Puerto Rican background, poet and APSU English professor Blas Falconer read literature coming out of New York City’s strong Latin communities, but felt he had little to relate to.

But as he met more Hispanic writers with similar upbringings, Falconer began to question, “What does it mean to be Latino?”
That is the subject of the new essay anthology “The Other Latin@: Writing Against a Singular Identity,” which Falconer co-edited with fiction writer Lorraine Lopez.

The collection, which features 20 prominent poets and fiction writers, challenges the “mainstream” perception of Hispanic culture and explores the meaning of being a Latino without a community.

America’s strongest Hispanic communities have traditionally been centered in areas such as New York City and the American Southwest, but Falconer grew up in a suburb of Washington, D.C.

As a child, he would read Latin-American literature to try and connect with his mother’s Puerto Rican heritage, but failed to identify with many of their conflicts.

“A lot of [Latino literature] came from these centers of Latino communities … so a lot of the writing that came out of there addressed community concerns,” Falconer said.

Falconer had the idea for the project for years, dating back to meetings with Cuban-American Helena Mesa and Chicano Lisa Chavez. The two poets grew up in Pittsburgh and Alaska, respectively, and recognized Falconer’s frustration.

Falconer invited the writers, among others, to participate in a panel discussion at the Association of Writers and Writing Program’s annual conference.

The event piqued the interest of Falconer’s publisher at The University of Arizona Press, who asked if he had considered compiling a collection of essays on the subject.

Falconer then contacted Lorraine Lopez, fiction writer and English professor at Vanderbilt University, about co-editing the anthology. Apart from readings at APSU, Lopez hadn’t worked with Falconer on any projects , but in his words, “We made a great team.”

This is the second essay anthology Falconer has edited, the first being a 2010 collection on poetic craft titled “Mentor and Muse: Essays from Poets to Poets.”

Falconer’s second full-length book of poetry, The Foundling Wheel, will also be published later this year. “The Other Latin@” is available for purchase. TAS

» By CONOR SCRUTON – cscruton@my.apsu.edu

Along-time hallmark of APSU’s student culture is Johnny’s Big Burgers, a restaurant across College Street at the southwest corner of campus.

Popular partially for its proximity to campus, Johnny’s is also famous among APSU students for its great burgers, old-time diner atmosphere and one specialty menu item in particular: the “bun and cream.”

The bun and cream is a fried honey bun with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top, and has been a Johnny’s delicacy for years. After a semester at the Peay, I had been to Johnny’s before to satisfy a burger fix, though I had never tried a bun and cream. However, as the rest of The All State staff informed me, “You’re not a Gov until you’ve had one.” So, taking my editor’s word for it, I ventured out across campus in the biting wind of the Martin Luther King Day holiday to get my first bun and cream.

If you haven’t been to Johnny’s at all, as a freshmen APSU student it’s practically your duty to go before you graduate (preferably sooner rather than later). It’s a cool place where you can sit in a booth and have dinner with friends or grab a bar stool for a quick bite. Their burgers are great and it’s been a popular hangout spot among students for years.

When I finally got inside and ordered my first bun and cream, I was optimistic, but not overly so. I like honey buns and ice cream, so I was sure it would taste alright even in the worst case scenario.

Let me make it clear, though, that having tried one, I would probably eat a bun and cream with every meal for the rest of my life if I could. The only things standing in my way would be the massive weight gain that would surely follow and the fact, sadly, I plan on eventually graduating. Also worth noting is the fact after tax, I still paid barely $2 for it, a price greatly appreciated by my poor college student’s wallet.
The Johnny’s bun and cream was a perfect quick dessert and has rightfully earned its legendary status among APSU students through the years. I’m sure most students who have joined me in enjoying a bun and cream would agree it’s a must-have for any true Governor. As for the students who haven’t tried one, what are you waiting for? TAS