Friday, March 17th, 2023

UNIVERSITY NEWS

Project highlights Black health care workers

BY CAMPBELL LOI STAFF WRITER

“The Black Frontline,” an oral history project chronicling the experiences of Black health care workers from around the world during the COVID-19 pandemic, launched Wednesday in an event hosted by the Department of Africana Studies.

The project — co-founded and directed by Associate Professor of Africana Studies Kim Gallon and Ester Armah, CEO of the Armah Institute of Emotional Justice — is “the largest oral history project” to document the “stories of sacrifice, survival, community, loss (and) humanity” from Black doctors and nurses during the pandemic, according to the project launch’s description. Gallon is also the founder and executive director of COVID Black, an organization “at the intersection of health data, information, the human -

ities, race and social justice,” according to its website.

The two assembled a team working between the United States, the United Kingdom and Ghana, which collected 300 stories from Black doctors and nurses working on the front lines in these three countries during the pandemic. Each of the recorded narratives, posted on the project’s website, highlights a Black health care professional and their unique experience during the pandemic.

Armah and Gallon were originally

collaborating on a separate project, but the pair had to halt their work due to COVID-19 restrictions. After witnessing the distress Black health care workers faced due to the pandemic, they began collaborating on The Black Frontline.

“(We) were both caught up with the amount of loss and grief and trauma that was happening,” Gallon told The Herald. “We wanted to be able to tell the story of what Black people and spe-

SEE FRONTLINE PAGE 5

ARTS & CULTURE

Startups split $50,000 at Venture Prize Pitch Night

UNIVERSITY NEWS Competition awarded three prizes, $25,000 top prize awarded to Elythea startup

BY OWEN DAHLKAMP SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Three University student startups — Elythea, Notable Narratives and Marian — were collectively awarded $50,000 in seed money at the Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship’s sixth annual Brown Venture Prize pitch competition Thursday.

A panel of seven judges — ranging from CEOs to investors — selected the three winners following a four-minute pitch and four-minute question-and-answer session for each organization. The judges also reviewed the startups’ initial applications prior to the event, according to Jonas Clark, associate director of the Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship.

Elythea, a “platform that ob -

stetricians use in any setting to predict risk for complications of pregnancy,” according to co-founder Reetam Ganguli ’23, took home first place and a $25,000 check, the largest prize offered. Ganguli co-founded Elythea with Rishik Lad, a student at Dartmouth College and Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Clinician Educator Stephen Wagner.

With maternal mortality on the rise in the United States — especially among people of color — the founders of Elythea hope that their platform will use “point-of-care variables” to improve maternal outcomes both inside and outside of the U.S., Ganguli said. In their preliminary testing, the startup has a 90% predictive accuracy rate in comparison to the 40% accuracy of their competitors, Ganguli added. Notable Narratives took home the second-place prize of $15,000. The non-profit organization “connects first-generation low-income

SEE VENTURE PAGE 5

14-bill package aims to address housing crisis

METRO House Speaker hopes legislation will streamline affordable housing development

BY YAEL SARIG SENIOR STAFF WRITER

In an effort to address Rhode Island’s housing crisis, Rhode Island House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi (D-Warwick) announced a 14-bill package that includes legislation to eliminate rental application fees, amend previous legislation related to accessory dwelling units and streamline the permitting process for low- and moderate-income housing.

The package, introduced in early March, seeks to “streamline” the process of proposing, applying for and building housing, especially affordable housing, Shekarchi said in an interview with The Herald. Nine of the bills were heard in committee in the state House of Representatives last week.

One key tool the package uses to simplify the process is creating a single permitting process statewide rather than the current 39 separate

“Outer Banks” delivers unoriginal plot, lots of running in third season

Local non-profit empowers Black storytellers

processes for each municipality, he said — in addition to eliminating one of the three current steps required for permitting in Rhode Island.

Speeding up the appeals process on decisions made by local review boards is another central priority of Shekarchi’s legislation, eliminating the State Housing Appeals Board and sending all complaints immediately to a county’s superior court. “Time is one of the biggest enemies in a project,” he said, citing the failure of the Fane Tower development plan as an example of a project that did not come to fruition due to a lengthy permitting and judicial process.

Building the fewest new houses per capita in the United States in 2021, Rhode Island has struggled to provide affordable housing for its residents. The legislative package, Shekarchi said, seeks to change that “unacceptable” statistic.

Currently, Rhode Island lacks low-income housing, housing for people experiencing homelessness, market-rate housing and more, Shekarchi added.

Brenda Clement, director of Hous-

SEE HOUSING PAGE 4

BY MIKAYLA KENNEDY STAFF WRITER

Since its founding in 1998, the Providence-based non-profit Rhode Island Black Storytellers has worked to share “the stories and heritage of people of African descent,” according to Ramona Bass-Kolobe ’72 MA’83, a founding member of RIBS.

Throughout the year, RIBS hosts various performances in collaboration with local community organizations such as churches and schools. It also offers community workshops in storytelling and writing in an effort to aid the “development of the next generation of storytellers,” according to the RIBS website.

Valerie Tutson ’87 AM’90, another RIBS founding member, said that she was inspired to start the organization by the “national Black storytelling festivals” that she attended for several years.

Tutson felt encouraged by the “energy and the family and cultural feel” of the festivals and wanted to expand access

to similar storytelling experiences in Providence.

Backed partially by funding from the Rhode Island Foundation, Tutson, Bass-Kalobe and fellow collaborators founded RIBS with the mission of bringing “some of the best Black storytellers from (around) the country … (and) the diaspora to our community so that people could see the diversity of styles and just the wonderful artistry that is all over,” Tutson explained.

Funda Fest: A global storytelling celebration

Every January, RIBS invites local organizations to participate in seven public performances across Rhode Island in its annual Funda Fest, which is attended by audiences from all across the world.

The Funda Fest is named after the Funda Arts Center, which Tutson visited while in Soweto, South Africa. “Funda means ‘to learn’ in Zulu,” she explained.

SEE STORYTELLERS PAGE 8

‘The Black Frontline’ documents Black health care workers’ pandemic experiences

Rhode Island Black Storytellers members discuss mission, collaborations, impact

COURTESY OF THOMAS WALSH

Sylvia Ann Soares ’95 intends to provide education and promote justice through storytelling through the Rhode Island Black Storytellers.

COURTESY OF CATHERINE VAN AMBURGH

In August, co-founders Esther Armah and Kim Gallon will travel to the U.K. and Ghana for the international launch of “The Black Frontline.”

school night seance

how to hold a seance on a wednesday in providence

by Damian Wasilewicz

illustrated by Lulu Cavicchi

Preparing for a spirit circle is easier than you might think.

Your first stop could be Spectrum-India, the “metaphysical supply store” straddling the corner of Thayer and Olive Street. Step under its deep blue awning, pass through the glass door, and enter a land of plenty: red and gold bangles, purple embroidered cushions, statuettes, tarot cards, jewelry, and something called “The Goddess Dress.” Though the dizzying swirl of colors and scents might tempt you to stay forever, focus now—swoop around a corner of self-help books, past a “Remember, Stealing is Bad Karma” sign, and onwards to your spiritual weapons of choice: a milky white candle and a box of frankincense. Feel how light they are in your hands, how heavy their purpose.

Not that you need them, really. “How to Form Spirit Circles” from the November 15th, 1872 issue of The Spiritualist, a publication for all things spiritual, makes no mention of them. In fact, a group of “four, five, or six individuals, about the same number of each sex” and an “uncovered wooden table” are the only requirements the article specifies. But if your spiritual organs aren’t

hostel-hoppers the coldplay dollar and a finger in an ice box

by Damian Wasilewicz

Valentina

It was not long after we met Valentina that we learned about the Coldplay dollar.

We bumped into her right after checking into Carpe Noctem, an affordable, highly-rated hostel in the heart of Budapest. It was the first stop that me, Amit, and Box had mapped out in our plan to hostelhop around Europe. Carpe Noctem is a youth party hostel, with a strict upper age limit of 36 and a massive drinking culture, located on the top floor of a fivestory, austere-white 19th century heritage building. We were halfway up the many wide stone steps to the hostel when the motion-activated lights turned off, leaving us to make the rest of the journey by aid of our flashlights like torch-wielding monks.

Any pious feelings we had vanished the moment we reached the door on the top flight, which advertised our arrival in bright signs and neon lights. We were greeted by one of the hostel workers, a laid back, beerclenching man I’ll call Adam. Adam wore a tank top, black earring gauges slightly larger than a quarter, and a tattoo sleeve on each arm. He checked us in and showed us to our room. On the way over, we made small talk with a group of young adults...

feeling particularly developed, a bit of incense and candlelight can help you get in the right mood.

Outside of the store, your munitions tucked into your bookbag, catch your breath and craft an iMessage for your chosen accomplices. Something casual, yet direct.

“Would you be interested in sitting around a wooden table and trying to communicate with the dead?”

The sequence of events that led to me holding a seance on a school night began with a long overdue visit to the John Hay Library. An elegant white marble building, it hosts a number of special collections that interested students can request to view. During my time at Brown I hadn’t taken advantage of what it offered, and as a senior in my last semester, the clock was ticking.

While browsing through the list of archives the library houses, the Damon Occult Collection and the H. Adrian Smith Collection of Conjuring and Magicana caught my eye. Along with many of my third-grade peers, I had been an avid Goosebumps reader...

identity theft

a tale of other people’s names for me

by Sophie Pollack-Milgate

We are born into clumsy bodies. We flail around with fat fingers as we learn to make sense of the fuzzy shapes around us, and to assert important truths like “ba” and “ga.” As we grow, we are given a fuller set of words to wrap our hands around, including words that are supposed to describe who we are. But what happens when we can’t quite grasp them?

Consider this. The dorm basement is dim and chaotic. A group of college freshmen sit cross-legged in a circle playing “Never Have I Ever.” In between my own legs is a red Solo cup, which has been filled with two ounces of overpowering cinnamon-flavored alcohol for the past hour. I dislike this game. It often makes people say grosser things than they would otherwise. It also makes me confront something— that against my will, I assign most people in basement circles to a higher social standing than me, since they’ve tried cool things like recreational drugs, which I haven’t.

I play to win. When my turn comes, I recite my sentence, inserting a premeditated pause: “Never have I ever...had a Christmas tree in my house.” Almost everyone groans and takes a sip, except for a figure with long dark brown hair. She leans forward and asks me across the circle, “Are you Jewish?”

I blush. “Well, half, technically.”

Not satisfied, she probes: “What’s your last name?”...

“It is a strange sensation, too, to be that person. To be, for once in my small and insignificant life, a place for something permanent to rest.”

—Liza Kolbasov, “Stitched in Ink”

“And that’s the beauty of it—colors are not discrete or static, but can flow and mix and transform just like emotions can.”

—Moe Levandosky, “The Many-Colored Cure” 3.5.21

voyaging vestments in pursuit of perfect packing

by Sean Toomey

The Alps presented a problem. The mountains, spotted with white provincial houses angled on the slopes, flanked our train car. This day of travel was an opportunity to experience rustic clothing and an aestheticization of mountain life so extreme I’m surprised we didn’t go looking for edelweiss— lederhosen and all. But for such dreaming, we hit the concrete wall of practicality early into our journey, up there is country living, thunderous valleys and shadowed peaks—and staring deep into an empty backpack before my fateful trip, the question arises: What to pack?

The freedom of style today has made travel wardrobes much more of a personal statement, an experimental setting to reduce your style to its bare essentials. But that can be confusing, and even daunting. So today, I’m going to try to give a broad runthrough on packing for a weekend trip, adjustable for any length of stay.

One Jacket:

A good jacket will always elevate your traveling outfits, bringing everything tastefully together, as well as providing an extra layer for warmth. There are multiple options to choose from here, all of which can be modified on the basis of your personal style. My choice would be a nice sports jacket or blazer, something tweed or woolen in a solid color. On my recent trip to the Alps I wore a slouchy brown three-button wool blazer (my

ARTSLIFESTYLE & CULTURE

desire for comfort is nonstop) to provide both country airs as well as a warm and comfortable addition for long days of travel. On the more casual end, leather jackets in both the café racer and double rider styles work well with waxed cotton and oilskin jackets, L.L. Beanstyle barn coats, and all your denim varieties. Also, fun jackets have equally fun pockets that you can fill to the brim with all your little knick knacks and travel items. Currently, I use mine for sandwiches.

One Sweater:

A sweater’s necessity may vary depending on the climate, but can work well as a layering piece or replace the jacket entirely. I would recommend something that goes with all the other items you bring. The standard crewneck Shetlands, chunky shawl collar cardigans, and fair isle sweater vests are all good choices. This is dad-style: a treasure trove for the irony-poisoned minds of our generation or a depressing glimpse into your fast-approaching future.

Two Shirts:

Having two shirts will provide you with the excitement of options while making sure you’re not left hanging if your airplane meal falls onto you during a bout of heavy turbulence. The sky's the limit for options, but I think the versatility of a button up shirt benefits any travel wardrobe. I would recommend a more casual and comfortable shirt like an oxford cloth or linen button down...

journeys in haibun on

haibun, travel diaries, and the open road

by AJ Wu

Illustrated by Harshini Venkatachalam

He took to the road before dawn, the moon still visible through the early March mist. The night before, he had patched his torn trousers and fixed a new strap to his hat. He was approaching fifty—–gray hairs frosting his head—–and applied mugwort to his legs to strengthen them for the journey.

It was early spring of 1689 when the Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō left Edo on the third of his major travels. He sold his house, meaning that this time, he expected not to return. He took an unfamiliar path toward the deep North: a strange territory that represented the unknown.

By then, he was an experienced traveler, a regular man in motion. Years ago, he recorded his first major journey to his hometown of Ueno, where his mother had died, in The Record of a Weather-exposed Skeleton, a melancholy travel diary. Other subsequent records of his travels include A Visit to the Kashima Shrine, The Records of a Travel-worn Satchel, and A Visit to Sarashina Village. These journals were experimentations with form that combined haiku and prose in a style Bashō called “haibun.”

A simple principle for understanding many genres of haikai (linked verse)...

“I need a pelvis in front of me, otherwise it's too hard.”

Greys

1. The hex code #696969

2. Earl

3. Picture of Dorian

4. Fifty Shades of

5. Anatomy

6. Martens

7. Orbs as Y/N flutters her voluminous lashes

8. -hounds

9. -hound busses

10. Areas

a cowboy like me the rise of queer themes in country music

by Sofie Zeruto

I used to tell people I hated country music. Growing up in the conservative suburbs of the Deep South, hating country music was a quiet rebellion against a culture that intrinsically did not align with my values. Throughout high school, I walked a wide berth around the Morgan Wallen tours that passed through my hometown every year and was careful to clearly enunciate my “you guys,” lest a shameful “y’all” slip through my anti-Southern vocabulary.

This counter-culture gut hatred of modern country music seemed only natural as a queer woman existing in an environment that didn’t accept either of those identities. After all, it was the same people blaring twangy banjos that were freely saying in their deep southern drawls that they would disown their child if they were gay or posting online after Roe v. Wade was overturned that “babies shouldn’t be punished for women being whores.”

So you can imagine my hesitation when several friends and family members told me I would love Kacey Musgraves’ Golden Hour after it won Album of the Year at the 2019 Grammy Awards. After years of subliminal brainwashing from every song on the Country Hot 100, I thought I had heard it all, but Kacey Musgraves’ name did not ring a bell. It wasn’t until I was driving through the countryside with my grandpa on our way to ride horses and help his friend wrangle a baby cow on his friend’s farm that I thought if there were ever a time to try out some country music, it was then. The album opened with the peaceful, soft guitar strumming...

“Acceptance, you know?

It’s one of the stages of something."

“We have been underproducing units at all income levels, but particularly at the lower-income level for a long, long period of time,” she said. “We’ve got a lot of catch-up work to do.”

“At lower income levels … the competition for (limited housing) units becomes much harder,” Clement added. “That’s why we see year-long waiting lists for public housing.”

ARTS & CULTURE

Public dialogue and pushback

This legislative package came partially as the result of the work done by three legislative commissions focused on housing and land use, according to Shekarchi.

The Special Legislative Commission to Study the Low and Moderate Income Housing Act looks at barriers to affordable housing, while the Special Legislative Commission to Study the Entire Area of Land Use, Preservation, Development, Housing, Environment and Regulation examines how the state can use land in a way that promotes “sustainable and equitable economic growth.”

A third commission led by State Rep. Thomas Noret (D–Coventry) examines surplus land the state may have.

Opening up dialogue around housing issues to the public played an “important role in paving the way for this legislation to be introduced,” wrote commission member Melina Lodge, executive director of the Housing Network of Rhode Island,

in an email to The Herald. The Housing Network of Rhode Island is “committed to the development of affordable housing,” according to its website.

Before the release of the legislative package, a handful of rural towns — including Exeter, Foster, Scituate, Glocester, Richmond, Hopkinton and West Greenwich — indicated their opposition to what they call an “oppressive state legislature,”

The Valley Breeze reported. Specifically, the towns cited concerns that the package would override local zoning ordinances and install requirements for low- and moderate-income housing.

Shekarchi noted that the package was designed to minimize the burden on the state and preserve local control; overriding local control was “never the intent,” he added. But he added that some people are still resistant to construction in their neighborhoods: “Everybody wants housing, but nobody wants it in their backyard.” And low-income housing is particularly challenging to build support for, he said, due to inaccurate and negative stereotypes surrounding low-income residents. Shekarchi noted that he hopes education and press coverage will help combat what he described as misconceptions.

Building on top of a foundation

“It’s refreshing to have a speaker in

the House who is focusing so much on housing in Rhode Island,” said Margaux Morisseau, deputy director of the Rhode Island Coalition to End Homelessness.

But Morisseau said she still hopes to see legislation pass that provides immediate solutions for people experiencing homelessness. Bills that the coalition supports would create a tenants’ bill of rights, implement payday lending reform and set requirements for advance notice from landlords regarding rent hikes. Another bill would place limitations on the use of certain criminal records and credit history reports to deny housing to applicants, she said.

Shekarchi said that while this specific package is effectively complete, he is generally supportive of introducing more legislation to address the housing crisis.

“This is a building block in the foundation,” he said. “There’ll be another package if I’m speaker next year, (and) those two commissions will continue to work hard to address these issues.”

‘Outer Banks’ season 3 is just a montage of characters running

Netflix show delivers unengaging plot in latest season, lackluster first two acts

BY MAGDALENA DEL VALLE SENIOR STAFF WRITER

When its first season was released in 2020, “Outer Banks” proved to be an action-packed, extremely binge-worthy show. For young adult audiences, following a group of four teenagers on a treasure hunt around their coastal hometown was exciting. But by the show’s third season, which premiered last month, the plot has become tired and unoriginal. After all, viewers can only handle so many scenes of actors that are too old to be playing high schoolers running around from one near-death experience to the other.

“Outer Banks” focuses on a main friend group of “Pogues” — a term used to refer to Outer Banks locals. John B (Chase Stokes), Kiara (Madison Bailey), Pope (Jonathan Daviss) and JJ (Rudy Pankow) engage in shenanigans alongside former “kooks” — the term for wealthy vacationers in the Outer Banks — Sarah Cameron (Madelyn Cline) and Cleo (Carlacia Grant). To-

gether, they run away from local police, uncover clues that will lead them to the “El Dorado” treasure and outwit their ever-growing number of competitors. The show’s third season begins right where the last one left off: the Pogues are stranded on a deserted island, upset to have lost the cross of Santo Domin-

MARCH

go — the treasure they were hunting in season two — to Sarah’s dad, Ward Cameron (Charles Esten). After being double crossed by their rescuer, the Pogues must wander around the world in search of newer, bigger loot.

This new hunt leads the group from Barbados back to the Outer Banks and

CALENDAR

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then to South America. On their journey, some of the Pogues find themselves reunited with long-lost family members, while others are admitted into institutions for troubled teenagers. And all of them are constantly running for their lives.

In an interview with Teen Vogue,

TODAY’S EVENTS

Conversations about Greece

Cline said that “there was this energy to (season three) that the other two didn’t quite have and I think it showed.” It didn’t.

But season three certainly seems to have more chases and escapes than its two predecessors. But how many epic chases constitute too many? The Pogues have multiple close-calls driving away from their enemies in both John B’s van and Sarah’s ex-boyfriend’s borrowed pickup truck. At one point, John B even escapes on a jet-ski.

It’s not until the last two episodes, when the Pogues reach the banks of the Orinoco River in South America, that anything of substance really happens in the show. There, John B and Sarah find “El Dorado” and mourn the loss of some of their unlucky companions.

The only big difference between season three and its predecessors is that the Pogues finally find — and keep — their precious treasure. This is more than can be said for the audience, who waited years for a new season of Outer Banks only to find that the best part of the show was the scenery. And no matter how beautiful the beaches and open sea were, they certainly weren’t worth the 10-episode commitment.

Cinema Ritrovato on Tour: 10th Anniversary Edition

a.m. Barus and Holley

Brown-RISD VSA Culture Show

7:00

1:00

Terror in Terezin: Music from the Ghetto 7:00 p.m.

COURTESY OF NETFLIX

HOUSING FROM PAGE 1

SIMONE STRAUSS / HERALD

Pawtucket shelter offers support for people experiencing homelessness

Warming center provides meals, addiction treatment program entry

BY MAHIN ASHFAQ SENIOR STAFF WRITER

OpenDoors R.I., an organization that works to support formerly incarcerated individuals and their families, began operating a 24-hour warming shelter at 1139 Main Street in Pawtucket late last month. The shelter offers occupants three meals a day, peer recovery support services, assistance with ID and license reinstatement and addiction treatment program entry, according to Dina Bruce, program director at OpenDoors R.I.

With a staff that includes a case manager and health worker, the new warming center has 31 total beds and a maximum capacity of 50 people. The shelter aims to “offer people as much support as we can for them to move onto the next part of their life,” said Nick Horton ’04, co-executive director of OpenDoors.

“This place is fantastic,” said Marcos Rodrquez, who currently resides at the shelter. “I’m comfortable. I sleep good. I wake up with energy. … I’m at peace.”

The City of Pawtucket initially opened an emergency warming center at 1139 Main St. due to the cold temperatures at the beginning of February. Following the cold spell, the center closed until OpenDoors took over operations on Feb. 24. The shelter will remain open until June 30 and will serve as a cooling center during the summer, Horton said.

‘I just want to give back’: Opening and operating the warming center

According to Horton, OpenDoors has been interested in opening new shelters in the state for the last three years. The organization had tried for over a year to establish a shelter, but a lack of building availability prevented them from doing so.

Following the initial emergency period, the state opened up applications for local organizations that wished to operate the Pawtucket shelter on a more permanent basis. OpenDoors applied and, after being selected, proposed and negotiated an operations budget with the state.

OpenDoors has “been doing similar work for close to 20 years,” Horton said. “Our agency is largely led and staffed with people (who have) lived experience of either incarceration, addiction or homelessness.”

According to Horton, Bruce was selected to run the shelter due to her prior experience running a women’s transitional program and men’s shelter. “The rapport is easier built because I’m relatable,” Bruce said, sharing that she had been previously incarcerated. “I just want to give back.”

The 1139 Main St. building is owned by the Pawtucket Housing Authority. While PHA doesn’t play a “true role” in shelter operations, PHA Executive Director Paula McFarland said that the shelter supports the PHA’s mission to provide a “safe place while (unhoused people) are searching and looking for a more permanent or supportive type of housing.”

According to Grace Voll, communications director for Pawtucket Mayor Donald R. Grebien, the new shelter is a crucial step toward addressing the city’s issues with homelessness and the lack of full-time

shelters in the Ocean State.

“Homelessness is a problem the state is grappling with and we in Pawtucket are committed to helping state leaders address this problem,” Voll wrote in an email to The Herald.

‘We all have to do our part’: Addressing issues of homelessness

According to the Rhode Island Coalition to End Homelessness, which aims to find lasting solutions to homelessness in the state, there are currently 347 Rhode Islanders without shelter. And the “trend line seems to be going up,” particularly among “the big metros,” said Juan Espinoza, the organization’s communications and development manager.

According to Voll, the population of people experiencing homelessness in Pawtucket is high “because Pawtucket

is an urban and highly populated city.”

“The amount of housing available for low-income folks does not meet the need,” Espinoza said.

According to a March 2023 report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition released Thursday, there are only 53 affordable and available homes per 100 extremely low-income renter households in Rhode Island. The report defines extremely low-incomes as “incomes at or below either the federal poverty guideline or 30% of the area median income (AMI), whichever is higher.”

According to Espinoza, the Rhode Island Coalition to End Homelessness is championing bills aimed to address root causes of homelessness. These bills address housing fees, eviction notices and support for people leaving the criminal justice system, Espinoza said.

But zoning and other permitting processes can delay the creation of low- and moderate-income units and shelters, Espinoza said. This perpetuates housing shortages which have forced people experiencing homelessness to relocate, he added.

“Some of these folks, they work in the city. … These are neighbors, these are people who went to the same high schools, same middle schools we went to,” he said. “They’re contributing to your local economy and you’re getting rid of them because they don’t have a home.”

“Homelessness is now in all our backyards, and we all have to do our part,” Espinoza said. “There’s a lot of hopefulness (from people currently living in shelters) that things are going to turn around, and I hope they’re right.”

cifically Black health care professionals were experiencing.”

She added that they aimed to explore broader experiences of health care workers as well as experiences that were “unique because of the positionality of Blackness.”

Gallon noted the significance of creating a historical record specifically for Black front-line workers — a group historically excluded from archives.

“When looking back at the influenza pandemic of 1918, there are very few (accounts from) voices of color” and even fewer specifically from Black communities, Gallon said. “We wanted to (ensure) that 100 years from now when people look back on this moment in time, the histor-

ical record represents diverse voices (and highlights) the role that Black doctors and Black nurses played in the pandemic.”

Every individual that contributed their story was given a pseudonym — a feature that was especially important to the integrity of the project, Gallon said.

Some participants “told stories about being put in jeopardy or experiencing racism that could make them vulnerable to being terminated from their positions,” she said. Anonymity protected participants, empowering them to share their stories without fear of harm, she added.

The Black Frontline is rooted in emotional justice, a “racial healing framework” that aims to combat “legacies of untreated trauma,” according to Armah.

For Alicia Genisca, associate professor

of pediatrics and emergency medicine at Warren Alpert Medical School, sharing her story with The Black Frontline helped her recognize her own strength by reflecting on her experiences during the pandemic.

“I think that reflective piece really helped me to process what that time really meant as a physician and as a woman of color,” she said.

Genisca added that she hopes The Black Frontline will help Black health care workers “feel more comfortable reaching out and sharing with others who might have had similar experiences.” Working in a predominantly white institution can make Black health care workers feel “siloed” and “alone,” she added.

Gallon said she felt that the University was an ideal place to host the project because of its longstanding commitment

to equity, its innovation in digital scholarship and the central role that the Department of Africana Studies continues to play in pushing the campus to have critical conversations around race and inequity.

Noliwe Rooks, professor of Africana studies and chair of the department, said that the project fits perfectly with her department’s mission: changing power structures by allowing Black people the complexity and humanity they have historically been denied.

The project’s U.S. launch is only the beginning: In August, Armah and Gallon will travel to the U.K. and Ghana to formally launch The Black Frontline in each country.

“This is a living archive,” Rooks said. “It’s going to expand, and it’s going to

In the third episode of The Bruno Brief’s series on myths at Brown, Producer Carter Moyer speaks with Jacob Smollen, Bruno Brief and Metro editor, about his reporting on Brown’s left-leaning reputation. Why does Brown have a liberal reputation? How have the student body’s actions reflected this reputation? What does it even mean to be a liberal university anyway?

high schoolers to FGLI college students” for college application counseling, said co-founder Cecile Schreidah ’24 in her group’s pitch.

Brandon Avendano ’23, Notable Narratives’s other co-founder, said that a shared FGLI identity between applicants and advisors creates “values of trust.” With 15,565 FGLI applicants advised thus far, Notable Narratives hopes to use the additional funds to compensate advisors who currently provide mentorship for free, target “outreach to under-represented states” and create “a more streamlined and advanced website,” according to Avendano.

Marian, the winner of the $10,000 third-place prize, is a platform that

allows users to manage their investment portfolios online using “models that know what to buy and when to sell,” said co-founder Aaron Wang ’23 during the team’s pitch. Luke Primis ’24 and Eshaan Mangat ’24 are the company’s other co-founders.

Wang referenced one specific application of their product — an interface to make a customizable algorithm that buys bitcoin when Elon Musk tweets about the cryptocurrency.

Wang said after the event that he has “no idea” what his team will do with its $10,000 prize but is “really excited and looking to democratize the active investing space.”

Other competing teams included Codex, Codified Health, EcoForm, Sessio and Uconomy. These groups

promoted products ranging from sustainable material alternatives for cars to artificial intelligence applications for software developers.

The funds for the prizes were donated by Jane Katzman ’81 P’14 and Richard Katzman ’78 P’14, according to Clark. In February, “a group of esteemed judges” selected eight finalists from a pool of over 30 startups, Clark wrote in an email to The Herald.

Following their selection, finalists met with representatives from the Nelson Center to “practice their pitches” and “receive feedback,” Clark added. Through this process, both the groups’ pitches and how they “think about their actual ventures” improved, he wrote.

Brown Venture Prize is “different

from many other competitions,” Clark wrote. “It is agnostic with respect to what sectors or industries ventures are working in.”

The prize hopes to provide students with “the potential to create impact at scale,” Clark wrote.

“It’s not every day you have the opportunity to have a group of really experienced entrepreneurs collectively dig into your venture and provide feedback,” Clark added.

According to Clark, the top three winners of the five past competitions have collectively raised over $60 million for their respective organizations. He hopes that the participants this year will use this opportunity as a “springboard to future success.”

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Editorial: Our student government is a mess. It’s time for a much-needed makeover.

Next week, the University’s undergraduate stu

dent body will vote for leaders of the Undergraduate Council of Students, the Undergraduate Finance Board and the Class Coordinating Board — the three branches of Brown’s Student Government Association. But after a particularly tumultuous and controversial year for the University’s student government, students should reflect on the structural shortcomings of its ineffective, unengaging and arcane student government. It’s time to go beyond reforming our government and instead overhaul it as a single elected student senate.

Complaints about student government at Brown are not new, but they have become especially pronounced amid this year’s contro

versies. Kicked off by an insufficient effort to unify the three branches of the University’s student government, last spring’s dramatic runoff election for UCS president was brought about by confusion over whether the election should have been held under SGA’s new rules or UCS’s pre-existing bylaws. Then, at the start of the fall semester, UCS leadership dismissed its general body, triggering an unsuccessful recall saga. Of course, this year has not been all bad: UCS has been more productive than in past years and CCB seems to put on events with general success. But recent minor wins simply do not make up for the simple fact that, last semester, less than a fourth of Brown students believed they had actually benefited from a UCS program.

This is not a situation that the current government can easily fix. Past reform efforts —

which have added unnecessary bylaws to this already tangled mess of rules — are proof that recent leaders think the solution to dysfunction is further tedious complexity. But we don’t need such symbolic referenda to fix the situation, nor a 55-position student government with confusing roles like the hard-to-distinguish UCS chair of campus life and UFB student activities chair. Instead, we need an engaging student govern -

40-member senate convenes, it could divvy up specific responsibilities currently held by the three branches among its members — after all, those most interested in student government will know best who among them would make good finance or outreach directors. Committees would be formed of members to handle important duties such as appointments and inclusion, and their chairs would fill the vacuums where

could lead senate meetings and break ties on evenly divided votes.

This would be a more accessible government. Today, you have to parse through a jumble of titles to figure out who the right member of our student government to ask about any given problem is. If each grade had 10 representatives in a unified body, it would greatly simplify the process. This structure would also make our government more representative, allowing each grade an equal stake in governmental decision making.

Good government is legible, and today’s completely indecipherable system is keeping students away. Turnout in school elections is abysmal and no one is exactly sure what the student government does or how it works. By putting all the responsibilities in one place and giving undergrads a single body to keep up with, a student senate and president would encourage more active participation and higher engagement.

ment that is the right scale and complexity for an undergraduate population of 7,000.

A first step could be to replace our current byzantine system with a simple student senate. Like our peers at Dartmouth and Georgetown University, Brown undergrads ought to have the opportunity to elect a general body to be their voice in government. For example, each grade could elect 10 members, picking based on who they believe would make good representatives without needing to understand the ins and outs of each currently elected position. Once the

we currently have elected leaders. While it is possible that a senate would struggle to fill out more obscure committees, our current system is no better: This spring, for example, no one is running to be the 2025 Class Coordinating Board president, secretary, treasurer or community outreach officer.

It would still be smart to have one separate elected position. An elected president would be an important advocate for students with University administration and set the tone for student government. On a practical level, a president

Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board and aim to contribute informed opinions to campus debates while remaining mindful of the group’s past stances. The editorial page board and its views are separate from The Herald’s newsroom and the 133rd Editorial Board, which leads the paper.

This editorial was written by the editorial page board’s editor Kate Waisel ’24 and members Irene Chou ’23, Yasmeen Gaber ’23, Tom Li ’26, Jackson McGough ’23, Alissa Simon ’25 and Yael Wellisch ’26.

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“It’s time to go beyond reforming our government and instead overhaul it as a single elected student senate.”

Wellisch ’26: Pre-professional advising is crucial — especially at Brown

From behavioral decision sciences to comparative literature to Modern Culture and Media, many Brown students proudly concentrate in unique disciplines without obvious corresponding career paths. The luxury of concentrating in niche academic areas is part of the beauty of Brown’s adventurous academic philosophy. But it also means that not all students have concentrations that are clearly transferable to the workforce — and due to a lack of core requirements, they won’t always get otherwise marketable skills outside of their concentration. Ultimately, because of its unstructured academic approach, Brown requires an exceptionally strong and proactive career services program. Students need such an office to provide practical support to complement their academic interests and ensure their sufficient preparation for the job market.

The Open Curriculum is a hallmark of Brown — perhaps its defining feature. For many of us, it drove our decision to come here in the first place. At Brown, unlike schools with clear pre-professional bents, many students graduate without a clear career path. Instead, the University honors and encourages indecision as undergraduates are given the space to explore interdisciplinary fields and creative interests without any core curriculum.

While Brown’s radical emphasis on exploration is invaluable, many students also ultimately attend college with the hope of finding a career and securing a job — a pressure that disproportionately weighs on low-income students. By letting students wander in their academic pursuits, Brown also takes on the responsibility to have a robust career services program that proactively helps students figure out how to leverage their liberal arts degrees in today’s workforce. If this were done correct-

ly, Brown could both engage its students in the intellectual freedom of the liberal arts and prepare them to enter the job market — these are not mutually exclusive goals.

Brown’s CareerLAB does much of this already for students — and it does plenty to try and get students through the door — but students bear the responsibility of scheduling appointments with a career counselor or going to

paired with a career advisor right as they enter the University, just as they are with an academic advisor. In a similar structure to Brown’s current system of advising groups, students could participate in monthly workshops and receive targeted guidance with a built-in cohort of students who share similar pre-professional goals. This would also mean that they could go through the job application process

on U.S. workers, 72% of Gen Z workers expressed plans to change their careers within the next 12 months. Young professionals are eager to establish careers that align with their values and are not afraid to switch jobs to achieve this. Our values are often what guide us to our concentrations in the first place, so making sure that Brown graduates are confident networking, interviewing, developing a LinkedIn presence, building a resume, and writing cover letters — among other skills — is essential for a generation that is so likely to move between jobs. Beyond helping students secure employment immediately after graduation, a more integrated career services presence could also give Brown students the skills to depart unsatisfactory jobs later in their careers.

a variety of events and workshops. Brown’s career services may offer a lot, but to actually be effective, they have to do more than just exist passively in a Today@Brown announcement or as a handful of pages on the school’s website. Brown’s empowering and uniquely hands-off academic design demands a more proactive role from CareerLAB.

While CareerLAB reaches out broadly to first-years, imagine a career advising system that has a real person directly contact students as early as freshman year. Students could get

with their peers. Having a community during the conventionally isolated career search experience could make it less cutthroat and more collaborative.

Ultimately, rather than relying on students to seek out career programming for themselves, this support should be integrated into the Brown student identity and experience. This preparation is nothing short of a necessity, especially in the context of our generation.

Generation Z is leading a new wave of job-hopping: According to a LinkedIn survey

The academic freedom Brown affords its students is a great privilege, but it only leads to professional success if the school is also willing to complement it with a more robust and structured career program than the one it currently offers. It behooves Brown to make these changes as they will lead to more successful alumni and reassure prospective students of their return on investment. In the face of an uncertain economic outlook and three years that have upended conventional wisdom about corporate America — from the tech industry to in-person work — now is the time for Brown to strengthen its career infrastructure and build a more professionally savvy student body.

Yael Wellisch ’26 can be reached at yael_ wellisch@brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and other op-eds to opinions@ browndailyherald.com.

Two years ago, my long-lasting depression culminated in a psychotic depressive episode, leaving me with no choice but to fully commit to getting better. I began taking mood stabilizers and started seeing a therapist regularly, despite finding the ordeal exhausting. Today, I feel more stable than I have ever felt before.

But the substantial improvement in my mental health came with a peculiar side effect — a severe identity crisis. Upon getting better, I quickly found out that I had built so much of my life on the assumption that I would always be unhappy. And when happiness became something attainable, much of this identity that I had developed lost meaning. I was forced to contend with my illness identity.

People develop an illness identity when they adopt “roles and attitudes” based on their mental illness diagnoses — embracing the idea that they are a patient synonymous with their symptoms. Negative illness identity can drive harmful coping mechanisms, lower self-esteem and may even worsen psychotic symptoms by creating additional stress. Persistent mental illness can also make it difficult to remember who you are without your symptoms. As a result, recovering from depression entails encountering unfamiliar emotions. Learning how to operate within a new worldview can be terrifying, making the strenuous process of getting better even more challenging.

But confronting and resolving self-defeat-

ing beliefs is an essential step to recovering from mental illness. And as painful as the resulting identity crisis may be, it’s a valuable and ultimately freeing experience.

As much as I hate to admit it, my mental illness became something I could exploit. By spinning my symptoms into quirks, I managed

false this perception truly was: Unhappiness is not a unique quirk, and it’s certainly not sustainable. Figuring out who I want to be and how I want to live the rest of my life is a worthy obstacle I need to traverse in order to heal.

I perceive my ongoing identity crisis as a good sign. The fact that I need to reevaluate

ative writing in the first place was as a means of emotional catharsis. But my former writing was driven by rumination and anger. Now that my mental energy isn’t monopolized by struggling with mental illness, I’ve been able to engage with creative writing in a healthier manner. Contrary to the image of the tortured artist, my writing has actually become better as a result.

In some cases, the consequences of mental illness will never fully go away — symptoms can flare up and the memories of the dark periods of your life will remain. Actively addressing your mental health doesn’t mean that your experiences with mental illnesses are no longer part of who you are. What’s crucial is that mental illness no longer dictates your life and perception of self.

to suppress the intensity of my mental illness for far longer than I should have. There’s comfort in identifying with the archetype of the tortured academic or artist. When you internalize the harmful attitudes arising from severe mental illness, it can make you feel unique, and feeling unique is almost as nice as being happy.

It was only once I received proper treatment for my mental illness that I realized how

myself indicates that I have changed my relationship with depression and grown as a person. As scary as rediscovering an identity is, the process can be liberating, allowing you to find a purpose and discover your potential. It’s an opportunity to consider your own desires and passions for what they are, instead of using them to cope with untreated mental illness.

For example, the reason I got into cre-

If you find yourself in the midst of an identity crisis during the recovery process, embrace it. The path could be a treacherous one, but it is not a challenge that you have to face alone. Speak to a therapist. Lean on your friends and family. Reshaping your identity around your passions rather than your “quirks” is worth the work.

Megan Slusarewicz ’23 can be reached at megan_slusarewicz@brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@ browndailyherald.com and other op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com.

“The academic freedom Brown affords its students is a great privilege, but it only leads to professional success if the school is also willing to complement it with a more robust and structured career program than the one it currently offers.”

Slusarewicz ’23: Embracing an identity crisis during my recovery from mental illness

“The fact that I need to reevaluate myself indicates that I have changed my relationship with depression and grown as a person.”

“Since we know that the most ancient way Black folks and really every culture in the world teaches and learns is through storytelling, it just seemed to make sense to call it Funda.”

RIBS was initially founded for the purpose of hosting Funda Fest, but has since expanded to organizing other events, allowing over 120,000 people to engage with the group over the years, Tutson said.

For this year’s Funda Fest, RIBS worked with 10 groups, most of which were Black organizations, dedicated to sharing the stories and culture of Black people.

For April Brown, co-director of the Langston Hughes Community Poetry Reading, one of RIBS’ community partners, this collaboration is necessary for the “longevity” of any arts organization.

Collaborating also lets audiences “see the expansiveness of Black art in Rhode Island,” she said.

The two organizations hosted a joint event for the Poetry Reading’s 25th anniversary. Performers who were not selected to recite a poem for the event were invited to do so at Funda Fest.

According to Brown, the work of George Houston Bass — founder of Rites and Reasons Theatre and Langston Hughes’ former personal secretary — has brought many Rhode Island storytellers and artists, particularly those that are Brown alumni, together. “It’s through George that we get to investigate the Black folklore … (and) have deep conversations about” Black storytellers, she said.

group’s Funda Fest has been virtual and incorporates pre-taped performances and live performances.

‘Natural and organic’: Community partnerships

April Brown also discussed the larger dynamic across Black arts organizations in Rhode Island. Each organization has a unique body of work that they “work really hard to create,” alongside amplifying the work of others, she said.

Partnerships between organiza -

tions are typically “natural and organic,” Tutson said. “We really want it to be about relationships and not about checking a box.”

Johnette Rodriguez, who was previously a member of the worship committee at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of South Kingstown — a partner organization of RIBS — has known Tutson since

the ’90s. Their collaboration began when Rodriguez looked at the people coming in to give lay-led services and realized “they were almost all white male people. … So I said, ‘let’s try to change that.’”

The performances RIBS has done at the congregation have been “theatrical,” “educational” and “transforming,” she added.

James Sloane, technical director at RIBS, also emphasized the organization’s transformational work. RIBS talks “about a lot of powerful, serious topics … (and) the way they do it is so amazing because at no point do they make people feel like victims,” he said. “It actually makes people feel empowered.”

According to Andrea Summers ’05, middle school principal at the Paul Cuffee School, RIBS performed at a school event free of charge through a grant. “Our students loved it so much,” she said.

Another RIBS performance took place at the Providence Performing Arts Center for a crowd of at least 2,000 students. “You have all these kids that usually can’t pay attention … and they’re all there in the moment,” Sloane said.

While community work is a valuable part of RIBS’ work and mission, “people don’t always understand the value of” such collaborations, Brown said. “But the audience does.”

Expanding from the pandemic, future goals

Since the beginning of the pandemic, RIBS’ Funda Fest has been virtual and incorporated pre-taped

broadcast performances with live Zoom performances.

“COVID gave us an opportunity. … We were able to expand all over the world in bigger ways for less money,” Tutson said, adding that RIBS is working toward providing “really good” experiences in the future, both in-person and virtually.

In its future endeavors, RIBS is also working to create a culturally-based storytelling training program with $50,000 in funding from the Nonprofit Innovation Lab, Tutson said. Intentionally choosing storytellers is an important part of building this program, she added.

Through this program, Tutson hopes to work with a wide variety of artists, including those who may not consider themselves storytellers. Poetry, hip-hop and rap, personal and historical stories, song and more are all part of cultural traditions, she said.

“We’re excited about the idea of having people come in with whatever their interest is … and working with them to develop programs that they could sell, (and) that we can put on stage and include in our programming,” she added.

Sloane also hopes to expand the RIBS’ online presence by creating a streaming platform for the organization.

“It’s important that these tales are being captured and recorded in high quality, very theatrically, with costumes and lighting and amazing sounds,” he said. “I would like to make sure that the tellers … have an opportunity to have their version of these tales immortalized.”

Offshore wind project prompts concerns for commercial fishers

Meanwhile, Revolution Wind entered its fourth stay agreement with the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council on Tuesday to extend the project’s review timeline.

BY ABIGAIL DONOVAN STAFF WRITER

By all indications, offshore wind will power the Ocean State’s energy transition.

Rhode Island is home to the Block Island Wind Farm, the United States’s first offshore wind farm. Last fall, Gov. Dan McKee announced a request for proposal for 600 to 1,000 megawatts of offshore wind — enough to meet “at least 30 percent of Rhode Island’s estimated 2030 electricity demand.”

Combined with a third project expected to be operational by 2025, the Revolution Wind project, Rhode Island is on pace to power half of the state’s energy needs with offshore wind — helping the state limit emissions, according to a press release from McKee’s office.

But despite its emission-reducing impacts, the project could come at the cost of the safety of fishing vessels, said Fred Mattera, executive director of the Commercial Fisheries Center of Rhode Island.

Rhode Island fishers like Mattera are concerned about the impact of Revolution Wind, set to be located 15 miles south of the Rhode Island coast, and other offshore wind projects on their ability to navigate and continue fishing in their usual waters. The Herald spoke with stakeholders to understand the relationship between offshore wind and the fishing industry.

The extension serves in part to allow further consider of a draft environmental impact statement, Laura Dwyer, a public educator and information coordinator for the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council, told EcoRI News.

Dwyer wrote in an email to The Herald that the CRMC also entered the new stay agreement to have more time to review all facets of Revolution Wind’s application and for negotiations to continue between Orsted, one of the farm’s operators, and the Fishermen’s Advisory Board, a group of fishers advising the state on coastal development created under the Ocean Special Area Management Plan.

Currently, the CRMC is set to review the project during an April 11 meeting, with the review timeline set to conclude April 28.

Navigation and safety

Mattera emphasized that the project’s proposed one nautical mile-by-one nautical mile transit lanes are insufficient for larger commercial vessels. “That may seem like a big distance, but when you put several boats together, trust me, it’s not a lot,” he said. According to Mattera, fishermen have requested transit lanes of four nautical miles, but aside from their inclusion as a potential alternative in the environmental impact statement, no progress has occurred on this request.

Mattera, who operates a trawler built to drag nets along the seafloor to snare fish, described the following scenario: rain, high-speed winds, tall waves, limited visibility — and the looming presence of wind turbines several hundred feet tall that require navigating past in order to return to shore.

Safety is a key concern for fishers regarding offshore wind projects, Mattera said. Boulders unearthed by the construction process could snag nets or other equipment, and weather conditions could pose real risks to fishermen in the presence of wind farms, which could prevent safe navigation to shore, he said. Mattera also added that an increasing number of wind turbines can hinder the efficacy of radar technology.

According to a representative from Revolution Wind, the one nautical mile-by-one nautical mile spacing is the widest among any existing offshore wind farms, and the federal lease area in which the project will reside minimizes impact to both the habitat and fishers.

The representative added that Revolution Wind will fund a “Navigational Safety Fund that will help commercial and charter fishing vessels upgrade radar and safety equipment.” The equipment and training will be supplied by local companies.

Mixed opinions on wind farm impacts

Talya ten Brink, a research associate for the University of Rhode Island’s Department of Marine Affairs, said that the reported impact of wind farms on fishers is mixed.

Ten Brink conducted a study published in 2018 that investigated both

commercial and recreational fishers’ perceptions of the impacts of R.I.’s Block Island Wind Farm.

The conclusions of the study noted that fishers expressed various concerns, including navigational hazards, losing access to the area during construction and losing both fishing ground and gear. But the study also found different opinions between commercial and recreational fishermen.

Several fishers, particularly recreational, felt that the turbines attracted fish. “They felt that the wind farm functioned as a destination or target and served as an artificial reef, especially for spearfishing,” ten Brink said. Commercial fishermen shared that they thought the increase in recreational fishing “crowded (them) out,” she added.

Small recreational boats “can maneuver and get around (the turbines), and they don’t have to go and make a big living at it like the rest of us,” Mattera said.

According to ten Brink, many factors can impact fishers’ experience with wind farms. “Every situation is different,” she said.

Environmental impacts

Revolution Wind promises 704 megawatts of power, 400 of which will go to Rhode Island’s grid. The farm will be co-operated by New England energy company Eversource and Orsted, based out of Denmark.

That power could help Rhode Island meet its emission reduction targets of 35% by 2030 and 80% by 2040, as spelled out in the 2021 Act on Climate.

“Climate change is an existential threat to the biodiversity of the natural world, and one of the best ways to protect that biodiversity is the development of clean energy,” wrote Revolution Wind’s representative.

“I understand green energy. I have children and grandkids, and I certainly want to reduce the carbon footprint,” Mattera said. But he added that he also is concerned about the fragility of ocean ecosystems.

“My concern is that we don’t know enough about the ocean,” he said. “If you want to do these things, put them on land.”

Dwyer did not respond to specific claims about the effect of the project on marine ecosystems.

A 2014 study in Environmental Research Letters on the general impacts of offshore wind on marine habitats showed a consistent negative impact during the construction phase, but mixed impacts during the “operational phase” that depend on “local environmental conditions.” Another study in Nature showed that “offshore wind farm developments can have a substantial impact on the structuring of coastal marine ecosystems.”

In an email to The Herald, Dwyer emphasized the importance of reaching a compromise between developers and commercial fishermen — part of the rationale behind the extension.

“This is the venue through which the fishing community can discuss its concerns with projects and everything associated with them, and the CRMC considers those concerns when reviewing wind projects,” she wrote.

COURTESY OF THOMAS WALSH

Since the pandemic, the

METRO

Concerns include safety hazards, navigation, potential harm to marine ecosystems