Jackalope staff member Sandra Schonenstein interviews Santa Fe University of Art and Design film student Bego Aznar who is in her second semester as an exchange student from Spain.

A look at some of the costumes on campus for...

If any SFUAD students are itching to hit the slopes this winter, Zach Greer is the man to see. Director of the Outdoor Recreation Program at the Driscoll Fitness Center since the spring semester of 2012 and a graduate of the College of Santa Fe himself, Greer truly loves the activities he takes students out to do. A lot.

By Brandon Ghigliotty/ Photos by Sandra Schoenenstein Taking place on the third Thursday of every month, February’s MIX Santa Fe was held at the Santa Fe Culinary Academy. The upper-level space consisted of winding rooms opening into a large demonstration kitchen. Several platters of food were exhaustively replenished during the event by Executive Chef Rocky Durham and his crew. “People love the Azerbaijani flatbread,” said Durham. It was delicious. Chewy, herbed bread with a sharp tinge of cheese. It was easy to see why the platter emptied so quickly. Other platters held shrimp spring rolls, pork-filled lettuce wraps and vegetarian nori rolls. Blue Corn Cafe & Brewery manned the cash bar, initially serving beer in glass jars, then abandoning them for the more traditional plastic cup. People met up, introduced each other to new acquaintances, and generally broke the MIX drought brought on by MIX’s absence in the months of December and January. Speaking with Kate Noble, MIX coordinator and special projects administrator with the Economic Development Division for the City of Santa Fe, the past 31/2 years of MIX have had their ups and down. Yet, even during the low points, “We were still hearing about people making connections or getting work and being able to stay in Santa Fe,” Noble said. Entrepreneurs took the opportunity to hand out flyers on their projects, Dawn Hoffman of Only Green Design gave information on “Upcycle Santa Fe”: a festival to come up with creative solutions to the ecological issues that face the community. Another entity on site was the graphic design collective known as “Hexagono”, a group of Santa Fe University of Art and Design students, seeking donations to their project “The Importance Of,” which is “A 200 page hard-bound book exploring Graphic Design as Contemplative Art.” One...

By Brandon Ghigliotty/Photos by Sandra Schoenenstein “Mr. Speaker gentlelady from Chavez County, do you love the lesser prairie chicken?” The house gallery erupts in laughter. My reaction is slightly different. I’m uncomfortable with the fact that someone pleading to thwart a species’ extinction is being humiliated. I exit the chamber, shaking my head clear of the ringing laughter. Ideas escape me and the only persistent one is shot down. My colleague convinces me it is too early to visit the bar. I consider writing about the art of the Roundhouse, the paintings of men in cavalry coats striding across the desert, the buffalo built from recyclables (which happens to mark North in the Roundhouse) and the various other bits of furniture and sculpture that have found a home here. It would be easier to approach the pieces of art and their placards than it would be to approach the mayor while he sips his soft drink. I do neither. My photographer arrives and we re-enter the house gallery. Her eyes light up. The lesser prairie chicken is still the topic of debate. “Mr. Speaker, gentlelady…” The question rambles. A frocked woman is trying to ask whether helping the lesser prairie chicken’s current plight would be addressing a drought problem rather than a lesser prairie chicken problem. That perhaps intervention to mark the lesser prairie chicken as endangered is not the best answer to an issue brought on by drought conditions. The response she receives: god is in control of our drought situation. I am stunned. My brain is sick with the implications of this statement. If god made us, and we’re killing the lesser prairie chicken and god simultaneously is trying to snuff them out with a drought. Then god clearly has no love for...

By Clara Hittel/Photos by Sandra Schoenenstein At 7:30 on a Saturday morning, I parked my car and trudged over to the Driscoll Fitness Center. If this is how early students have to leave to go to Ski Santa Fe, it’s no wonder they aren’t willing to wake up in time to go to Taos or Angel Fire. A few kids sat around the picnic table out front, adjusting to the chill outside in preparation for the slopes rather than huddling inside with hands wrapped around warm mugs of coffee in fear of the cold. I joined them at the table. The conversation I entered into was about what snow-appropriate garments we were lacking. Some people needed gloves, others hats. The immediate camaraderie of the trip goers was cheering so early in the morning. People began offering clothing and advice. I needed waterproof pants, as I have sadly outgrown my own super-official snowboarding pants. Sandra Duran graciously lent me her spare pair. The Feb. 2 journey up to the mountaintop felt like a summer-camp outing to a lake or other body of water where warm-weather activities might take place. The sun had risen with a vengeance and the radio offered what I would consider beach jams, such as Knee Deep (Feat. Jimmy Buffet) by the Zac Brown Band and Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. Then again, we were all in parkas and woolen hats, and as we gained elevation the snow finally made its appearance. Pine branches drooped around us, burdened with winter, festively welcoming the line of cars that slowly ascended the mountain. My thoughts turned to ski trips of the past as the alpine scene crawled past my window. Growing up on the East Coast, my parents took me to the...

Story by Clara Hittel/Photos by Sandra Schoenenstein As the Hexagono gang wanders in and out of their communal office space in Alexis Hall following a meeting, I’m told that Rebecca will most likely take charge of answering for the group during the interview. Once all six of them – Rebecca Alvarez, Pablo Byrne, Suzelle Camou, Fernando Gaverd, Marco Lukini and Anacaro Villa – are seated in a row before me, I ask the first question on my mind: What would they consider themselves? I suggest that, to me, they seem like a collective of sorts. Rebecca looks around at the others briefly before responding that yes, a collective would be a good way to describe them—amidst a smattering of giggles from her comrades that she appears not to hear. Admittedly, they are a fun bunch and laugh a lot, communicating with each other by way of looks and gestures for the duration of our conversation and sometimes slipping into Spanish when consulting each other on how to respond. Hexagono formed two years ago, when some extremely motivated graphic design students “wanted to do something besides classes…something that no one else was doing in this school,” says Anacaro. All six current members of Hexagono attended different campuses of Universidad de Valle de México and were given the opportunity to study at SFUAD for less than their UVM tuition cost. They jumped at the exchange opportunity and eventually transferred to SFUAD permanently. Fernando explains how they formed Hexagono once at SFUAD: “Most of the time there were certain people – the ones who were staying at the lab after 2 AM, 3 AM, and all of us were with the same need…It’s super hard to get something as unified coming out of two people or three people,...