former ARC student’s struggle with housing is not unique
It’s morning and Courteney Duren-Hill wakes up to her alarm going off in her living room at her single-wide mobile home in Caravan Village near Watt Avenue and Auburn Boulevard. Sighing, she lays in bed for a minute and stares at the wooden panel walls that make up her home, then looks down at the half-packed bags that litter the floor.
She sits up, rubs her temples and walks past the kitchen into the narrow hallway that leads to her 5-year-old son Gavin’s room. She gently whispers into her son’s ear to wake him for school. Gavin shoots out of bed and races to the kitchen to get breakfast as Duren-Hill slowly treads behind him.
After breakfast, as Gavin gets ready for school, Duren-Hill looks out of the window to the front yard at the little wooden gate that a neighbor made when Gavin was younger so he wouldn’t run out. As she reminisces, she looks down again at the packed bags, which remind her that their 30 days was almost up and she and her son would soon be forced to leave their home, with nowhere to go.
“It was really stressful because I didn’t know where to start and the move out date was approaching soon,” Duren-Hill said. “I got a 30-day notice because the rent was raising and I was behind and I couldn’t keep up.”
Duren-Hill’s situation isn’t uncommon among community college students and is an issue that administration is aware of. According to the Assembly Speaker’s Office of Research and Floor Analysis, one in four community college students have experienced homelessness in recent years.
Duren-Hill was attending ARC, studying to be an American Sign Language interpreter, when she lost her home during the spring 2018 semester. During that time, she benefited from some of the college’s resources for students, including meal vouchers from Extended Opportunity Programs and Services (EOP&S) and CalWORKS, two of the many programs on campus that assist students in need.
Now, Duren-Hill is on academic probation and doesn’t currently attend ARC; meanwhile many students like her continue to benefit from the same programs she did.
Funded by the state and the Los Rios Community College District, the EOP&S program helps support college students who are in educational and financial need by providing access to tutoring, enrollment assistance, educational planning and limited financial assistance.
Kaela Vivian, who works as Clerk III at the EOP&S center, spoke about some of the benefits the center provides students, mainly counseling and tutoring. EOP&S can also help students pay for fee waivers when they apply to California State University or University of California colleges. When the program has the necessary finances it provides books, school supplies, meal vouchers and gas cards.
According to Vivian, specific programs under EOP&S give more services. For example, the Foster Youth program supplies students with gift cards to help pay for groceries and household essentials.
The Cooperative Agencies Resources for Education (CARE) program, is also offered under EOP&S and gives aid to head of household single parents by providing them with gift cards, gas cards and care packages monthly.
EOP&S services are available all semester, except for summer, and the applications are available one or two months before a new semester starts. Students who are interested in applying for fall 2019 can check in April at the EOP&S office to see if applications are available.
“It’s a great program, we try to help out everyone,” Vivian said. “We are always trying to help homeless people, single parents, anything you can think of we are always trying to help students.”
Another program on campus that assists students in need is the CalWORKs program, which is located in the Student Services building next to EOP&S. This program benefits students by offering educational planning, work-study opportunities and career preparation. To qualify, students must be receiving cash aid from Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF).
Student Services Supervisor Breanne Holland describes the program as a way of motivating students to further their education in addition to obtaining a job.
“Welfare tends to push people to just get a job and we don’t believe in that. We believe that instead of welfare to work, it is education to career,” Holland said. “Statistics have long proven the higher your education, the more likely you are to earn money, the more sustainable career and that’s what our motivation is in here.”
CalWORKs has one of the largest work-study programs in the state and puts 80 to 100 students to work, on and off campus, each semester. CalWORKS also supplies students with school supplies and gives students access to a lending library which allows students to use textbooks from the bookstore until they can pay for their books. The programs also assists with student transportation as well, like giving gas cards to get to school or workshops to help with their education or career goals, according to Holland.
Courteney Duren-Hill and her son get continental breakfast at the Americans Best Value Inn they have been staying at for a few days until their funds run out. (Photo by Ashley Hayes-Stone)
Duren-Hill reflected on how certain programs provided at ARC helped her while she was going to school.
“I felt like the most helpful programs were CalWORKs and the CARE program because they provided food and a way to get to school and back,” Duren-Hill said.
ARC’s Student Services division is aware of students in need, so in an effort to increase communication between programs, the Student Services Building and the Student Center teamed up during winter break. They started a shared Google Drive, a file storage service, where they are now in constant communication. They have resources to help direct students that show up to either place, according to Student Life Supervisor Brett Sawyer.
“We started it so if a student were to come to one of those programs and say ‘This is my situation,’ we can instantly provide resources,” Sawyer said.
When it comes to finding a place to live, the Student Center keeps a binder where students can find places to rent, as well as to leave their information for others who are looking for tenants. The students workers in the Student Center are currently in the process of getting that information online, according to Sawyer.
The Universal Engaging Inclusive Transforming Education (UNITE) program also has a list of shelters, non-profits and food banks that they have verified for students. They also made care packages last semester for students in need and the leftovers were donated to the victims of the wildfire in Paradise.
The school also provides students with the Beaver Food Pantry, which is held twice a month in front of the gym. The college’s Hunger Resources Committee gets the food from the Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services and encourage students and staff to bring their own bag.
Duren-Hill says that despite all of its services, she feels that the school should also provide a space where students in need can voice their concerns to a group of people who can affect change on campus.
“I wanted it be like a panel of important people to the school, who will listen and could actually make real change,” Duren-Hill said. “It would make students feel like they have a voice and they aren’t just a number.”
After months of moving motel to motel, she now finds herself living in a shelter. Despite her current struggle with housing, Duren-Hill says she hopes to finish her education because she understands the importance of having a degree.
“I want to go back to school to get a better future for my child and have a career or trade that gets me ahead in life,” Duren-Hill said.
The monarchs of masculinity
It’s 6 p.m. on a Thursday night as Jade Jacobs begins her ritual under the fluorescent bathroom lights. An abundance of cosmetics including Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow Pomade and a purple NYX lipstick litters her makeup-stained counters.
For Jacobs, her cosmetics has more than one use. “Makeup has no rules,” she says.
She dips her brush into the pomade and applies an angular U-like shape a few inches above her brows. When she’s finished, it gives her face a more masculine definition. She then moves the brush down to her neck and, in circular motions, creates the appearance of an Adam’s apple.
For the final touch, she grabs another brush, swipes it across the purple lipstick, raises it to her upper lip and draws a mustache.
Finally, Jacobs stands back from the bathroom mirror and admires her transformation into her drag persona, Bram Stroker, a nod to the Dracula novelist.
“I enjoy this mask I [can] put on because it allows me to express the thing that’s inside that really wants to be seen and heard and connected,” Jacobs says. “Having that with an audience is very fulfilling.”
Jacobs is a drag king—a character who creates the performance of masculinity—and part of the growing drag king community in Sacramento. The trend isn’t just local; recently, a drag king took home top honors on a popular reality TV competition.
It’s also not without a little drama. More on that later. But, first, a little local drag history.
Victoria Augusto tapes down their breast to give the illusion of pecs as part as their transformation into their drag king persona, Sir Vix, during the Kings’ Night Out Benefit show at Sidetrax.
In 2005, Tina Reynolds—owner of the marketing and design firm Uptown Studios and self-proclaimed “oldest drag king in the universe”—hosted events. Reynolds was inspired to create a drag king group during a fashion show where women wore men’s clothing,
“It was a real social statement,” Reynolds says. “We could be who we are and have fun with it.”
According to Reynolds, who performed under the drag persona Louie Luxury, there wasn’t much of a scene in Sacramento before she launched her 16-member group, the Sacramento Kings of Drag. Ticket sales from their shows benefited local LGBTQ+ based organizations such as the Lavender Library and the Sacramento LGBT Community Center.
During that time, Sacramento boasted an array of lesbian bars, Showtime’s The L Word was all the rage and the Sacramento Kings of Drag enjoyed success with sold-out shows in front of hundreds of people.
The whole thing felt empowering, Reynolds says: “There’s nothing like dressing up, lip syncing and having 300 women screaming at you.”
Other groups formed, too. The Slickk Bois, a more politically focused group, aimed to raise awareness on various topics including the transgender community. Former member Debbie Chang remembers rocking the name Mr. Wu Her while lip syncing to a variety of bands such as Nine Inch Nails and ’NSync.
“As drag kings, we did a lot of cool work in the community,” Chang says. “It was a positive and beautiful thing, both art, gender and social justice related.”
By 2009, however, the region’s once-thriving scene had fizzled out due to the high demands of time and energy to put on a good show, according to Reynolds.
New audiences, new outlets
Victoria Augusto adds the finishing touches to their glitter beard as they transform themselves into their drag persona, Sir Vix, for Kings’ Night Out.
Now, a decade later, the drag king scene is finding new life.
Samantha Bourgeois, the founder and booker for Drag Kings’ Night Out, says crowds enjoy their shows’ choreography, music and lip-syncing prowess.
Bourgeois, whose drag persona is Lez-he West, has run the event at Sidetrax for almost a year. It recently hosted its first benefit show, raising money for the Sacramento LGBT Community Center’s youth program, Q Spot.
“Benefit shows are important because they spread awareness to causes, and those donations can really help those in need,” Bourgeois says.
Since its launch, the show has gained loyal fans. Rachel Powell, a regular attendee, says
the energy is inviting.
“It’s like Cheers where everyone knows your name. You feel welcomed and the more people that go the more fun it is,” Powell says.
The show features an array of kings of different backgrounds and genders. Melissa Preston, aka Cali Sweets, is a cisgender woman who says she enjoys doing drag for fun. Victoria Augusto, aka Sir Vix, is non-binary and says being a drag king is an outlet for gender expression. And, as a transgender man, Jaxon Uribe’s Jax Labido persona provides an authentic way to express himself.
Local drag queen Teal Death says she views drag as a performance art anyone can do regardless of gender. “A performer is a performer,” Death says. “If you perform, sell it and you’re living your fantasy.”
In addition to Sidetrax, performers have also found a home at Badlands’ After Hours, a weekly open-mic show with the motto “come as you are, perform like a star.” Each night has a different theme and the winner gets a cash prize.
Drag kings thank the crowd for coming during a Kings’ Night Out, a show where performers dance and lip sync, at Sidetrax.
One Lavender District venue that the kings can’t seem to tap into, however, is Faces.
“[They] just won’t do a drag king pageant like they have a Miss Faces pageant,” Bourgeois says of Faces. “[The owner] doesn’t really want to book us and that’s why we use After Hours [at Badlands] or we have my little show at Sidetrax.”
SN&R reached out to Faces for comment, but did not receive a reply.
Even without the support of a bigger venue,
the local drag scene continues to grow. Later this month, Badlands will feature an appearance from one of the nation’s most famous faces, Kristine BellaLuna, aka Landon Cider. BellaLuna recently made history as the first drag king to win a U.S. drag reality TV competition when she was crowned America’s Next Drag Super Monster on OutTV’s Dragula.
BellaLuna says the victory represented something meaningful to her in a world where drag queens usually get all the attention. “It was a very emotional, gratifying, validating experience, but also stress filled because the pressure is on,” BellaLuna says.
Despite the pressure or maybe because of it, those who perform as drag kings do it for the joy they feel while on stage.
At Sidetrax, the audience sits, silently engrossed, as the power chords of the Darkness’ “I Believe in a Thing Called Love,” starts to play and Jade Jacobs finally takes the floor as Bram Stroker.
When the beat kicks in, Jacobs twirls around lip syncing the lyrics, “Can’t explain all the feelings you’re making me feel.” Audience members sing along, handing her tips.
Jacobs says she’s grateful to have an outlet where she can do drag but would like to expand her performance outside Sacramento’s Lavender District.
“I would like to have my own [show] someday and push it to a crowd that hasn’t seen drag before,” Jacobs says.
Wherever she ends up, Jacobs says it’s about finding self-expression in a way that defies any and all so-called gender norms.
“I can be ugly, funny, charismatic and loud, and those characteristics are things that people don’t want to see in a woman.”
Just as you are
Sometimes finding yourself requires a name change. Takarra Johnson’s needed to embody her growth. She had just joined her high school slam poetry team, was learning about social justice movements and music production and was expanding her definition of spirituality beyond the church.
And of course, her new name needed to be “hella deep.” She landed on KariJustiss. But it didn’t fly.
“My friends were like, ’That’s hella corny.’” she says. “… I was just trying to make the ’J’ in my last name stand for something other than Johnson.”
The 22-year-old Sacramento hip-hop artist now goes by her longtime nickname, KariJay. After a few roots-connecting trips to West Ghana and moving from creating spoken-word poetry to music, Kari is dropping her debut self-titled album this summer. But what does the Jay stand for now?
Growing up in a Christian household, Kari became a youth speaker at Blessed Faith Ministries at eight years old. The church laid a foundation for her music; after school, she spent time in the ministry’s music studio.
During her sophomore year at Sacramento High School, she discovered slam poetry through the program Sacramento Area Youth Speaks, writing poems with a social justice focus, and eventually getting into introspective song lyrics.
Just listen to “Ten Toes.” Paired with an uplifting rhythm and lyrics (“It ain’t worth your tears / It ain’t worth your pain / every time you see them / put a smile on your face”), the song embodies self-empowerment in spite of fake friends and naysayers.
Expect poetic hip-hop and neo-soul on Kari, which includes some songs that capture her most vulnerable side. She says she’s finally ready to release her two-year long project, but it’s not easy.
“The challenge for myself is to share my more intimate works that no one’s heard,” Kari says. “It’s really just like the different facets, and it’s all that I can bring and hope to accomplish in music.”
Being a poet and hip-hop artist isn’t enough. In 2018, she co-founded an organization called The West2West Movement, inspired by a study-abroad trip to West Ghana during her freshman year of college in 2016. West2West’s goal is to create a cultural exchange with the African diaspora. She holds local Saturday schools and field trips to West Ghana for students.
“Every person with African descent deserves this experience, and I feel like all people should experience where they came from,” Kari says.
As for her name, Kari lets the Jay speak for itself.
It stands for “Just As You Are,” she says, “to denote that we come into the world with everything we need inside ourselves.”
ARC printing supervisor brings eco-awareness to campus
Don Reid walks into the tiny office that he plans to soon call home. The small station consists of gray barren walls, an old desk, a squeaky chair and a dusty typewriter.
The fluorescent lights cast a sickly green hue over everything. Reid picks up the ancient typewriter and tosses it into the nearest trash can.
It is the first change of many to come for Reid and his new role as supervisor for the printing services department at American River College.
As head of the largest print shop in the Los Rios Community College District, Reid has plenty of hard work ahead of him, but over the years, he’s taken upon himself to add even more responsibilities to his workload. He currently heads multiple committees focused around eco-friendly ideas.
“I am also an ARC sustainability representative of ARC Buildings Ground and Safety Committee and [I’m] a representative of California community colleges for the [California Higher Education Sustainability Conference] Steering Committee.”
With Reid’s efforts toward sustainability and eco-awareness, ARC was designated as an official Tree Campus USA in 2017.
Before Reid started his career at ARC, he was working as a graphic designer at the San Juan School District print shop, which had state of the art technology.
“We had a lot of vendors who would bring in their customers and see how we utilize their equipment,” Reid said.
One of those visitors was Marnell Nicknig, who was running ARC’s print shop at the time. Nicknig had visited Reid’s work several times to seek ideas to improve her print shop and became good friends with Reid.
One day Nicknig informed Reid she was going to retire and recommended Reid to apply for her position, but when he applied he was turned down.
“I did not meet the minimum qualifications; I didn’t have a degree,” Reid said.
After a couple of months, however, Reid got an email from ARC saying that they changed the qualifications and that the experience on the job would count towards a degree.
Reid applied for the job a second time, but had doubts about getting the position since he was up against 100 other applicants with more experience than him.
“I didn’t have the experience of managing a print shop, but what I did have was knowledge on how to future-proof this place,” Reid said.
According to Reid, it was his ability to think ahead that eventually landed him the job.
Reid immediately started a five-year plan that would turn the “old-school” print shop into a mean-green printing machine (with a heavy emphasis on the green).
He started making more eco-friendly choices such as using organic ink and buying paper that had less chemicals in it, making it more sustainable and also safer for employees of the print shop.
Soon Reid began to expand his eco-vision into other parts of the campus. Reid would go to other departments on campus and help identify where they could “go green.”
Reid also started programs like the Acorn Awards, which reward departments for their dedication towards sustainability.
According to Reid, being in the forefront of so many projects is against his nature.
“I’d rather be in the background, but somebody needs to be the face for this stuff,” Reid said.
One of his farthest-reaching projects involved getting rid of styrofoam cups in the cafeteria, a possible carcinogen and environmental pollutant that Reid felt could be replaced with a better alternative: recyclable paper cups.
He made it a point to not try and tackle the problem alone. As a faculty member, Reid saw it as an opportunity to get students involved. He approached the ARC’s Student Senate and Eco Club and got them to jump onboard.
His efforts culminated in 2013 when the new cafeteria was opened and it was announced that they would no longer be using styrofoam products.
Reid’s efforts got him the opportunity to speak at a CHESC conference. There, Reid pitched ARC’s model towards sustainability to representatives from nearly every California university.
Reid’s efforts and contribution to campus haven’t gone unnoticed. ARC President Thomas Greene recently applauded the work that Reid has done for the school.
“Don has done an incredible amount of work supporting sustainability at American River College,” Greene said. “He has been involved in countless college initiatives, including Earth Day, waste diversion and recycling, Tree Campus USA and so much more. American River College is a more sustainable, green campus because of Don’s tireless efforts.”
Groundskeeper Brenda Baker, who has worked with Reid on several projects, saw firsthand the work he put into the campus.
“If ARC had an Nobel Peace Prize, I would nominate Don. He really does care,” Baker said.
Still, according to Reid, his biggest accomplishment at ARC is, and always will be, his print shop.
“We have the highest volume print shop in the district, but we are also the smallest print shop in the entire district,” Reid said.
In the 20-years Reid has been at ARC he has gone from having an old typewriter collecting dust sitting on his desk to running one of the most state-of-the-art print shops in Northern California. Under his efforts, ARC has become a model of eco-sustainability for all colleges.
“It’s not my nature to see a wall and just stop at it, I like to walk around the wall,” Reid said.
Deodorant and a dream
In a Midtown, multistory Victorian, a large crowd of locals chat through their Friday night while sipping on craft beer as they sit in rows of mix-and-match furniture. A playlist featuring artists such as Elton John and Mac Miller plays through a house speaker, setting the chill vibe of the night.
This scene might seem like a typical house party, but on one side of the room are several house lamps and Christmas lights that illuminate a makeshift stage with a duct-tape microphone stand and wooden stool.
Ruby Setnik peeks behind the sheet in the DIY green room, the kitchen. She grasps her microphone and nods to her co-host Maryam Moosavi to turn off the music.
The noisy chatter turns into cheers as Setnik introduces herself. “From all the way downstairs, please welcome your host, Ruby Setnik,” Setnik says, making her way to the front of the stage.
Finding a stage
That night, local comedians Setnik and Moosavi transformed their living room into the venue for their show “Living Room Live,” a free, monthly comedy night.
“Living Room Live feels like our little piece,” Moosavi says. “[It’s] something we can grow and learn from, and an opportunity for our local comedians, too.”
Their show has only been around for three months but has featured Kiry Shabazz, Melissa McGillicuddy and others. And it was all thanks to a business relationship that eventually turned into an accidental friendship.
In 2019, the duo met at a Comedy Spot open-mic night. Both had a year of stand-up under their belts, but wanted a comedic companion to confide in and sharpen their jokes with feedback.
A few months, the two grew close, and last September, Netsik and Moosavi decided they wanted to take their comedy to the next level. They wanted to host their very own comedy show.
“We wanted to pay back the comedians that have booked us so many times, be in control and have more time to test our material,” Moosavi says, “but finding a venue was difficult.”
They searched at different places around the Sacramento area and stumbled upon a certain theater they didn’t want to name. They created a plan that involved pretending to be business partners, schmoozing over the venue with “we mean business”-like confidence and putting on deodorant.
“We were like, ’We would like to use your venue to accommodate our show we want to do,’” Setnik says. “They were like ’Cool, just send us your insurance,’ and we were like, ’Cool, we will get back to you.’”
They did not get back to them.
Setnik was inspired by McGillicuddy and Shahera Hyatt’s “Moving Van Show,” a pop-up comedy show that involves a vacant lot, a battery-operated speaker and a microphone. She liked the idea that comedy could happen anywhere.
So Setnik and Moosavi decided to put the mic and speaker in their 15-by-30-foot living room in the “Eye Street Co-Op,” a house with 10 bedrooms, including a cottage in the back, where 12 people live together and share the expenses of food and chores. The co-op focuses on community, and the house has hosted music events for local artists. While this would be its first comedy show, the housemates were all on board.
“I personally enjoy being able to listen to comedy from my staircase,” says Lauren Taber, one of the residents. “I feel that I’m at the center of something that’s about to pop off.”
With their landlord’s blessing and their housemates’ support, Setnik and Moosavi had a location, but didn’t have a name for their show. They wanted something straightforward, and since it’s in the living room and it’s live comedy, they landed on Living Room Live.
It’s happening
The two young comedians started promoting their first show in October by creating social media accounts, inviting all their friends and family and posting homemade flyers around the neighborhood. Theirs featured two characters on a couch, illustrated by Setnik, and chirography done by Moosavi that read “Live from our Living Room, it’s Living Room Live.”
Booking comedians came easily to Setnik and Moosavi since they already had connections to the comedy scene. They figured they’d book comedians they find funny, who complement each other and who have helped them further their careers.
The day of their first show, they prepared the living room, a two-hour process. It came naturally, as they’d picked up a few tricks from comedy shows in local venues.
They knew to make the stage the brightest spot in the room, by moving all the lamps to the front. They arranged and tested each seat for comfort and accessibility. Perfect.
Then, the two began work on their set lists, which in the comedy world are outlines of jokes. Moosavi sticks with the more traditional approach by writing keywords of her jokes on a piece of paper, while Setnik draws a doodle that represents a joke.
When curtain call was closing in, the only people who had arrived were family members.
“Maryam was worried it would be like Woodstock,” Setnik said, “and I was worried it was just going to be our moms.”
Eventually, about 40 friends, family and community members filled the room, with a variety of adult beverage choices. It’s a free show, but there’s a tip jar. The money is split between all the comedians and used for better equipment for the show.
The action started with the charismatic Setnik warming up the crowd with her unapologetic style of joke telling—comparing her never-home housemates to failed ghosts.
Moosavi followed with her soft-spoken voice, distracting the audience from her bold punchlines, including how she accidentally sent nudes to her girlfriend’s dad, and now he’s asking for more.
The two guest local comedians, McGillicuddy and Benton Harshaw, finished off the show.
Since their first show, it has attracted regulars such as Aubrey Zevallos, an avid comedy-goer, who says that it’s different than other venues. “It’s a very intimate, personal setting where you get to have more of a relationship with the comedians than you might with a public venue,” Zevallos says.
Unlike venues that have a drink minimum and lack comfy chairs, the living room provides an intimate setting that gives a sense of community. “It’s more cozier and intimate,” McGillicuddy says. “I knew a lot of people in the audience, so it felt like you’re in the living room doing comedy for friends.”
There haven’t been any hecklers, but if they do show up, Setnik and Moosavi are more than willing to put on their mom jeans. “If someone heckles us, I will just send them to my room,” Setnik said.
The comical pair will continue to host their show every third Friday. For Moosavi, it’s not only about having their own outlet to strengthen their comedy, but having the freedom to do it.
“A lot of comedy is waiting around, asking for permission and waiting for approval,” Moosavi said, “but it is ours, and it’s very empowering.”