The results are in! Meet your Associated Students leaders for 2017.

While The American Dream thrives in my own private bubble of the universe, a few blocks down, near an interstate 405 exit, so many tents are pitched underneath a freeway ramp that it could look like a camping ground if not for the blinking of traffic lights and the passing of rushing cars.

“We start off every week by asking: ‘Brutha Gimel, what did you do this weekend?’” It’s a loaded question that Shihan Van Clief, the host and co- founder of Da Poetry Lounge, asks in front of an audience of more than 250 people. Some are like family, loyal artists and listeners who have been attending for more than a decade. Others are essentially strangers, first-timers -- like voyagers in a foreign land.

Guard dogs and tear gas. Water cannons and rubber bullets. Triumph gained and triumph lost. After eleven months of protesting against the location of the Dakota Access Pipeline, adversity is no stranger to The Standing Rock Water Protectors.