The Harvard Crimson - Volume CXLVI, No. 108

The Harvard Crimson The University Daily, Est. 1873 | Volume CXLVI, No. 108 | Cambridge, Massachusetts | TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2019

editorial PAGE 8

news PAGE 9

sports PAGE 10

Harvard Square should be a car-free space.

Kennedy School panelists evaluate the causes and implications of Brexit.

Men’s and women’s crew teams race in Head of the Charles.

Athletics Adopts Divest Harvard Protests Brazilian Holdings ‘Honor System’ By alexandra a. chaidez and Meena Venkataramanan Contributing Writers

By devin b. srivastava Crimson Staff Writer

The Harvard Athletics Department will use an “honor system” to implement the College’s sanctions on members of certain single-gender social organizations, outgoing Athletics Director Robert L. Scalise said in an interview Friday.

Scalise’s comments come three years after Harvard first announced the sanctions, which bar members of single-gender final clubs, sororities, and fraternities from captaining varsity athletics teams.

The sanctions, which apply to the Class of 2021 and all successive classes, also prevent members of unrecognized social clubs from holding leadership positions in student organizations and receiving College endorsement for prestigious fellowships like the Rhodes.

Since their announcement, the sanctions have drawn questions from students and other affiliates as to how the College plans to implement and enforce them. In March 2017, a commit­

tee tasked with formulating an implementation plan for the sanctions provided a 46-page document to Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana with their recommendations.

Scalise, who will retire in June 2020, said Friday that the Athletics Department will expect prospective captains to withdraw themselves from consideration if they are members of single-gender social groups.

“I think it’s more of an honor system, rather than creating a big bureaucracy, where you make everybody sign a form and find out who’s in and who’s not in,” Scalise said.

If the Department later discovers that a selected captain is a member of one of the sanctioned groups, it will strip that person of their captainship.

“If someone got elected captain, and then we found out that they didn’t [tell the Athletics Department], well, then they kind of lied to us a little bit,” Scalise said. “You know, we would need to remove them as

Divest Harvard — a student group demanding the University divest from fossil fuels — hosted a day of events Monday calling attention to Harvard’s ownership of Brazilian land and reigniting its calls for the school to sell those holdings in the name of environmentalism.

Members of Divest Harvard have remained vocal about Harvard’s investments in land and agribusiness around the world. The Harvard Management Company — the University’s investing arm — owns 300,000 hectares of land in the Brazilian Cerrado, an area of wooded grasslands that border the Amazon rainforest, according to a 2018 report by activist group Genetic Resources Action International.

On Monday morning, nearly a dozen members of Divest Harvard sat in the Science Center Plaza and held signs decrying Harvard’s land investments.

Later in the day, more than 20 protesters gathered to hear Altamiran L. Ribeiro, an organiz-

See athletics Page 7

See divest Page 9

Divest Harvard students gathered in Science Center Plaza to protest the University’s holdings of Brazilian land.

STEVE S. LI—Crimson photographer

HPDC Delivers Report to Bacow

By Alexandra a. chaidez Crimson Staff Writer

Members of the Harvard Prison Divestment Campaign delivered their 64-page report detailing the University’s alleged investments in companies tied to the prison industry to Massachusetts Hall Monday.

The delivery kicked off “Free-Them Week,” a week of seminars and workshops hosted by HPDC to promote prison divestment. The events include a discussion on socially responsible investing, a session on restoring voting rights for prisoners in Massachusetts, and office hours held by HPDC members.

Roughly 30 Harvard affiliates gathered in a classroom at Wasserstein Hall Monday to discuss HPDC’s report.

“This report is the culmination of a lot of months’ work, and I would say year’s worth of work by students who founded HPDC and who have been working on this issue from all ­

Students involved with the Harvard Prison Divestment Campaign spoke at the Harvard Law School on the first day of the group’s Free Them Week. MYEONGSEO KIM—Crimson photographer

different angles,” said Xitlalli Alvarez Almendariz, a Ph.D. student and HPDC organizer.

HPDC was formed in 2017 to call for the dismantling of the U.S. prison system and advocate for Harvard to divest from the prison industry. Since then, the campaign has launched petitions, led rallies in Harvard Yard, and met with University President Lawrence S. Bacow to discuss prison divestment.

The report — released Wednesday — estimated the University has at least $3 million invested in companies tied to the prison industry.

Amanda T. Chan, a Law School student and HPDC organizer, said the report is a “resource” for Harvard affiliates and those outside of the school.

“People deserve to know that their educations are being funded by prisons, by the systemic abuse and torture of black and brown people,” Chan said. “It’s

See hpdc Page 7

News Kiosk Will Host CultureHouse Pop-Up

By ELLEN M. BURSTEIN and SYDNIE M. COBB staff Writers

CultureHouse, a non-profit organization that hosts social events and artistic performances, will fill the kiosk currently housing Out of Town News, which will close at the end of October after 64 years in operation.

The group — which occupies empty storefronts across the metropolitan Boston area and turns them into public spaces for social, work, and neighborhood events — will move to Harvard Square in early December, according to CultureHouse founder Aaron Greiner.

The organization currently operates in Kendall Square, and has hosted pop-up events in Allston and Somerville in the past.

The planned move by CultureHouse comes amid a year of extensive commercial turnover in the Square. Since the fall semester began, Square hallmarks including Out of Town ­

Inside this issue

Harvard Today 2

News, Flat Patties, and Black Ink have announced that they will close by the end of the year.

Greiner said the organization aims to foster relationships among residents of the neighborhood as they use the space.

“The overall goal is to create better communities, stronger communities, communities that are more connected and more equitable by transforming those vacant and unutilized spaces into places to work, to play, and to interact to get to know your neighbors,” Greiner said.

Denise A. Jillson, the executive director of the Harvard Square Business Association, said she thinks CultureHouse will serve as an experiment in creating social spaces in the Square.

“This will be a testing ground not only for the CultureHouse to see how it goes for them, but also to see what’s possible in that space as we

See Kiosk Page 7

News 7

Editorial 8

Harvard Square’s Out of Town News kiosk will host a communal pop-up space before renovations to the Square’s central area begin next year. NAOMI S. CASTELLON-PEREZ—Crimson photographer

Sports 10

Today’s Forecast

rainy High: 61 Low: 56

Groups Call for Crimson Boycott By ruoqi zhang Crimson Staff Writer

­ ore than 650 people have M signed onto an online petition condemning The Harvard Crimson’s coverage of a protest demanding the abolition of United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The petition — started by student-led immigration advocacy group Act on a Dream earlier this month — criticizes The Crimson for requesting comment from an ICE spokesperson for its Sept. 13 article, “Harvard Affiliates Rally for Abolish ICE Movement.” The article covers a Sept. 12 protest hosted by Act on a Dream and quotes several students’ criticisms of ICE, including calls for its dissolution.

The article notes that ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“In this political climate, a request for comment is virtually the same as tipping [ICE] off, regardless of how they are contacted,” the petition reads. “The Crimson, as a student-run publication, has a responsibility to prioritize the safety of the student body they are reporting on — they must reexamine and interrogate policies that place students under threat.”

Crimson President Kristine E. Guillaume ’20 wrote in an emailed statement that The Crimson upholds “fundamental journalistic values” that “obligate” it to allow individuals and institutions it reports on to have a chance to comment.

“This policy demonstrates a commitment to ensuring that the individuals and institutions we write about have an opportunity to respond to criticisms in order to ensure a fair and unbiased story,” Guillaume wrote.

The Crimson reached out to an ICE spokesperson after the protest’s conclusion and did not provide names, immigration statuses, or extended quotes of those who criticized the government agency, according to Guillaume.

The petition, which Act on a Dream started a month after

See petition Page 9

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Follow @TheCrimson on Twitter.

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THE HARVARD CRIMSON |

october 22, 2019

Page 2

Harvard Today

For Lunch Butter Chicken Pork Sausage Sub Palak Paneer

For Dinner Mesquite Rotisserie Chicken Tonkastsu Savory Baked Tofu

Today’s Events How to LEAD and Succeed Science Center Hall D, 4-5 p.m.

in The Real World

Who doesn’t want to lead and succeed?

In Science Center Lecture Hall D, one of Fortune’s Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Business, Jane Jie Sun, will be discussing her path to CEO of one of China’s foremost travel agencies.

The event is hosted by the Harvard Business School Greater China Club, Harvard College China Forum, and the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies.

Drug Companies Reach $260 Million Settlement in Opioid Case

An opioid manufacturer and three major drug distribution companies have settled for $260 million to avoid going to trial against two Ohio counties. Combined, the three drug distributors — McKesson, Cardinal Health, and AmerisourceBergen — account for a significant portion of drug distribution in the United States.

The settlement may serve as an example for similar cases across the country.

Farmer’s Market at Harvard Science Center Plaza, 12-6 p.m.

Hong Kong Protests Continue; Police Respond with Escalating Force

A Tuesday ritual: the Science Center Plaza Farmers market. We are approaching the last month of the market before winter hits, so stop by for baked goods, produce, dairy products, and lemonade (if you’re lucky).

Students gathered by the Charles River over the weekend to watch races during the two-day Head of the Charles Regatta. Kathryn S. Kuhar—Crimson photographer

Daily Briefing The Harvard Athletics Department will use an “honor system” to implement the College’s sanctions on members of certain single-gender social organizations, outgoing Athletics Director Robert L. Scalise said in an interview Friday. Scalise, who will retire in June 2020, said Friday that the Athletics Department will expect prospective captains to withdraw themselves from consideration if they are members of single-gender social groups. In other news, members of the Harvard Prison Divestment Campaign delivered their 64-page report detailing the University’s alleged investments in companies tied to the prison industry to Massachusetts Hall Monday.

On Sunday, hundreds of thousands of prodemocracy protesters in Hong Kong returned to the streets in protest. Police fired tear gas and water cannons filled with blue dye on crowds as well as on a local mosque, which elicited an apology from Chinese authorities. The protests have been sustained for five months.

Trade Wars Drive American Manufacturing from China to India Indian policymakers are out to capitalize on trade tensions between the United States and China.

In particular, India is pushing to absorb Apple’s cell phone manufacturing from China, and has slashed corporate tax rates in an effort to make manufacturing more attractive.

Around the Ivies

A Note to Readers To our readers: Last month, The Crimson covered a rally organized by campus group Act on a Dream that called for the abolition of United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement. During the course of our reporting, Crimson reporters requested comment from ICE — a decision that has proved controversial with many of our readers. We stand behind that decision, and we wanted to share with you our thinking.

The Crimson exists because of a belief that an uninformed campus would be a poorer one — that our readers have the right to be informed about the place where they live, work, and study.

In pursuit of that goal, we seek to follow a commonly accepted set of journalistic standards, similar to those followed by professional news organizations big and small.

Foremost among those standards is the belief that every party named in a story has a right to comment or contest criticism leveled against them. That’s why our reporters always make every effort to contact the individuals and institutions we write about — administrators, students, alumni, campus organizations, and yes, government agencies — before any story goes to press. We believe that this is the best way to ensure the integrity, fairness, and accuracy of our reporting.

It was these same policies that were followed during our coverage of the Sept. 12 rally in Harvard Yard. After the protest had concluded, but before the story was published, The Crimson contacted an ICE spokesperson to ask if they wished to provide a statement

in response to the protest.

Let us be clear: In The Crimson’s communication with ICE’s media office, the reporters did not provide the names or immigration statuses of any individual at the protest. We did not give ICE forewarning of the protest, nor did we seek to interfere with the protest as it was occuring. Indeed, it is The Crimson’s practice to wait until a protest concludes before asking for comment from the target of the protest — a rule which was followed here.

The Crimson’s outreach to ICE only consisted of public information and a broad summary of protestors’ criticisms. As noted in the story, ICE did not respond to a request for comment.

A few days after the event, Act on a Dream and others expressed disagreement with The Crimson’s request for comment to ICE. It is our practice to meet with student groups whenever they have questions or concerns about our coverage, and — as a result — we contacted Act on a Dream shortly after seeing their criticisms on social media. We met with them to listen to their concerns and share our perspective by explaining our policies and the fundamental journalistic principles behind them.

A week later, Act on a Dream published a petition calling on The Crimson to change its policies so that it never contacts ICE for comment again and apologize for the “harm [it] inflicted on the undocumented community.”

In this, the organization has called on other student groups to boycott speaking to The Crimson until the paper complies with their demands.

At stake here, we believe, is one of the core tenets that defines America’s

cornell

free and independent press: the right — and prerogative — of reporters to contact any person or organization relevant to a story to seek that entity’s comment and view of what transpired.

This ensures the article is as thorough, balanced, and unbiased toward any particular viewpoint as possible.

A world where news outlets categorically refuse to contact certain kinds of sources — a world where news outlets let third-party groups dictate the terms of their coverage — is a less informed, less accurate, and ultimately less democratic world.

Experts from the Student Press Law Center and the Society of Professional Journalists have affirmed that The Crimson followed ethical journalistic practices in its reporting in this case and that its request for comment did not place any person in harm’s way. The SPJ Code of Ethics states that journalists should “diligently seek subjects of news coverage to allow them to respond to criticisms or allegations of wrongdoing.”

We understand that some readers may disagree with The Crimson’s policies. But our mission is facts, truth, narrative, and understanding. In our view, consistent application of a commonly accepted set of journalistic standards are the best way to fairly report on the campus in a sensitive and thorough manner.

Sincerely, Kristine E. Guillaume ’20 President, 146th Guard

Student protestors from environmental and human rights groups gathered outside a Cornell Board of Trustees meeting Friday, the Cornell Daily Sun reported. Protestors demanded the Board divest from fossil fuel companies and reassess partnerships with institutions involved in global conflicts, declaring them to be at odds with Cornell’s values. John Carberry, a Cornell spokesperson, disapproved of their method of protest, pointing to a formal divestment process

yale

The Association of American Universities Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Misconduct revealed that the rate of sexual assult on Yale’s campus has increased since 2015, according to the Yale Daily News. Nearly 18 percent of undergraduate women students reported penetration without consent. Despite the higher assault rates, the survey indicates that the incidence of “harassing behaviors” and intimate partner violence has decreased. Yale students have also become more willing to address issues of sexual misconduct according to the survey data.

columbia

BGLTQ students from Columbia-affiliated schools hosted a discussion about their relationships with the Catholic Church, the Columbia Spectator reported. The event comes after the Columbia Catholic Ministry held an event with the Eden Invitation, a group that does not affirm BGLTQ identities. Members of the Columbia Catholic Ministry voiced their opinion that the Ministry has historically been unwelcoming towards BGLTQ Catholic students.

Angela N. Fu ’20 Managing Editor, 146th Guard

THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873

The Harvard Crimson Kristine E. Guillaume President Angela N. Fu Managing Editor Charlie B. Zhu Business Manager

Staff for This Issue

Associate Managing Editor Jamie D. Halper ’20

Arts Chairs Kaylee S. Kim ’20 Caroline A. Tsai ’20

Design Chairs Elena M. Ramos ’20 Akhil S. Waghmare ’20

Associate Business Manager Amy E. Zhou ’20

FM Chairs Norah M. Murphy ’20 Abigail L. Simon ’20

Multimedia Chairs Kathryn S. Kuhar ’20 Kai R. McNamee ’21

Editorial Chairs Jessenia N. Class ’20 Robert Miranda ’20

Blog Chairs Lorenzo F. Manuali ’21 Trula J. Rael ’21

Technology Chairs Nenya A. Edjah ’20 Theodore T. Liu ’20

Sports Chairs Joseph W. Minatel ’21 Henry Zhu ’20

Copyright 2019, The Harvard Crimson (USPS 236-560). No articles, editorials, cartoons or any part thereof appearing in The Crimson may be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the President. The Associated Press holds the right to reprint any materials published in The Crimson. The Crimson is a non-profit, independent corporation, founded in 1873 and incorporated in 1967. Second-class postage paid in Boston, Massachusetts. Published Monday through Friday except holidays and during vacations, three times weekly during reading and exam periods by The Harvard Crimson Inc., 14 Plympton St., Cambridge, Mass. 02138 Weather icons made by Freepik, Yannick, Situ Herrera, OCHA, SimpleIcon, Catalin Fertu from flaticon.com is licensed by CC BY 3.0.

Night Editor Andrew J. Zucker ’20

Design Editor Camille G. Caldera ’22

Assistant Night Editors Annie C. Doris ’21 Danielle J. Kranchalk ’22

Photo Editor Naomi S. Castellon-Perez ’21

Story Editors Caroline S. Engelmayer ’20 Angela N. Fu ’20 Jamie D. Halper ’20 Amy L. Jia ’21 Sonia Kim ’20

Editorial Editor Jessenia N. Class ’20 Sports Editor Matthew Mu ’22

Corrections The Harvard Crimson is committed to accuracy in its reporting. Factual errors are corrected promptly on this page. Readers with information about errors are asked to e-mail the managing editor at managingeditor@thecrimson.com.

THE HARVARD CRIMSON | OCTOBER 22, 2019 | PAGE 3

ARTS

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With ‘Sonic Blossom,’ Lee Mingwei Brings the Gift of Song to the Gardner MuseIRIS M. LEWIS CRIMSON STAFF WRITER Although normal hours had long since passed, the evening of Oct. 17 saw the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum busy and alive with song.

Scattered throughout the museum’s central courtyard, a sculpture garden enclosed by Venetian-style façades, people gathered in small groups and listened as the strains of a Schubert lied echoed through the halls. The performer, a male vocalist, stood at the center of the room. Although many visitors had come to listen, the singer seemed focused on one in particular — a woman seated just a few feet away in a simple wooden chair.

The performance was one of many that evening, all part of artist Lee Mingwei’s “Sonic Blossom,” a participatory performance installation being held at the Gardner Museum through Dec. 1. The installation, shown previously at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and Tokyo’s Mori Art Museum, is being presented as part of the Gardner’s ongoing exhibition “In the Company of Artists: 25 years of Artists-in-Residence,” which runs through Jan. 20, 2020.

Throughout the evening, professional singers approached visitors individually and invited them to participate in the exhibit. Eleni Stratigos, an opera singer herself, was among those selected to receive a song.

“I was just in a random room,” she said, “and [the singer] came up to me and asked, ‘Can I give you the gift of song?’

What are you going to say? Of course, yes!”

The performer then ushered Stratigos to the middle of the courtyard, collecting himself silently before beginning his performance.

“He was very calm. He didn’t talk much. It’s definitely a full experience. And when I sat down, we made eye contact the entire time. Maybe because I’m a singer as well, I’m kind of used to it,” Stratigos said. “Just sitting one person in front of one person, sitting down, one chair — it was kind of intense, but a very deep connection.”

Lee, the artist behind “Sonic Blossom,” attended the evening’s exhibition. In an interview, Lee described the performances as gifts shared by singers and listeners.

“Everything — the gesture, the pace — the singer is doing is really a gift for the other person,” Lee said. “It seems like the receiver is receiving the gift, but very quickly, I think, at least I realize the gift is coming back from the sitter to the singer.”

There is a visual component to the installation as well: Each singer performing in “Sonic Blossom” wears a colorful, hand-made robe incorporating elements of traditional Japanese dress.

“I call it a transformation gown,” Lee said. “It’s created with my friend [designer Kelima K]. The idea is that we use two Japanese obis to create a form that is reminiscent of origami.”

Beyond their aesthetic appeal, Lee said the transformation gowns serve an important psychological purpose. “[The gown] gives the singer a power to give this gift — a very sacred gift — from Schubert to us,” Lee said. “I remember asking one of the singers, ‘How is it to sing without the gown?’ because when they were rehearsing they were singing without the gown. They told me they felt very naked. They didn’t really have that power to give this song to a stranger as a gift.”

Lee even said the experience can become so emotional that singers have sometimes needed to cut performances short.

“I’ve seen enough times that the emotion between these two people [is] so intense, so the singer sometimes gets so emotionally affected by the receiver and they just choked up; they couldn’t continue singing,” said Lee. “I’ve seen that happen quite a lot of times.”

The origins of “Sonic Blossom” are similarly emotional. “[‘Sonic Blossom’] came from when I was taking care of my mother back in Taipei when she was very ill — I’d play Schubert’s lieder for her,” Lee said. “The reason is because when I was young, growing up in Taiwan, I was very rambunctious, and my mom would play Schubert’s lieder during hot summer evenings to calm me down.”

“Sonic Blossom” seemed to be a hit with museum guests.

Maria Neusa, a visitor chosen to receive a song, was moved by the experience. “[I] loved it,” she said, calling it “magnificent.”

Those who watched without participating were no less enthusiastic.

“This is one of my favorite new exhibitions,” Andrea Bonanno, a volunteer at the museum, said. “It’s incredibly therapeutic. This whole place is very therapeutic.”

Staff Writer Iris M. Lewis can be reached at iris.lewis@ thecrimson.com.

the week in arts

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TUESDAY ELIZABETH EARLEY PRESENTS ‘LIKE WINGS, YOUR HANDS’ Join award-winning author and editor Elizabeth Earley for a discussion of her novel, “Like Wings, Your Hands.”

Harvard Bookstore. 7 p.m. Free.

23

WEDNESDAY

JAMI ATTENBERG PRESENTS ‘ALL THIS COULD BE YOURS’ Join author of “The Middelsteins” and “All Grown Up,” Jami Attenberg, for a discussion of her new novel, “All This Could Be Yours.”

Harvard Book Store. 7 p.m. Free.

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THURSDAY

TONI MORRISON: “THE PIECES I AM” Harvard Divinity School is hosting a screening of the film with Divinity School Professor David Carrasco giving an introduction.

Paine Hall. 4 p.m. Free.

25 26

FRIDAY

BOSTON PALESTINE FILM FESTIVAL: “SCREWDRIVER” (MAFAK) After more than a decade in an Israeli jail for an impulsive childhood attack that failed, newly released Zia (played

by Ziad Bakri) doesn’t recognize the world around him.

Brattle Theatre. 7 p.m. $13.

SATURDAY CIRQUE OF THE DEAD Come for a Halloween circus, adultsonly extravaganza: aerials, acrobatics, burlesque, sideshow, and more.

Oberon, American Repertory Theater. 6:30 or 10:30 p.m. $30.

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SUNDAY SCREENING OF ‘MEMORY: THE ORIGINS OF ALIEN’ Writer and director Alexandre O. Philippe dissects and analyzes the infamous “chestbuster” scene from Ridley Scott’s cultclassic sci-fi film, “Alien.”

Brattle Theatre. 9:30 p.m. Starting at $10.

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MONDAY

VISITING ARTIST LECTURE WITH AMY MACKLE Hear Irish ceramic maker, Amy Mackle, give a lecture on her large scale installations that grapple with the relationship between the natural and the manufactured.

Ceramics Program, 224 Western Avenue, Allston. 5:30 - 6:30 p.m.

COURTESY OF ANDREA BOWER

22 October 2019 | Vol CXLVI, ISSUE XIV Arts Chairs Kaylee S. Kim ‘20 Caroline A. Tsai ’20

Editor Associates Joy C. Ashford ‘22 Kalos K. Chu ‘22 Aline G. Damas ’20

Iris M. Lewis ‘21 Claire N. Park ‘20 Isabel C. Ruehl ‘20 Allison J. Scharmann ‘21 Caroline E. Tew ’20 Shruthi Venkata ‘22 Lucy Wang ’20

Executive Designer Mireya C. Arango ‘20 Ashley E. Bryant ‘22

Design Associates Amanda R. Stetz ‘22 Maia R. Zonis ‘22

Executive Photographers Kathryn S. Kuhar ‘20 Zennie L. Wey ‘20

ARTS

THE HARVARD CRIMSON | OCTOBER 22, 2019 | PAGE 4

TV

COURTESY OF PETER KRAMER/HBO

‘Succession’ Succeeds ‘Game of Thrones’ as TV’s Next Big Show JOHN OUR CONTRIBUTING WRITER Since “Game of Thrones” ended in May, many have worried about HBO’s future, especially in light of the upcoming streaming wars, which will mean more streaming TV than ever before. Will HBO be able to compete with the likes of Netflix, Amazon, Apple TV+, Disney+, and Peacock, the upcoming streaming service by NBCUniversal?

Chances are the answer is yes, especially if HBO continues to put out shows like “Succession,” arguably the best drama on TV right now, if not the best show on TV. Just a reminder to any “Fleabag” fans out there: “Fleabag” is not returning for a third season, so it can no longer be the top-rated show.

“Succession” first premiered in June 2018, and recently wrapped its second season last weekend. The show was not particularly popular when it first premiered, but now it has become a must-watch for both viewers and critics alike. The show focuses on the fictional Roy family, the owners of a right-wing media empire, Waystar Royco (think Rupert Murdoch and Fox News). The patriarch and CEO of Waystar Royco is the brash Logan Roy (Brian Cox), who has four adult children: Kendall Roy (Jeremy Strong), Roman Roy (Kieran Culkin), Siobhan “Shiv” Roy (Sarah Snook), and Connor Roy (Alan Ruck). Each child awaits their chance to succeed their father as CEO of Waystar Royco, hence the title of the show.

At the beginning of Season Two, it looks as though the keys to the family company are going to be handed over to Shiv, who emerges as her father’s favorite after Kendall, who seemed destined for the CEO position in the first season, plots a hostile takeover of Waystar Royco with his father’s archrival, Sandy Furness (Larry Pine), and starts abusing cocaine again. Kendall is not necessarily out of the family fold, however, as, at the end of Season One, he accidentally kills a cater waiter just as he was about to takeover Waystar Royco with Sandy. When Logan gets wind of this, he covers up the death, and, in turn, Kendall must submit to his father and give up any hope of ever taking over the family company. In fact, the first scene of the Season Two features Kendall, on the direct orders of his father, going on television and cleaning up the mess he helped make, as Sandy and his friend, Stewy (Arian Moayed), are still gunning for a takeover of Waystar Royco.

While the plot of “Succession” is exciting and gripping, it really is the characters

that make this show so compelling. Kendall, who emerged as one of the key players in Season One, takes more of a backseat. However, one of the greatest moments of TV this year is undoubtedly Kendall’s cringey rap tribute to his father in episode eight of Season Two, which is simultaneously horrific and brilliant. Kendall slowly develops over the course of the season, but it isn’t until the end that the viewer really witnesses his change. Suffice to say, the finale pulls the rug from under the viewers’ feet, and Kendall is a big part of that twist.

Surprisingly, the second season of “Succession” focused much more on Shiv, who went full on Ivanka Trump this season. In one particular scene, Logan callously forces Shiv to threaten and pay off a woman who was sexually harassed at the company in exchange for her silence. What’s most shocking is Shiv’s willingness to comply. Are these illegal and compromising actions really even worth it for Shiv? Despite being promised the top job by her father in episode one of Season Two, Shiv is cast aside by her father for Rhea Jarrell (Holly Hunter), who poses a real threat to Shiv and her agreement with her father. Hunter adds a terrific element to Shiv’s storyline and the plot on the whole.

Other characters who stood out this season include the obnoxious Roman, even if he is a bit forgotten. This, however, may be an indication that he will step up in Season Three. Shiv’s foolish husband, Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen), and Logan’s stupid but increasingly Machievallian grand-nephew, Greg Hirsch (Nicholas Braun), still provide much of the comic relief when paired together. Though Tom is married to Shiv, we all know his real partner is Greg. As much as “Succession” is a serious show, it is also very funny — ironically funnier than most TV comedies. Logan is an incredible character, still steered by the character of King Lear, and as bad as it may sound, it really is enjoyable to watch a father be cruel to his own spoiled, grown adult children.

“Succession” fills the void left by “Game of Thrones,” but it may in fact be a much better show. This show is all about power, but isn’t afraid to go much further: This season even involves a “blood sacrifice” — but we won’t get into that. “Succession” entices viewers so much with its mix of drama and black comedy that if it can maintain that form, it may win the Iron Throne as one of the greatest TV shows of all time.

COURTESY OF BEN ROTHSTEIN/NETFLIX

FILM

After six long years without the antics of Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), Vince Gilligan finally decided to cut his restless fan-base some slack and release another chapter of the “Breaking Bad” saga. “El Camino” gives its audience closure, another dose of expert film-making, and the chance to see Cranston and Paul reprise their iconic roles for perhaps the last time, but does this final chapter taint what came before it?

Unsurprisingly, the film expects its viewers to have seen the entirety of “Breaking Bad” — it is “A Breaking Bad Movie” by its own title. But Gilligan acknowledges that it has been six years since the finale by peppering in reminders about who the characters are or what occurred before the film takes place without smothering it in exposition. A viewer who has never seen the series could easily pick up the major plot points to enjoy this film at the surface level.

But it wouldn’t be a TV movie without some fan-service.

The re-appearance of characters like Walt, Jane (Krysten Ritter), and Mike (Jonathan Banks) both appease the viewers who want to see more of these characters and actually have a functional purpose in the film. They effectively serve as either catalysts for or are critics of Jesse’s actions. Other references, like Pinkman’s iconic “Yeah, bitch! Magnets!” or the first glimpse of the hair under Skinny Pete’s (Charles Baker) beanie, were thrown in with a little wink and a nod to the long-standing fanbase, without bogging down the overall content. “El Camino” artfully manages to give people the call-backs they want without making it an overly nostalgic game of “Oh, I remember that episode” for the audience.

In keeping with the standard of the original series, the cinematography of this film, executed by Marshall Adams, is exceptional. To give just one example of how expertly the film was shot, the mere opening sequence sets up the entire film for such a high level of cinematography. It begins with a handheld shot of the desert of New Mexico, a landscape so synonymous with “Breaking Bad” that it immediately throws the audience into the world of the series again. The

‘eL CAMINO’ IS SO GOOD, iT DOESN’T need TO HAVE A POINT JULIA R. KENNISH CONTRIBUTING WRITER

back of a character’s head moves into frame, but the focus remains on the desert hills in front of them. Even while out of focus, the figure with the buzz-cut is instantly recognizable as Jesse Pinkman. Every element of this scene subtly transports the viewer to the world of “Breaking Bad” without even a single line of dialogue.

The camera work throughout the film allows for the audience to learn things before the characters and vice versa.

Marshall seems to have taken great care in deciding what to show and what not to show to the camera, letting the audience use their own knowledge of the show and characters to figure things out before having them explained explicitly. Music director Dave Porter effectively utilizes a pounding drum-beat to represent key moments of stress for Pinkman. The sound mimics a pounding heart, causing the audience to immediately empathize with the anxiety of the characters as their hearts began to race.

At this point in the history of “Breaking Bad” and its production, it’s almost redundant to mention the outstanding performances of the actors. As expected, every performance in “El Camino” feels like the actor has lived the character for years, which in many ways they have.

Paul’s performance didn’t feel like a performance at all — he simply breathes through the character of Jesse Pinkman.

All the performances were a perfect reminder as to how the show worked so well and was so impactful in the first place.

The only drawback is the plot itself. There seems to be a goal in sight, for Pinkman to evade the Police and get his happy ending, but the plot points that lead to that objective are meandering and unfocused. While a plot structure like this can be used effectively, such as in “Good Time” (the 2017 Safdie Brothers film), “El Camino” has five seasons of history behind it already. Television series are built to be medandering, with an overarching narrative carrying them through. A film built from a television series has to be strong in its conviction that it is a story that has to be told, and told in a film format. “El Camino” could have easily been a three episode extension of “Breaking Bad.”

Did this film even need to be made in the light of the near-flawless series that is “Breaking Bad”? The finale of the show already implied the eventual happy ending that “El Camino” provides. Watching Jesse drive into the night screaming and banging on his steering wheel tells the audience all they need to know, that he reclaimed his freedom — and “El Camino” doesn’t add to that.

But Gilligan hints that this meandering plot is central to Pinkman as a character. In the final scene of the film, Jane tells Jesse about the role of fate in her life. “I’ve gone where the universe takes me my whole life. It’s better to make those decisions for yourself,” she says. Throughout the film, Jesse has gone wherever he is taken in order to reach his goal of freedom. The final decision he makes to gain it could be considered wildly out of character, but it’s at this point that he follows Jane’s advice, taking control of his own life and being an active participant in his own story. While he may seem to have a decaying sense of morality, he maintains his integrity and his need to, in his own words, “Put things right,” but as Mike tells him in the opening scene, “That’s the one thing you can never do.”

The potential weaknesses in the plot don’t detract from Gilligan’s fantastic writing. While the overall story is tenuous, the individual scenes are engaging and intelligently written. Gilligan makes a point to teach the audience a lesson about a circumstance or character, and then teach the exact opposite lesson in the next scene. He pulls the rug out from under you and so keeps the audience feeling tense and chaotic, just as the characters do.

“El Camino” isn’t necessary to understand the full scope of the “Breaking Bad” universe, but it wasn’t created with the intention of doing so. “El Camino” is cinematically exceptional and an incredible revisiting of characters and storylines people have loved for years. Any fan of the original series would be hard-pressed to say it isn’t worth watching. And after all, the purpose of creating a piece of entertainment is to entertain people — going beyond pure entertainment is merely a welcome addition.

ARTS

THE HARVARD CRIMSON | OCTOBER 22, 2019 | PAGE 5

MUSIC

Harry Styles ‘Lights Up’ the Charts CLARA V. NGUYEN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

COURTESY OF HARRY STYLES/ERSKINE/COLUMBIA

Of all the British cultural icons named Harry, the Boy Who Lived and the Duke of Sussex among them, none can rock the stage (or head-to-toe florals) like Harry Styles. After joining the pantheon of boy-band heartthrobs as a member of One Direction, Styles brought his silky voice and easygoing charm to his 2017 solo debut. On Oct. 11, he surprised fans with the release of “Lights Up,” the lead single from his forthcoming album. Once again, Styles’s popstar sheen propels a track with enough verve to light up even the darkest of autumn nights.

Styles’s latest release has all the makings of an instant chart-topper while subverting pop’s most tired tropes. As the song opens, gently pulsing synth chords cast an effervescent veil over his voice without overwhelming the underlying guitar and piano riffs. In a refreshing change from the recent surge of bass-fueled dance tracks, the beat here acts as accompaniment, not centerpiece. Styles begins the song with a question. “What do you mean?” he asks. Instead of waiting for an answer, he continues: “I’m sorry by the way / Never going back now.” Styles’s use of “by the way” and jaunty tone turn his apology into a flippantly unrepentant afterthought, every bit as unrestrained and gleeful as the carefree vocal run that follows.

Styles takes a more introspective turn in the chorus, opening up about the “dark / Running through my heart” and the pressure of life as a performer. “Lights up and they know who you are,” he sings, setting the last two words of each phrase to an unexpectedly melancholy minor third. He concludes the chorus with a blunt question, seemingly for both himself and his audience: “Do you know who you are?”

After a series of descending piano octaves, the bridge explodes with buoyant energy.

Styles dismantles the chorus’ ambiguity, directly urging his listeners to “shine” and “step into the light.” He then reaffirms a sentiment from the first verse: “I’m not ever going back,” he declares, placing defiant emphasis on every syllable.

Styles’s exuberant embrace of his identity on “Lights Up,” as well as its release on National Coming Out Day and music video featuring Styles dancing in a sea of statuesque men and women, has led many fans to interpret the song as a declaration of his sexuality. Styles, though, has “never felt the need” to elaborate on his orientation. “I don’t feel like it’s something I’ve ever felt like I have to explain about myself,” he said in a 2017 interview with the Sun. Like Styles himself, his music needs no labels to shine.

THEATER

Harvard Ballet Company’s ‘she is’: A Show of Solidarity and Empowerment SOFIA ANDRADE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

“To Be, To Know, To Love.”

The Harvard Ballet Company chose these three themes as the centerpoints of their exploration of womanhood, “she is.” According to the program, the production, directed by Margaret Canady and Isabel Wu, “explored ideas related to the development, challenges, and joys of womxnhood, all inspired by the dancers’ personal stories and experiences.” Each dance’s music and choreography was made by women. A short film comprised of three parts, directed

by Austin Eder and produced by Sophie Barry, was screened at the beginning of each act, each part focusing on one of the three themes.

The film screened before the first act, “To Be,” focused on body consciousness as a woman and interviewed cast members about the effect ballet had on their self-image, pushing them to pay attention to the length of their torsos, feet, height, and weight. Cast members danced in different outdoor settings around Cambridge. The cool-toned filter gave an appearance of intimacy, bringing the dancers’ every movement to the big screen as they opened up about their relationship with their bodies.

The first act was made up of five dances, each executed gracefully and powerfully by dancers dressed in burgundy. Most of the dancers wore everyday clothing, such as two-piece pant sets and shift dresses, blurring, and perhaps challenging, the usually rigid line between classical ballet and real life. Many also wore their hair half-up, a clear departure from the traditional slicked-back bun. This breaking of tradition was apparent from the very first dance, “Dawn,” a more classical piece characterized by captivating canons and pirouettes added to a certain sense of freedom. “Whatever sits at the center” and “misplaced and hiding” built on to this freedom, with dancers performing much more contemporary choreography, focusing on sharp isolations and other unconventional movements. Turned-in and purposefully flexed feet further contributed to this breaking away from classical ballet. Movements in canon dominated here, too, with “misplaced and hiding” giving the sense that each dancer was a mirror to another and hinting at the conformity forced upon women by society. In “Wildfire,” partner work and lifts featuring womxn both being lifted and lifting others seemed intentionally engineered to counter the stereotypical male-female lift model.

“To Know,” and the short film preceding it, seemed to focus on society’s problematic view of womxn as less-than and as people who shouldn’t stray too far from the guidelines. “It’s really popular to be feminist and an empowered woman [now]… but at the same time adhering to beauty standards,” said Canady. The short film also touched on the space taken up my men,

COURTESY OF MARGARET CANADY

a concept emphasized in the first dance of the act, “Strepsiptera.” Here, a single male soloist took up the entire stage, dancing alone in center stage as the other dancers remained frozen on the sidelines. He was eventually joined by the other dancers, and the whole dance maintained a sense of restlessness, a desperation to be seen and heard, intensifying into an anxious yet calculated chaos at the end. This act also featured pointe shoes for the first time in the show and costumes changed from burgundy to blue. “Home/body,” the fourth dance of the act, featured barefoot dancers anxiously grabbing and covering different parts of themselves, glaringly conscious of their bodies. As the dance progressed, this fretful energy dissipated as the dancers started to lean on each other, suggesting the healing power of solidarity and friendship among women. “Disclosure” ended the act with a desire to break free. With hands over their mouths, each of the three dancers took turns under a static spotlight while the other two stayed still. The dancer in the spotlight at any given time moved within it, but never strayed too far, seemingly trapped by its borders yet struggling to escape them, hinting at how women struggle to break free of societal expectations. The act, later followed by a 10-minute intermission, ended with all the dancers lining up on stage, covering their mouths over and over again.

The last act, “To Love,” shifted the costumes to gold, with dancers in glittery pants, shimmery skirts, and crop tops lighting up the stage. Here, they shone, taking up space and making their presence known. The first dance, “Caught,” started without music. Every movement was heard: the hard box of pointe shoes hitting the marley floor, the shifting of legs, the light thud of leaps landing. All the daintiness, the illusion of effortlessness that so dominated all the other dances, faded. The audience could feel every movement and the strength needed to execute them so gracefully. The dancers were anything but delicate.

The show’s closing number, “to claim as her own,” acted as a reprise. Dancers in all costume colors appeared on a stage blinded by white light. The music stopped and restarted frequently, yet the dancers never stopped moving. Seemingly effortless yet powerful all at once, the choreography oscillated between graceful and sharp movement. Elements of every dance were reincorporated, providing a sense of fulfillment only brought to completion when all the performing company dancers walked out to bathe the stage in red, blue, and gold, creating a beautiful ripple from one corner of the stage to the other.

To end the show, all the dancers joined in a group at center stage, smiling and leaning on each other. Vibrant and intimate, the production brought the challenges and joys of womanhood to life, translating individual ideas to the universal experience of being a woman.

ARTS

THE HARVARD CRIMSON | OCTOBER 22, 2019 | PAGE 6

BOOKS

Author Leigh Bardugo Discusses ‘NINTH HOUSE’ at Cambridge Public Library ALINE G. DAMAS STAFF WRITER Though known for her vivid fantasy young adult book series, Leigh Bardugo surprised fans when she announced that her newest novel, “Ninth House,” would be the first installation in an adult fantasy series focusing on secret societies at Yale University, Bardugo’s alma mater. Just a week after the book’s release, Bardugo spoke about her new novel and answered audience questions at an event moderated by fellow writer Kelly Link and sponsored by the Harvard Book Store at the Cambridge Public Library on Oct. 16.

“Ninth House” follows tough, LA-raised Alex Stern as she comes to New Haven for the first time, ready to join Yale’s freshman class. Though she is a high school dropout caught up in a world of gangs, Alex is given a second chance in the form of a scholarship to the elite university after surviving an unsolved multiple homicide. Soon, Alex discovers that her furtive benefactors have ulterior motives: They ask her to spy on the activities of Yale’s secret societies. When the groups’ activities prove to be more sinister than imagined, Alex finds herself caught in an even darker world than the one she escaped.

Bardugo, who was raised in the LA area by her grandparents, worked a number of jobs after graduating, including being a set makeup artist and logging tape for “The Bachelor.” In spite of this, she returned to her love of writing and found almost instant success with her “Shadow and Bone” trilogy, set in a fictional world inspired by Tsarist Russia. For her new novel, Bardugo drew much inspiration from her own experience at the school.

“I was in a secret society at Yale,” she confirmed at the event.

When asked by Link about the challenges of writing this book, Bardugo elaborated on being restricted by the history of Yale. “In some ways, it was incredibly frustrating, because this is set in New Haven. I didn’t want to mess around with where the streets were, where the buildings were… I wanted it to be true to the city,” she said.

Paradoxically, she found the place to also be a minefield of ideas. “New Haven did a lot of heavy lifting for me, because it is such a weird spectacularly strange city with so many stories in it that it was constantly feeding me inspiration,” she said. “And there is this incredible tension, where you are not sure what’s real and what’s imagined. That’s a pleasure you don’t get from secondary world fantasy. You’ll be surprised by what’s true.”

When an audience member asked about the definition of YA and writing outside the genre, Bardugo was quick to point out that adults and kids read books interchangeably, with YA simply being a marketing category. Link also provided her own definition of YA: “The story is about someone who is experiencing something for the first time. Coming into some kind of agency or power or finding a community… that’s why there is so much overlap with fantasy or science fiction because that description fits a lot of books even though they are adult titles,” Link said.

Bardugo, a self-proclaimed goth, loves the supernatural and horror, which is why these elements are so present in her writ-

ing. “There is this really tight relationship between horror and shame. And shame is in all of my books as the biggest monster. And horror is all about creating a metaphor for something you can’t face… That connection is super powerful for me,” she said.

She also added that writing in these genres was an exciting experience in itself. “There is also something very thrilling about making [the reader] experience something viscerally. It’s all well and good to turn in a beautiful poetic phrase that ends up on a pillow … but I want there to be a visceral response to what I write.”

When Link asked her more about this shift from fantasy to the uncanny, Bardugo answered rather lightly. “The goth in me wants to believe [the world] is all picnics and cemeteries,” she said to much audience laughter.

But Bardugo insisted that her draw to this new genre was linked to the story itself. “There is a part of this book that is ugly and I don’t know why but it thrills me to look at the ugly parts as well as the beautiful,” she said.

When an audience member asked about the process of creating her protagonists, Bardugo narrowed in on the challenge of writing characters in the real world. “[It was] all about raising the stakes for [Alex Sterne]. This is part of why I wanted to write an adult book, because it’s not trying to get to a finite point…. She’s trying to find a strategy for how she’s going to survive this world,” she said. She also spoke about forming a connection to the characters she writes. “[Another character, Darlington] has this desperate wish for magic to be real and I recognize it in me too…. Every character I have their desire is linked to some desire I can understand.”

Local university student Erica G. Coakley, who is familiar with Bardugo’s earlier works, walked away from the even not only charmed by her writing but also by her presence. “She’s the first writer I’ve wanted to see in person and what was validated for me is that I’m still in love with her,” Coakley said.

Bardugo also touched on the feathers that she ruffled for deciding writing about an elite, moneyed institution. “It was a risk to pitch this book... there was a little punishment in the process

COURTESY OF MACMILLAN PUBLISHING

of publishing this book. A lot of people didn’t want me to publish it,” she said.

Yet the deeply personal experience of writing meant that any difficulties would not deter her. She ended the evening by emphasizing that this book, while shocking, was not about shock value. “Some people thought I should stay in my lane and that was painful since this book is so important to me,” she said. “I poured two years of my life into this book and my heart and my personal experience and, yeah, it should shock you. It should disturb you.”

Staff writer Aline G. Damas can be reached at aline.damas@ thecrimson.com.

COLUMN

FLOAT pt. 1 YASH KUMBHAT CONTRIBUTING WRITER speckled with emerald, and K’s are the color of mangoes, a sunkissed yellow. She’s beautiful, you’re right, F says, smiling at the bartender.

K finds herself speaking with the couple sitting beside her. The couple is on their honeymoon. The husband runs a hedge fund, the wife is a lawyer, they were barely able to make the time for this trip — no, they do not see children in their future, and though they live somewhere now, they want to live somewhere else later, and so on and so forth.

K thinks of her honeymoon so many years ago. They had gone to a small island in the Pacific. On the last day, F and K had paddled out to where the waves swelled and broke against them like violent embraces — pulling them in, pushing them away. They had tried and tried again to stand up straight on their surfboards. Each time, a wall of water knocked them down and swallowed them whole. K remembers being underwater: always, the sense that she would never see F again, the endless flailing of all her limbs as she struggled to the surface. She wanted to quit within the first hour, but F refused. He insisted that each time they lasted a second longer on the board was a victory. They tried all day until it was dark.

K thought then that F’s blind struggle against things was his best quality; he didn’t know when, or how, to give up. Then, exhausted, they had lain in the sand and looked up at the night sky, at all the little perforations in its black dome. What’s next? K had asked. I don’t know, but it will be good, F had said.

Now, F is telling the newlywed couple about their life: He met K in high school, they dated on and off through college and soon, they married and K was pregnant, and then pregnant again. They raised their children in the city and, in the last two years, sent them both off to college — on full scholarships, he adds proudly. F was just made partner at his law firm and K likes her job teaching middle school mathematics. Now that the children are gone, there is so much more time for them to spend together.

K remembers a time when she loved to watch F talk. His lips pushed sounds out in the gentlest way. He made each word feel like it was the truth. That night, though they came together, neither one makes any effort to speak directly to the other; being there fills the silence and seems, at least, like an attempt at speaking.

She thinks of all the things he left out in his summary — all those hollow stretches of time between the big things that have kept them occupied for so long. She wonders if he has simply forgotten, or if he remembers, and is foolishly crashing into the waves again. She knows, somewhere, that she is not, that she is at the bottom of the ocean, amongst the fish and the reefs; she wonders if

COURTESY OF MARLENA SKRABAK

Tonight, F insists on going to the pub. He puts on the clothes he thinks he looks best in, buffs his shoes, and combs back his hair with gel, and he places himself firmly at the foot of their bed.

What’s the point of coming halfway across the world if you’re just going to stay in the hotel? he says.

K does not answer; that coming halfway across the world may have, in fact, been pointless; that the room’s polished edges make it feel like all the other hotel rooms she has ever been in and will ever be in; that the blankets are heavy enough to displace all sensation of the outside world; that the glow of the television is warm and comforting; that a tight, nauseating embrace has drawn her in and refuses to let her go — and that she has not yet found it within herself to ask to be let go either — is too honest to say out loud.

F sits down beside her and slips his hands underneath the blankets and slowly massages her feet; he has always been great at this, K thinks. He presses into the soles of her feet and looks up. K pulls her feet away. What’s the point? she says flatly. To be together, he says. He cocks his head slightly to the left. Come out with me, please? F asks. Please?

The pub is not far from the hotel. In fact, in this small fishing village on the edges of northern Spain, nothing is far from anything. The village, cradled between a spine of gentle cliffs and a rough, gray sea, is heavy with tourists who, upon arrival, turn swiftly to butterflies. The sky is so obscured by a low fog of lightwinged creatures, no one can be sure of what the time is. The butterflies are in constant motion, such that the narrow streets are drowned in an incessant flapping of wings, each one the first sign of a storm. F and K are butterflies too.

The pub has not yet begun to overflow when F and K arrive. It is quite small, lit by dull lights like old, folded sunsets and full of stumbling bodies, all fluttering in circles on an invisible, drunken carousel that floats haltingly past the bar (an oaken, straight line pockmarked with rings and stars of wine and whiskey) and through a careful pattern of wooden tables and chairs, and past a broken but good-looking jukebox, and to and from a pair of bathrooms, which are sticky and smell of urine and blood orange air freshener.

F speaks broken Spanish charmingly. He smiles apologetically for his mispronunciations and often stops mid-sentence to ask for a word, or to check in and see if he is being understood. K does not speak Spanish and when she tries, slips awkwardly into French (the only foreign language she knows). F has not decided whether he finds it adorable or embarrassing. The bartender tells them they look lovely together. F’s wings, thin and translucent, are light blue

she will ever swim to the surface again.

Soon, F has a whole host of new friends and has left K alone at the bar. He glides to the top of the room, floating precariously close to the ceiling fan, and announces that all the drinks that night are on him. He hoots and his excited wings catch the light in a spectacular trick of radiance. I love you all! I’ll never forget any of you! he exclaims. The pub embraces him wildly, howling his name in joy. K, nursing a cognac, scoffs disdainfully. She looks at F, flitting from corner to corner, and wishes he wasn’t the way he is.

She wishes she was like him. Wanting to leave, K calls his name.

F! F? she says. He does not respond. The man sitting beside her sees her waving at F, who is in the middle of a young group of men all gleefully slapping each other on the back, and says, That guy is funny. He your husband? No, K says. She pauses. Then, Want to leave? she asks.

K pulls F from his crowd of admirers for a second and tells him that she is leaving. F, his little butterfly body ecstatic with the pub’s adoration, widens his eyes and drunkenly takes K’s hands in his. Stay, please, he says. I want you to stay. She pulls her hand away from his. We haven’t said a word to each other all night, she says. There’s no point in going on like this. I’m going home with him, she says, gesturing to the man at the bar. F stares at her, the man, her again. K sighs and wishes him a goodnight, and flutters into the street, the man one step behind her.

Yash Kumbhat’s ‘21 column of serialized fiction is called ‘Little Deaths’ and is a triptych of short stories that explore the literal and figurative interpretations of a ‘petite mort.’

Page 7

THE HARVARD CRIMSON | october 22, 2019

Former Ambassador Shares Hopes for Ukraine By davit Antonyan and Jasper G. Goodman Contributing Writers

Former United States diplomat John F. Tefft shared his hopes for the new Ukranian government under recently elected President Volodymyr O. Zelensky at a talk in the Barker Center to launch Harvard’s new Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program on Monday evening.

The new program is set to expand the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute’s focus on contemporary geopolitical issues involving Ukraine.Tefft, who served as U.S. ambassador to Lithuania, Georgia, Ukraine, and Russia during a 45-year career in the Foreign Service, said that “now is the time” for western nations to support the new Ukrainian government.

“You could really get a sense of the palpable excitement in the Ukranian capital, which was generated by the election of Volodymyr Zelensky and the new parliament,” Tefft said, reflecting on his experience attending the Yalta European Strategy Conference in Kiev last month. Tefft cautioned that change will be difficult to accomplish in Ukraine, which faces issues with corrup­

tion and has remained engaged in conflict with Russian forces since 2014 in the eastern region of Donbass.

“The goal of this program in general is to serve as a bridge between the scholarly and policy communities in order to promote a deeper understanding of Ukraine in the world,” said Emily Channell-Justice, Temerty Program Director.

“I’m a firm believer that the more interaction we have between the scholarly community and people who are in foreign service, the better,” Tefft said.

“My family is from Ukraine, and I wanted to come to this talk to better understand the current situation at home and what I could do to support them,” said audience member Sasha Beresovsky. The launch of the new Ukraine program coincides with the United States’ relationship with the country coming under increased scrutiny. The U.S. House of Representatives is currently investigating President Donald Trump in an impeachment inquiry that was launched after Trump asked Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, in a July phone call.

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Tefft began his talk by stating he would not comment on the current domestic political battle surrounding Ukraine, citing his work as a senior fellow at the RAND Corporation. He did, however, offer support for Marie L. Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, who testified before the House on Oct. 11 that President Trump pressured the State Department to remove her as ambassador.

“I do want to emphasize that I do feel strongly about the mistreatment of our former ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, and have signed letters of support to her,” Tefft said.

Tefft said that he remains cautiously hopeful for the future, claiming that the Temerty Progra, and the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute are essential to maintaining open conversations about contemporary problems in Ukraine.

“You have this new government open to change, to reform, to negotiation — it’s important to support Ukraine, to keep giving them leverage in their negotiations with the Russians, to be able to achieve the kinds of things that I think all Americans want,” he said.

Former United States Ambassador to Ukraine John F. Tefft spoke about the United State’s relationship with Ukraine at an event in the Barker Center Monday evening. sydney r. mason—contributing photographer

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Athletics Implement News Kiosk Will Sanctions Policy Become Pop-Up

‘Free Them Week’ Begins with Report

captain.”

Captain selection processes vary from team to team, though the Athletics department provides general guidelines, according to Scalise. He said that ideally, athletes decide who should captain their teams and how many captains should lead the team.

“Coaches can make a statement, but they should not be running that process,” Scalise said.

In many cases, captain selection is run without coaches or staff members present. For example, the men’s swim team uses a “peer election process” and the coaches do not have any oversight, according to varsity swimmer Charles J. Vaughan ’21.

Several athletes say there has been little communication from their coaching staff or the athletic administration regarding implementation of sanctions policies with regards to varsity teams captaincies. Six athletes, representing four different teams, said in interviews with The Crimson that they have not heard anything from administrators about implementation of the sanctions.

honestly simply unacceptable that we get to sit in these beautiful hallways and eat this amazing food because of prisons, so if anyone has any questions about how Harvard is entangled with the prison industrial complex, this report gives a really good resource and in-depth background on the problem.”

“President Bacow has met with advocates for prison divestment,” University spokesperson Jason A. Newton wrote last week. “He has also invited them to meet with members of the Corporation Committee on Shareholder Responsibility and looks forward to further discussion.”

HPDC is scheduled to meet with Bacow and the Corporation’s Committee on Shareholder Responsibility on Oct. 28.

The CCSR is a subcommittee of the Harvard Corporation — the University’s highest governing body — that advises the University on social responsibility.

After the group reviewed the report, 10 members of HPDC walked from the Law School to Mass. Hall to deliver their findings and demands to University administrators. The protestors began chanting as they walked

Some athletes said they are skeptical about whether the administration will be able to enforce the sanctions.

“If you really want to be a part of a single-gender organization, even if the sanctions do apply to your social class, you’re going to do it anyway,” men’s volleyball team member Adam Gordon ’21 said. “There’s really not much stopping you.”

Scalise said the Athletics Department is simply following the College’s larger philosophy on implementation.

“The standard is what the standard is for all Harvard students,” he said. “We’re not trying to create our own policies or our own thing that it hasn’t been vetted by everyone.”

The Athletics Department’s implementation of the sanctions policies are consistent with the Dean of Students’ Office’s policies, according to College spokesperson Aaron M. Goldman. Scalise said implementing the sanctions has been difficult. “It’s hard to articulate it, to put it in writing,” he said.

“We’re trying to do the right thing here.” devin.srivastava@thecrimson.com

transition from, you know, commercial environment to public space,” Jillson said.

This will be a testing ground not only for the CultureHouse to see how it goes for them, but also to see what’s possible in that space as we transition from commerical environment to public space.

Denise Jillson Director Harvard Square Business Association

Anastasia Onyango ’22 said she is curious to see how CultureHouse will fit within the changing landscape of the Square.

“The evolution of the Square is so interesting to me because there are a lot of higher end stores coming into the Square,” she said. “To juxtapose those

new retail stores with the idea of a community center is really interesting to me.”

Greiner said he believes CultureHouse will provide an appealing space for neighborhood residents amid the changing makeup of the Square.

“Harvard as an area has

To juxtapose those new retail stores with the idea of a community center is really interesting to me.

Anastasia Onyango ’22 Student

changed a lot over recent years and has this perception of being less and less connected to the community,” Greiner said.

“Some people feel as if Harvard Square is not for them anymore.

We want to invite them back and say this is a space for you, this is a space by you.” ellen.burstein@thecrimson.com sydnie.cobb@thecrimson.com

Transformative coverage.

The Crimson thecrimson.com

into Harvard Yard and cheered as two students entered the administrative building.

Law School student Marina L. Multhaup said she joined Monday’s demonstration after transferring to Harvard and realizing the school invests in companies tied to the prison industry. “I’m so excited to be at Harvard, it’s like an honor to be at this institution and then to find out that Harvard invest in prisons as things that just tear people down made me feel a lot worse about being here,” Multhaup said. “But then luckily, I met these amazing organizers who are involved in the prison divestment campaign.”

Chan said the report was a way to institutionalize and spread the campaign’s mission.

“What usually happens is the administration waits for movements to die out,” Chan said.

“They just wait for students to graduate. They just wait for students to do other stuff during the summer. But this summer, we put our heads together and we made this report so that... nobody can refute that we haven’t put our research out.” alexandra.chaidez@thecrimson.com

THE HARVARD CRIMSON | OCTOBER 22, 2019

PAGE 8

EDITORIAL THE CRIMSON EDITORIAL BOARD

OP-ED

The Case for a Car Free Harvard Square

My Names

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ast month, a truck driving through Harvard Square struck and killed 67-year-old librarian Sharon Hamer.

In response to the tragic fatality, Cambridge residents and the City Council have actively considered a variety of safety reforms, which include advocacy from pedestrian safety groups to cracking down on distracted driving.

Many of these proposed safety reforms hold some promise, but the most effective way of ending pedestrian deaths is by removing cars from Harvard Square entirely.

There is a rich tradition of alternative theories in urban design that reclaims public spaces for pedestrians while maintaining viable transportation networks.

While a future without cars in public spaces like Harvard Square may be hard to imagine, the centrality of cars in urban life is itself a political phenomenon born of insidious socio-historical dynamics.

What politics have made, they can unmake.

And despite how entrenched automotive culture has become in our world, it need not be a permanent fixture of our shared spaces.

Other cities around the world have experimented with working to clear cars from pedestrian-heavy areas.

Barcelona has pioneered “superblock” areas within which streets are devoted to common spaces for the public, and cars are restricted to the major avenues between superblocks.

New York City began a redesign of Times Square in 2009 that closed off large areas to cars, citing safety and de-

creased fatalities as a major legacy of the changes.

New York’s Financial District also has large areas free from cars.

In fact, efforts at such car-free areas have been bubbling in local politics in cities like Hamburg, Helsinki, Oslo, and Madrid.

Like Times Square, Harvard Square is a major tourist attraction.

Barring cars from such spaces aids in their capacity as sites of learning and civic engagement.

As a center of higher education, Harvard Square particularly stands to benefit from the symbolic reorganization of

Many of these proposed safety reforms hold some promise, but the most effective way of ending pedestrian deaths is by removing cars from Harvard Square entirely. public space that affirms the accessibility of our campus and our community.

That said, we recognize that such an ambitious reform is unlikely to happen in the near future.

For that reason, we’d like to call on the Cambridge City government to address a few particular problematic intersections in addition to the center of Harvard Square.

These spots include the corners of Quincy Street and Broadway, Quincy Street and Cambridge Street, Mt. Auburn Street and Holyoke Street, and Bow Street and Plympton Street. These inter-

sections are particularly troublesome for many students and the greater campus community.

Moreover, the city should also consider standard measures to implement across its population and their traffic grids outside of our campus.

We also believe that pedestrians and drivers around Harvard Square must be more vigilant about each other’s presence, which means total focus and minimal phone use.

In working to create safer intersections and roadways, Cambridge might consider working with the Graduate School of Design, and vice versa.

Given Harvard’s substantial stake in making Cambridge a safe place for pedestrians, the University should work to foster these partnerships and contribute the expertise of its community in urban planning where it can.

We’d like to conclude by mourning the death of Hamer, who devoted her life to the betterment of our community as a librarian and board member of the Massachusetts School Library Association.

The loss of her life should remind us that issues of urban planning and traffic patterning are serious.

Our streets should be safe for everyone.

This staff editorial solely represents the majority view of The Crimson Editorial Board. It is the product of discussions at regular Editorial Board meetings. In order to ensure the impartiality of our journalism, Crimson editors who choose to opine and vote at these meetings are not involved in the reporting of articles on similar topics.

Submit an Op-Ed Today!

op-eds@thecrimson.com COLUMN

Objective Journalism Doesn’t Exist Ajay M. Singh LITTLE NUANCES

T

er to influence and produce narratives, to inform and shape truth to match their agenda. In doing so, it normalizes the very real tools that systems of power can use to delegitimize and threaten the marginalized.

In his book “Just the Facts: How ‘Objectivity’ Came to Define American Journalism,” communications scholar David Mindich points out that news publications that reported on lynchings in the 19th and 20th century would include the actions that led the lynch mob to kill, in the pursuit of including all perspectives.

This objectivity implicitly rationalized lynching; it constructed a logic by which lynching might be able to occur, therefore normalizing racial violence.

There is a contemporary parallel in how publications choose to cover police brutality. In 2014, a New York Times article covering the death of Eric Garner (a victim of police brutality in New York) describes him by mentioning his weight, highlighting that he was “about to be arrested on charges of illegally selling cigarettes.” In another Times article, the president of a labor union representing police officers said that had Garner “not resisted the lawful order of the police officers placing him under arrest, this tragedy would not have occurred.”

In this article, the Times also mentioned that Garner “had other health issues, including diabetes, sleep apnea and asthma,” which the medical examiners cited as “contributing conditions to his death.”

By including these details about Garner’s death, I believe the Times constructed a world in which Garner shared responsibility for his death with the police that killed him.

The pursuit of these “objective” constructions of truth can also yield drastic consequences for marginalized groups whose access to civil rights largely relies on their ability to escape unjust laws, to remain anonymous. A prominent example is the incarceration and deportation of undocumented immigrants and activists following their identification in public media. There’s abundant evidence that the United States Immigration and

O

n my way back home from traveling abroad this summer, I found myself in front of a customs declaration, like I have on many other occasions.

But instead of quickly flipping through the questions, one prompt gave me pause. On one of the first screens, the customs form asked for my first name and my “family” name.

So I wrote down the last name I’ve had my whole life and the name I was given at birth.

I wrote down my family name — my father’s family name.

In the United States, like in many other English-speaking countries, that’s just the way it is.

When you’re born, you take your father’s last name. Amongst most heterosexual couples, the wife takes the husband’s last name.

This is not codified into law, but rather carried on my tradition and by custom.

This year, I’ve started to change my name on social media, school documents, in my byline, and hopefully one day soon, legally.

Rather than changing who I am, I’m for the first time representing myself and including both of my parents’ last names.

But why?

This practice of the wife and child taking on the husband or father’s surname was formally developed within the institution of civil coverture and predates this country’s founding in English common law.

It was brought across by the first European settlers and archaically, it stems out of the socio-political idea that women become the property of their husbands at marriage.

As a society, I’d like to think we’ve evolved beyond that belief.

Today, despite the fact that women are still vastly disadvantaged by workplace and reproductive inequality, our society is more gender equal than it ever has been before.

In the realm of coverture, we’ve finally started to accept the idea that women aren’t the property of their husbands, but equal and necessarily consenting members of any union.

Writing down and seeing my new, more complete name reminds me every day of the contributions that both my parents and the fact that neither one of them can passively be erased from my history.

The Crimson

he idea of “objective journalism,” the theoretical ability to stay completely neutral in recounting current events, is nice and comforting to think about. It’s also a complete illusion, an utterly ahistorical approach to understanding how journalism affects society.

Objective journalism assumes that all parties in a conversation, or all groups concerned with a single event, have an equal claim to freedom of expression. It therefore assumes that there’s nothing else at stake when covering events of political and social consequence than a difference of opinion.This couldn’t be further from the truth.

In the real world, the value and consequences of speech are directly informed by structural and inherent forms of identity, like race, sexuality, gender identity, ability, or socioeconomic background.

During the Civil Rights movement, nonviolent action by black folks seeking freedom from legal and extralegal exclusion and violence was often called “uncivil,” a label meant to strip the legitimacy of those movements (University President Lawrence S. Bacow recently used similar language of favoring “reason,” not “demands” in response to the Harvard Prison Divestment Campaign’s demands).

Separately, women are often called “hysterical” and “emotional,” a rhetorical move that implicitly but clearly reduces the female claim to so-called “rational” discourse. Rhetorical moves like these are even more dangerous when they legitimize legal and social action that threatens certain groups: because black people have been racialized as essentially “uncivil,” actions like police brutality and mass incarceration gain legitimacy; sexual assault victims (of which a significantly disproportionate number are women) don’t receive proper justice because “they’re emotional, they’re clearly lying, they’re overreacting.”

When the idea of objective journalism assumes an equality of speech, terrible consequences follow. So-called “balanced” information privileges powerful entities like the state and large corporations, entities that have enough pow-

By PATRICK C. BARHAM QUESADA

Customs Enforcement keeps track of local protests and immigrant activism in order to identify potential targets for incarceration and deportation.

Immigrant activism includes student activism. Earlier this month, Act on a Dream, a student-led immigrant rights organization at the College, published a petition challenging The Crimson’s coverage of an “Abolish ICE” rally that Act on a Dream hosted in September. Alongside descriptions of the event itself, the article mentions that “ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday night.”

In an attempt to provide a “balanced” perspective on deportation, news outlets that ask for the agency’s response risk providing the very means to bring protests to ICE’s attention, which can cause the agency to identify undocumented immigrants, enact political violence upon those activists, and silence their calls for equal rights and freedom from systemic injustice.

In pursuing objectivity, we silence the marginalized. In silencing the marginalized, we tip the narrative of “truth” into the hands of the powerful.

Like all news organizations, The Crimson must remain critical and reflective of the way it approaches news, about what legitimacy it lends to which voices, and how its reporting might threaten certain student populations. Yes, in an ideal world, objective journalism would exist. But also in an ideal world, undocumented immigrants wouldn’t suffer the constant threat of being stripped of their rights, of being arrested and deported and subjected to other forms of legal violence.

In the real world, a world shaped by history and culture and systemic injustice, journalists must pay strong attention to how their words might affect their audience, how their journalism might endanger the real lives of the characters in every story that they construct.

—Ajay V. Singh ’21 is a Social Studies concentrator in Kirkland House. His column appears on alternate Tuesdays.

Again, there’s still a long way to go toward true equality, but this is progress Yet, I found myself stuck on this customs form because when I wrote down what the legal response was, I would effectively be writing my mother’s family out of my name.

For all the effort she has put into raising me and taking care of me for twenty years, every time I passively accept this social order of coverture, I am ignoring my mother’s contributions and my mother’s family.

The very trip I was coming back from was to visit her family in Costa Rica — my birthplace — but the customs form and the American natal-marital naming traditions left no space for any acknowledgment of their role in my life.

I can no longer stand by and continue that erasure.

My mother’s family is just as much a part of my life as my father’s is, and since you wouldn’t be able to tell that from the customs form in front of me or any legal identification, I decided to slowly start the process of taking on a new name.

This year, I’ve started to change my name on social media, school documents, in my byline, and hopefully one day soon, legally.

Rather than changing who I am, I’m for the first time fully representing myself and including both my parents’ last names.

After all, that’s my family, and their surnames together are my family name.

This is a small change, but it means the world to me.

Writing down and seeing my new, more complete name reminds me every day of the contributions that both my parents and the fact that neither one of them can passively be erased from my

Next time I’m asked for my family name I can be honest and pay respect to both sides of my family: both beautiful parts of my past and both indelible from my name. history. Not in fact and not on paper.

I am just as much Barham as I am Quesada.

Now, my name reflects this.

As a society, we need to get rid of this seemingly benign vestige of civil coverture that effectively erases the role of women in heterosexual relationships and in families.

It’s outdated, it’s wrong, and changing it requires little if any effort.

In the airport that day, I typed in the name that is on my passport — legally that is still my name.

Soon, though, that too will change so that next time I’m asked for my family name I can be honest and pay respect to both sides of my family: both beautiful parts of my past and both indelible from my name.

—Patrick C. Barham Quesada ’21, a Crimson Editorial editor, is a Government concentrator in Pforzheimer House.

Page 9

THE HARVARD CRIMSON | october 22, 2019

HKS Panel Evaluates Brexit Implications By callia a. chuang and andy z. wang contributing Writers

ization of U.K. political parties as another factor influencing the Brexit debate. While many British people have strong opinions regarding Brexit, few of them have joined parties. As a result, their voices are underrepresented in the halls of Parliament, according to Tucker.

“We essentially have political parties that compete to govern who are fringe movements in our society,” Tucker said. He said that as the two major parties in the U.K. have shifted to the extremes, centrists’ voice has lost weight in both parties, especially on the issue of Brexit.

Balls, who was a Member of Parliament from 2005 to 2015, remarked that the rise of populist sentiments significantly contributed to the Brexit decision. He said that balancing large-scale changes with an acknowledgement of individual identity would mitigate the influence of these sentiments in future Brexit debates.

“You can’t beat populism with the status quo, but you can’t beat populism by telling people they shouldn’t be proud of who they are,” Balls said.

“You have to find a way in which you can have radical change which makes people better off but also allows them to be proud

of who they are, their identity, and their place.”

The panel concluded with questions from the audience, which covered topics ranging from a possible referendum in Scotland to the risk of exiting the E.U. without a deal. When asked about the difference between former U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May’s and current U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Brexit plans, Tucker said that Johnson’s deal, unlike May’s, would remove the current E.U. regulations on trade.

Several attendees said they appreciated the depth of the conversation. “I really enjoyed the different opinions that they had, the way they predicted what might happen and made sense of it, and the points of tension between the speakers,” said Nathan Hodson, a student at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences student Todd Gillespie said he appreciated the speakers’ depiction of the tumultuous U.K. political climate. “I thought it was really informative,” Gillespie said. “[The panel] reflected much of the chaos and indecision and uncertainty that our country is facing at the moment.”

The Harvard Kennedy School hosted an event entitled “What on Earth is Going on With Brexit?” with a panel discussion by Ed Balls, Sir Paul Tucker, and Pippa Norris. Naomi s. castellon-perez—Crimson photographer

British policy experts pointed to polarization and rising populist sentiments as causes of the United Kingdom’s vote to leave the European Union — commonly referred to as “Brexit” — during a panel Monday evening at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

The panel, entitled “What on Earth is Going on With Brexit,” featured two Kennedy School Research Fellows, former U.K. Shadow Chancellor Edward M. Balls and Systemic Risk Council Chair Paul Tucker, as well as Comparative Politics Lecturer Pippa Norris.

Speaking to more than 100 attendees in a packed lecture hall, Norris opened the panel by discussing the societal underpinnings of the Brexit referendum, describing the conflict as a “perfect storm” and a “challenge of cultural identities.”

“This is about, ‘Are you British or are you European or global?’” Norris said. “It’s about the basic fundamentals, about who you are, and those are things which you can’t compromise about.”

Tucker pointed to the polar-

petition From Page 1

divest From Page 1

Several Student Organizations Condemn Crimson’s Coverage

Divest Harvard Protests Brazilian Land Ownership

­

the article’s publication, demands that The Crimson change its policies on requesting comment, apologize for “the harm they inflicted” on undocumented students, and declare a commitment to protecting undocumented students on campus.

Ten other campus organizations have also signed onto the petition.

Prior to the petition’s posting, Crimson Managing Editor Angela N. Fu ’20 and Guillaume met with Act on a Dream leaders to answer their questions and listen to their concerns, Guillaume wrote.

“We welcome feedback from our readers and from those we cover. In this case, we met with representatives of Act on a Dream to hear their concerns and explain our approach,” Guillaume wrote. “For this story and all others, The Crimson strives to adhere to the highest standards of journalistic ethics and integrity.”

Act on a Dream did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The group tweeted Saturday calling for individuals and organizations to decline interview requests from The Crimson until the publication changes its policies regarding requests for

comment. The Harvard College Democrats and Harvard-Radcliffe RAZA tweeted similar statements.

Seven of the organizations that signed the petition also declined to comment for this story.

Marion Davis, director of communications for the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, said she understands the perspectives of both The Crimson and Act on a Dream.

“I know the Crimson acted on a desire for fairness, but I have learned [through] experience that getting both sides isn’t always what is fair, especially when one side has already made its views well known through the megaphones of government,” Davis wrote.

At the same time, several journalism organizations said that The Crimson’s decision to request comment from ICE was consistent with widely accepted journalistic practices and did not put any protesters in danger.

Society of Professional Journalists President Patricia Gallagher Newberry said it is “wholly appropriate” that The Crimson contacted ICE to respond to criticisms of the agency.

“You’re not calling ICE to call out an individual person who

might be in our country without the documentation required

by ICE. You’re simply asking for it to respond in a holistic way to the Abolish ICE Movement,” Gallagher said.

Gallagher said she is “sympathetic” to Act on a Dream’s concern regarding The Crimson’s coverage, but does not see in this particular case how an individual person could be harmed by a request for a “general comment.”

Diana Mitsu Klos, director of engagement at the Student Press Law Center, said it was The Crimson’s “journalistic duty” to contact ICE because of the agency’s central role in the protest.

“To not reach out to ICE would abrogate the role of journalists as watchdogs on government,” she said. “There appeared to be nothing in The Crimson’s news story that points out or [identifies] without consent either undocumented immigrants or Deferred Action [for] Childhood Arrival students.”

“It’s straightforward coverage of a rally and ICE was contacted after the rally,” she added. ruoqi.zhang@thecrimson.com

Altamiran L. Ribeiro, an organizer from the Pastoral Land Commission of the Catholic Church in Piaui­, Brazil, speak about Harvard’s land ownership in Brazil. Ribeiro was joined by members of ActionAid, a global organization that seeks to promote women’s rights and to work against poverty and injustice around the world.

“Speaking in Portuguese interpreted by ActionAid Brazil’s Campaigns Adviser Emmanuel Ponte, Ribeiro criticized what he called Harvard’s “land-grabbing” practices, which he said perpetuate environmental destruction.

“Each piece of land that Harvard buys, in any part of the world, they are grabbing land that belongs to someone else,” Ribeiro said. “Every dollar that Harvard invests in soy production for biofuels is also destroying lives, because in soy production they use pesticides that contaminate the soil and water and the people who live around it.”

Ribeiro said he believes that the land investments in the Cerrado are harmful to land and water sources and negatively impact surrounding residents of the region, including indige-

nous people.

“We cannot allow [Harvard]

Each piece of land that Harvard buys, in any part of the world, they are grabbing land that belongs to someone else. Every dollar that Harvard invests in soy production for biofuels is also destroying lives, because in soy production they use pesticides that contaminate the soil and water and the people who live around it.

Altamiran L. Ribeiro Organizer of the Pastoral Land Commission of the Catholic Church

to say they’re investing there to

guarantee the future of the University and those who will have their pensions and investments, because that’s a big lie,” he said.

“The profit that comes from those investments is a profit that is tainted with blood, pain, and suffering from those communities.”

HMC spokesperson Patrick S. McKiernan declined to comment on Harvard’s land investments in Brazil.

“HMC does not comment on specific investments,” McKiernan wrote in an email Monday.

Rebeca R. Serson ’22, a student from Sao Paulo, Brazil who opened the discussion, said she believes Harvard’s land ownership practices are “deplorable.”

“Just seeing that an institution that is supposed to set an example for other institutions and people worldwide has these lands and is contributing to climate change and all of the effects associated with that makes me very sad and makes me kind of embarrassed,” Serson said.

“How can this institution that we look up to do so much contributing to something like this?” alexandra.chaidez@thecrimson.com meena.venkataramanan@thecrimson.com

The sights and sounds of Harvard.

The Crimson @crimson_photo

SPORTS WEEKLY RECAP

SCORES

MEN’S BASKETBALL VS. BU W, 18-17 ___________________________________________________________

WOMEN’S SWIMMING IVY LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHP 2ND ___________________________________________________________

WOMEN’S HEAVYWEIGHT CREW VS. YALE L ___________________________________________________________

GOLF VS. PRINCETON W ___________________________________________________________

FOOTBALL VS. UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT L, 42, 36 ___________________________________________________________

MEN’S WRESTLING VS. PENN STATE L, 42, 36 ___________________________________________________________

FENCING NEW ENGLAND CHAMPIONSHIP 15TH ___________________________________________________________

CREW

Crews Row at Historic Head of the Charles Regatta

By LEON K. YANG CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

The banks of the Charles River were packed this weekend as multitudes of spectators flocked to the water to witness one of the most cherished rowing spectacles of the year: The Head of the Charles. The 55th rendition of the regatta brought with it crisp days jam-packed with highly competitive races as legions of boats sliced through the water down the five kilometer course.

At both Newell and Weld boathouse, deep, crimson flags fluttered in stark contrast under the cloudless sky. Harvard’s rowing programs took to the water to test the highest competition from across the country and to defend their home course.

The Radcliffe lightweight team took the field by storm, taking second in the lightweight eights in a time of 16:08.870.

The boat, steered by senior Julia Pesner and paced by junior Brigid Kennedy in the stroke seat, finished just behind Princeton, in 16:07.2248, and edged out Georgetown, Boston University, among other crews.

“We went off the line high and hard, settled into our base rhythm, which was a very strong and long rhythm, and then where I think we had our best shift was coming through Weeks turn, which is right under the Weeks Bridge,” Kennedy said. “Our coxswain got us a perfect line coming out of the bridge, and we just flew. We brought the rate up, and our sprint really started at the halfway point of the race. We just kept driving it up from there, and we were rowing technically very well. We’ve never rowed stronger than we did in that back half.”

The staggered start of the regatta allowed the team to push ahead and catch boats that had started before them.

“We were bow five in this race, and it was to our advantage because we got to push off the boats behind us and also chase down Georgetown, which was very fun,” Kennedy said. “So I think it’s a fun mentality to have, especially because it’s so different from spring racing,

CREWS GALORE The 55th rendition of the Head of the Charles Regatta brought over 750 rowing clubs from all around the world to compete this past weekend. The five kilometer course is renowned for its sharp turns and bridges. OWEN A. BERGER—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

when you are side-by-side the whole way down. It makes for a very exciting race.”

The lightweight team also took 8th and 12th in the lightweight fours.

The Radcliffe heavyweight team emerged with two fourth place finishes in the club fours and club eights on Saturday, finishing in 19:01.666 and 16:48.244, respectively. Duke and Yale emerged victorious in the races with times of 18:37.474 and 16:42.863, respectively.

On Sunday, the Black and White finished in 8th and 14th, respectively, in the championship eights and fours with times of 15:47.198 and 19:47.767, respectively. Senior coxswain

Katherine Paglione, who said that the Head of the Charles is “overwhelming in the best way,” noted that it was advantageous to race on home territory.

“We started six boats behind the olympic boats. We started ninth and place eighth, which was really exciting to pick off a boat,” Paglione said. “It’s definitely a home course advantage race. Every single day of the year, me and the other coxswains are practicing various turns on the course. The turn around the Weeks Bridge is a particularly tricky turn that a lot of coxswains get thrown around, so to know exactly what I’m doing on the course is comforting to the rowers because

they know they are getting a good course.”

The Men’s heavyweight program fielded three boats in the club eights and finished in first, eighth, and 13th. The top boat finished in 14:36.166, beating second place Dartmouth by more than 12 seconds. Senior Anthony Kenny, who raced in the eight, said that the boat was able to execute its race plan from the onset.

“We were lucky because we had the first starting position, which meant that we had a clear run of the course, so it was a really simple objective for us,” Kenny said. “We just had to have a great piece. We had the river to ourselves and we didn’t have to

overtake anyone. We prepared really well the two weeks leading up to it, and we just executed our race plan, which was to push through the first two miles as hard as we possibly could and then bring it home in the last mile.”

Harvard’s championship eights boats finished in 7th and 15th.

The Crimson’s men’s lightweight program raced five boats over the weekend. The lightweight four posted a second place finish. Steered by junior Michael Medaugh and paced by first-year Richard Reid, it finished in 16:06.047 behind first place Penn, in 15:59.492, and ahead of two Columbia boats.

OVERWHELMING IN THE BEST WAY As senior coxswain Katherine Paglione notes, the home course advantage makes the Charles River a challenging course for most rowers; for Harvard, it is a comforting course. OWEN A. BERGER—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Sophomore Henry Bellew, who raced in the four, commended his team and highlighted the performances of Medaugh and Reid.

“Our coxswain Michael Medaugh called a great race, got us going right where it mattered before the Powerhouse Bridges in order for us to pass that first Yale boat and got a great turn around Weeks and into Weld and Anderson,” Bellew said.

“The Charles is a super long course. Fall racing is going to be 15 minutes, 16 minutes in a coxed four, which means you are really tired towards the end,” Bellew added. “Our stroke man, who sets the rhythm of the boat and dictates how much rate we have, Richard Reid, called up the rate, moved it up towards the very end and got us going in the last 400 meters, and that kind of speed can really make the difference in this kind of racing environment.”

Harvard also fielded a boat that crossed the line in 30th place. In the club fours, the Crimson posted a second place finish. In the lightweight eights, Harvard finished in fifth and 11th place with times of 14:20.056 and 14:45.965, respectively. The top place in the race was Princeton with a time of 14:06.754.

The energy of the regatta was palpable. The multitude of spectators, which reached tens of thousands, added to the jovial atmosphere of the weekend.

“I think there’s nothing more magical,” Kennedy said.

“We have the privilege of having our boathouse be on the Charles, and there’s few things more magical then pulling up to our dock and having all the alumni that we love dearly welcome us back on to the dock. It was a wonderful feeling. There was a tremendous roar when we hit the dock because they had seen the results. It may be my favorite race of the year.”

For Paglione, the epicness of the Head of the Charles will be exciting to experience in her years beyond Harvard.

“I almost think that the Head of the Charles gets more fun the older you are because you just know so many people, and there’s so many social aspects of it out of the race that you’re able to connect with all of these people from your entire life of rowing,” Paglione said. “It’ll definitely be bittersweet in terms of the last undergrad race, but I’m excited to return as an alumni.” leon.yang@thecrimson.com