Jennyfer Delva, 19, was born and raised in Haiti until the age of 12, when she left her hometown of Delma in Port-au-Prince. Her mother’s side of the family—a grandmother, aunt, uncle and cousins—remained in Haiti, while she and her parents joined her father’s family in the United States. She has not been back to Haiti since, but is affected by the earthquake through her family’s experience. Delva is a sophomore and studies biology at UMass.

Adib Khozouee, 19, is also from Delma, but Khozouee is not a typical Haitian. His parents left Iran to move to Haiti in the ‘70s not knowing a word of Creole, and have lived there for over 30 years. Adib, a sophomore, left Haiti to study computer science at UMass in 2008. He was back home for winter break, about 10 miles from the epicenter of the earthquake in Port-au-Prince on January 12. He was able to take a plane from the Dominican Republic in time to return to UMass a little past 11 a.m. on the first day of classes.

Delva and Khozouee shared their thoughts on Haitian culture, the earthquakes, and how Haiti can progress.

Q. In the news, Haiti is described as the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. How would you describe Haiti as you remember it seven years ago? Delva responds:

Q. What was it like to move from Haiti to the United States? Were there drastic cultural differences? Delva responds:

Q. How were you affected by the earthquakes in Haiti? Delva and Khozouee respond:

Q. Has foreign aid and the presence of foreign powers helped Haiti progress in the past? Should they play a main role in helping Haiti progress in the future? Khozouee and Delva respond:

Here are their answers.

“For the portrait assignment for Introduction to Digital Photojournalism, students photographed Halloween costumes. But they looked for more than just your average ghost or pirate. Each student searched for a costume that illuminates what the holiday has become on college campuses and beyond. Whether it’s the H1N1 virus, a rapper, or a character from a TV commercial, these portraits tell you about more than just the individual in the picture; they tell you about the culture of Halloween.”

The Amherst Wire is proud to support work by UMass Amherst students and showcasing them on our website. You can view the portraits below in the slideshow.

The word “Sankofa” translated from the Akan language of Ghana means ‘the past must be reclaimed so that we can progress and understand.’ The Sankofa Dance Project teaches traditional African American dance and explores its influences on modern dances.

Around forty participants ranging in age from their early teens to their seventies were involved in the project, along with eight volunteers and many dancers from the UMass dance department, including Maryann Lombardi and Peggy Schwartz of UMass, who organized the project. The program was a week long, with classes starting from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and evening “edutainment” talks by the instructors.

The master artist Chuck Davis is the founder of African American Dance Ensemble and DanceAfrica. The three teaching artists were Marilyn M. Sylla, Abdel R. Salaam, Stafford Berry Jr., and Amaniyea Payne. Guest instructors taught clogging, hip hop and lindy-hop dance to participants, as well.

The final performance, “Blue Grass/Brown Earth” in the Fine Arts Center Concert Hall had three segments: traditional African Dance, African Dance during the middle passage and slavery era, and modern dance. The performance traced the intermingling of bluegrass with traditional African music and the evolution of the banjo. Participants all performed in the opening routine and the finale, mixing song, dance and spoken word in their recital. The Blackstone Valley Bluegrass Band and African drummers John Coster, Issa Coulibaly, Jay Stanley, and Sekou Sylla provided live music.

Students at Sankofa all came from diverse backgrounds with different levels of dance experience and different reasons for partaking in the program.

Katrina De Wees, a Hampshire College fourth year, did Sankofa because she is studying the historical silences of the black presence in America, with an emphasis in artistic expressions such as dance, theater and other visually based forms.

“I participated last year and learned a tremendous amount about my body and my history, and want to continue to do so,” said Katrina. “I believe in the power of Sankofa and do believe it necessary to learn my history in order to move forward, and that’s why I have returned.”

Katrina has been studying West African dance since she was a child, and wants to eventually start a community art and wellness center in her hometown of Brooklyn, N.Y. Katrina said she dances to learn more about herself and to work collaboratively with other humans.

“It reminds me of the beauty of humanity and gives me hope for the future.”

This was also 18-year-old Prince Richardson’s second year at Sankofa. Richardson studied culinary arts, and is mainly a self-taught dancer. Richardson wants to appear on the television show “So You Think You Can Dance, and has put together a hip-hop crew for his school talent show. As a child, Richardson would dance to be the center of attention at parties, he said. He would like to pursue dance in college, and transfer to UMass after two years at Holyoke Community College. He is the first in his family to go to college, and received a scholarship for his tuition.

Patrick De Hahn, a senior from MacDuffie School, was a first year Sankofa student. De Hahn was born profoundly deaf, but this doesn’t stop him from pursuing dance. A cohlear implant in his ear to helps De Hahn hear the beat when he dances, and he can plug his iPod directly into the implant.

Patrick began by taking hip hop dance, and eventually moved on to modern and tap dance. He said when he was 8 years old and learning hip-hop, he was the only male dancer. At MacDuffie, however, there is a strong arts program with a lot of males taking dance, said De Hahn, so that was never an issue for him.

Dehahn decided to participate in Sankofa to learn more about dance and to have a chance to perform. In the future, Dehahn hopes to be involved in the art world through a career in arts management.

Bringing together dancers from diverse walks of life, the Sankofa participants work toward a common goal for one intensive week: a performance that looks like months of hard work.

Besides the week-long intensive, UMass Outreach also hosts the Sankofa Youth Reach, which teaches dance to Springfield youth, providing tuition and housing scholarships for students to attend the intensive.

Her appearance opened with a call for applause for the republicans in the room who, despite the overwhelming liberal environment that is Amherst, came out in support. She stood up against her critics, including the author of an article in Wednesday’s Daily Collegian and an artist who defaced a campus advertisement of her performance with a Hitler mustache.

McCain, only two years removed from college herself, discussed her background with her father’s party and her movement to define a new generation of Republicans that she refers to as ‘progressive Republicans.’

The progressive label is defined by McCain’s pro-sex education, pro-life, pro-gay marriage outlook. She adheres to many standard Republican stances, supporting the War in Iraq and opposing health care reform, but is discouraged by the path of the party.

“What happened to the party that loved freedom, individuality and self-reliance,” said McCain, referring to the Republican reluctance to abandon old ideas and make way for new times.

Despite efforts to distance herself from the course her party has taken, McCain still looks toward traditional republican figureheads, Barry Goldwater and Ronald Regan, along with less traditional, Johnny Ramone, as inspirations in her movement.

The Daily Beast is home to McCain’s blog, in which she discusses current events and how they tie in to her own progressive outlook. She has squared off against far-right conservative pundits, Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, and more recently Michelle Malkin, who claimed McCain’s out-spoken ways have done more to hurt the party than help it.

“I refuse to be bullied around by the parties’ gate-keepers,” said McCain about her detractors, such as Ingraham, who have stooped as far as taking shots at her weight and hair color. “We shouldn’t let pundits two to three times our age speak for us. We must speak for ourselves.”

McCain has not always been on the same page as her father, though. In 2004, when she was only 20, Meghan voted for Dem. Sen. John Kerry and it was not until she started on the presidential campaign trail with Sen. McCain that she developed her current republican attitude.

While many question whether her liberal outlook surrounding social issues disqualifies her from her proclaimed party affiliation, McCain says she is “sick of taking a litmus test” to prove she is a republican.

An attentive audience questioned McCain about her outlook on everything from cannabis reform to gay marriage to favorite bands in a Q&A session that lasted over an hour.

Speaking of the party’s future, McCain hoped for an inspiring, internet savvy Republican presidential candidate for 2012. McCain is currently working on a book about her experience on her father’s campaign trail, due out next July.