The College Hill Independent Vol. 38 Issue 1

03 on coming of age through taste

07 smoke & mirrors at the Whitney

11 privatization of PVD water

Volume 38 • Issue 01

February 01, 2019

the College Hill

Independent

the Indy

a Brown * RISD Weekly

R n* A B row

D IS

k ly Wee

The Indy Contents

From The Editors

Cover In My Kitchen Eliza Macneal

Hey guys. Welcome back to my channel.

Sorry I haven’t been around for a while. I’ve been trying to figure out how to say this right. As you can see, this is definitely not my normal set-up. Conmag has new tables. There’s a Miller High Life box taped to the wall. Brooklyn’s favorite and most trusted Jewish magazine now has opened a satellite office next door.

Week in Review 02 Week in Digital Drama Ben Bienstock & Sarah Clapp

I’ve been feeling a little out-of-sync but I just wanted to use this opportunity to chat with you guys, update y’all on my life, check in a little bit. A lot of stuff has been going around about me and I wanted to clear the air. I’m just gonna be really candid and honest and vulnerable right now. Usually, I’d like to keep all that private—and be a strong, bold person for you guys. But I’ve just been feeling like it’s a lot to keep in.

Main Bird—Beach Outing Theia Flynn, Maria Gerdyman & Annabelle Chace Features 03 Cooling Off Star Su

So this is my truth. I’m not here to give you an excuse. I have no excuses. I know that I’m better than the person I once was—and I hope that one day, you can see me for who I am.

Metro 05 Quilting the State House Sara Van Horn

Thank you for hearing me out, thank you for supporting me even when I don’t deserve it. I promise I will make it up to you.

11 Selling Out Julia Rock

We can’t pray for the past, but we can pray for the future. I’m still young and an idiot and I’ll probably make a million more mistakes—but I will own up to them in a courageous and honest fashion from this point forward. Because you guys deserve that. Thank you for being the family I never had, and probably don’t deserve. I love you, I love you. No more playing, no more bullshit, just me.

Arts 07 Dirty Funding Babette Thomas & Tristan Harris News 09 State of Affairs Jessica Bram Murphy & Jacob Alabab-Moser

- W.E.T.

Mission Statement

13 Literary Two Poems Justin Han 14 Two Poems Rachel Landau

The College Hill Independent is a Providence-based publication written, illustrated, designed, and edited by students from Brown and RISD. We are committed to publishing politically engaged and accessible work. While the Indy is financed

by Brown University, we hold ourselves accountable to our readers across the Providence community. The Indy rejects content that explicitly or implicitly perpetuates racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, ableism and/ or classism.

16 Science & Tech Genetically Pleasing Gemma Sack

Though this list is not exhaustive, the Indy strives to address these systems of oppression by centering the voices, opinions, and efforts of marginalized people in Providence and beyond.

17 Ephemera #RemainIn Claire Schlaikjer

The Indy is constantly evolving: we are always working to make our staff and content more inclusive. Though our editing process provides an internal structure for accountability, we always welcome letters to the editor.

18 X Welcome to X Classifieds Alex Westfall & Jorge Palacios

Week in Review Sarah Clapp Maria Gerdyman News Jacob Alabab-Moser Jessica Bram-Murphy Giacomo Sartorelli Metro Julia Rock Lucas Smolcic Larson Sara Van Horn Arts Ben Bienstock Alexis Gordon Liby Hays

Science & Tech Miles Guggenheim Shannon Kingsley Lily Meyersohn Literary Shuchi Agrawal Justin Han Isabelle Rea Ephemera Nicole Cochary Claire Schlaikjer X Jorge Palacios Alex Westfall

Features Tara Sharma Cate Turner

Special Projects Harry August Lucas Smolcic Larson Eve Zelickson

01 FEB 2019

VOL 38 ISSUE 01

Staff Writers Jesse Barber Jessica Dai Brionne Frazier Eduardo Gutierrez-Peña Mohannad Jabrah Nickolas Roblee-Straus Sophie Khomtchenko Emma Kofman Alina Kulman Dana Kurniawan Bilal Memon Kanha Prasad Star Su Marly Toledano Copy Editors Grace Berg Seamus Flynn Sarah Goldman Matt Ishimaru Sojeong Lim Yelena Nicolle Salvador Caroline Sprague

Design Editors Lulian Ahn Bethany Hung Designers Pablo Herraiz García de Guadiana Amos Jackson Cecile Kim Ella Rosenblatt Katherine Sang Christie Zhong Illustration Editors Pia Mileaf-Patel Eve O’Shea Ilustrators Sam Berenfield Natasha Brennan Natasha Boyko Bella Carlos Julia Illana Angie Kang

Jeff Katz Halle Krieger Katya Labowe-Stroll Sophia Meng Sandra Moore Rémy Poisson Mariel Solomon Miranda Villanueva Claribel Wu Stephanie Wu Business Maria Gonzalez Web Ashley Kim Social Media Ben Bienstock Pia Mileaf-Patel Alumni+Fundraising Katrina Northrop

@THEINDY_TWEETS

Senior Editors Olivia Kan-Sperling Chris Packs Signe Swanson Will Weatherly Managing Editors Ella Comberg Tiara Sharma Wen Zhuang MVP Sarah Clapp (bowled 128) *** The College Hill Independent is printed

by TCI Press in Seekonk, Massachusetts.

WWW.THEINDY.ORG

WEEK IN DIGITAL DRAMA

BY Ben Bienstock and Sarah Clapp ILLUSTRATION Rémy Poisson DESIGN Cecile Kim

"FACEBOOK GAINS NOTHING FROM THIS MEME" If you haven’t deactivated your social media accounts out of fear of breaches in privacy, then you’ve probably seen something on your feed that could be used to breach said privacy: the so-called “10 Year Challenge,” in which users post photos of themselves from 2009 (flip-phone quality, red-eyed, zits-a-plenty) alongside ones from 2019 (Instagram-filtered, glowed-up, hotterthan-ever). Soon after the images started appearing, an op-ed published in Wired speculated that the convenient juxtaposition of photos taken across a specified timeline could provide Facebook with data to enhance its facial recognition technology, leading web-conspirators to wonder: Could our old mirror selfies really be used to create algorithms that recognize our faces and how they age?

In response to the allegation that Facebook had actually managed to create an effective meme, the Silicon Valley spin doctors released a statement to distance itself from the challenge, saying it “did not start this trend,” while simultaneously admitting that if they wanted to mine the data, they could, adding that “the meme uses photos that already exist on Facebook.”

The service furnished an additional reminder that “Facebook users can choose to turn facial recognition on or off at any time.” The company already has the photos we took on our webcams in the dark corners of our adolescent bedrooms with such effects as “Color Pencil” and “X-Ray,” as well as the technology to identify the people in them. It’s one thing to be embarrassed that the snapshots from the Bar Mitzvah photo booths of years past will come back to haunt us; it’s another to be worried that they’ll be used to create the sort of surveillance technology sold to law enforcement agencies.

While Facebook has not yet entered the thriving business of selling facial recognition software to government organizations (an industry that has so far been pioneered by the likes of Amazon and Google), net-connoisseurs have a sneaking suspicion that their favorite social media site might actually be, dare I say, up to no good. It may be hard to believe, given the benign gesture of a humble poke and the whimsically patterned backgrounds one can add to their statuses, but Facebook loves your data more than Mark Zuckerberg sweats when he’s asked about violating user privacy. (That is to say: a lot.) The theory that Facebook might be employing a creative method to reap neatly-packaged data is believable, even if you can’t believe that a photo of you in a terrycloth tracksuit would be useful to anyone. If the data-freaks at Facebook really do see a goldmine of information in our nostalgia-trips, then there is real fear that such an algorithm could “amplify and exacerbate historical and existing bias,” as a letter co-signed by 85 human and civil rights organizations directed toward BigTech companies warns. On the topic of enabling police to surveil marginalized communities, it remains to be seen if Facebook will offer a statement less tepid than

its existing stance that they “gain nothing from this meme.”

As the Independent reflects on its own decadelong evolution from notorious rag covertly circulated through the College Hill underground to notorious multimedia conglomerate with its very own website, Twitter handle, and newspaper vending box, we choose not to feed the “surveillance economy” by keeping our transformation sealed in the archives.

Mark Zuckerberg is not so lucky. His life was made on the internet, and there it’s kept, because here’s what his 10 Year Challenge looks like: a Wired article from 2019 challenging his business on a record of data misuse and a Wired article from 2009, in which he accurately predicts what people would end up telling him ten years later: “No one wants to live in a surveillance society.”

-SC

THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS A FREE PRESS Looking to start the new year fresh—that is, without employees—the benevolent billionaires and parent companies that own American media outlets have in recent weeks redoubled their efforts to save and streamline the news industry. In past years, these magnificent media magnates have innovated new strategies of economizing journalism, from valiantly funding lawsuits, to bankrupting uncouth muckraking blog Gawker, to purchasing troublesome local news sites DNAinfo and Gothamist only to replace them with non-unionized successors. However—and you heard it here first—the hottest media business trend for 2019 is a trailblazing return to classic management techniques: mass firings and increased prices.

This seemingly old-fashioned approach to economizing newsrooms has inspired a diverse group of media companies—some private, some subsidiaries of conglomerates, and even some non-profits—to separate the wheat from the journalistic chaff. More than a thousand costly paychecks did not have be drawn up last week at Buzzfeed News, the Forward, and the Verizon-owned HuffPost and Yahoo after executives

efficiently removed such unnecessary roles as “editorin-chief” and “national news desk.” Now unburdened from the responsibility of paying for the labor of full staffs, these publications have the opportunity to point to a bright future of news, one of half-reported, uncontroversial stories sure to bring in advertising revenues never before seen. These faceless (but, I’m sure, handsome) executives are paving the way to the promised land of unfettered profit growth for investors with no reporters left to expose financial crimes to the public.

Condé Nast, however, is hedging its bets on a different blast-from-the-past idea: having readers pay for journalism. Though the mega-publisher announced last week that it will place paywalls on all of its web titles (which include Vogue, Bon Appétit, and the already paywalled Wired and the New Yorker) by the end of the year, the logistics of applying the policy to Pitchfork, the company’s most popular free title, will be tricky. Before Condé Nast rescued the publication for an undisclosed sum in 2015, Pitchfork was an elder states-site in the archaic world of free, online, independent music publications and mp3 blogs, and today has a vast archive of decades of criticism, interviews, and news. When readers are limited to five free articles per month, a Wayback Machine capture of a negative album review from 1998 that Pitchfork has since deleted to erase any memory of its unhip takes will become an alluring click. As for Pitchfork’s new content, surely there are tens of readers who will pay $15 per month to make sure they can read “Stephen Malkmus Responds to Cardi B Tweet: Report” in full, but they will hardly be enough to keep the site afloat.

Though the publishing world at large is undoubtedly thriving in 2019, the same cannot be said for the Independent. It is this reporter’s fervent hope that this paper is able to right the ship soon, but there is no cause for optimism. At Independent staff meetings, the mere suggestion that a reinvigorating takeover by a Musk, a Koch, heck, even a Rockefeller would benefit the Independent can spark a campaign of character assassination, that, frankly, is unbefitting of the team running a scrappy startup trying to become the largest alt-weekly in Southern and Northern New England.

-BB

MAIN BIRD— BEACH OUTING

BY Maria Gerdyman, Annabelle Chace, and Theia Flynn

THE COLLEGE HILL INDEPENDENT

NEWS

02

BY Star Su ILLUSTRATION Sandra Moore DESIGN Christie Zhong

The first time I’m at their house, the notes of the ice cream truck erase the quiet haze of the summer night.

They immediately pour outside to chase it down, feet slapping on the hot pavement, shoes be damned.

it more clearly, toes curling against the floorboards, buckled from a burst pipe, she clicks her tongue and sets down the pan she’s drying on a hook above the kitchen table. The hodgepodge of pots glint in the sweating sunset on a rack she built herself, the counter They are gone before I realize what’s happening, a too small to fit the dishes of a hungry family. sweeping wave that has left me in the sand pit with his mother. Well, the crickets are playing a jazz ensemble Looks like jello, doesn’t it? she says, waving a rag at tonight. I get up for some water, watching her from the the other house. With all its silver edges and wobbling corner of my eye as I crack open the wheezing fridge. glass, it does look like jello. I can’t help but nod because Don’t worry this doesn’t happen a lot, she says, taking a I recognize it: the contours of banality being drawn. long pull. I taught them this truck is ours. Green peeling Soon, she says, we won’t be able to live here. Where will paint. Crooked bumper. The speakers leak, doo-da dee the ice cream trucks go? doo-da. It takes me a moment for my decade of piano lessons to place the hopscotch of tones: Scott Joplin’s They’re back, a fleet of drumsticks, announced by Entertainer. clattering screen doors. He hands me the Klondike bar I asked for. Peeling away its soft silver coat, the How did you convince them? I ask. It is hard to believe sandwich seems small, no longer the hefty offering I that children could be fooled on matters as important remembered. For my sixth birthday, rather than the as ice cream. usual fare of cupcakes nestled in wrappers, I begged for ice cream sandwiches, a glob of vanilla ice cream Well, the other ones might kidnap you, she says. Or, wedged between two chocolate cookies. No need worse, only have cherry popsicles. I dip my head, only for presents, unwrapping the foil of one of those was if not to look in awe at her, this woman who taught her already a delight. At the mere suggestion of teeth, the three children their ice cream could only come from sandwich would lose its shape; the best bite was the one vehicle. This woman who sewed banana yellow corner, where the cream would begin to ooze, the blankets for each of her children, embroidering “The cookies coating the roof of your mouth like velvet.

Pride of Pilsen” into the center. This woman who came to Chicago alone, with her first child already folded I take a bite of the corner, one that is neither square into her womb. nor crisp. As the remnants of the sandwich melt and bloom across my tongue, I try to remember what it In the cul de sac I lived on, ice cream trucks were so is supposed to taste like. Were the corners round or rare I couldn’t recall the song of one. To find ice cream, sharp? The chocolate is dark, the vanilla light, but the only thing I ever had to chase down was my moth- somehow I thought there was something else there. I er’s bags from the supermarket. She would always try want to taste the breeze, a welcome whisper as we to hide the packages, burying them under frozen vege- slapped across the hot sidewalk. I want to taste the sun, tables and bags of bao. I never knew with whom she let it shining spots into our eyes as we sprawl across the was playing hide and seek—we would always dive into steps, waiting for someone to buy our lemonade. I want the freezer together. to taste the way it seeped under our skin, bursting and blistering the languor of a cul de sac on a summer day.

The air is too heavy for me to bear. Heat, silence, uncertainty. I get up to do the dishes from dinner. Flautas I have another bite, just to be sure. There is only made with tortillas from the tortilleria down the sweetness. street. There was also crema—the best one, according to his little sister, who showed me how to smother the +++ chicken into pale oblivion. And beans, from a pot that has held the water of the Amazon, the tears of five The oldest sister takes me to the beach. I didn’t think to generations, and now, the well water of Pilsen. Before bring my swimsuit so I have to wear hers. heaving to fill it, she asked the oldest sister to check the lead levels on her phone.

Tighter? she asks, as she ties the straps. I nod, pulling my hair out of the way. It’s not tight enough but I don’t After she had filled the table with heaps of steaming want to sound picky. On the beach, I suck in air, puffing food, she told me to look at her. There was more than my chest out to hold the suit up. Breasts are an afterenough to sustain two bears, several humans, and thought. After a while, I exhale. They are looking at perhaps a small racoon. With a backyard that met the her; all her edges tender, smooth, effortless. woods, I would know.

The lake sounds discontent, but maybe because I’m I’m sorry I can’t give you more, she says. We just don’t listening this time. I watch as she wades in, the water have the kind of money right now to go out and eat. swallowing her shivering form. She calls for me to come and I smile, refusing.

This is fine, I say. The words flutter, and I try to catch them before they land the wrong way. More than fine, Seagulls nurture their grievances above. A helicopter this was amazing. Really. I don’t know what else to say, hurtles across the sky. Attempts are made to coax so I get up to do the dishes, and she lets me take her the beach to become a fortress; waves roar with halfplate. hearted destruction. Wind rifles through unguarded towels. Clothes unpeel from soft bodies. I loosen and She dries as I wash, undoing the water at an even pace, let the sun dig orange into me. one for one. I notice there’s another apartment, visible through the window above the sink. When I try to see The water sings. Or shouts. I can’t tell the difference.

03

FEATURES

It’s not too cold, she calls, floating on her back. Her hands are folded on her stomach, as if she’s taking a nap on a smooth blue bed. I pretend to read my book and consider walking into the waves, but decide against it. The waves are clean, but not merciful. My swimsuit might fall off. The last time I learned the water didn’t do apologies, I spent weeks with my head tilted to one side, waiting for the ocean to come out. At least I had a conch shell, an echo of my will to dive beyond the shoreline. To be fair, I never lived close enough to any body of water to know its edges, to be able to point someone down a street. Follow the road until it meets the waves. Turn against the tides. Smell the sea and you will be there.

When she drips onto the beach, humming with a voice husky with salt, I have fallen asleep. Honey you so sweet. As I wake, I find that trickles of sand have crept into the crevices of my body. Ears, armpits, belly button. A sheen of salt has formed on my feet, from when I dipped my toes in and promptly fled back to my roost in the sand. I want to touch her, drink her gold.

Sugar got a long way to catch you. But all I can manage with a voice gone parched is, Hi. Want to get some ice cream? she asks, drying off her hair. The drops fly onto the pages of my book, melting the words. They meet my skin with a sizzle, and I realize how relentless the sun has been. I lick my lips, yes please. She calls over one of the old men pushing the ice cream carts. Una paleta des fresas por favor.

Coconut, I say when she looks at me. Coco, she echoes.

When she finds out this is my first paleta, she isn't surprised. You’re from the suburbs, she shrugs.

Well, it could be a small city, I draw my knees to my chest. I mouth the word, suburb, let it roll over my tongue. Somehow, I can’t swallow it. Maybe, it’s a little shorter, I say, squinting at the Chicago skyline across the lake. At least where I live, the shade comes from trees.

My tongue sticks to the popsicle and I let the cold burn into me. I want to tell her that I didn’t get to choose where I grew up. The juxtaposition of chunky fruit and glistening cream reminds of hong dou bing qi ling, the red bean popsicles my mother drove two hours to the nearest Asian grocer for. Though she always complained they were too sweet, our freezer never had less than two boxes. As a child, I preferred these over the confections that tasted like the color they stained your tongue. Eating one was a science: each bite must contain an optimal ratio of crunchy bean to condensed milk. With warmth, it would melt into a luscious paste.

And though she located these bing qi ling, she had moved too far away. When writing this piece, I learned that they’re actually called chi dou bang bing. The Japanese store sold them under a different name.

It doesn’t matter, no one will know the difference, she says on the phone, with a laugh that sighs. She tells me how she never found guang ming, a brick of frozen floral milk. During the hot Shanghai summers, she would beg her nai nai to go to the corner store, to carry home a block, wrapped in a towel to keep it cold.

Together, they would lap at the silk edges, before the heat could breathe it away. Freezers were a luxury they

01 FEB 2019

couldn’t afford, but at four cents a block, ice cream was a sweet bargain. The way in which coolness blooms across the body is full of richness: air conditioning, umbrella-studded beaches, frozen treats. The control of temperature articulates wealth.

realized the nature of her recollection. It always started with eggy custard, simmering in until it thickened, but not before it cooked. When I became tall enough to haul the Kitchenaid from the basement, she gave me the duty of churning, of testing for the consistency of snow-laden clouds. When it finished, I always wanted to fold in novelty. Tuck in plums from our neighbors’ tree. Crumble in the sweet corn from the farmer’s market. Toss the mulberries from the backyard bush.

But my mother always refused. Vanilla was not an absence of flavor, but rather the remembrance of one.

sandwich from the pan, cutting a slice. Corner piece, of course.

The saliva pools on my tongue. I try to remember.

STAR SU B’21 distrusts anyone who eats ice cream When my mother went back to Shanghai, eight years with utensils. after she first left on a student visa, the ice cream she dreamed of peeling open had vanished. Even the corner stores that had held them in loads in the freezers had fallen away to highrises. She ran block to block, but no one knew what she was asking for. We don’t get to choose, I want to say, but the words are lost I pad down the stairs barefoot, nurturing the silence in the shifting sands. I stay silent, let the drops of milky, of sunrise, light reaching hungrily across the horizon. sticky water dress my hands.

I don’t want my family to know what I’m making yet.

I am reluctant to even understand it as making. Pans +++ are dusted in cocoa, chocolate batter is spooned and spread, cookies are burned into existence. For the first A lump of cream cheese dusted with salt. A lick of corn- time, I haul the mixer and stir the slurry, alone. I pray starch and milk. A saucepan, with six yolks bobbing each component can bear the weight of the other. Dark, gently. After my mother told me about guang ming, I light, dark. Let the richness take the center. I turn the

THE COLLEGE HILL INDEPENDENT

FEATURES

04

BY Sara Van Horn ILLUSTRATION Pia Mileaf-Patel DESIGN Christie Zhong

QUILTING THE STATE HOUSE The Womxn Project organizes for the Reproductive Health Care Act“ On the marble steps inside a packed Rhode Island State House on Tuesday, hundreds of protesters competed for legislative attention as the House Judiciary Committee gathered to hear hotly debated bills on reproductive health care. Above the chanting and horn-blowing of pro-life nuns, activist groups, including Planned Parenthood and The Rhode Islandbased Womxn Project, shouted their support of the Reproductive Health Care Act (RHCA), a bill which aims to codify the legal implications of Roe v. Wade into state law. If passed, the RHCA would ensure Rhode Islanders the right to an abortion even if the landmark Supreme Court decision were to be overturned—a perceived judicial threat that is driving much of the newfound urgency of abortion advocates around the country. (Last week, for example, New York State passed similar legislation into law.) The RHCA would also eliminate several statutes that have been declared unconstitutional by Rhode Island courts, such as the criminalization of abortion providers and the spousal notification requirement—with spouses referred to as “husbands” under Rhode Island law.

71 percent of Rhode Islanders support pro-choice law. This statistic, displayed on signs at the Tuesday protest, is a clear indicator of the RHCA supporters’ message: The majority of the people in Rhode Island feel differently than the state assembly, which failed to pass the RHCA last year. Indeed, despite Rhode Island’s public consensus in favor of reproductive healthcare, the state consistently ranks among the country’s worst providers of abortion access—a fact that is perhaps surprising considering that Rhode Island is governed by a Democratic House, Senate, and Governor. According to NARAL Pro-Choice America, a political organization dedicated to expanding reproductive health care, Rhode Island deserves the shockingly low grade of “F” for its abortion care. In comparison, Massachusetts received a “C+” and

05

METRO

Connecticut an “A-.” NARAL’s report reveals that an overwhelming 80 percent of Rhode Island counties have no abortion clinic and that both Rhode Island’s Senate and House are anti-choice, meaning that a majority of its legislators do not support abortion access.

In the attempt to mobilize Rhode Island’s existing pro-choice majority, abortion advocates are using a variety of creative organizing tactics. Amid the crowds at the State House, the College Hill Independent met with Jocelyn Foye and Jordan Hevenor, co-directors of The Womxn Project, a Rhode Island non-profit organization working to build a feminist, community-based movement for reproductive justice in the state. To further legislative campaigns like the RHCA, these organizers use art to foster community engagement—a strategy that involves everything from collaborative newspaper advertisements to protests to quilt-making.

Their goal is to mobilize new voters in the state’s reproductive health care advocacy circles. Repeating a common story of recent politicization in the past two years, Foye describes the history of The Womxn Project and the challenges they face, from disconnected legislators to staunch Catholic lobbyists.

We didn’t realize that the majority of the Democrats in the House and Senate of that last cycle were pro-NRA and anti-choice—and choice is really not the right word, it’s more like anti-abortion and anti-access.

A couple of us are academics and a couple of us are designers and a couple of us are policy people. So we started by saying: could we combine art and activism as a way to bring more people out who don’t normally get involved? It doesn’t have to be showing up at the State House; it doesn’t have to be talking in front of a panel; it could be making a quilt. We started doing things that were really accessible. We started doing quilt squares and we asked someone to sign their name, their town, and the date. What it allowed us to do was to have individual conversations with people and tell them a few big talking points. It built and it built and it built until the point where a movement was really created. We’re kinda going old-school and we’re kinda going new-school. We call it “artivism.” Just for like, being cheeky, but also being practical.

The Indy: What’s the advantage of using both old-school and new-school methods?

JF: We didn’t know what people would respond to in the state, so we put in an ad in the paper on Sunday and we asked people to donate $10. People were overcompensating like crazy to get their name in the ad. We got +++ 1,100 signatures, people loved their name in the paper, The College Hill Independent: Can you describe the and this is not what I expected when it came to a more old-school model of marketing and promoting. The origins of the Womxn Project? new-school [model] realistically has been social media Jocelyn Foye: The Womxn Project started out of which anyone could tell you, but we’ve tried to do it in South Kingstown, out of Hera Gallery which is the ways that are quirky and that people will look at. fifth oldest women-started art gallery in the United States. When 45 got elected, we decided we would do The Indy: Can you give a broad definition of reproducthis series of educational talks. We were shocked. We tive justice? didn’t realize that 43 percent of the state is Catholic.

JF: I, first of all, as a white woman really shouldn’t be speaking on it. I really defer to my brown and Black sisters to basically answer how womxn—womxn with an x, so that includes transgender, gender-fluid spaces—really are going in and setting the tone for when there is a limit on how the body is being regulated. Until we basically open the floodgates to having bodily autonomy and having the option—not the choice but the option—to be able to control your body or the option to choose what is best for you, then so much else happens. And when it’s regulated, or when it’s told it cannot be X, Y or Z, there’s a series of other The following interview has been abridged for clarity.

01 FEB 2019

things that happen. It’s harder to get food; it’s harder to get these things because you are not able to choose how you are using your life because you are being forced to do it in certain ways.

predominantly Catholic area, so it’s kind of expected that the resolution [of the City Council to support the RHCA] shouldn’t have passed. And it did. So the times are changing. Honestly when we talk about 71 percent [of RI voters in support], it’s the Providence Journal. It’s The Indy: What has been the role of the Catholic not like a pro-abortion group doing [the polling]. It’s lobbyists in the fight for the RHCA? also NPR. They came in. They used an agency that does polling on all topics across the state for every topic.

JF: They are speaking their mind; they are speaking for what they want and that’s understood. What’s Jordan Hevenor: I think it’s all important because funny is ultimately we’re here fighting for something we should be having these conversations at our most we already have. We’re here asking for status quo; local and basic level. When someone runs for office, we’re asking for the state to continue protecting what we should know whether they believe that healthis covered under Roe, and we’re asking for it to not care for 51 percent of the population is valuable or not. go away if Roe is overturned. So this is funny to me When someone runs for school community or town [gestures at the protesters] because we really just want council, those are often offices where people go on to what is already here. run for the general assembly or a federal office. It’s an important discussion to be having in every community The Indy: Does the Reproductive Health Care Act go because it really starts in our community. What was so far enough? What’s missing in this Act? interesting about watching the resolution in Central Falls last night is this is about public health and the JF: Let’s just say that the Womxn Project’s plan is to ability of residents of Central Falls to have the right to fight for getting us out of an “F” rating once [the fight control their own health care. If our laws move us backfor] our Reproductive Health Care Act is over. You wards and start taking away health care rights from continue the year after to really defend it, but we’re people, that’s going to impact the health of all of our really motivated to fight for greater access. We’re communities. looking forward to moving beyond the Health Care Act in a lot of great initiatives like supporting Black The Indy: Pro-Choice America lists Rhode Island as maternal health and access in the state. having one of the more restrictive abortion laws in the country. What does that mean? What is the state of the The Indy: What does access mean? law right now in Rhode Island?

JF: Access means that if people need to see a doctor and they can’t afford it, they can go to a clinic and have answers given to them that fairly represent every question they asked. That may speak to gender-modification questions, that may speak to Pap smears and the annual exam, that may even go so far as just folks who can’t afford to see a doctor can go to a clinic and have their kids checked out. Access is being able to afford to get medical help without religious—or without any institutional—oversight.

is out of touch with the needs and the views of Rhode Islanders.” Speaker of the House Nicholas Mattiello, for example, has said that he does not believe Roe v.

Wade is in danger, despite the conservative majority now sitting on the Supreme Court bench. The problem of flawed representation—that despite a majority of popular support for abortion access, political leaders are unwilling to take action—suggests the limitations of physical protest. This evidence of a larger accountability problem reminds us that dropping quilts above the marble steps of the State House is only the beginning of the activism we need.

SARA VAN HORN B' 21 wants straight A's.

JH: The metric that I’ve used a lot in discussing this is that Rhode Island gets an “F” from NARAL for reproductive health care. That’s because of the state of our right which is based on Roe v. Wade and that is tenuous based on the current makeup of the Federal Supreme Court. The second thing is that our state Medicaid plans and our state health insurance plans don’t offer coverage for abortion care and we only have access to abortion in Providence county. So those are the criteria that NARAL rated our state on.

The Indy: Are there important aspects of this fight The Indy: What is the importance of art in activism? that you feel are underrepresented in national or mainstream media discourse? Is there anything you want to JH: Art has just been a really great way to help people emphasize? feel that activism is something that they can engage in. It can really meet you where you are. We have this JF: It’s crazy that we’re just fighting for the status quo. quilt project and the most basic thing you can do is sign That is: one clinic and two other spaces in the state— a quilt square and then we can start sewing it together when there’s thirteen fake clinics— and when we sew together, we’re having opportunities to come together as a community and talk about issues The Indy: What does that mean, a fake clinic? that are important to us and how they overlap with our state and federal government. There’s not necessarily JF: A fake clinic is a clinic where they say they are here a lot of spaces that create that. It’s been really inspiring to support reproductive health in one form or another to watch—especially when there is so much going on at and then when you get there, you’re really forced into the federal level that’s attacking our rights—to see us family planning. taking matters into our own hands and engaging with each other and building that community together.

The Indy: How important do you think local support for reproductive rights is relative to state level support +++ or national support?

As The Womxn Project acknowledged in a press JF: It’s been surprising. Certain towns are coming release, responsibility for Rhode Island’s lack of reproout, like Barrington, which is a section of the state ductive health care can be located in the state’s elected where people would expect a little more progressive representatives and, more specifically, in the disconthings happening, or Providence—more progres- nect between government officials and the populations sive because it’s a city. But then Central Falls is a they represent: “We are concerned that the leadership

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DIRTY FUNDING

On December 9, 2018, Hyperallergic, an online arts magazine, posted an image of four members of the Fire Department of New York in the lobby of the Whitney Museum. FDNY was on-site after burning sage triggered the building’s fire alarm—undoubtedly sparking fear for the owners of millions of dollars worth of artwork on loan from private collections. On this day, the orchestrated flow of the museum’s first floor space, a threshold we crossed everyday for three months as museum summer interns, was disrupted. The lobby was now filled with smoke and what appeared to be at least forty members from the group Decolonize This Place (DTP) holding signs such as “Whitney Museum: A Space For Profiteers of State Violence.” The entire scene was utterly incongruous with the otherwise sterile feel of the glossy, modern lobby. Confused visitors, expecting to spend their day viewing screenprinted Marilyns and Maos at the Museum’s much anticipated Warhol show, watched the protest from a balcony overlooking the lobby.

In this action, demonstrators demanded the removal of Vice Chair Warren B. Kanders from the Whitney board when the alarm was triggered. A significant donor to the museum, Kanders is also the CEO and owner of the Safariland Group, a company that manufactures “law enforcement products.” The tear gas canisters that Safariland produces are the same ones that law enforcement officers are thought to have fired at unarmed protestors in Ferguson, Standing Rock, Oakland, Egypt, and Palestine. The smoke produced by the sage during DTP’s action was intended to mirror the smoke emitted from the tear gas canisters border patrol officers fired at Mexican asylum seekers.

In taking over the institution’s air, the protestors physically, visually, and sensually forced their political agenda in the museum space. Flyers were passed out during the action, and have continued to be passed out by some visiting artists hosted at the Whitney. The flyer utilized the visual impact of Warhol’s Green CocaCola Bottles with Coke bottles replaced with tear gas

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canisters. In replacing seemingly apolitical pop art Coca-Cola bottles with tear gas, DTP foregrounds that everything is political, including both art and the institutions that display art.

The DTP action occurred after 100 Whitney staff members signed onto a public statement of concern regarding Warren B. Kanders' position on the board.

The letter read: “Some of us are deeply connected to the communities that are being directly impacted and targeted by the tear gassing at the border….many of us feel the violence inflicted upon the refugees.” And thus, through this action, DTP called attention to the ways in which American cultural institutions have historically been upheld by state-sanctioned violence against marginalized people. Further, they highlighted how museums continue to be influenced by the interests of wealthy art collectors and patrons. As we both observed in our time working for the Whitney, the museum is a space that was not originally intended for the presence of individuals of any marginalized identity and is still struggling to be inclusive of such identities. However, through their action, DTP calls us to demand more; to hold museums like the Whitney that claim “progressiveness” accountable and perhaps to be more critical of arts funding at other institutions we inhabit. +++ As a non-profit organization, the Whitney is tax-exempt, along with many universities and charities, considered by the US government as an institution in support of the public well-being. The Whitney Museum of American Art moved into its Renzo Piano-designed building in 2015 with opening remarks by then First Lady Michelle Obama intended to emphasize the museum’s public-serving role. The move cost the museum $760 million, with $422 million going to the building. In moving from its posh Upper East Side location to the industrial and increasingly gentrified

BY Tristan Harris and Babette Thomas ILLUSTRATION Natasha Brennan DESIGN Bethany Hung

Meatpacking District, the Whitney was able to take advantage of steeply discounted land in a neighborhood that was increasingly experiencing urban change with the opening of the repurposing of old aboveground railway into the High Line, a public park. The building itself is made of smooth, reflective panels and sits right on the Hudson River, perhaps signaling the ways the Whitney has attempted to establish an image of institutional ‘transparency.’ In an attempt to distance itself from American museums’ historical elitism and inaccessibility, the museum’s glass architecture is intended to invite you in. And during our time working at the museum, staff and administrators often described the Whitney as the living artist’s museum—a museum for the American people.

However the art museum, especially within an American context, is still a relatively new institution, and museums’ funding models and internal organizational structures vary dramatically. It was in the 18th and 19th centuries that public, democratized engagement with art was seen as a social value by governments. One of the first “museums,” as we understand them, was the British Museum. Founded

by King George II in 1753, the British Museum was heralded as a “national collection open to the public.”

The British Museum, and many other early European museums, operated largely as spaces where colonial powers demonstrated their imperial grandess to the public by showing off pilfered pieces of art and archeology which they then went on to exoticize, decontextualize, and misconstrue through curatorial practice.

Many US museums founded in the 19th century, such as the Smithsonian, which receives about $1 billion of federal funding annually, reflect the European model of museums that seek to educate the public.

A second wave of American institutions, while supported in part by city and federal governments, truly owe their creation to wealthy patrons. Two prime examples of such an institution are the Museum of Modern Art established in 1929 by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, wife of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and the Whitney Museum started by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney in 1931. Such institutions mark a shift from reliance on government funding to reliance on funding from tickets, memberships, corporate sponsorships, and private donors. As institutions have increasingly relied upon private funders, who often also collect the work museums exhibit, it has become less clear whether institutions are really for the “public.” The controversy surrounding Kanders reveals the separation between the institution and public interests.

Instead of ceding his board position at the demands of the public, Kanders holds onto the social and cultural capital his position grants. +++

The DTP protest is not the first time the Whitney has been the particular focus of art world protest in its new building. A Dana Schutz painting depicting Emmett Till’s open casket sparked controversy at the

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2017 Biennial, and this past summer, ACT UP targeted David Wojnarowicz’s retrospective for its historicization of the ongoing HIV crisis. Both of these protests sparked renewed conversations over the ethics of representation, lack of diverse curatorial staff, and the obligations for museums to negotiate between claiming an apolitical stance through historical framing and their active participation within contemporary politics. Engaging with living, and recently living, artists undoubtedly makes the Whitney more open to controversy than other New York fine arts museums. In internship discussions, it seemed the museum took a primarily reactionary response by leaning on its educational and public relations departments rather than considering how curators and exhibition programming might work to break down the false wall between the apolitical museum space and the “real world” that artists are living and making their work within.

With attention now on Kanders, the Whitney is officially part of a larger group of art institutions targeted for accepting “dirty money.” For example, British group Liberate Tate was founded in 2010 and protested against the Tate Museum in London accepting money from the oil and gas company BP. And after six years of work, Liberate Tate was successful in getting BP to pull its funding from the museum in 2016. Protests have also focused on museum’s labor practices: the Gulf Labor Coalition conducted a number of actions targeted against the Guggenheim's complicity with poor working conditions in the construction of its Abu Dhabi satellite—which also targeted NYU Abu Dhabi's campus. Such protests increasingly target the dilemma of “good for bad” funding— called “art washing” by Liberate Tate. Focused attention on the trusteeship of patrons with political positions differing drastically from the institutions they contribute funding to has caused recent removals of US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin from the Board of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art and actions against MoMA board member and Trump advisor Larry Fink. +++ As former interns, we were not surprised by Kanders or Whitney Director Adam Weinberg’s response to these actions given now we saw the way we saw the ways museum executives’ interests were disconnected from those of museum staff and artists. In a letter in response to staff members, Adam Weinberg states: “Trustees do not hire staff, select exhibitions, organize programs or make acquisitions, and staff does not appoint or remove board members.” In this statement, Weinberg gets at the ways in which the bureaucracy of a museum operates, the complexities of which we were able to observe this summer.

The Whitney is a mid-sized institution, consisting of slightly under 450 staff members and around 40 departments. Staff rooms and floors are housed on the 3rd and 4th floor right amongst the gallery spaces (not necessarily in another wing of the museum like at other institutions). Often, while riding in the elevator, museum visitors would try to press the 4th floor button—a floor you can only access with a museum ID. A museum of the Whitney’s scale necessitate a large staff, however museum employees often accept salaries that are less competitive than private-sector offerings. Such staff usually finds themselves at the Whitney due to a passion for art and commitment to the museum’s mission.

While Whitney board members may not directly make decisions on exhibitions, to deny that Kander’s position on the board might impact how curators and artists view their position within the museum is to continue to perpetuate a lack of true institutional accountability. This is to continue to pretend as if the work of museum departments exists within a vacuum, which it does not. Many curators spoke of their work as being somewhat political, balancing the demands of living artists, ability to acquire works

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within acquisition committees, and the acquisition of additional funding from private donors and corporations. Additionally, the Whitney Museum—“the artist's museum”—has an especially challenging relationship to the art market as it often exhibits the work of living artists. Such a position means the Whitney often deals with both collectors and artists for its exhibitions. The Museum’s famous Biennial reveals the incredible power an institution like the Whitney has to support the work of living artists. Simultaneously, the position of Biennial curator is arguably one of the most influential positions in the art world and a much sought after position within the competitive world of curating.

Such influence is granted via the substantial notoriety and market value Biennial artists receive.

In avoiding accountability over Kanders’ presence on the board, the Whitney continues to perpetuate the museum’s historical model of imperialism, racism, and elitism, and ignores the way these forces impact the way a museum is run. Throughout the internship, we witnessed how staff and administrators would often mention and even joke about how in past years, museum internships were usually intended for undergraduates who are “plugged in”: either those who are enrolled in a university’s elite art history programs, or who had professors or family members who have connections to the institution. In fact, our internship class was only the second ever to be paid.

Administrators claimed that in paying interns, the Museum was positioned to be more inclusive of diverse backgrounds and perspectives. However, despite a supposed change in trajectory, throughout the internship I continued to be asked, “How did I manage to get this internship?” As if a Black queer woman could not obtain a position an American museum; as if perhaps this space was not intended for me.

Thus, it is not enough for the Whitney to acknowledge its history and simply claim that it is “moving forward,” as art and art within the museum will continue to be political. Even if works aren’t about subjects of “politics,” Kanders’ dual-positionality as owner of Safariland, as well as an art collector who has stakes in the art market, renders the artwork within the Whitney inherently political. As a result, American museums, such as the Whitney, must fundamentally change the way they are managed. One crucial first step is following the money and realizing that funders and sponsors of the museum are not disconnected from the artwork the institution exhibits. In addition, institutions such as the Whitney should make a pledge to accept significant funding from donors who align with the interests of artists. Boards spots should also be ceded to artists within the communities the museum exists. In addition, museum leadership and administration should pledge to acknowledge the demands posed by staff and artists represented by the institution.

As became clear to us over the summer, museums are expensive and complex organizations to operate.

With minimal public support, many American museums will continue to rely on the support of wealthy donors, which will continue to bring up questions of whether museums should exist at all. In the meantime, it might prove useful to consider other models of funding; potentially even for-profit social venture models might allow institutions greater freedom from the challenges posed by reliance on small number of influential donors. Additionally, as we’ve seen museums continuing to expand into new buildings in recent, tapering these costs operating expenses could prove more sustainable in allowing institutions to more comfortably hold ethical redlines about certain funders. +++ The flow of dirty money linking the Whitney to private donors and corporations extends, too, to institutions of higher education. Students at Brown have been increasingly realizing the University's connection to Kanders, who holds a position on the advisory council

Kanders at the Whitney Museum and Brown University

of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society and funds “The Warren and Allison Kanders Lecture Series” at the Brown Arts Initiative (BAI). Additionally, he co-organized an exhibition at Brown titled “On Protest, Art, and Activism” between BAI and David Winton Bell Gallery, with works on loan from the Whitney. The Brown Immigrant Rights Coalition recently published a Statement of Solidarity addressing Kander’s connection to the University. Brown University Senior Kat Chavez, who has been working on campus to address Kander’s connection to BAI, said, “The struggle at the Whitney is directly tied to Brown. Warren Kanders has given a significant amount of money to this University—to the Brown Arts Initiative in particular.

We are working with DTP to coordinate actions in Providence and New York.”

Brown students now face a situation similar to Whitney staff, in which Brown has not yet publicly revealed concern about Kander’s connection and his continued sponsorship and spot on the advisory council remains unclear. In response to a request for comment, BAI stated, “We at the BAI understand that members of the Brown community have varying perspectives on how organizations committed to the arts should consider the activities of their donors. We also understand that there is no consensus among institutions about addressing such questions when they arise.” In both the Whitney’s response and BAI’s statement it has become evident that arts institutions do not have solidified redlines for their donors and board member’s affiliations. In fact, it seems that these institutions pose these questions to the public to answer for themselves.

The Whitney was founded by an artist—Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney—and is dedicated to supporting living artists and continues to do incredible work with supporting rising artists with its Biennial, creating unparalleled learning opportunities via its Independent Study Program, and creating a new generation of artists and art appreciators with its phenomenal educational programming. As artists and staff identify the failures of the Whitney to accurately represent and support today’s living artists, the museum should reflect critically on how it might update to serve the more diverse and politically engaged artists of today. +++ In December, when the DTP action took place at the Whitney Museum, the museum’s lobby became cloudy. Ultimately, however, DTP’s action was clarifying. They were clarifying the role that museums play in an American context, revealing the flows of dirty money and failure to represent the public the institution claims to represent. DTP is pulling back the veil to expose the ways museums continue to act as institutions that serve the wealthy and underserve the marginalized; they are allowing us to see the irony of a show on protest, being directly funded by a man who profits off of the use of extreme forms of violence against protestors and asylum seekers. The use of uninterrogated arts funding within museums and universities is played out. We must demand such institutions clarify and hold positions on whether they will accept dirty money.

BABETTE THOMAS AND TRISTAN HARRIS ‘20 want you to email warrenkandersmustgo@gmail. com with a non-university email to learn more about getting involved about Kanders-related activism on campus at Brown.

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STATE OF AFFAIRS

Protests build momentum in Sudan and France

BY Jacob Alabab-Moser and Jessica Bram Murphy ILLUSTRATION Carly Paul DESIGN Amos Jackson

Media outlets largely focus on specific moments in time, framing events as singular instances while often ignoring their historical and political trajectory. This emphasis on the flashy often occludes the dynamic, the difficult, and the long-term nature of events— especially of movements that culminate in protest. By bringing the emphasis away from the proverbial apex of an event and placing it in a broader context, we hope to capture the unpredictable arc of geopolitical affairs: in this case, protests that have erupted in France and Sudan in recent months.

Large-scale protest movements require sustained energy and persistence. Their roots are manifold and their ramifications far-reaching; as such, they form the model of events we encourage readers to follow this year, beginning with ongoing anti-government demonstrations in France and Sudan and continuing throughout the spring with coverage of movements of varying scale, ideology, and composition in Los Angeles, Venezuela, Brazil, and Sri Lanka.

FRANCE: ON THEIR OWN TERMS Beginning in mid-November of last year, gilets jaunes have mobilized en masse across France. Their name, a reference to the bright yellow vests many demonstrators wear to protests and are required by drivers to keep in their cars in case of emergencies, is also likely a nod to working-class identity. The demonstrations began in response to the protestors’ disdain for President Emmanuel Macron’s enactment of a fuel tax, which was slated to increase prices up to 25 cents a gallon starting in January 2019. Recent weeks, however, have shown that the scope of the demands is much larger and harder to pin down than previously thought. They chiefly circle around popular discontent for the economic order under Macron, evidenced by the chants shouted at protests like“Macron resign!” and “We are not sheep!” The nature of the movement is largely decentralized and grassroots-based, as protestors have organized mostly through social media with Facebook events and online petitions. The first few weeks of the demonstrations garnered the largest turnout, with an estimated peak of 285,000 people nationwide participating in demonstrations on November 17, according to the French interior ministry.

There have been various instances of violence perpetrated by demonstrators and police forces alike. While many of the protests have occurred in urban centers, the majority of demonstrators come from “peripheral France”—that is, small cities, towns, and rural areas that have suffered the brunt of growing socioeconomic inequality that has only worsened as a result of Macron’s policies like the fuel tax. “It’s starting to be only struggle. You work and at the half of the month (sic) you don’t have anything,” said Leila, an administrator of "Gilet Jaune," a Facebook group for organizing that has nearly 170,000 members from across France.

“Everyone is struggling in this kind of (economic) situation in France, working in factories very hard 35 to 40 hours (weekly) to only get 1,100 to 1,200 euros a month.”

shutter the proposed fuel tax, he unveiled a significant proposal for concessions on December 11, including an increase of the minimum wage and the creation of certain tax exemptions. However, the demonstrators’ continued dissatisfaction indicates that their grievances extend beyond just immediate fiscal issues and into a general concern with the current political, economic, and social order in France under Macron.

party La France Insoumise have tried to co-opt the movement at various times, but have also failed. This lack of political consolidation, unusual in a country with a tradition of protest movements mobilizing from the top down in coordination with powerful institutions like political parties and labor unions, puzzles observers both domestically and abroad who try to categorize the Yellow Vests.

Macron’s widespread disapproval by the French public has shocked many of those who touted him at the time of his election. Last year, Foreign Policy called him “France’s answer to Barack Obama,” with his largely culturally progressive politics in contrast to the far right opponent Marine Le Pen. Yet from the beginning of his presidency, Macron has aligned himself economically with elite and big business interests. “If you want to share the cake, you’ve got to have a cake,” he said last July during a joint session of the French parliament. “It’s misleading to fight for employees if you don’t also defend companies.” As a technocrat and former investment banker, the president has prioritized making France more competitive in the global economy, a move that has oftentimes served to only further inequality within France. In September 2017, for example, the president suspended the Solidarity Tax on Wealth, which had previously taxed all those with assets valued over $1.5 million, after cutting housing benefits for millions of low-income citizens earlier that year. Such policies have contributed to Macron’s reputation as an out-of-touch “president of the rich.” Moreover, the top-down style of governance or verticalité that consolidates power in the presidency and has been a defining feature of France’s Fifth Republic has been criticized as authoritarian.

Macron's approval rating is at 27 percent as of January 11 according to a survey by market research firm Ifop, which is only 7 percent higher than the lowest on record for a French president—held by Macron’s predecessor Francois Hollande.

Regional differences have also contributed to the uneven development of the movement. Though it has received virtually no coverage by major French and international media outlets, the Yellow Vests have also begun protests in Réunion Island, the French overseas department in the Indian Ocean. Their demands to ameliorate social inequality hold greater resonance with nearly 50 percent of the population living under the poverty line, most of whom are unemployed young people. Likewise, the scale of economic and political crisis caused by the protests has been much larger on the island, particularly since it had already suffered from a weaker economy than Metropolitan France.

Who are the Yellow Vests?

One of the greatest strengths of the Yellow Vests— and perhaps also one of its weaknesses—is that it represents the discontents of many different identities and groups, as much as it does a confluence of demands. Through its decentralized organization, there exists a plurality of socioeconomic, political, and ethnic sectors of French society that have joined the Yellow Vests. While many news outlets have repeatedly speculated about the face of the movement, there seems not to be one—or at least, not yet. Some rightwing American news outlets have emphasized the participation of right-leaning white citizens from rural areas in France with anti-immigrant and libertarian sentiments alike to their British and American counterparts that rallied for Brexit and Trump’s election respectively. For example, The New Republic published an article on January 7 about the movement’s “ugly, illiberal, anti-semitic heart” that strings together an array of isolated incidents involving displays of racism, Islamophobia, and other types of bigotry online and at protests to define the greater movement. But such France under Macron a monolithic depiction betrays the reality that groups with left-leaning views also have taken to the streets.

Macron has attempted to meet some of the Yellow Vests’ Political figures and parties from across the spectrum demands with little success. Along with agreeing to like Jean-Luc Mélenchon of the left-wing populist

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The relationship between the demonstrators and established media outlets has increasingly deteriorated. In France, hostilities between protestors and journalists have, in multiple but seemingly isolated instances, devolved into acts of violence; But perhaps more suggestive of the demonstrators’ contempt and distrust, they have not communicated with the media as a means of publicizing their demands.

It is unclear at the moment whether the gilet jaunes’ decentralized organization and the ambiguous identity of its participants will ultimately serve as strengths or as weaknesses in the quest to have their demands met by the French government. On one hand, the widespread decentralization of the demonstrators’ operations without efforts to consolidate the movement, both in logistics and ideology, could potentially lead to a collapse. According to the tallies reported by the French interior ministry, there was diminishing turnout over the course of the three weekends last month. Yet it is still early—the grassroots organization of the movement without a fully devised identity or purpose could also serve as an asset for long-term staying power. It could indicate that rage—held for so long­by the French populace—would not concede to any concessions by the ruling elite that would uphold the status quo.

SUDAN: AN UPRISING: “Freedom. Peace. Justice.” Demonstrators in cities across Sudan have shouted these demands for weeks, protesting an insidiously ineffective regime led by President Omar al-Bashir, a leader who came to power thirty years ago, following a 1989 coup d’état, and has been accused of crimes ranging from corruption to genocide. Those who march seek new national leadership and an end to impossibly high inflation rates, second only to Venezuela. At least fifty people have been killed, hundreds of people have been injured, and nearly one thousand men and women have been arrested as protests have erupted over the past seven weeks. The Sudanese National Security is responsible for most of the violence, making the force demonstrators’ biggest enemy.

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These demonstrations are not the first waves of protests opposing the Sudanese government; President al-Bashir, who was indicted by the International Criminal Court in 2010 for crimes against humanity and genocide in Darfur, is widely unpopular. Though he was elected three times, allegations of corruption have clouded election results.

Demonstrations began on December 19 in Atbara, a small city in River Nile State in the northeastern region of the country. In response to a rapid increase in food and fuel prices—the price of bread tripled overnight, from one Sudanese pound to three—students and activists organized mass protests. The movement gained momentum as it quickly spread to larger cities across the country, including the capital, Khartoum.

A key player in the spread of the movement was the formation of the Sudanese Professional Association, a collective of activists, journalists, doctors, teachers, and filmmakers. The group schedules weekly demonstrations in regions across the nation, alerting hundreds of thousands of supporters via Facebook.

This method of communication has been helpful only with Virtual Private Networks (VPN) in light of internet shutdowns and slowdowns by the regime. The novelty of social media organizing sets this series of demonstrations apart from past iterations of opposition movements. In 1964 and 1985, popular uprisings were indeed successful in toppling oppressive leaders.

Yet the demonstrations today are unprecedented in their duration, lasting many weeks and showing no sign of termination.

Casualties As of January 25, at least 50 people have been killed, according to Human Rights Watch. (Unsurprisingly, exact numbers have been disputed. The official government-reported death toll is 24.) Over eight hundred people have been arrested and incarcerated.

Thousands more have been injured in so-called “police clashes,” though only one side yields weapons and video footage explicitly shows State Security forces firing directly at demonstrators. Images of the protests display clouds of tear gas hovering over the demonstrators, many of who are wearing medical facemasks or covering their mouths with clothing, running from the smoke.

fuel prices, and economic stagnation more broadly, are not isolated but rather manifestations of underlying problems—explaining protesters’ ultimate goal of ousting the current regime. The economy has deteriorated and inflation has risen since war with and then the secession of South Sudan in 2011.

and internet access were shut down. Al-Bashir has promises to remain in power until the next elections in 2020 and shows no signs of backing down, despite the persistence of nonviolent protests and the sheer duration of the movement. Meanwhile, food shortages and a lack of access to cash remain problematic for a large percentage of the population, and security forces One employee of the North Darfur office of the United continue to employ violence to counter protests.

Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) emphasized the impact of fuel price UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle hikes and currency shortage on already vulnerable Bachelet expressed concern over the “excessive” use populations such as Internally Displaced Persons of force by Sudanese State Security Forces in a state(IDP) and refugees. Many of his clients have money ment issued on January 17 from Geneva. “A represin bank accounts yet are unable to liquidate their sive response can only worsen grievances,” High finances. Further, without fuel, water purification Commissioner Bachelet stated. Bachelet urged authorsystems are useless, and people are being forced to go ities to release protesters who were arbitrarily detained, without water. and to resolve the situation through “dialogue.” It is unclear what type of dialogue this would entail, or The unrest in Sudan has implications for its southern if the international community is likely to intervene. neighbor; rival political parties in South Sudan have Separately, Britain, Norway, the US, and Canada been immersed in peace talks hosted by Khartoum in issued a joint statement condemning the violence an attempt to end a years-long civil war. An unstable against protesters, though the statement is unlikely Sudan is less equipped to handle such negotiations. to make an impact. Moreover, given the failure of the International Criminal Court to convict al-Bashir, the In the weeks following its genesis, the movement international community has a poor track record in has transformed into large-scale, multi-city opera- holding the president accountable. tion with broader and bolder demands. In addition to the initial calls for a recommencement of subsidies, A UN official in North Darfur who wishes to remain demonstrators are protesting corruption; lack of polit- anonymous told the College Hill Independent, “All ical freedom; unfair elections; widespread poverty; signs indicate that protests will continue. We don’t and high unemployment rates, reported Al Jazeera. know what the results will be. The demonstrations will Ultimately, activists and demonstrators demand continue, for sure, but it is difficult to tell if they will the resignation of al-Bashir. Though the protests succeed.” are explicitly citizen-led and are not tied to a specific political party, members of various opposition move- This uncertainty characterizes the reality of demonments are joining. Many leaders of opposition parties strations in Sudan, but the activists remain hopeful. have endorsed the movement, including former Despite a litany of arbitrary arrests and tragic fatalities, prime minister Sadig al-Mahdi of the National Umma demonstrators march on, VPN networks close, perseParty and Omar el-Digeir, President of the Sudanese vering in their fight for justice and peace.

Congress Party. Yet, Security Forces arrested el-Digeir, quelling hope for unity.

SOLIDARITY, FROM FRANCE TO SUDAN The protests lack a centralized leadership but have gained popular support, with thousands of demonstrators on each day, disillusioned by an oppressive regime and accelerated poverty. Journalists and filmmakers involved in organizing the demonstrations have been documenting the movement, working against obstacles such as internet shutdowns and government-imposed curfews in many cities. One clip filmed on January 16 depicts dozens of protesters tossing small stones towards a Security Forces in response to open fire. Tragically, one of the bullets hits a protester, who falls to the ground.

Thousands of miles separate these two countries, yet movements in each place are propelled by the ongoing mobilization of ordinary people who are disenchanted by their leaders of the states. Both movements are largely nonviolent, yet each have been met with state violence and have suffered fatalities. And both were instigated by aggrieved citizens in response to higher taxes, in the case of France, and lower subsidies, in Sudan. These financial shifts had far-reaching impacts: hundreds of thousands of citizens were asked for money that they do not have, and they responded accordingly, refusing to pay and demanding more from the leadership. Moreover, in both Sudan and France, the price hikes are emblematic of the more profound issues modern nation-states around the world face in adapting their structures of leadership and representation in order to meet the shifting needs of their populaces. The people have indicated that they will not be placated by empty promises and weak concessions; they have banded together, and they demand more.

One of the people killed was a medical doctor, whose identity remains anonymous, who was found with 14 bullets in his body. Though the doctor was not directly involved in the demonstrations, she was treating injured protesters in a hospital in Bahri, Khartoum.

Several days later, government forces reportedly Responses fired on people gathering to mourn the doctor’s death, injuring many more. Several children, also unidenti- Curfews have been issued, schools have been closed, fied, are among the casualties as well. social media access has been severed, and sweeping promises for (political and economic) reform have been Protesters initially organized to oppose the afore- made. Al-Bashir encouraged opponents to challenge mentioned inflation rates––nearing seventy percent–– him in the country’s next round of “free and fair eleccompounded by the recent adoption of a new tions," speaking at a rally in Khartoum on January 9. fifteen-month austerity plan which eliminated wheat, The president blamed foreign enemies for encouraging JACOB ALABAB MOSER B'20 AND JESSICA sugar, oil, and electricity subsidies, impacting millions the protests, though he showed no evidence for this BRAM MURPHY B'19 say au revoir and ma'a salaama of ordinary citizens. Without fuel, issues of food and claim. At the time of the rally, mobile phone networks to fascism.

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SELLING

BY Julia Rock ILLUSTRATION Eve O'Shea DESIGN Alexis Gordon

Mayor Elorza's plan to privatize the Providence water supply board

The story of the Scituate Reservoir holds its own in the annals of Rhode Island history. A gruesome tale of eminent domain and the state’s monopoly on the use of force, it began in 1915 when the Rhode Island General Assembly approved the state’s largest public works project in history: a plan to flatten and flood five villages in the town of Scituate in order to build a reservoir to provide clean water for Providence residents.

Water for the City of Providence and nearby cities had previously been provided by the Pawtuxet River. However, due to a growing population and the widening radius of water customers, it had become apparent to city and state officials that the current water system was not sustainable. When word of the plan to build the reservoir — which would displace 1,195 buildings including homes, stores, mills, and churches — reached Scituate, townspeople resisted, to no avail.

According to local historian Ray Wolf’s account, a few farmers took their own lives in despair. The land was flooded, and the population of Scituate decreased by 24 percent between the 1920 and 1930 censuses as residents moved elsewhere.

The most memorable part of the story for local historians is the fact that most citizens of the now “lost villages of Scituate” were not aware of the General Assembly’s plans until they were nearly finalized. The vote to flood the Scituate residents’ homes and separate their communities—to provide water for people they didn’t know—was made without the input of those who had the most to lose.

Today the Scituate Reservoir provides water for 60 percent of the population of Rhode Island and contains about 39.7 billion gallons of water (or, as the Providence Water website explains, “60,221 Olympicsized swimming pools,” which clarifies very little for those trying to picture the reservoir). Amid concerns over Providence’s budget deficit and unfunded pension burden, Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza, who was sworn in for a second term on January 7th, has proposed selling or leasing the Providence Water Supply Board (PWSB), which delivers water from the reservoir to consumers in Providence and nearby towns.

Privatizing (or “monetizing,” as Elorza prefers to call it) the water delivery system will allow Providence to earn an estimated $400 million, at the expense of ratepayers who will inevtiably face rate hikes, and PWSB customers who don’t live in Providence and

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will thus be bearing the cost of a different municipality's budgetary woes. Critics of Elorza’s plan argue that the inevitable rate hikes and health risks that would follow privatization will disproportionately impact the poorest customers, placing the pension burden on those with the least means. +++ Addressing budgetary concerns has been at the top of Elorza’s agenda as mayor. Last month, speaking to a crowd that showed up for his inauguration on the steps of City Hall in frigid temperatures, “Four years ago, the talk of bankruptcy was still in the air and there was a real fear of the city going under. Now, we’ve stabilized our finances and are shifting the conversation to our long-term health. We’ve paid off the deficit, improved our credit rating, created a rainy day fund and are now in the strongest financial position we’ve had in decades. It’s safe to say that four years ago, no one thought this was possible. But together, we did it!” In 2012, Providence faced a $110 million deficit and was on the brink of bankruptcy. Mayor Elorza’s predecessor, Angel Taveras, reduced the deficit by closing schools, raising property taxes, cutting benefits for the city’s union employees and retirees, and encouraging non-profits such as Brown University to make “payments” in lieu of property taxes (from which non-profits are exempt). As a result of Mayor Taveras’ slashing, Mayor Elorza faced only a $13.4 million cumulative deficit when he took office. However, long-term liabilities including pensions, remained unfunded.

A handful of activists showed up to the inauguration holding signs opposing Elorza’s plans for privatization. Angel Lopez, treasurer of Climate Action RI, said in a statement, “Selling or leasing our water is not a solution to the city's pension problem. Ratepayers and residents should expect rate hikes and poor water quality instead.” Lopez is also a member of a small coalition that has formed to organize against Elorza’s plan, but the coalition has not yet made any public statements.

On January 9, two days after Elorza’s inauguration, three water companies entered requests for qualifications (RFQs), including Boston-based Poseidon Water; Veolia, the world’s largest water service supplier; and Suez North America, a French company. However,

the city will need approval from the state General Assembly before it can lease the PWSB. If the General Assembly passes a bill authorizing the sale, the city will make a request for proposals/bids (RFP) for companies to submit bids.

Privatizing the PWSB would require ratepayers outside of Providence to share the burden of replenishing Providence’s pension fund, because Providence Water customers outside of Providence would face the same rate hikes as those in Providence. Charles Lombardi, Mayor of North Providence (a city that has Providence Water customers) offered a sharp critique of this plan in the local Valley Breeze newspaper last spring.“By selling off assets like Providence Water," he wrote, "the City of Providence is attempting to finance their poor management decisions on the backs of everyone else. What is the next proposal, the sale of Roger Williams Park?” +++ Water is distinct from other public utilities across the United States. Unlike electricity, natural gas, internet, and telecommunications, water (and sewage) have largely been municipally controlled since the turn of the 20th century. Most other utilities are owned by private companies (for example, natural gas and electricity are delivered to most Rhode Islanders by multinational National Grid) and regulated by the state. This has not always been the case: during the 19th century, private water delivery was more common than public water delivery. However, most municipalities shifted towards public delivery of water services in the early 20th century. Most economists and historians agree that the technical and administrative simplicity of water systems, the need for a reliable water system for public health and putting out fires, and the disruptiveness of construction of water mains all contributed to the shift.

Even though Providence owns the Scituate Reservoir, it is disputed who owns the water delivery system. “There are real legal questions over who owns the water system,” State Treasurer Seth Magaziner said in an interview on The Public’s Radio last week.

Magaziner believes that ratepayers from all of the municipalities where the water is delivered have an ownership stake, because they have paid for the water system's upgrades. That means that any profits made

01 FEB 2019

from leasing or selling the water supply would have to be returned to ratepayers. (Former Mayor Taveras also maintained this stance.)

Monetizing the system would allow the company or body that delivers water to earn a profit from ratepayers, which is not currently allowed under state law.

Activists and environmental coalitions across the state have pointed to research showing that water privatization almost always increases water rates, because private companies supplying water need to raise rates to run a profit.

The Washington Post reported last year that, “although there is no reliable data to compare the service or safety records of public and private utilities, studies show that in most cases, the tab rises when for-profit companies are involved.” Public Citizen, a public interest advocacy group and think tank, has published research in opposition to water privatization, arguing that privatization leads to rate increases, undermines water quality, and decreases access to water for a state or municipality’s poorest citizens. +++ The threat of increased shutoffs for water customers and risks to safety posed by privatization has inspired a vocal response to the Mayor's proposal (especially after the state energy monopoly National Grid shut off the natural gas in nearly 7,000 homes on January 21, forcing people to evacuate to hotels to escape the cold).

J Michael Denney, visiting political science professor at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, wrote in a letter published in the Providence Journal in December: “The goal of water supply is clean healthy water for all city residents, not closing budget gaps.” However, Providence would not be the first city to monetize its water supply in order to fund a budget gap. Other cities across the United States have done so either to fund a deficit or to make updates to crumbling water systems that the city cannot afford. However, someone still has to pay: “Water customers still foot the bill,” reported the Washington Post in the same article, because customers pay for improvements to infrastructure or budget gaps through higher rates.

However, the urgency of Providence’s unfunded pension obligations weighs heavily on Elorza. “The Providence pension system is, in my view, the biggest financial challenge that the state of Rhode Island faces,” Magaziner told The Public's Radio. Only about a third of the city’s estimated $1 billion pension obligation is currently funded: Under Rhode Island’s state standard, a pension system under 60 percent funded is in “critical condition.” However, funding pensions by monetizing the water supply puts the financial burden on those who can least afford it. When rates almost inevitably increase, the impact will be felt hardest

THE COLLEGE HILL INDEPENDENT

by the lowest-income Providence Water customers, Governor Gina Raimondo’s budget announced last already squeezed out by other utility bills and a lack of week, the Governor included a proposal for legislaaffordable housing in the city. tion which would allow cities to tax “non-mission essential property” owned by non-profits (such as +++ property that maintains a revenue stream), which would allow Providence to gain property tax Regardless of the financial problems Providence faces, revenue from its universities and hospitals (which many residents are unwilling to accept water privat- are exempt from property taxes as non-profits, but ization as a solution. In an op-ed penned for Uprise RI, have voluntarily made small payments to the City Providence resident Gillian Kiley wrote, “We cannot in past years). Elorza has also pursued cost-cutsolve decades of financial mismanagement and polit- ting measures, including modifying health plans ical pandering by putting water, critical to our health, “for new employees in our teacher and city union economy and future, at risk. We cannot trust that a contracts to generate cost savings for the city.” private entity will protect Rhode Islanders’ interests, However, Elorza faces opposition from city but we know there is a market incentive to raise rates council members, mayors of neighboring towns, and cut management costs.” Emily Crowell, spokes- the State Treasurer, environmental protection person for Mayor Elorza’s office, responded to this organizations, and residents over his plan. For a claim by pointing out in an email to the Independent resource as vital as water, placing its control in that in 2017, water rates for Providence Water the hands of a private company puts residents at customers increased 8.5 percent (even though the risk. There are, of course, other ways to fund the system was managed publicly). pensions. Rhode Island College Professor Mikaila This fall, Baltimore became the first large city in the Mariel Lemonik Arthur penned in an op-ed for United States to vote to ban water privatization when Uprise RI last spring: “As a Providence resident, I 77 percent of voters cast ballots in support of a measure would rather see those of us who can afford it pay that would prevent the city from selling or leasing its our fair share—not for our most vital resource to be water supply, in response to various proposals that pulled out from under us.” Arthur called for higher the city privatize its water supply to repair its crum- property taxes on high-value homes as one way to bling infrastructure. In 2016, the Northampton, fund the pensions.

Massachusetts city council passed an ordinance Providence’s pension problem is urgent and banning water privatization. In Northampton, there needs to be solved, but monetizing the water had not been a proposal to privatize on the table, but supply will leave PWSB with higher rates and less the ordinance was passed as a preventative measure. accountability to the public interest. Elorza’s office Mayor Elorza maintains that he is concerned about and supporters of the proposal need to prepare the long-term financial health of the city. Crowell for resistance to their proposed legislation upon explained that the Mayor’s office has “reviewed our arrival at the state house this spring. borrowing capacity and practices,” “pursued legislation to increase the hotel tax,” and “proposed JULIA ROCK B'19 swims to class. non-profit taxation bills” to increase city revenue. In

“There are real legal questions over who owns the water system.”

METRO

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BY Justin Han ILLUSTRATION Justin Han DESIGN Amos Jackson

The Long Yard And so I take it upon myself to caulk the open prairie, cover corners dumbly reserved for no one, stalks gripping the fallow field. For reference, see an office lot at sundown, its empty threats still holding ground.

Already the silo hatches early to wrens, offside, a ditch welcomes rear wheels. Trip mountains scaled down, find the fusebox blown out and exposed. All worth here we qualify by first impression: the open claw looking functional but buried in a wall’s fatal perforations, the cables tonguing slyly from a second floor removed. Dangled invisible, the rhododendron blooms ornamental. In a mess of straw see a keyboard planted with black breaches for keys. We pursue giddy these harsh corners, impossible slants, sing away this remnant bliss as it ages not a day, then nip what needs continuance

Paliochori Mentions this only as strange ordeal, her translation resisting delivery—vegetable state and we’ll see no more of Tsalia, Damia, Disekia, each of them intact and unknowable. In the uppercase half of the alphabet I know, I can build the set of their ‘54, parse the scattershot threads of its design.

A ham-fisted flaring up to earth, then mules kneeling, storks’ nests dismantling atop Marathea’s walls falling and pried like walnuts open. Even if she says these are generous facts, gifts of the raconteur, I hear them still in bells tolling cavernous off the herd, inside cafes named after opium and the Western. He was there, she parrots, when each person fell into the next in mourning dependable ground; in processions that took homes’ stone husks north, a town taken back to the bole.

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with concrete and mortar. No spare muscle to clear the gazebo out, fumbling at the wick and so it is on only me to

01 FEB 2019

new interior for a hallmark birthday card

BY Rachel Landau ILLUSTRATION Claribel Wu

hornet wound i weep your memory accounting for sapphire-stained rungs in the ladder though garnet symbolizes your birth since the bronze age a gemstone for your keeping balanced a palace between the hands of a ghost sensor made the river borderline and the starlight noxious to the corkboard blank space of my heartthrob: sending love this time of year and always

delicate cycle

we looked different then, but now the calendar claims a calm july while rain on thayer street is thumbtacks and lightning practices pointe on the avenues to perform a cement ballet i wake to soft silhouettes

in an ivory room your eyes have never seen

once airfields merged atoms, your lover, a pair of hands now this is not december i could say to you next to me imaginary; i could turn to freckles i could switch out the rain for snow a cave of dreams for the common cold brunette for blonde this city for yours dream an ark

and pray a polymer

notice what is sired in these storm drains, i demand a needless audio i have lived among these endless hills and when i march these streets i recall your boston neighborhood named for its religious acclivity for the time to mold a baby in a fielded womb where trains walk to art museums, ambulances race to a hospital next door i want only to speak to you again and with what reason am i to do a fine job of carrying on in the rain when miles away up the hill you are stumbling

THE COLLEGE HILL INDEPENDENT

washing little spots between spots sun spots mostly and spots of of silk spun by worms littler than spots washed to preserve an old newsprint words drone and the heater hums and spots fade in the laundry machine washing little spots between spots * washer thumping like sins on breastbone delicates desire to preserve balance thumping dress inside to cover shoulders delicates desire to preserve a sanctity a body hidden in these a shell like shallot a body hidden in these a question of pretending * sweet detergent for a soft soul delicate in light— imagine photosensitive paper in a dark laundry room chemical truth for the unexposed while soap cleans and makes fictions and promises set forth by twisting so spots fade in the laundry machine * pressing on the self to stain out of view with last year’s favorite hat straw and sun-damaged i imagine the moment stepping forth declaring in little speckled hours block letters of a verse written to hide itself * i say yes to everything in the dryer even if steadfast—to press ‘delicates’ it was all to protect a material i borrowed to hold in my hands tiny eggshells worn when i promised this could be clean again little spots between spots

LITERARY

14

At the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing, held in Hong Kong on November 27-29, 2018, the room is buzzing with uneasy chatter.

The audience already knows, at least to some degree, what Dr. He Jiankui, the most talked-about speaker of the event, is going to discuss. They are aware of the burgeoning controversy surrounding his experiment.

In the last few days, his work has been called “criminally reckless,” “profoundly disturbing,” and a “grave abuse of human rights.” Some have speculated that it “will push bioethics into a dark new era.”

“Just to remind everyone here, we want to give Dr. He a chance to explain what he has done in terms of the science in particular, but also other aspects of what he has done. Please, can you allow him to speak without interruptions,” implores David Baltimore, a notable American biologist and Nobel laureate, who has been tasked with introducing Dr. He. Baltimore speaks from a podium on a wood-paneled stage. The audience, an unusually rowdy crowd of researchers, ethicists, policymakers, and medical representatives, does not quiet down. But Baltimore continues: “We didn’t know the story that was going to break over the last couple of days when he accepted the invitation to come and speak to us.”

When the audience finally settles, Dr. He steps up to the podium. “Do you see your friends, your relatives who may have a genetic disease? The way I see it, those people need help,” he says. His conception of “help” is the source of the controversy taking place at the summit. When Dr. He used CRISPR gene editing technology to modify the DNA of human embryos, his intentions were good––however devastating and far reaching the consequences.

GENETICALLY PLEASING He Jiankui, CRISPR, and the politics of the human genome

+++ CRISPR gene editing allows scientists to harness the naturally-occuring immune systems of bacteria to genetically modify other organisms. CRISPR, which stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, refers to repetitive sequences of nucleotides (the molecules that form the basic structural unit of DNA) found in bacterial DNA. These sequences assist bacterial immune systems; when viruses attack bacteria, the bacteria produce Cas9 enzymes which in turn seek out the viruses, killing them and subsequently slicing up their genetic material. As a matter of survival, the enzymes cache specific fragments of those viral genetic codes in the CRISPR sequences of their own DNA, which allows the bacteria to later identify the same viruses in the event of reinfection.

Sudden breakthroughs in gene-editing technology occurred when biochemists discovered that the Cas9 enzyme would chop up and collect any foreign genetic sequence, as long as the enzyme recognized the RNA sequence. Once scientists realized that they could trick the Cas9 enzyme into cutting up any genetic material, not just that of viruses, they struck gold. Humans now had the power to manipulate any genome. Gene editing had been possible before CRISPR’s arrival, but the technology was expensive, time-consuming, and imprecise. Now, scientists could slice up DNA with unprecedented precision, deleting unwanted sequences and potentially adding in new ones.

Since CRISPR’s discovery, scientists have most notably used the system to mitigate hearing loss in mice and produce mushrooms that stay fresh much longer than other natural fungi. Each scientific breakthrough has demonstrated the revolutionary potential of CRISPR technology, tempting scientists with boundless opportunity in a world littered with biological imperfections. Despite the far-reaching ramifications of these experiments for the public, they received minimal coverage by mainstream news outlets, and the understanding and discussion of their significance largely remained insulated within the scientific community.

But CRISPR is far from perfect. In fact, within the last year, scientists have published research suggesting that CRISPR editing can cause serious, previously underestimated damage to DNA. Last July, Nature revealed that gene editing with CRISPR/Cas9 can inadvertently cause significant deletions and rearrangements in genetic material (the consequences of which remain unknown), while two other studies published in the same summer suggest that CRISPRedited cells can become cancerous.

So while the potential benefits of CRISPR excite many scientists, most deem the risks too high to make

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its usage on humans in the near future advisable or even plausible. And the prospect of human genome editing, because it touches on profound cultural fears about evolution, eugenics, and overreach, has received far more attention in popular discourse than most scientific innovations. For much of the public, until Dr. He’s experiment, the prospect of a genomic revolution for humans seemed terrifying, but still far in the future. +++ Before November, He Jiankui was a 35-year-old biophysics researcher at Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, China with very little distinction in the gene editing community.

He grew up in a family of rice farmers in an impoverished area of the southeastern Hunan province. From a young age, He demonstrated an individualistic streak, and science gave him a sense of independence and upward mobility. Dissatisfied with his high school’s opportunities, He built a laboratory at home to conduct his own physics experiments.

Earning his undergraduate degree in physics in China at the University of Science and Technology in 2006, He went on to pursue a Ph.D. at Rice University, where he studied the application of physical and mathematical modeling to biological systems. Not long after, He caught the eye of the Chinese government, which enticed him back to China with a state-of-the-art lab, liberal funding, and a position as the youngest associate professor at Southern University. But his work after graduate school garnered little recognition—he did not publish any papers on CRISPR or work in any notable CRISPR labs. Established CRISPR scientists considered his research imprecise, unnecessary, and not particularly innovative. According to Jennifer Doudna, one of the pioneers of CRISPR technology and a highly respected gene editing researcher, “he wasn’t seen as a major player.”

But Dr. He’s intentions were good: he believed he could do something profound with CRISPR. Like many scientists, He saw the potential in gene editing to revolutionize treatment for genetic diseases, particularly HIV. What made He different, though, was his unwavering drive to take action. After a devastating epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s, HIV remains a significant problem in China. The Chinese government estimates that over 500,000 people in China are currently HIV-positive, and infection rates have jumped in recent years. He had visited villages where more than 30 percent of the population was HIV-positive. There, he spoke with parents who dreaded passing the disease to their children. And in his speech at the Hong Kong summit, He cited this personal experience with the

HIV crisis as one of his primary motivations for his gene-editing experiment: “They need this protection.

[The] HIV vaccine is not available… They had lost hope for life.”

In 2017, Dr. He recruited seven sets of hopeful parents for a new clinical trial. Choosing couples in which at least one partner was HIV-positive, He attempted to use CRISPR/Cas9 to remove a gene called CCR5 from the genomes of their offspring. CCR5 is significant because those who lack the gene due to a naturally-occurring mutation are highly resistant, sometimes even immune, to HIV. Likely aware of his flouting of general scientific agreement, He concealed the true nature of his experiment. He took an unpaid leave from Southern University in February to work on the project without oversight, and only registered the experiment on the official list of China’s clinical trials in November 2018 (though experiment documents have been found that date back to March 2017).

Leading up to his experiment, Dr. He reached out to distinguished CRISPR scientists, asking for meetings, lab tours, and advice. In particular, he forged relationships with UC Berkeley biologist Mark DeWitt and Stanford bioethicist William Hurlbut, seeking advice from them about the use of CRISPR for human embryos. Both men urged Dr. He against the experiment, warning him of its potential dangers and ethical implications. Dr. He ignored their advice. +++ On November 25, two days before Dr. He was set to talk about his research at the Hong Kong summit, his research team made a stunning announcement in a YouTube video: the first two babies whose embryos he had edited with CRISPR/Cas9, a set of twins named Nana and Lulu, had been born healthy. The video itself shocked most scientists; typical protocol calls for researchers to present their work at conferences or in peer-reviewed journals. Perhaps anticipating a controversial reception at the summit, Dr. He likely wanted to defend himself and his project uninterrupted. So he initiated the dialogue on his own terms.

The video is staged against a sterile, well-lit background that appears to be a laboratory. Dr. He’s remarks are measured, and seemingly meticulously rehearsed.

He describes Nana and Lulu’s “gene surgery” and embryonic development, and highlights their parents’ reactions. “When Mark saw his daughters for the first time,” He says, “he said he never thought he could be a father. Now he’s found a reason to live, a reason to work, a purpose.” He asserts that Nana and Lulu were born “safe and healthy as any other babies,” which he had confirmed by deep sequencing, or scrupulously

01 FEB 2019

BY Gemma Sack ILLUSTRATION Katya Labowe-Stoll DESIGN Ella Rosenblatt

as the embryos in He’s trial had no medical issues.

Editing their genomes did not cure them of any disease, but instead made them resistant. (Moreover, there are cheaper, pre-existing treatments for HIV.) This objective does not clearly align with Dr. He’s purported goal of use gene editing as a “technology for healing.”

While Dr. He saw resistance as a form of healing, many others believe that his experiment crossed the line into enhancement (if there is any line to be drawn at all).

On a larger scale, the very notion of using CRISPR on humans has alarmed most scientists. Given the potential risks—the prematurity of the technology and the unknown consequences of accidental mutations—many scientists have questioned the informed consent of the parents in the study, let alone the ethical dilemma of the children. They are not just embryos, but humans who will have to live with genetic modifications they did not ask for, making bioethicists question whether parents’ consent in experiments like these can ever be sufficient.

Finally, it is unclear what will happen to Nana and Lulu. Dr. He did not execute the mutations perfectly: only half of Lulu’s CCR5 genes are edited, and Nana had some normal copies of the CCR5 gene. So while he claimed in the video that the babies showed no unplanned deletions, he neglected to mention the other unplanned results of the experiment. Dr. He’s mistakes aside, even if the editing had gone perfectly, Nana and Lulu have no medical precedent. Those of us watching the babies are left wondering: What might it mean to be the first of one’s kind? In uncharted biological and ethical territory, what kind of norm might this experiment, or these children, set? +++

documenting, their genomes. The girls seemingly lacked any abnormalities or unpredicted deletions caused by the CRISPR editing.

Dr. He’s manner is stoic but earnest. His posture remains rigid; his only movements are an occasional sweep of his hands, which he mostly keeps clasped. But his calm veneer cracks sometimes, when he speaks quickly or smiles, or gestures emphatically, reflecting his excitement about his experiment. He likens his work to the first IVF pregnancy in Manchester, England. At the time, he says, IVF sparked a media “panic,” but has proven to be a powerful tool for those who have difficulty conceiving, and has become acceptable over the last forty years as “regulations and morals have developed.” Dr. He thought his research could provide a similar boon to China by laying the groundwork for editing HIV-resistance into the genome of a new generation of Chinese babies, posing a solution to the problem he had seen developing for so long.

Anticipating some of the debate about eugenics that his work would provoke, He explicitly states in the video that Nana and Lulu’s parents do not want a “designer baby,” but simply children who will not suffer from a preventable disease. Any eugenic practices, such as selecting for desirable physical traits, “should be banned,” He states. Gene surgery “is and should remain a technology for healing.” But He’s idealism had blinded him to the consequences of his experimentation.

But the public’s response has not only reflected these cultural fears that genome editing has, since its inception, evoked—overwriting nature, playing God, and recklessly altering the processes and trajectory of human evolution—but has also called into question the nature of the scientific community itself: How did the community fail to see something so out of line right under its nose? What terrifies many scientists is that there was no clear way to prevent this from happening within the community. Short of institutional oversight, which evidently can be circumvented, little can stop scientists from overreaching when the only method of regulation is the norm of protocol itself. David Baltimore alluded to this during his remarks at the Hong Kong summit: The problem, from his perspective, was “a failure of self-regulation by the scientific community because of the lack of transparency.”

He’s experiment, then, becomes not only a referendum on human genome editing—a practice which, when viable, will have significant (though certainly not unanimous) scientific, ethical, and public support—but also on the seeming lack of regulation, oversight, and enforcement within the scientific community, and thus modern science itself.

And so, much of this debacle centers around the figure of He Jiankui, who seems to be the perfect combination of reckless idealism and stubborn individualism: A contemporary Victor Frankenstein, the canonical overreaching scientist. This incident prompts us to consider the stakes of Mary Shelley’s warnings in the 21st century: How much agency should individual scientists have within a community so dependent on collaboration? And in a world where gene-editing technology seems like it will become more accessible, and more scientists will have the opportunity to ‘play God,’ will the scientific community learn from this mistake, or will more tragedies occur? With children’s lives, the future of bioethics, and possibly the trajectory of human evolution seemingly hanging in the balance, the need for answers to questions like these feels increasingly pressing.

Standing at the podium on stage at the Hong Kong summit, He offers the audience this call to action: “If we have the technology and can make it available, then this will help people... It is up to society to decide what to do next.” Society gave him a resounding answer: Not on your terms.

As He’s experiment has moved into popular discourse, public anxiety over its ethical implications has subsumed his misguided crusade to eliminate HIV in China. Many people fear not only that the experiment crossed the boundary between healing and enhancement, but also that the very prospect of human genome editing has opened the door for a new kind of eugenics movement. In a theoretical world where scientists can slice and rearrange human genomes at will, a vision that has become increasingly conceivable recently, parents who can afford CRISPR gene surgery would be able to select for desirable or advantageous traits, intimately linked to hierarchies of race and ability, or GEMMA SACK B’21 is very wary about 23andMe. weed out the undesirable or disadvantageous, creating "designer babies." Despite He’s denouncement of designer babies, these eugenic possibilities raise numerous ethical questions about desirability and the place of people with disabilities in this new, genetically-modified era.

+++ Four days after the release of his video, the Chinese government banned Dr. He from pursuing his research any further. There are to be no more CRISPR babies.

“The genetically-edited infant incident reported by media blatantly violated China’s relevant laws and regulations. It has also violated the ethical bottom line that the academic community adheres to. It is shocking and unacceptable,” said Xu Nanping, Chinese vice-minister of science and technology, in a statement a few days after the Hong Kong summit. As of now, Dr. He lives in university housing on his campus in Shenzhen. Plainclothes guards are stationed at his apartment. It is unclear whether they are there to protect him or to enforce his house arrest. Rumors have swirled in the media that Dr. He faces the death penalty, which he has flatly denied. He has made no substantive public statements since the initial turmoil.

In addition to the government crackdown, many scientists have raised serious concerns with Dr. He’s experimental design. They claim that Dr. He’s experiment was fundamentally unnecessary for the babies in his study—he was not addressing an unmet need,

THE COLLEGE HILL INDEPENDENT

SCIENCE & TECH

16

BREXIT: THE UNCIVIL WAR Ingredients for a contemporary political drama

OVERVIEW: Channel 4 and HBO recently released this political drama charting the lead up to the UK’s referendum on whether to leave the EU, which took place less than 3 years ago. It follows Dominic Cummings, the strategist behind the Vote Leave campaign, and focuses particularly on his decision to direct 40% of the campaign budget towards Aggregate IQ, a ‘political consultancy and technology company’ with links to Cambridge Analytica. The firm’s use of online microtargeted ads to sway unlikely voters is credited with deciding the outcome of the referendum.

CHARISMATIC BUT CONTROVERSIAL PROTAGONIST Establish the Antiestablishmentarian: Cummings wears reflective vest and bicycle helmet to meetings; Cummings is a visionary unbridled by constraints of tradition and propriety that have stymied British politics Behavioral Quirks: Cummings flees business engagement to press ear to ground of downtrodden town in an attempt to isolate the ‘sound’ that London makes

Bankable Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, darling of the BBC Radio 4 audience, plays new iteration of zany, misunderstood genius

DIGESTIBLE ENGAGEMENT WITH HOT-TOPIC CURRENT AFFAIRS 5

1

4

3

2

6

It Gets Ugly!: Cummings’ wife flips off disapproving presumably Remain neighbor

It’s Even Worse Than We Thought: Focus group devolves into tears in spite of care-

Convenient State-of-the-Nation Breakdown: 1. Ardent Internationalists (11%) 2. EU Hostiles (11%) 3. Comfortable Europhiles (18%) 4. Strong Septics (21%)

Cursory Acknowledgment of Significant Information: Johnson, Gove, Farage reduced to SNL/ Spitting Image bit parts that still scarcely capture absurdity of their subjects

The Fearsome Power of Tech: Unidentified characters in black turtlenecks carrying in padlocked briefcases full of things we cannot compre-

A single iPad holds the key to 3 million extra undecided voters

CULTURAL TOUCHSTONES Indulgently Comforting Classical British References: • Jammy biscuits • Shots of Londoners in parks • Coffee kiosk with twee name • Glancing sarcastic reference to tea • Normal People in pubs

End captions before credits hastily introduce Cambridge Analytica, Robert Mercer, and US Elections

No Way to Tell When ‘Artistic License’ Starts and Ends: Leaders of the opposing campaigns run into each other on opposite sides of a tube platform vs. Cummings singlehandedly engineering a 180 turn on the expected outcome

Montage of Compelling Media Moments: Archival footage of stirring historical moments that paved the way for the film’s premise Particularly: Cameron humming jovially as he heads back inside 10 Downing Street after giving a statement of his resignation following the referendum result

RELIABLE FILM TROPES Shrewd Recognition of Meaningful Implications of Seemingly Banal Incident: Pivotal campaign slogan emerges from paperback parenting guide

Breaking of 4th Wall: Cumberbatch locks eyes with audience, in shock at realization of potential repercussions of Leave campaign’s unexpected win

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is a revolving door ever open ? ever closed ? *

Three Course Lunch Massimo (134 Atwells Avenue) 12PM-2PM Three course lunch at a Fed Hill Italian joint for only $16.95. Try the galamad. It’s to die for.

Ollie and Aaren's Birthday Party Buttonwoods Brewery (530 Wellington Avenue, Cranston) 4PM-9PM Ollie is a dog, and Aaren is his human. Funny enough, Aaren and Ollie were born on the same day! Aaren just so happens to also run a microbrewery (Buttonwoods Brewery) in Cranston. As you would guess, things are about to get crazy this Friday. Word on the street is that Aaren is serving a special birthday cake-flavored stout, with an entire birthday cake going in the mash.

Monster Jam Triple Threat Series Dunkin Donuts Convention Center (1 La Salle Square) 1PM$15-$70 Legit the highlight of the academic year in Providence.

NHC February 2nd 2019 Guided Hike, and hey, it's Ground Hog Day! Neutaconkanut Hill Conservancy (120 Killingly Street) 10AM-12PM Groundhog interface not guaranteed. Come dressed warmly for this Saturday-morning guided hike sponsored by the Neutaconkanut Hill Conservancy, an 88-acre hilltop park lying between PVD & Johnston. Part of an ongoing series of free, monthly guided walks.

The Trifecta & Super Bowl Potluck Nick-A-Nee’s 4PM-1AM (75 South Street) We may live in New England, but regional pride doesn’t excuse the total monopoly on Super Bowl participation (& glory itself) enjoyed by the Patriots and their bootlicker qb Tom Brady. On the other hand, the Rams’ semi-recent move from St. Louis to Los Angeles represents a pretty sad trend in sports franchise relocation & the removal of public joy from less cosmopolitan cities—reminds me of a certain defunct Pawtucket-based minor league baseball team. </3 Anyway, crown jewel of the Jewelry District & pool-shark haunt Nick-A-Nee’s is looking like the move for an already disappointing SB53.

Weaponization of Procedure The Watson Institute (111 Thayer Street) 5:30-6:30PM This is a discussion between three retired Capitol Hill staffers, including someone called a “parliamentarian emeritus,” on a book called "Congressional Procedure: A Practical Guide to the Legislative Process in the U.S. Congress.” Robert’s rules of snore-dor, am I right? In actuality, the sticklers-in-the-mud up for discussion here are central to how our government works (or doesn’t), as well as controversial topics like filibuster rules and impeachment procedures. Don’t “abstain” from this one!

Sunrise RI Kick-Off Meeting Urban Environmental Lab (135 Angell Street) 7-8:30PM A very open meeting of the local chapter of the youth-led environmental organization putting their weight behind, among other things, the Green New Deal. Providence today, Pelosi’s office tomorrow!

Speed Dating For All Single Professionals The Whiskey Republic (15 Bridge Street) 7-9PM This List Writer (LW) intends no disparagement toward this night of quickie romance among 30- and 40-somethings, but the number of times they mention “professionals” in the description of this event makes it sound like a job fair. Don’t get me wrong, maybe the Whisky Republic is a country that actually guarantees a fair wage.

Here’s hoping this night results in marital unions and actual unions alike!

Lobby for Gun Safety Rhode Island State House (82 Smith Street) 3-5PM The Rhode Island Coalition Against Gun Violence is hosting this gun safety lobby *every Wednesday this legislative session* so there’s no excuse if you don’t go add your voice to at least one. No lobby experience necessary— training will be provided. You could also go to Monday’s event on procedures if you need practice objecting to things.

Artist Talk: Joyce J. Scott List Art Building, Room 120 (64 College Street) 5-6PM Scott’s work, which ranges from jewelry to figurative sculpture confronting racism, misogyny, and economic inequality, is at turns funny and bleak, intricate and immediate. She’s also a MacArthur Genius Fellow! Tickets are free, but you’re going to want to reserve them beforehand through events.brown.edu before the room (very likely) fills up.

History on Tap: A Toast to Brewing in Rhode Island The Guild (461 Main Street, Pawtucket) 6-8PM $15 (with a discounted $20 Rhode Island Historical Society membership) Listen, this LW recognizes that purchasing a RIHS membership to have two draft beers, an appetizer, and a tour of this brewhouse seems counterintuitive. But imagine what other ancient alcohol you could dig up on their other house tours! (If you show up to a Newport mansion and demand some especially aged liquors… don’t tell them we sent you). *send your responses to theindy@gmail.com