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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2019
VOLUME CLIII, ISSUE #14
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Literary arts festival celebrates cross-disciplinary forms of media Interrupt V investigates digital media, tension between literary, physical worlds By KATHERINE OK SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Interrupt V, a festival hosted by the Literary Arts Department Friday and Saturday, featured artists who commented on and examined the intersections of literary theory and media. The festival was organized by John Cayley, professor of literary arts, and Theadora Walsh GS. Through workshops, lectures and performances by various artists, the festival sought to “interrupt” linguistic conventions, whether in human speech or when speaking about the distinction between dream and reality. On Friday, students and faculty gathered in the Martinos Auditorium as New Order’s “Age of Consent” played over the speakers. At the front of the auditorium, a screen capture video recording showed the virtual
ARTS & CULTURE
DANIELLE EMERSON / HERALD
The two-day festival gathered University community members to explore media and literary theory. Attendees participated in workshops, lectures and performances at the Granoff Center for the Creative Arts. interactions of two writers playfully typing on a word processing document, unleashing their musings and
qualms related to language, capitalism and even the video itself. Audience members fell silent as they
watched the writers type, with occassional bouts of laughter as the text grew humorous.
After the short film, Jackie Wang, a multidisciplinary artist and PhD candidate in African and African American studies and history at Harvard, gave a lecture titled “Abolitionist Poetics and the Politics of Dreaming.” In her presentation, Wang dissected the relationship between dreaming and imprisonment. Wang elaborated on the relationship between time and language as well as their impact on individuals’ lives. She spoke of how language, specifically rhythm and tempo, “is set by living in this debt economy” and meditated on “strategies of how to resist carceral time through the creation of a rhythm of revolt.” Analyzing the weaponization of time as social control, Wang focused on temporal punishment’s deep ability to cause pain in those who have been incarcerated. “It is a total attack on the subjectivity and the psyche of the prisoner. … Temporal punishment is not legible in our current framework of understanding harm and pain,” Wang said. Throughout the lecture, she continued to detail how poetry can be linked to dreaming, a method of escape from captivity. » See FESTIVAL, page 2
Researchers examine gut Fulbright Fellow’s poetry reading tugs heartstrings Ganguly shares microbiome, Vitamin A Somrita stories, celebrates Scientists identify protective effects of gut microbiome and Vitamin A on immune system By RAHMA IBRAHIM STAFF WRITER
Researchers at the University and the University of Washington have found new ways that vitamin homeostasis and bacteria in the gut microbiome can help protect their hosts from the spread of pathogens and help prevent inflammatory diseases like Crohn’s, according to a study published Dec. 18. The study showed that Vitamin A metabolism plays a key role in many immune processes. Given that vitamin A deficiency is a concern in some developing countries and other parts of the world, these findings may carry global health policy implications. In addition, bacteria in the intestines protect the host from the spread of pathogens and from microbial dysbiosis — the scientific term for microbial imbalance, according to the study.
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In general, the study emphasized the importance of a balanced microbiome and vitamin A metabolism in many immune processes. The researchers examined the gut microbiome — the bacteria inside of the intestines — in a two-part study using mice as model organisms, as mice have immune systems similar to human beings. Shipra Vaishnava, assistant professor of molecular microbiology and immunology and a lead researcher on the study, hosts a facility that maintains mice in a sterile environment. Researchers used this gnotobiotic facility — the first of its kind at Brown, according to Postdoctoral Research Associate and study researcher Namrata Iyer — to observe mice with and without microbes to understand the ways microbes in the gut impact vitamin A processing. After observing the mice, researchers were able to isolate genes that played a role in the relationship between microbes and vitamin A — ultimately selecting a singular gene to study in the mice. According to evidence found by researcher Mayara Grizotte-Lake GS, too much vitamin A metabolized in the system could react too strongly, » See MICROBIOME, page 3
insecurities in ‘An XL Sized Apology’ By EMILY TENG SENIOR STAFF WRITER
On the evening of Feb. 5, Room 101 of Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center turned into an intimate and inviting space for Brown community members to hear award-winning poet, translator and University Fulbright Fellow Somrita Ganguly read some of her poetry in a performance titled “An XL Sized Apology”. Before the reading started, the room was filled with the smell of traditional Indian spices: Audience members were invited to grab a plate of curry, chicken, naan and white rice in anticipation of Ganguly’s performance. “An XL Sized Apology” also featured acoustic guitar by musician Justin E. Kahn and Indian classical dance performed by Pooja Arya, a Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant in Hindi. The dance, called “Kathak,” is a traditional » See POETRY, page 3
ARTS & CULTURE
RÉMY POISSON / HERALD
Acoustic guitar and Indian classic dance complemented Ganguly’s performance of her award-winning poetry.
WEATHER
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2019
ARTS & CULTURE Exhibit reflects on faith and meaning through student art, performances and writing
ARTS & CULTURE Play ‘In the Pink,’ written and directed by Molly Littman ’21, runs at the downspace
COMMENTARY Calvelli ’19: Semantics in seminars can negatively affect classroom culture and debate
COMMENTARY Krishnamurthy ’19: Journal of PPE endorsement of renowned Oxford degree is questionable
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ARTS & CULTURE PAGE 2 • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2019
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Exhibit invites viewers to consider what makes a ‘good life’ Artwork, performances by Brown, RISD students explore themes of faith, happiness, purpose By GRAYSON LEE SENIOR STAFF WRITER
A pop-up exhibit titled “How do we live a ‘Good Life?’” used the paintings, photography and poems of 16 artists from Brown and the Rhode Island School of Design to attempt to answer the event’s title question Wednesday. “There are many definitions for happiness, … (but) I still continue to wonder how I can make myself happy,” said Shinyoung Lee ’21, who attended the exhibit. The exhibit was hosted by various Christian communities at Brown and RISD and was co-sponsored by the Veritas Forum, the program for Ethical Inquiry, the Office of the Chaplains and Religious Life and Cornerstone Magazine. Emily Ma ’21, one of the organizers of the event, explained how they designed the exhibition as a leadup to the Veritas Forum’s upcoming March event on impartial love. Ma stated that the purpose of last Wednesday’s exhibit was to spark conversations among Brown and RISD students while emphasizing the importance of creativity and self-expression in answering the prompt. “This is a quite unique opportunity and … a free space for people to be willing to be honest and to get artists thinking too. We are so busy in our lives that we forget to think about what our identity is and what our purpose is,” Ma said. The first hour of the event consisted of artist talks, wherein the creators
ARTS & CULTURE
described how their art addressed the meaning of a “good life.” Olivia McClain ’22 explained how her photographs dealt with the themes of nature and a desire to discover her place in the world at large. “To me, to live a good life is to find purpose,” McClain said, advising listeners to take a step back and think about what makes them happy. Joseph Delamerced ’22 narrated his personal quest to understand value and goodness, further elaborating on how his faith influenced his reflective poetry. “The things I’m doing right now … have value in the fact that I’m putting it all towards a higher power, towards God. Everything I’m doing I’m dedicating to him,” said Delamerced. Along with visual art of different mediums, the event also featured several performances. The gospel choir Harmonizing Grace performed a song, and Lydia Haile ’19 sang her original compositions. For one of her songs, titled “Germany,” Haile told of how her travels influenced her worldview. “I came to the realization that people are the same no matter where you go,” Haile said, going on to explain that people everywhere face similar problems. According to Ma, more than 70 students attended the exhibit, including one student involved in preparing the event, Julius Gingles ’21. He described his interest in how the event centered the notion of a good life around faith, noting a common thread of “something bigger” in all the works presented. “When I think of the academic atmosphere at Brown and how that’s progressed for me, as a second-semester sophomore, I realize I’ve kind of been losing the mark for what it means to live a good life,” Gingles said.
GRAYSON LEE / HERALD
Artwork by Katia Rozenberg ’22 seeks to challenge interactions between viewers and their environment through the contrast of abstraction and realism. Her pieces were featured alongside the work of 16 other artists.
» FESTIVAL, from page 1 Wang’s elaboration on the relationship of language and imprisonment reflected the festival’s focus on the tension between the literary and the physical world. As media “becomes increasingly material … (and) ever more woven into sensation,” the festival considers digital writing to be “an impression on the body.” According to the festival’s website, Interrupt V’s “approach to media and authorship casts light on the myriad ways data encrypts the body in late capitalism.” Other artists, including Sawako Nakayasu, Abraham Avnisan, Claire Donato and many others, offered discussions, interactive workshops and performances related to subjects ranging from commentary on the Digital Age’s effect on processing grief to the intersections of text and environment. Many audience members were swayed by Interrupt V’s reimagination of common modes of thinking. Miranda Luiz ’22 found the festival, specifically Wang’s lecture, insightful. “Language is something that we should think more critically about … (because it) can have different repercussions with different material bases,” she said. DANIELLE EMERSON / HERALD
The festival included workshops, lectures and performances by various artists. During the event, Jackie Wang, a multidisciplinary artist and PhD candidate in African and African American studies and history at Harvard, elaborated on the weaponization of time as social control.
NEWS
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2019 • PAGE 3
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
» MICROBIOME, from page 1
» POETRY, from page 1 Hindu dance that involves telling stories with hand movements, footwork and facial expressions. “I’ve realized very often (that) as writers, we often limit ourselves to a niche audience, which means sometimes the purpose of our words is lost. I just wanted to reach out to more people, and I am the kind of artist that draws her strength from collaborations,” Ganguly said. She began inviting dancers and musicians to collaborate with her in December of 2017. Ganguly was introduced by Lina Fruzzetti, her advisor and a Professor of Anthropology at the University, who listed off the poet’s many accomplishments, including her showcase in the 2017 London Book Fair and her designation as an emerging translator by the United Kingdom’s National Centre for Writing in 2016. The performance began with a
COURTESY OF SHIPRA VAISHNAVA
resulting in infections. Previous research had established that the gut microbiome affected the absorption and metabolism of many vitamins in the gut, but few studies had focused on vitamin A. In addition, while researchers had known about the importance of the bacteria and its role in responding to microbes in the gut, they could not explain why. “This study helps explain that once open question,” Iyer said. The research collaboration began after Vaishnava reached out to Nina Isoherranen, an associate professor of pharmaceutics at the University of Washington. The two, along with researchers Grizotte-Lake, Iyer, Kellyanne Duncan GS, Senior Fellow Post-Doc at the University of Washington Guo Zhong and Jay Kirkwood, sought this research to build a better understating of bacteria’s role in vitamin metabolism. With Vaishnava and Isoherranen supervising the project, Grizotte-Lake and the researchers at the University of Washington heavily conducted the first part of the study, while Iyer focused on the second part. The researchers’ diverse backgrounds provided an interdisciplinary approach to the study. Vaishnava, for instance, brought her expertise and previous research on the “good microbes” in the gut and their significance regarding immune functions. Meanwhile, Isoherranen contributed her expertise and previous research on vitamin A through her academic teaching and supervision of the experiment. Grizotte-Lake and Iyer focused on conducting the two parts of the experiment respectively; researchers Kirkwood and Zhou were key figures in establishing the techniques of the experiment. It is still unknown whether this research can be translated to humans, Zhong wrote in an email to The Herald. “It provides the foundation for future studies to explore the relationship among microbiome, vitamin A homeostasis and diseases in humans,” he added. Researchers said they are working on a next project. Some next steps include looking at models that overexpress a specific gene of interest and understanding what happens if the gene is not in check.
work titled “A Big Fat Poem,”which referenced Ganguly’s struggles with body image insecurities. “I have been an elf on stage / an elephant / even a tree / And all of that seemed more believable to the director / then casting me as me,” Ganguly read. “This poem was written on one such night of impatience and frustration and resistance when I didn’t want to buy the photoshopped ideal of beauty,” she went on to explain. In addition to her personal relationship with body positivity, Ganguly’s poems touched a wide range of topics. The poems she read eluded to social perceptions of the female body, faith and her reflection on the events happening around her. “Statistics” was a poem she wrote for the mothers of 60 infants who died at Baba Raghav Das Medical College in India allegedly due to the hospital’s inability to provide them with enough oxygen. “But what remains of people / when people are gone?” she
read. While love, home and bodies are frequent themes, she explained that if she could “narrow it down,” she would say that she “writes about memories.” Ganguly’s artistic investment in memory was demonstrated in the preface to her poem “Calcutta, A Phenotype.” While she appreciates that the city has been renamed Kolkata to honor its “original Bengal roots,” Ganguly said she still refers to it as Calcutta because “it’s a city that has witnessed all my firsts. … Do not ask me what is in a name, because my answer is going to be everything.” When interviewed after the show, Muskaan Garg ’21.5 said, “My favorite one was the one about Calcutta because I think she did this magical job of transporting us to being there. I think places are a really good way to understand who someone is, so the fact that she told us so much about herself through the place is very cool.”
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COMMENTARY PAGE 6 • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2019
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
I’d like to do more than ‘push back on that’ AIDAN CALVELLI STAFF COLUMNIST Anyone who’s taken a seminar at Brown knows the scene: some kid who clearly hasn’t done the reading raises their hand to say something ignorant and borderline racist. Another hand shoots up. Then that student softly says, “I’d like to push back on that a bit,” and goes on to fundamentally denounce the offending comment. “I’d like to push back on that” is perhaps the most iconic phrase in Brown classrooms. (“Echoing that,” “to build on what she said” or “I think it’s more of a structural problem” are in a close battle for second.) These might all seem like harmless semantic quirks, but these phrases, especially the passive-aggressive “push back on that,” are indicative of a class discussion culture that’s often disingenuous and unproductive. They illustrate our inability to openly dissent and they wrongfully conflate people with the ideas that they put forward in class. This precludes the kind of critical conversations that facilitate real learning. Instead, we should learn to disagree forcefully and openly, capitalizing on the unique setting seminars provide for challenging ideas without criticizing people. Right away, “pushing back” is an inaccurate metaphor for what goes on — or should go on — in classroom debate. When someone offers
their take to the class, they aren’t “pushing” anyone; they’re making a contribution to a cloud of ideas. Pushing makes it personal. It’s like saying the person’s comment needs to be shoved back where it came from, in the dark recesses of their brain where it belongs. This wrongfully equates the speaker with their argument. Once an argument is presented, we shouldn’t think of it as the property of the person who
take a broader cultural shift to disassociate personal and intellectual criticism in many students’ minds, as we often see critical feedback as indicative of personal failure. Still, reframing the way we “push back” on things can be a helpful first step in making discussions more genuine. If you really find a comment egregious, it’s better to let everyone know clearly where you stand. Being precise about where
that.” Adding “that” emphasizes that the divergence isn’t person-to-person, but idea-to-idea. Of course, people should bring their personal experiences and perspectives to the table. Yet the seminar should still prioritize ideas and evidence over an individual’s feelings or their worries about interpersonal awkwardness. It shouldn’t be controversial to suggest that the primary goal of a
Being precise about where we agree and disagree facilitates a clearer process of argumentation and evidentiary support.
first suggested it. Rather, it should be debated on its own merits, with the original speaker an equal participant in the process of critical review. This person-idea distinction matters for discussion because “pushing back” is a rhetorical trick to couch serious disagreement behind cordiality. Civility is a necessary precondition for an open dialogue. But civility goes too far when it makes us think that critiquing a person’s idea is akin to being mean to the person themselves. It might
we agree and disagree facilitates a clearer process of argumentation and evidentiary support. The way I’d suggest we do that is through a simple phrase: “I disagree.” “I disagree” is direct and to the point. It makes clear where you stand and brings intellectual difference to the center of the debate. A long meandering comment prefaced by “I’d like to push back” and littered with hedges and qualifiers is a lot less likely to spark an argument that people can actually follow. Even better, say “I disagree with
class discussion is to challenge students to learn more and think deeply about the topic at hand. I also don’t think people can truly learn the course material without also learning how to engage productively with competing viewpoints. Class discussions are a perfect place to do that, ideally offering a space where students can reconcile their competing thoughts without becoming bound to the arguments they propose or judged for how they express them. The seminar room isn’t an on-the-record news interview,
and that’s important. It’s a place intentionally designed to encourage a wide-ranging discussion. As students hear new information and perspectives, they are supposed to be able to change their minds. So next time you hear something in class that raises your blood pressure, summon the courage to say “I disagree,” and proceed to make your case as to why the original idea was wrong. But by all means, don’t fall into the trap of couching your serious disagreement behind a timid “I’d like to push back on that a bit.” Sure, doing so isn’t a radical shift. Still, it’s a signal of respect for the ideal discussion, one where ideas are constantly challenged while participants feel comfortable contributing. Soon, our most important debates won’t happen in the seminar room. In the real world, there might be steeper consequences for offering a competing viewpoint in order to better explore it. So let’s use the seminar room to its full potential while we still have it. Plant your chair with four legs on the floor, and don’t let anyone push you or your ideas around.
Aidan Calvelli ’19 is a world class devil’s advocate. If you would like to push back on this column, he can be reached at aidan_calvelli@ brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald. com and op-eds to opinions@ browndailyherald.com.
CORRECTION Due to an editing error, the Feb. 11 story titled “Students cite challenges with RISD Wintersession, University spring term overlap” stated that RISD Registrar Alison Sherman told The Herald that 58 Brown students enrolled in 60 courses over Wintersession. In fact, the registration numbers are attributed to University Registrar Robert Fitzgerald. The Herald regrets the error.
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COMMENTARY TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2019 • PAGE 7
‘Philosophy, politics and economics’ is overrated ANUJ KRISHNAMURTHY STAFF COLUMNIST
to deep knowledge” — but they do not refute this criticism. The PPE degree, at least as it is administered at Oxford, only mandates coursework in all three areas of study during the first undergraduate year. In years 2 and 3, PPE students can select two of the three subjects for further exploration and drop the remaining one. It is also not clear from Oxford’s PPE website if their curriculum encourages students to investigate how the separate strands of the degree interact with one another, or if the onus is on students to uncover those linkages on their own. This distinction matters: If students must pursue these connections of their own volition, then what special intellectual value does the
Oxford. So have countless journalists at the British Broadcasting Corporation, the Guardian and other prominent news outlets. Broadly, graduates of Oxford and Cambridge, institutions which educate less than 1 percent of the British population, dominate professional occupations in the United Kingdom, constituting 74 percent of the judiciary and 54 percent of journalists. All in all, more prime ministers have graduated with a PPE degree than have been women. The PPE’s role in shaping the U.K.’s ruling class ought to feature prominently in any honest accounting of the program’s potential contributions to social good. The steady concentration of pow-
I cannot help but feel that the Journal’s fawning affirmation of Oxford’s “philosophy, politics and economics” degree is ill-considered. in its interdisciplinary essence — that students are encouraged, and expected, to regularly and thoughtfully draw connections between the realms of politics, philosophy and economics. As a practical matter, the liberty of Brown’s open curriculum already affords the opportunity for students to pursue coursework in all three realms. In theory, one could even triple-concentrate in political science (12 requirements), economics (10 requirements) and philosophy (10 requirements) by taking a normal course load of four classes every semester during their time at Brown. Then there is the matter of rigor. The editors, to their credit, do acknowledge that “PPE has been criticized at times as an academic experience that produces broad knowledge as opposed
PPE program offer students, who could otherwise take courses in the three areas of study on their own? In addition to their unquestioning acceptance of PPE’s educational value, the Journal’s editors fail to make any mention of the degree’s effects on public and political life in its place of origin, the United Kingdom. Oxford’s PPE program has left deep, indelible footprints in virtually every dimension of power in British society. As a scathing profile in the New European reads, “(The PPE degree) has shaped the way (British) elites operate, the very machinery of the state and our beliefs about how intellect, expertise and knowledge intersect.” At one point in 2013, four British cabinet members, three members of the opposition’s shadow cabinet and around 30 ministers had studied PPE at
er in the hands of elites — who share the same educational pedigrees and worldviews rooted in the same readings and lectures — does not bode well for the preservation of inclusive, liberal institutions. Given the populist origins of Brexit, it’s worth thinking very carefully about the nexus of education and power in modern societies: about who enjoys a smooth ride to power and who gets left on the sidelines. As such, to argue that the “interdisciplinary (PPE) program is, at its core, the single most effective tool to analyze modern circumstance as a social scientist” is to willfully ignore the PPE degree’s complicated, unromantic relationship with modern circumstance. To be clear, I have no intention of discrediting the concept of a combined, interdisciplinary approach to poli-
tics, philosophy and economics. Nor do I want to minimize the innumerable achievements of all those who have successfully graduated from Oxford’s PPE program and all the other universities — which include Duke, Penn and Yale — that offer similar degrees. And, I admit, the problem of any single institution or degree program developing a stranglehold on a society’s civic and political life is certainly not particular to Oxford, PPE or the United Kingdom. It can very easily be argued that government and media in the United States are dominated by our own, all-American intellectual elite: graduates of Ivy League and other well-endowed institutions with enormously inflated conceptions of their own destinies. Besides, as an American in 2019, I have no right to judge how other countries handle their business or navigate difficult questions about the distribution of power within society. As I have attempted to show here, however, the student-driven effort to develop a publication devoted to the thematic union of politics, philosophy and economics is not without its own set of complications, ones that warrant serious introspection on the part of the Journal’s editors, contributors and readers. PPE can’t solve all our problems, and we shouldn’t uncritically accept the notion that a degree program particular to an ancient, austere British university — even if it sounds impressive in conversation or on a resume — can make a positive contribution to American academic life and society.
Anuj Krishnamurthy ’19 can be reached at anuj_krishnamurthy@ brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and other op-eds to opinions@ browndailyherald.com.
COMIC
In early May, the student-run Journal of Philosophy, Politics & Economics published its inaugural issue. In their foreword to the first volume, the editorial board enthusiastically endorsed “philosophy, politics and economics” — the famous interdisciplinary degree program first offered at Oxford University in the interwar period — writing, “the interdisciplinary program is, at its core, the single most effective tool to analyze modern circumstance as a social scientist.” I am glad that students at Brown have been able to establish for themselves a medium to express their collective interest in politics, philosophy and economics. Student-run publications offer a special forum for self-directed and experiential learning, and all students should have the opportunity to get involved with them. And, very impressively, the Journal has published contributions from a diverse group of students and a range of important figures, including Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza, First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon and Brookings Institution President General John Allen. Still, I cannot help but feel that the Journal’s fawning affirmation of Oxford’s “philosophy, politics and economics” degree is ill-considered, lacking a forthright interrogation of the program’s pedagogical utility or its role in the perpetuation of inequality in the United Kingdom. Despite its origins in the gilded halls of a prestigious institution, the PPE degree is not a convenient solution for all of the problems of our time. In fact, it might be the opposite — a stark manifestation of the intellectual self-absorption and elitism that
have contributed, in no small part, to the very “ethical, economic and political challenges” decried by the Journal’s editors. First, it is far from incontrovertible that the PPE program, the Journal’s inspiration, is so worthy of emulation that it must be transplanted onto campuses that do not already offer the degree or related programming. According to the editorial board’s foreword in the inaugural issue, the Journal was established to encourage “the growth in PPE-related academic work on Brown’s campus and, most importantly, to provide young people with a space to debate and put forth academic arguments.” Presumably the true power of PPE lies
RÉMY POISSON / HERALD
ARTS & CULTURE THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2019
PW downspace play explores mother-daughter relationship “In the Pink” depicts intricacies of modern parental love and femininity By ALICIA MIES STAFF WRITER
Written and directed by Molly Littman ’21, “In the Pink” explores the complicated relationship between Sarah, a woman with breast cancer, and Rebecca, her 20-something-year-old daughter. The play’s set was designed to look like a hospital room with get well cards, flu season awareness posters and all. It was effectively minimalist and unfeeling, conveying the uncomfortable and sometimes scary nature of hospitals. But despite the cold and clinical sense that the set projects, the play is filled with nothing but heartwarming, tender and real moments between a mother and daughter. Its content would have felt lively and relatable to any woman with a sometimes infuriating, sometimes incredible, mother. The show, which was put on by the Production Workshop, alternated between the chemotherapy treatments for older Sarah, played by Samantha Crausman ’19 — where the mother-daughter duo fought about low-cut T-shirts, dyed pink hair and the uncertain identity of Rebecca’s father — and key moments from their relationship that took place in the same hospital over a span of 30 years. These moments included a young Rebecca, played by Kaufman ’22, begrudgingly holding her mother’s hand to make it through a shot at a doctor’s checkup and young Sarah, played by Ruth Miller ’19, holding Rebecca for the first time after giving birth. Little Rebecca was played by a nine-yearold actor. Littman’s own relationship with female figures in her family prompted much of the portrayal of Sarah and Rebecca’s kinship.
COURTESY OF “IN THE PINK”
“In the Pink,” directed by Molly Littman ’21, examines how a terminal illness like breast cancer complicates kinship and female identity. “(I was inspired by) the kind of difficult and complicated nature of being so close to someone but often so frustrated by that same person,” she said. “Mother-daughter relationships are so rich and complex and beautiful and most of the art dedicated to exploring those relationships are, a lot of times, deemed as not serious.” She said that the depiction of mother-daughter relationships tend to be “frivolous,” in comparison to, for example, Hamlet’s earnest portrayal of the connection between a father and son. Caitlin Malimban ’21, who portrays
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an older Rebecca, also discussed her mother’s influence in preparing for her role. “My relationship with my own mom, which historically has tended to lean toward humor and away from vulnerability, (is) a lot like Rebecca’s relationship with her mom,” Malimban said. In addition to featuring familial dynamics, “In the Pink” touched on issues of sexual violence. In the second half of the play, Rebecca grappled with the knowledge that she was conceived as a result of non-consensual sex,
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wondering if her mother resented her or was withholding more information. But as Sarah’s last days approached, the two reconciled, confessing their unconditional love for one another. For Tina Lu ’19, who saw the play Saturday night, the play served as a reminder that there are parts of her own mother’s life that she does not know about. “We’ve all had fights with our mother, but … sometimes mothers don’t tell us their own stories or perspectives,” Lu said. Littman reflected on the ease of
collaboration and communication between the staff, who predominantly identifies as female, working both on stage and behind the curtains. Although it was her first time working with PW, she expressed gratitude for what she called “an incredibly smooth and wonderful process.” “Writing something and seeing it be performed is always an interesting process,” she said. “It’s almost surreal to see these people in front of you, embodying the characters and becoming them.” PW’s “In the Pink” ran last Friday through Monday at the downspace.