On a darkish and stormy Tuesday night time, college students and workers collect to have a good time Halloween and the myths, fables, and icons which have formed our tradition. Baker’s Haunted Humanities night time, held on Tuesday, Oct. 28, marked the second annual celebration of inventive, linguistic, and interdisciplinary views of horror.
This yr, Collins Library hosted a brand new division, Education, not current the yr prior. Professor Tara Burnham shared how the School of Education Ambassadors (SEA) rescheduled their S’mores Night and reincorporated it into Haunted Humanities as its personal pop-up stand.
“It’s fun to be inside and not out in this horrible weather making s’mores… and we’ve gone through about half a bag of marshmallows!” Burnham stated.
The professor went on to reference the alternative nook of Collins’ important flooring, a wax museum of humanity’s most infamous killers. “It’s creepy how much some of our students look like those serial killers. [Specifically] Parker [Lane] as Jeffrey Dahmer.”
Nearing the tip of his time at Baker, senior Parker Lane was joyful to assist Dr. Prosser, professor of his Teaching Secondary Level Reading class. When pressed to decide on an occasion on the spooky night time to take part in, Lane was drawn to Dahmer for the notorious killer’s simplistic decor.
“I was like, ‘What’s an outfit I can put together [and] don’t need to buy anything for?’ Jeffrey Dahmer dressed pretty plain. I’ve got the mustache, the glasses, the hair, I’ll do it.” he stated.
Despite his horrifying persona for the night time, Lane nonetheless glowingly endorsed the occasion. “I think it’s a good experience, especially for the little ones” he stated. “College kids [should also] come check it out, there’s a lot of people, a lot of your friends are in it.”
In one other nook of Collins, Yik Yak star junior Tucker Armstrong sat robust in a king’s gown and crown, deciding the destiny of those that dared inform him a narrative. Junior Abby Klein stood close by, warning storytellers of the king’s fierce self-discipline.
“We were told to make little booths based on a part of [The Arabian Nights],” Klein, an English main, explains. “For our group we focused on the frame tale, which is about a king who takes a new wife every day and kills her in the morning.”
In bringing this story to life, Klein and Armstrong’s group supplied a bowl of printed quick tales for attendees to learn and, if the king approves, some selfmade sweets as properly. Though the unique story sounds moderately grim, the scholars’ artistic interpretation turned a key location for the night time. Klein was in a position to have a good time amidst the chaos of passersby: “People keep coming over…We’re so popular!” she stated.
Towards the middle of the occasion, Spanish professor Katya Soll reprised a sizzling commodity from final yr’s festivities, creating stage wounds for folks of all ages. Though she was on sabbatical over the last Haunted Humanities, Soll couldn’t assist however take part within the enjoyable.
“We taught a few theater majors how to do stage wounds. I didn’t have time to do a workshop for them again this year, but I was like, ‘I can still do the booth!’” she stated.
During the interview, Soll was within the strategy of making use of an extremely real-looking lip wound, main her to share about previous experiences with too-real wounds. “I’ve had students freak out their parents because they send them pictures afterwards, and [the parents] are like ‘What did you do!?’ not wanting to believe them: ‘No, that is not fake, that is clearly real, you got in a fight.’”
While Soll’s wounds might not be actual, Armstrong’s royal standing a fraud, Lane’s wax depiction a farce; the neighborhood’s buzz was totally alive. Here’s to subsequent yr’s Haunted Humanities, with all new college students and concepts right here to run about.
As English professor Joanne Janssen places it: “While we can imagine doing Haunted Humanities for many years, it will never be the same experience.”