Work Samples

Art for Art’s Sake.

These are samples of my written work for arts and culture magazines.

“Jimmy: The Men, The Myths, The Legends.”

If you had asked me five years ago how I would be spending my Saturday night on February 16, 2019 at 8 PM, I would undoubtedly have said something along the lines of “going to church, doing homework, or staying in.” I would NOT have answered you with, “I’m going to a rock show at Cat’s Cradle.” But, alas, that was exactly what I did. Although admittedly when I was asked to attend this event, I begrudgingly consented. Presumably, we all know how these small rock shows go… Four guys in terrible thrifted band tees and black skinny jeans hop on stage, play ear-splitting music, their highly intoxicated friends mosh until they’re bleeding, and then we all go home. That was what I was expecting from Jimmy the Band; here is an explanation of what I actually received.

As an avid rock concert connoisseur, I will tell you that there are strengths and weaknesses involved with every show. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, I feel inclined to inform you that Jimmy is a low budget, unadvertised, local band with four 20 year old boys falsely crusading as rock and roll legends. Therefore, their discrepancies as a group are based largely on immaturity, unfamiliarity, and inexperience. They are heavily lacking in sound quality and proper sound mixing technique which needs to be correctly presented with any live musical performance in order for it to sound better than experimental noise. Their instruments squeal over the lead vocalist, Mark Griffin, who in all honesty, is a Kurt Cobain wannabe, without the skill of Kurt Cobain. Most of the words of their songs come out muffled, and the only lyrics that I can understand are the ones being screamed at me, which is expected but unenjoyable. However, they do hone some strengths that are important to note. Their bond as a unit is strong. Just one look at each other and they know the direction in which the show is moving. Their instrumentals although obnoxiously loud, are put together well and their musicality in that sense is evident. Lead guitarist, Nick Vines, and drummer, Jared Coffey, carry the weight of the band’s sound. They know melodies and chords like the backs of their hands; this gives them the freedom to perform instead of just play. The band’s energy is outstanding and the audience reciprocates their electricity. Intermittent moments of crowd surfing, semi-dangerous moshing, and conversation with the crowd are all incidents initiated by the bassist, Connor Black, who is the glue of the group tying all of their imperfections together with talent.

As with any performance whether it be drama, stand-up, or music, the audience is searching for familiarity and aspects of presentation. Jimmy the Band has perfected their image and stage presence. Their prominence as performers shows clearly. The 90s grunge politically incorrect vibe they emit with their acid washed jeans and outrageous anti-government t-shirts fits perfectly with the aesthetic they are trying to create. Elements of stage blocking are implemented in their routine. Each musician has their space and they stick to it for the most part, but in certain moments they digress and interact with their band members and their audience to give a more immersive feel. They have written in dialogue in certain areas of their show that is unwittingly canny and humorous. A large part of their persona involves dramatics. You don’t just light a guitar on fire and smash it for no reason…it is done for the dramatic effect.

In closing, Jimmy, while inexperienced, is versatile, and their natural ability as performers although unplanned, is astounding.

“Bottle Cap Jack”

This “fab five” wasn’t always a unit. As with any process, things weren’t quite straightforward — guitarist Alex Weir describes it as “fluid.” Luke Hargraves and Weir, the founding members, often found themselves asking where to start. 

It’s particularly warm for a Thursday night in January, but I’m thankful I don’t have to carry a coat. From the Back Room of Cat’s Cradle, I hear Bottle Cap Jack take the stage. The boys kick off their set with their original song, “Crimson Flames.” 

After they finish this first song, the band’s vocalist, Adam Dietrich, steps forward. He announces that they are no longer just a cover band. They play four more originals: “Hangman,” “Take You Down,” “Warm Breeze Woman” and “Exit Signs.” Then they break into Bowling for Soup’s “1985” and The Killers’ “When You Were Young” for nostalgia’s sake. 

This is the first time the band has played mostly originals for an audience, and the energy they receive from the crowd is wild. With a blend of classic rock, blues and alternative, they’ve crafted something that is timeless and creative. 

Bottle Cap Jack has incredible stage presence, and the atmosphere they create is vibrant, full of life. The band is dancing and talking to the crowd as they move through their set; they react with energy to every song. As they continue to play, they ease into a groove that makes their sound more eclectic. Undoubtedly, Bottle Cap Jack has talent. 

The main goal for these musicians is to showcase their art through whatever means they can find. Since their freshman year at Carolina, Hargraves and Weir have focused on music as their artform, and Bottle Cap Jack has been a successful way to express themselves through songwriting and performance. 

Hargraves, a music major, always played classical upright bass. However, when an acquaintance asked him to try an electric bass, he was hooked. Weir was brought into the mix after he played guitar with his dorm room door open and was discovered by a bandmate. 

Hargraves and Weir played with two other bandmates until their sophomore year, when that band dissolved. Hargraves and Weir went their separate ways, continuing to play music on their own until a year and a half later. Now juniors, the duo reunited, finding Alec Hartman, Bottle Cap Jack’s lead guitarist, and Noah Grantham, their drummer. Hartman pledged the same fraternity as Weir, and Grantham pledged the same fraternity as Hargraves. 

The four made themselves a staple at Greek life functions, with Hartman and Hargraves attempting to carry the vocals. 

“The vocals just weren’t there,” Hargraves said. At the beginning of the 2019 fall semester, the band found vocalist Adam Dietrich. 

The band continued to play at Greek functions throughout the semester. 

“The foot was already in the door,” Weir said. 

It was the perfect starting point for a group of musicians who wanted to be more than a cover band.Hargraves and Weir had always written their own music, and when Bottle Cap Jack was formed, they performed covers to entertain their crowds. But the desire to play more than covers never dimmed. 

“It was something we knew we always wanted to do, it just took a while to actually do it,” Hargraves said. 

Bottle Cap Jack networked and persevered as a cover band until the opportunity finally came for them to show off their original content. 

The band worried about how their music would be received. But,  they decided to leave the safety of being a cover band to become something that was all their own. In this new phase of anxious yet rewarding self-discovery, Bottle Cap Jack unlocked their potential and propelled incredible passion into the world.

This is where I met Bottle Cap Jack, on stage at Cat’s Cradle’s Back Room stepping into their new spotlight. 

“I honestly don’t remember looking up,” Weir tells me when he recounts the show. He was too focused on the music he was playing. 

Bottle Cap Jack wants to translate the emotion and passion behind their music to the crowd. Bottle Cap Jack is “thinking towards the horizon,” Hargraves said. 

The band is not exactly sure where they want to be in five years, but right now they’re content playing music that they love. They are currently working on a five-song EP that will be released at the end of April and will be available on most streaming platforms. 

Hargraves, jokingly tells me that they want to play a bluegrass show sometime soon.

“Perhaps in the future we would be touring the Heartland and talking to some great American people,” Weir said.

They are facing uncertainty head-on and are loving every minute of it. The chrysalis will soon bring forth what Bottle Cap Jack has envisioned.

“Bottle Cap Jack, remember the name,” Dietrich said. 

A sometimes unusual trait for local bands, these boys have skill and a rugged poise that reminds me of some of the greats in rock music. Their metamorphosis is nearly complete, and with the release of their art into the world, they have reached the next stage of exploration. Bottle Cap Jack is evolving into a powerhouse of originality and variability.

“Vaishnavi: Visionary, Validator, and Vagilante”

UNC-Chapel Hill sophomore Vaishnavi Siripurapu is a metalhead, a birdwatching enthusiast and a Sims gamer. She is also an advocate for female reproductive health and sexual education. Siripurapu is from Mooresville, North Carolina and is double majoring in biology and women’s studies. 

Siripurapu studies the physiology and psychology of human beings. As someone who has always been interested in health, Siripurapu is interested in the science of the body, as well as how the body affects mental health, particularly when it comes to the reproductive system. 

Siripurapu became a champion for women at ten years old. However, she was hestitant to call herself a ‘feminist’ because of the societal repercussions it might incur. The label frightened her. “I was really scared to call myself a feminist because I didn’t want that label attached to me,” she said. 

Siripurapu wrote an article for her boarding school’s newspaper about feminism in 10th grade. “I called it ‘The Other F-word,’” she said, “because people should not be afraid to call themselves feminists, while I myself was still afraid of being called a feminst.”

Siripurapu specifically asked the newspaper’s editor not to put her name in the article’s byline because she did not want  a negative reaction from her peers. However, to her dismay, she found her name boldly printed on the top of the page. But soon, Siripurapu’s outlook on being labelled a “feminist” would change.

Siripurapu grew up in a rural village in India where women were expected to submit, and they had little independence. In India, women were openly discriminated against. 

When she moved to America, she saw some of the same sexist themes, just with more subliminal messages. Whether it be through an objectifying T.V. commercial or pink toys marketed to girls, the same subtleties seemed to be popping up.

“It made me realize that even though oppression manifests itself in different ways across different cultures, it still has similar impacts on people’s psyches,” Siripurapu said. “This can silence a whole movement.”

Siripurapu has written about reproductive health and sex education for many publications. Her first published research piece was about stigmas surrounding reproductive health. She presented her piece at the Feminisms Here and Now Conference held at UNC. She has written for The Pomegranate Society and The Period National Blog, and she currently writes for The American Society for Cell Biology.

A definitive feminist moment came for Siripurapu while watching the “Feminist Frequency”  YouTube channel. Canadian-American feminist media critic Anita Sarkeesian talked about sexism within video games in a show entitled “Tropes vs. Women in Video Games.” The concept struck Siripurapu and lit her feminist fire. 

The show, combined with her early exposure to sexism and the realization that people can speak up about injustice, encouraged Siripurapu to be proud of her interests and to understand she could be part of a movement. Siripurapu then defined feminism for herself. Feminism to Siripurapu is intersectional. She considers all the identities people bring and considers all of the things that need addressing in our society in order to work towards a more tolerant and accepting world. 

Because of her passion for education and feminism, Siripurapu strives to help people understand the female reproductive system and how everyone can benefit from understanding sexual wellbeing and physical health. “You don’t have to be super sexually active to talk about sexual health; it should be a preventative measure,” Siripurapu said. 

Making sex and reproductive health less taboo means opening up a world of knowledge and understanding for people who may not have had the opportunity to learn these concepts. Siripurapu firmly believes that there is freedom in understanding, and education is key. 

People need to know about their bodies so that they can better protect themselves. Siripurapu addresses topics ranging from breastfeeding and fertility to periods and sexually transmitted diseases, or just sex in general. 

Scientific literature helps Siripurapu demystify the female body because it is based on fact and has been proven true through research. “Reproductive health is something that follows people throughout their entire human lives; the biological purpose of all human life is to reproduce,” Siripurapu said. 

When she began publically educating people in her early teenage years, teaching sex education was important to Siripurapu because she was mostly speaking to minorities in rural North Carolina. She taught sex education to kids at the Boys and Girls Club throughout high school, allowing her to answer basic questions from people who wanted to learn, but never had an opportunity to understand their bodies before. 

Siripurapu also taught a gynecology seminar at North Carolina School of Science and Math. A  little awkward at first, she grew to enjoy it. Over time, the demographics of the seminar changed and instead of speaking to rural North Carolinians, she was speaking to men and women who came from more privileged backgrounds. 

Her seminars started drawing more men — one day she even taught a seminar of entirely gay men. Siripurapu explained that it is important to stay informed because even if an individual does not identify as a woman or have sex with women, their moms, sisters and friends are dealing with these issues.

Siripurapu has transitioned to more digital work since entering college, stressing that as our world becomes  more digital, sex education and reproductive awareness need to also take a digital form. How does the digital world impact our sex lives with things like SnapChat and Pornhub? What are our privacy laws? Siripurapu wants these questions to be answered so individuals can understand their privacy and know how to stay safe whilst engaging in sexual activities online. 

Siripurapu hosts a podcast called “Euvie” and a YouTube Channel with two other people called the “Vigilantes.” Their rap published in 2019 about gynecology entitled “Gyno Rap” has garnered up nearly 7,000 views. Siripurapu hosts “V Talks” on the channel and explains the anatomy of the reproductive system. 

Siripurapu explains how reproductive and sexual health [systems] function, and how different forces can affect the female body. For example, Siripurapu has explained how an IUD works and how climate change is negatively affecting women’s reproductive health on the channel.

Siripurapu is now working on a research team to create a blood test for cervical cancer. She continues teaching people about sex and reproductive health, fighting for it to be normalized. Sex education and knowledge of the human body is necessary because it allows people to remain educated and empowered. As a society we must continue to address it, even when it feels uncomfortable. 

Siripurapu wants people to understand that talking about sex is not a bad thing. For her, erasing the taboo allows people more freedom to understand their bodies.

 “The most important thing I want people to know is that it’s okay,” Siripurapu said.