A Day on College Hill 2024

Hi friends,

Congratulations on getting into Brown! We hope you are enjoying your day walking around the Main Green, learning about Brown and having fun with the Class of 2028. As you explore campus, you might also notice (we hope!) a few copies of The Brown Daily Herald — Brown’s only independent, completely student-run newspaper. We’re The Herald’s 134th Editorial Board, and we work with more than 300 students to deliver news about Brown and Rhode Island for tens of thousands of readers.

Right now, you are reading our special ADOCH issue, which we have dearly compiled (be gentle with it please, no folded corners) to help you learn more about the life that could await you at Brown. In the next few pages, we’ll answer only the most important questions, of course: What is there to do in Rhode Island? What Brown library are you? Why are there so many people named Daniel on campus?

This isn’t the last time you’ll hear from us: In the fall, we’d love to have you visit the BDH office at 88 Benevolent St. Come to learn more about the paper and join our team. From reporting to business, design and podcast, we’re always looking for new members. And while our couches are not the best, we have snacks! Sometimes.

Warm wishes, and enjoy your visit!

Sincerely,

Neil Mehta ’25, Julia Vaz ’25, Charlie Clynes ’25, Kathy Wang ’25 and Finn Kirkpatrick ’25

HERALDERS’ FAVORITE COURSES AT BROWN

BY JULIANNA CHANG UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR

Last year on College Hill, Brown offered 1,043 courses for undergraduate students. Over the course of their four years at Brown, undergraduates will typically take a total of 32 courses. From “Pathology to Power: Disability, Health and Community” to “Introduction to Acting and Directing,” here are six Herald staffers’ favorite courses that they’ve taken thus far at Brown.

Charlie Clynes ’25, managing editor of digital content and technology

HIST 1266D: “British History, 1660 - 1800” and APMA 1740: “Recent Applications of Probability and Statistics”

Charlie’s two favorite classes span disciplines and centuries. HIST 1266D: “British History, 1660 - 1800” and APMA 1740: “Recent Applications of Probability and Statistics,” both taken at the end of Charlie’s sophomore year, speak to “very different sides of my intellectual interests” as a history and applied math double-concentrator, he said.

Charlie said that HIST 1266D, a four-person course, “initially sparked my interest in early modern Europe” — his current field of focus in the history department. Professor Tim Harris, who is slated to teach the course again next spring, “was exceedingly talented and passionate, and made an effort to get to know his students as scholars of British history,” according to Charlie.

After taking APMA 1740 — a course that introduces “the most important and enlightening topics in statistics,” he explained — Charlie felt like he “was seeing statistics everywhere in a way that I hadn’t before.”

partment, “gives everyone a good understanding of the burning questions that pre-med students and healthcare (professionals) have,” said Benicio, a public health concentrator.

Benicio particularly enjoyed PHP 1680I — an upper-level public health course — because of its final project assignment: “doing something meaningful on campus for disability justice, whether it was an advocacy campaign on social media, hosting an event or making a (campus) building more accessible,” he said.

Benicio Beatty ’25, copy editor and staff writer

PHP 0310: “Healthcare in the U.S.” and PHP 1680I: “Pathology to Power: Disability, Health and Community”

Out of the 20 full-credit courses that copy editor and writer Benicio has completed thus far at Brown, his favorites are PHP 0310: “Healthcare in the U.S.” and PHP 1680I: “Pathology to Power: Disability, Health and Community.”

PHP 0310, a large, introductory lecture-style course offered every fall in the public health de-

Nadia Bitar ’26, social media editor

PHYS 0220: “Astronomy” and MATH 1080: “Cryptography”

Last spring, Nadia took and loved PHYS 0220: “Astronomy,” an introductory astronomy and cosmology course. For Nadia, the best parts of the course were the evening lab sections, which allowed students to observe the sky’s many constellations from the Barus and Holley rooftop observatory.

An applied math concentrator, Nadia is currently taking MATH 1080: “Cryptography” to learn more about ciphers, codes and data encryption. “Learning the mathematical basis for a lot of different encryption schemes has been really interesting,” she said. “It’s been really cool to move from more introductory math classes, where you’re just learning concepts and (computations) to something like this, where I get to see how these (concepts get applied) in real world settings.”

Avani Ghosh ’26, metro section editor

BIOL 0170: “Biotechnology in Medicine,” PHP 1821: “Incarceration, Disparities and Health,” and SOC 1873D: “Inequality of Infant Health”

Avani has completed 13 classes so far at Brown. BIOL 1870, one of the first courses Avani took

as a Brunonian, “was a good and inviting way to (review) the basics of biology, but also to learn more about the integration of biology and social science and how inequality festers within research,” she said.

Last fall, Avani took both PHP 1821: “Incarceration, Disparities and Health” and SOC 1873D: “Inequality of Infant Health” — two seminars that dive into inequalities within the healthcare system. In PHP 1821, Avani noted that Adjunct Assistant Professor of Health Services, Policy and Practice Bradley Brockmann frequently invited formerly incarcerated people to share their experiences with the class. “You really got a firsthand account of what the struggles are (for formerly incarcerated people) and how they navigate the system, which I think is really cool and just an experience that is a musthave for all pre-med” students, she said.

SOC 1873D is “a class that looks at reproductive justice, but more from the infant health perspective, and how all of these different social determinants of health manifest both biology and otherwise, in terms of access to care and quality of life,” Avani explained.

Benjamin Moshes ’25, finance general manager and tresurer

TAPS 0030: “Introduction to Acting and Directing” and ECON 1630: “Mathematical Econometrics I”

Others, like Benjamin, have favorite courses that are completely unrelated to their field of study. Benjamin particularly loved TAPS 0030: “Introduction to Acting and Directing” because it “brought out the best in people,” he said.

Through acting, students that were quieter became “so much more open and willing to share,” while students who were more open “learned to share space and work with other people,” Benjamin explained.

He also enjoyed learning about applications of econometrics in ECON 1630. “The tools we were learning in class were being used to do some of the coolest work,” he said. “I’m still using things I learned from that class now in my current classes.”

GET TO KNOW BROWN’S CLASS OF 2028

BY ANIYAH NELSON AND TALIA LEVINE UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR AND SENIOR STAFF WRITER

This year, the University received 48,881 applications for undergraduate admission, marking the third largest applicant pool in its history, The Herald previously reported. Ultimately, 2,521 students received offers of admission to the Class of 2028.

As the newest class of admitted students prepares to arrive in Providence and walk through the Van Wickle gates this fall, The Herald took the time to get to know the incoming students.

Claire Cho

For Claire Cho from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Brown was a dream school. After being deferred during the early decision round, she was ultimately accepted this spring. Cho plans on studying biomedical engineering and psychology on the pre-med track.

Cho visited Brown back in August with her dad. She joked, saying “I wanted to buy merch but nothing too expensive just in case I didn’t get in. I also didn’t wear it — because I thought it would jinx me.”

After the disappointment of being deferred, Cho said she “reminded (herself) that Brown was the goal from the start.”

“I opened all my decisions in my room alone, saving Brown for last,” she said. When “the acceptance letter finally opened ... I ran down the stairs and my parents and I embraced.”

In her commitment photo shared with The Herald, Cho dons the shirt she bought during her August visit.

Kaushik Kasturi

The Open Curriculum also stood out for Kaushik Kasturi, a senior from Irvine, California interested in science, technology and society, as well as health and human biology.

“When I was looking at colleges, I definitely wanted to go to a college that enabled me to explore both STEM and humanities in a way that was interdisciplinary and expanded my worldview,” Kasturi shared.

At Brown, Kasturi hopes to get involved in acapella, compete on the Model United Nations team and join the South Asian Students Association.

He is also interested in exploring the supernatural during his time on campus.

“I know Brown is very close to the ‘Conjuring House,’ and Rhode Island is known for all of its paranormal occurrences,” he said. “As a person who’s very scared of horror but also very interested in the supernatural, I definitely want to check that out as well.”

Don Shumbusho

Don Shumbusho, a senior from Idaho interested in studying political science and statistics was one of 64 applicants accepted to the University through the Questbridge program. The program “aims to increase the percentage of talented low-income students attending the nation’s best colleges and to support them to achieve success in their careers and communities,” according to their website.

After attending a college fair and speaking to a University representative, they learned more about the culture and opportunities available at Brown.

Shumbusho said they heard “how amazing Providence is, how (Brown is) a loving community, not very competitive and you can grow as a person in your own learning.”

“I was like, ‘that just sounds wonderful,’” they said. “I knew that I had to risk it, so when I got in, I was like ‘that’s amazing.’”

At Brown, Shumbusho is hoping to get involved in community advocacy by joining civil rights and anti-colonial groups.

They are also hoping to participate in LGBTQ+ programming, and identified interests in biking, joining the Cheese Club and going to see acapella groups perform.

Jessie Yan is a senior from New Zealand interested in studying economics, sociology and public policy.

Yan noted that when she found out she had gotten into Brown, she “started crying immediately.”

“It just felt like a shock in the moment because I didn’t think it would actually happen,” she said.

“I was super happy.”

Yan, who has been practicing competitive fencing for the last three years, is looking forward to joining the fencing team on campus. As a violin and piano player, she is also hoping to join Brown’s orchestra and hopes to go cafe-hopping in Providence as well.

Topher Sah

Topher Sah from Fremont, California was also admitted last Thursday. Once he arrives on College Hill, he plans to study biology or engineering, and “take full advantage of the open curriculum.”

When his decision was released, he was in the car driving his brother home from school. “I was about five minutes away from home,” Sah said.

“I opened my letter at a red light.”

Sah said he was “honestly shocked.”

“It felt unreal and I had to look at the letter multiple times,” Sah added.

Jessie Yan

BROWN’S NON-MANDATORY SUMMER READING LIST

BY RYAN DOHERTY UNIVERSITY NEWS AND SCIENCE & RESEARCH EDITOR

“Song of Achilles” by Madeline Miller: This retelling of the Trojan War from Patroclus’s perspective is penned by Madeline Miller, who received both her bachelor’s and master’s in classics from Brown. ‘Song of Achilles’ has won praise for its beautiful prose and LGBTQ+ representation. Perks of reading include: pretending to understand what classics concentrators discuss in their seminars.

“My Year of Rest and Relaxation” by Otessa Moshfegh: Despite the title, Moshfegh’s ‘My Year of Rest and Relaxation’ is not a snooze. The novel follows the protagonist through her attempt to quell her depression through increasingly strong sleep pills after graduating college and her mother’s death. Moshfegh, who received her MFA from Brown, is also known for the books “Eileen” and “Lapvona.”

“Black Grief / White Grievance: The Politics of Loss” by Juliet Hooker: In her recent book, Brown professor Juliet Hooker examines U.S. racial politics in the current moment and throughout history. She argues that racial politics is driven mainly by white grievance and Black grief. This fall, Hooker will teach POLS 1520: “Introduction to Feminist Theory.”

“Poisoner in Chief” by Stephen Kinzer: Stephen Kinzer delves into the CIA’s quest for mind control in the infamous MK-ULTRA program. The book follows Sidney Gottlieb, the CIA’s chief chemist, and the patient testing he oversaw. Kinzer, a New York Times journalist, is also a Watson fellow who teaches IAPA 1203: “History of American Intervention.”

“The Giver” dle-school reading lists, “The Giver” is au thored by Brown (then-Pembroke College) alum Lois Lowry. If you haven’t read it already, the novel takes place in a utopian society, whose citizens have no mem ories of the past besides a single Receiver of Memory. See what happens when Jo nas, the novel’s protagonist, inher its this responsibility.

“Bunny” Mona Awad tells the story of a cohort of MFA students at an elite New England college that neighbors an prestigious art school (sound familiar?). The thriller fol lows protagonist Samantha, who joins a clique that only refers to each other as ‘Bunny’ and becomes a part of their ‘Smut Salon.’ You’ll look at the Main Green bunnies a bit differently after this read.

“Up Home: One Girl’s Journey” by Ruth Simmons: Ruth Simmons served as Brown’s 18th president and was the first Black woman to be president of an Ivy League. During her tenure, Simmons transformed the University, including spearheading the Slavery and Justice Report (your actual required reading) and need-blind admissions for domestic applicants. Read her autobiography and learn more about the namesake of one of campus’s biggest quads.

“The Brown Reader: 50 Writers Remember College Hill” by multiple authors: Written for Brown’s 250th anniversary, this collection edited by Judy Sternlight ’82 brings together 50 alumni to reflect on their years on College Hill. See how classes before you explored Brown’s campus and shaped your soon-to-be home.

What Brown library are you?

1. What do you like to sip on while studying?

A) Water

B) Iced vanilla latte with oat milk

C) Red Bull

2. What’s your bag of choice?

A) Mini backpack

B) Tote bag

C) Big backpack

3. What social media do you scroll on when you get distracted?

A) TikTok

B) LinkedIn

C) Twitter

4. What music do you listen to while studying?

A) Taylor Swift

B) Classical

C) EDM

5. You decide to read. What book do you choose?

A) Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

B) The Illiad by Homer

C) You don’t read

6. Where do you find laptop stickers?

A) Etsy, Redbubble, etc

B) While traveling the globe

C) Free events

7. Your laptop dies. What do you do next?

A) Call your parents

B) Gaze pensively into the distance

C) You bring it back to life

8. What do you use to take notes for class?

A) Notes app

B) Paper notebook

C) Google Docs

Calculate your scores: A’s B’s C’s

Mostly A’s: T H E R O C K

Mostly B’s: T H E H A Y

Mostly C’s: T H E S C I L I

SIX EVENTS AND FESTIVALS TO HELP YOU EXPLORE R.I.

BY MIKAYLA KENNEDY METRO EDITOR

PVDFest

Scheduled near the start of Brown’s fall semester, PVDFest offers a selection of art, live music, crafts, artisan goods and food for visitors to enjoy.

The annual festival dates back to 2015 and features a variety of food, music and artists, according to nonprofit FirstWorks, an arts organization that helps run the event.

For those who want to engage with Providence’s community without traveling too far — or really at all — the annual Taste of Thayer event is a convenient opportunity to expand your palate.

The event has taken place in the fall for the past three years and allows ticketed attendees to sample food from a variety of Thayer Street restaurants. 20% of the revenue from the 2023 event’s ticket sales went towards supporting the Rhode Island Community Food Bank.

rovidence Flea M a r k te

Luckily for all lovers of art, vintage and artisan goods, food and live music, the Providence Flea Market takes place every Sunday — except during January.

It is located outdoors by the Providence River in the summer and early fall, and indoors at FarmFreshRI Market Hall during the rest of the year.

Providence Flea invites local nonprofits and small businesses to sell goods — none of which are mass-produced, the organization says. Instead, businesses sell “hand-picked, homemade, handcrafted and small batch” goods.

If you’re in the mood for a seasonal special, check out their “Halfway to Halloween Market” in the spring or one of their Holiday Markets in the winter.

Likely the best-known celebration on this list, Newport’s Saint Patrick’s Day Parade is guaranteed to be a lively time. The parade runs rain or shine and runs through Newport, which green-clad Brown students often travel to via buses.

SaintPatrick’s

Rho d e Island Black Film Festival

The Rhode Island Black Film Festival, currently on its seventh year, features films that explore “the culture and historical contributions of Black people and people of African descent,” according to the Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission.

The festival typically takes place during the spring and combines film screenings and conversations.

The Hope Street Block Party is an exciting event right on College Hill — though you’ll need to wait until late spring.

The block party is a 15-minute bus ride away from Brown’s campus in the heart of a small business community on Hope Street. According to GoPVD, last year’s event featured live music, a fashion show, street performances, a community book swap and food trucks. Outside of the annual event, Hope Street is the year-long home of crafts shops, clothing stores, and restaurants — yet another reason to visit.

HopeStreetSpring Block Party

MOST COMMON NAMES AT BROWN

BY RYAN DOHERTY AND OWEN DAHLKAMP UNIVERSITY NEWS AND SCIENCE & RESEARCH EDITORS

Brown is home to nearly 11,000 undergraduate and graduate students. As you visit College Hill, you may recognize some familiar names among the new faces.

But what are the most common names at Brown? The Herald looked at the list of current students to find out.

There are 4,614 unique first names, including similar names with different spellings. The most common names include Daniel, Julia and Alexander, with more than 70 students each across the entire student body. Michael, Benjamin, John, Matthew, William, Emily and Andrew account for the next most popular.

Interestingly, eight of the 10 most common names are traditionally held by men, though Brown enrolls similar numbers of men and women and more female undergraduates on average.

Daniel Xu ’26 said he was surprised to learn that Daniel was the most common name. “I

know a lot of Daniels, but I think that’s just because it’s a common Asian name.”

On the other hand, Benjamin Rakauskas ’27 wasn’t shocked that his name made the top ten. “It’s a common Jewish name,” he said, and “there’s a very strong Jewish population here.”

For some, shared names have led to some comedic situations.

“Last year, I lived in (Morriss-Champlin hall), and I lived on the same floor as another Daniel” who shared a similar last name, Xu said. “Our mutual friends ended up just calling us Morriss Daniel and Champlin Daniel.”

“Sometimes people mix me up with other Alexes,” said Alexander Lim ’27. “I have to deny the allegations because that’s not me.”

Other times, common names have gotten students into administrative mixups.

“I was added to a Google group for the political science master’s program,” Xu said. “I’m a sophomore, and I’m not even doing political science.”

Lim also said that he and another Alex got into a “mail mix-up.”

Xu, who was dubbed Daniel by his sister at birth, prefers to be called Daniel over the shortened Dan. At the time, his “parents didn’t really know English” and they trusted his sister to choose his name.

“I’ve always gone by Daniel because I wanted to stay true to my sister,” he said.

“Alex is a nice name in the fact that it’s easy to remember,” Lim said. “You can switch between a more formal address like Alexander or have an easier name like Alex.”

“I have wondered (what) I would be named if it wasn’t Alex, and it’s kind of hard to think about that,” he added. “I don’t know — I just felt like my name was always so approachable.”

These names are also commonplace in The Herald’s office. Julia Vaz ’25 is The Herald’s current vice president. William Kubzansky ’24, former editor-in-chief and president, and Alexander Nadirashvili ’24, former managing editor, both served on The Herald’s 133rd editorial board.

BROWN’S MOST POPULAR CONCENTRATIONS

BY LEAH KORITZ SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Brown has no shortage of concentrations — Brown’s word for majors. With 89 concentrations to choose from, as well as the ability to create an independent course of study, you’re bound to find a discipline that sparks your interest.

In 2023, computer science was the most popular concentration at Brown. Among the 1,682 undergraduate degrees awarded in 2023, 236 of them were in CS.

CS

Starting in fall 2024, students that receive a Bachelor of Arts in CS must take a total of 10 courses, with options ranging from machine learning to computer graphics and computational linguistics.

Students receiving a Bachelor of Science in CS must take a total of 15 — five courses more than the A.B.

Lana Yang-Maccini ’26, a CS Sc.B. concentrator, believes that the popularity of the concentration is “a pretty positive sign for the field,” she said. “It really is just a measure of how strong the CS community is at Brown, and you can really feel that within the department.”

For Yang-Maccini, the best part of the CS concentration is “how intellectually exciting the problems and topics are.”

The second-most popular concentration among 2023 graduates was economics, with 179 of the 1,682 degrees awarded in the subject. Economics concentrators can choose between the standard concentration, the business economics track or the public policy track. Concentrators on the standard path take a total of 11 required courses, while those on the business economics or public policy tracks take 12 and 13 courses, respectively.

Nathaniel Rod-

ECON

den ’26, who is concentrating in both economics and political science, is “really enjoying both of

them,” he said.

“I knew going into college that I was going to concentrate in political science, but then I took some classes in economics, and I started to see the overlap,” he added.

Rodden wasn’t surprised that economics was one of the most popular concentration, as “it’s super applicable” to other fields of study, he said. “I kind of knew it going in — there’s quite a few people I talked to who are studying different tracks of economics.”

With 203 degrees awarded in 2023, International and Public Affairs is the third-most popular concentration. Established in 2019, IAPA combined three existing concentrations within the Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs: international relations, development studies and public policy.

IAPA

The IAPA concentration consists of 11 total required courses, from gateway courses like POLS 1020: “Politics of the Illicit Global Economy” to electives like IAPA 1401: “Economic Development in Latin America.” Concentrators in the program select one of three tracks — development, policy and governance and security — and take five electives in the area.

Meg Lorraine ’26 is double-concentrating in IAPA and German studies. Lorraine believes that IAPA is “a really good combination of international topics and also domestic (issues).”

Although Lorraine originally wanted to study international relations, she appreciates that IAPA provides the opportunity to “take a more interdisciplinary approach by looking at the domestic side of international affairs.”

CS, economics and IAPA are followed in popularity by biology, engineering, English and public health. The list of the top ten most popular concentrations is rounded out by Neuroscience, the joint applied math-economics concentration and history.

STAFF PICK: BRUNO’S HIGHLIGHTS

Dennis Carey, Sports Editor

When I think of my favorite moments in Brown sports this season my mind immediately goes to the women’s volleyball’s second-place finish at the Ivy Championship tournament. The past few years of women’s volleyball for the Bears have been some of the best. We unfortunately didn’t get to see them lift the trophy, but their resilience and sportsmanship against a dominant Yale

Linus Lawrence, Sports Editor

The 2023 men’s soccer team was one of my favorites to watch throughout my time covering Brown Athletics — not because they won with ease, but because they refused to lose.

On Nov. 11, I witnessed them pull off one of the most absurdly thrilling wins I’ve ever seen against a heavily favored Penn team, keeping my eyes glued to the ESPN+ feed and struggling to catch my breath with each twist and turn. The game was decided in penalty kicks, where Brown edged out the Quakers 3-2.

And then there’s men’s basketball. A team that lit a spark across campus which pulled athletics enthusiasts, theater kids, pre-med concentrators and every-

one in between together with the hope of a March Madness berth; an aspiration which, ultimately, fell heartbreakingly short by just one second and one point. But as dramatic and unexpected as the team’s playoff run in New York was, nothing will beat the magic of their overtime classic at home against Harvard. The Pizz was packed, and fans pouring out from the rafters to storm the court was not an image I had on my Brown Bears bingo card.

team will be a performance I will remember for a long-time.

But since being at Brown, no moment has gained as much publicity as Margot Norehad ’27’s “Michigan” goal. Not only was Norehad only the second woman to perform the famous goal in-game, but she did so as a first-year. The moment also points to a greater theme of the women’s hockey team: young players making great accomplishments.

Lydell Dyer, Sports Reporter

Of all the electric moments Brown Athletics provided in the last year, none stuck with me quite as much as the football team’s overtime thriller against Harvard. From interceptions to head-taps, the game featured it all.

But ultimately, the game came down to one thing: team camaraderie, and the ability of both sides of the ball to pick each other up.

Not to mention that the game was decided by a threepoint margin. It was a game to remember.

MAPPING THE CITY: NEIGHBORHOODS TO EXPLORE IN PROVIDENCE

BY AVANI GHOSH METRO EDITOR

COLLEGE HILL & WAYLAND SQUARE

Brown University is surrounded by vibrant and unique neighborhoods. From beautiful museums and parks to cozy coffee shops, The Herald has selected staples every Brown student should plan to visit at least once.

The Providence Athenaeum, located on Benefit Street, is a library that features Hellenic-themed architecture and decorations. Whether or not you attend one of its reading groups or public events, you’ll probably see the building’s ornate walls on a Brown student’s Instagram story.

FOX POINT

Wickenden Street features restaurants, coffee shops and Brown students’ beloved grocery store, Trader Joe’s. The street has an old-city aesthetic to it and is a great place to eat, shop and take in the New England charm.

The Coffee Exchange is one of the main coffee shops on Wickenden Street and serves environmentally and socially conscious coffee drinks. It’s a cozy place to chat with friends or study during the week.

DOWNTOWN PROVIDENCE

Providence Performing Arts Center features many Broadway productions every season. Notable productions in the upcoming 2024-2025 season include “Mamma Mia,” “Life of Pi,” “Chicago” and “Back to the Future: The Musical.”

The RISD Museum is just down College Hill and features art from around the world, including pieces created by RISD students. With artwork featuring various types of media such as sketches, paintings, sculptures, textiles and film, there is something for everyone. Brown students get free admission!

Prospect Terrace Park on Congdon Street has a great view of Downtown Providence. The many benches overlooking the city makes it one of the perfect places to read a book and watch the sunset.

PVDonuts is a must-try for all donut lovers. It is known for its specialty offerings, such as the famous brioche-style donut. The store, which features a rotating menu, is constantly adding new flavors for customers to try out.

India Point Park is celebrated for its view of Providence Harbor. The park also has a playground, picnic benches and a pedestrian bridge connecting it to the nearby Fox Point neighborhood. The East Bay Bike Path also runs through the park, making it a great place for all sorts of leisurely activities.

Symposium Books is a local bookstore on Westminster Street with new, used and bargain books from around the world. If you’re looking to sell, the store will also buy all sorts of books and vinyls. It’s a great place to find your next great read and connect with other readers.

SPR ING WEE KEND FROM RAY CHARLES TO ETHEL CAIN

BY ANISHA KUMAR UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR

What do Phoebe Bridgers, Kendrick Lamar and Bob Dylan have in common? (Except the obvious.)

The tradition goes by many names at universities across the country: spring fling, lawn parties or Brown’s own Spring Weekend — an annual outdoor concert dating back nearly a century. The aforementioned artists are just some of the biggest names to have swept through campus.

Every year in late April, students dress up and congregate on the Main Green under warm sun (or a light spring drizzle) to sing and sway along to live music from some of the year’s most popular and upcoming artists — a tradition with roots reaching back almost 130 years.

In 1898, Brown students held a Junior Prom, which evolved over the next few years to span a week and feature performances from musical clubs on campus, a dance accompanied by the orchestra and finally the prom itself, The Herald previously reported.

During the Second World War, Junior Prom turned into Spring Weekend — two days of fraternity sing-offs, concerts by campus groups and jazz musicians, sporting events and more dances. By the 1960s, Spring Weekend looked more like the campus concerts students know today.

Notable early performers in the first decades of Spring Weekend included Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald, Dave Brubeck, U2 and R.E.M. During 1967’s Spring Weekend, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave an address in Sayles Hall against the Vietnam War.

By 2009, Spring Weekend’s stages had seen A Tribe Called Quest, Bruce Springsteen, Busta Rhymes, The Roots, Wilco and M.I.A. Since then, artists like Snoop Dogg, Childish Gambino, Lauryn Hill, Mitski and Daniel Caesar have performed on campus, with Bridgers and KAYTRANADA making a virtual appearance in 2021 after the festival was canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic.

Last year’s lineup featured indie folk artist Ethel Cain and rapper JID, along with 070 Shake, Alice Longyu Gao, Doechii and Remi Wolf.

Unlike in past years, Spring Weekend 2024 is set to be a one-day event on April 21 due to funding constraints. Since BCA waived the event’s $50-a-day fee in 2021, tickets have remained free.

This year, artists Yves Tumor, Jordan Ward, Elyanna and Weston Estate will perform at Spring Weekend.