SINCE 1891
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2022
VOLUME CLVII, ISSUE 14
BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM
SPORTS
METRO
Club sports discuss informal recruiting Neo-Nazis disrupt book Some club sport coaches describe relationship with admissions office BY MIZUKI KAI & EMMA MADGIC SENIOR STAFF WRITERS After volunteering with the team since 1997, David Laflamme became the Uni-
versity’s first paid, full-time men’s rugby coach in 2015. When he started full-time coaching and began contemplating ways to grow the program, Laflamme said he knew that “the biggest thing” he had to do “was get rugby players to Brown,” so he began a global recruitment push. Club sports at Brown are divided into three main tiers “based on level of competition and aspiration,” according to Jake Silverman, deputy athletics director for administration. Tier C teams are an “extension of fitness” for
reading at local library
recreational purposes, Silverman said. Tier B teams are more competitive and travel to play against other colleges. Tier A teams, like men’s rugby, are nationally competitive programs with full-time coaches such as Laflamme, according to Silverman. Unlike varsity athletics, club sports do not receive formal recruiting slots or funding from the University. But
Community rallies to support Red Ink Community Library in aftermath BY BRENDAN GARDNER METRO EDITOR
SEE RECRUITMENT PAGE 7 Members of the neo-Nazi group NSC-131 disrupted a reading of “The Communist Manifesto” at the Red Ink Community Library in the Mount Hope neighborhood of Providence Feb. 21, banging on windows and screaming at attendees inside the building. In videos posted to social media, the neo-Nazis can be seen carrying a swastika flag and wearing masks with skull and black sun insignia, which the Southern Poverty Law Center identifies as symbols used by fascist groups. The library-goers had gathered to hear and discuss selections from “The Communist Manifesto” by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels for Red Books Day, held annually on the anniversary
of the pamphlet’s publication in 1848. The Red Ink Community Library functions as a reading room, lending library and organizing space that was “always intended to be a joyous celebration of socialist values, of community building, education, knowledge and respect,” according to the library’s director David Raileanu. After an initial library member stepped out to confront them and realized the disparity in numbers between the neo-Nazis and people inside the building, the library-goers decided to stay inside for safety. “It was a shouting match at that point until police showed up” 10 or 15 minutes later, he said. Police who responded to the incident identified 15 to 20 members of the neo-Nazi group, WPRI reported. Raileanu said that the police were called by neighborhood residents. Those in the library had refrained from calling out of concern that introducing the police to a situation where “we did not immediately rec-
SEE LIBRARY PAGE 2
JACK WALKER / HERALD | DATA FROM MEN’S RUGBY COACH DAVID LAFLAMME | CREATED WITH DATAWRAPPER
UNIVERSITY NEWS
UCS, UFB, CCB leadership form Student Government Association SGA plans to standardize elections timeline, student gov’t Code of Conduct BY KATHY WANG SENIOR STAFF WRITER Leadership of the Undergraduate Council of Students, the Undergraduate Finance Board and the Class Coordinating Board formed the Student Government Association, a group meant to foster better communication between the dif-
ferent branches of student government, at the end of last semester, following the advice of their advisor Joie Steele, director of student activities. The leadership council includes current UCS President Summer Dai ’22 , UCS Vice President Sam Caplan ’22, UFB Chair Akilesh Raman ’22, UFB Vice Chair Mukul Khanna ’23 — a photographer for The Herald — and CCB senior co-presidents Bree Zhang ’22 and Mel Cui ’22. According to Cui, SGA seeks to standardize the elections process for all three branches. Going forward, the three groups will have the same
elections timeline, code, penalties and handbook. SGA will also standardize student government’s Code of Conduct and the impeachment and removal processes, she said. SGA has already finished drafting the new elections timeline and submitted it to Steele for review, Cui said. “Our main goal is to lower the barriers of entry for student government elections. That includes changing … the number of signatures required for a petition (and) shortening the overall period of time that it would require a
SEE SGA PAGE 7
JACK WALKER / HERALD
CCB senior co-president Mel Cui ’22 said that SGA is also “an avenue for us to work on events or policies as an entire student government.”
UNIVERSITY NEWS
Black Star Journal gala celebrates publication’s launch Event features reflections, performances by Journal members BY NEIL MEHTA SENIOR STAFF WRITER The Black Star Journal hosted a gala in the Hazeltine Commons Sunday af-
U. News Russia expert Fiona Hill discusses Ukraine, new book at Watson Institute Page 2
ternoon to celebrate the launch of its inaugural issue last Friday. The event featured reflections from the journal’s editors-in-chief, Amiri Nash ’24 and Keiley Thompson ’24, followed by performances of select works from the journal’s first issue. The Black Star Journal is the first Black student newspaper on campus, according to Nash. The publication’s creation was announced Nov. 10, The Herald previously reported.
Arts & Culture John Mulaney hosts SNL for the fifth time, balancing humor, emotion Page 3
The event began with remarks from Nash, who called on the gala audience to “enjoy learning about our history, beauty, triumph, pain and joy through the power of words, art and visuals.” Gala attendees watched Black Star Journal Columnist Caziah Mayers ’24 perform “Eyes Wide Shut,” a reflection on the coexistence of Black generational trauma and joy. “For my piece, I wanted to talk about
Sports Men’s basketball defeats Columbia 81-74 on senior night Page 5
how the past follows us into the future … knowing that generational trauma must imply generational joy,” Mayers said. “If our ancestors can pass their pain to us and our bodies, then we must have their … positive experiences (and) their traditions.” Following Mayers, Nicholas Amuh ’24 delivered a reading of “Black Visuality in the Arts: Agency in the Unseen,” an article he wrote for the inaugural issue. Amuh’s work reflected on “Defying
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the Shadow,” an art exhibition at the RISD Museum that explores “the notions of how we perceive Blackness and Black bodies,” Amuh said. The focus of his piece was “Untitled,” a photograph by artist Roy DeCarava included in the RISD exhibition. Amuh explained that while “everything that’s being said and portrayed in this journal is so important and so
SEE BSJ PAGE 3
DESIGNED BY LENA HE ’24 DESIGN EDITOR
ANNA RYU ’25 DESIGN EDITOR
ANGELA BAEK ’24 DESIGNER
MADDY CHERR DESIGNER
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2022
UNIVERSITY NEWS
Fiona Hill discusses Ukraine, new book in Watson Institute event Russia will aim for quick war in Ukraine, national security expert predicts BY CHARLIE CLYNES SENIOR STAFF WRITER Fiona Hill, a Russia expert and former National Security Council official, spoke at the Watson Institute Friday about her recent book and the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine. The book, “There is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the Twenty-First Century,” details her childhood experiences with poverty and the parallels between her time in the United States, Russia and England. The event was hosted by Mark Blyth, professor of international economics at the Watson Institute, and it concluded with a Q&A session with Hill. Hill grew up in Bishop Auckland, a small town in northeastern England that suffered from high unemployment and poverty rates throughout much of the 20th century. She recalled her father, a coal miner, advising that she leave the area in search of better prospects elsewhere. “If you get qualifications, you go off to university, you get a degree … you’re going to have to go somewhere for opportunity and to find a job,” he told her. The title of her book comes from his words to her as a child: “There is nothing for you here, pet.” As a student at University of St. Andrews in Scotland, Hill studied abroad in the Soviet Union before receiving a scholarship to Harvard in 1989, where
she received her masters and PhD. She described seeing familiar patterns of deindustrialization across the globe. Upon arriving in Soviet Russia, Hill noticed that the USSR was “just like the northeast of England, but on a massive scale.” Even as a student, before she launched her career in the United States — which has included work for the Kennedy School, the National Intelligence Council and the Brookings Institution — Hill noticed the effects of industrial decline in neighborhoods around Boston. “All I do is step outside of Harvard Yard to places like Somerville and Medford … and deindustrialization is taking place here as well,” she said. “I start to go out to what used to be the American industrial heartland, and by the time I’m starting to go there in the 1990s and into the 2000s, what has been the American heartland becomes the American Rust Belt.” Hill linked many of these patterns of decline to some of the biggest political changes in recent years, including Brexit and the election of Donald Trump, noting how the “groundswell of grievance” from deindustrialized areas played a pivotal role. “In the case of the United States — it’s not (Vladimir) Putin who elects Trump in 2016, despite the interference. It’s about 70,000 American voters, in three counties, in three of the most deindustrialized states in the United States.” Her book, Hill said, centers around the effects of these grievances on fostering populism and political changes in the U.K., U.S. and Russia, as well as her own firsthand experiences with the economic decline that generates
COURTESY OF THE WATSON INSTITUTE
Hill’s father, a coal miner, encouraged her to pursue higher education in search of better prospects. The title of Hill’s book comes from her father’s words to her as a child: “There is nothing for you here, pet.” those grievances. Hill rose to prominence for her testimony in the November 2019 impeachment of Trump surrounding his interactions with Ukraine. While the event at Brown the University was primarily centered around the book itself, Hill also spent significant time discussing the crisis in Ukraine. “Vladimir Putin is basically pummeling Ukraine into submission,” Hill said. “There’s nothing right about this.” But Hill noted that Russia’s decision to invade could create new complications, such as a change in Putin’s perceived legitimacy in Russia. “It’s important for (Putin) to be able to show … that he is extremely popular,” said Hill. Having revitalized the Russian economy while expanding
the military industrial complex, Putin has seen largely favorable approval ratings over the past decade, though the invasion of Ukraine could jeopardize the popularity from which Putin derives much of his legitimacy, Hill said. “Western politicians would crawl across broken glass to get (Putin’s) ratings,” Blyth said. According to Hill, Ukraine and Russia also have shared cultural and political links throughout history. “You have 3 million Ukrainian citizens working in Russia, and you have lots of people in Russia who have relatives in Ukraine,” she said. “It’s not just the contract soldiers who are going to come home in body bags. It’s ‘what about your granny in Dnipro?’” Because of the close ties between
LIBRARY FROM PAGE 1 ognize any lethal threat of violence” would be a misstep. The Providence Police Department did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication. Raileanu emphasized that the library felt emboldened by community support following the event. After “a lot of fear and anxiety” initially, he said that “we have found a lot of comfort and resolve in the support we’ve received from the community.” “People have stopped by to say hello, people have reached out on social media, by phone, by email and a lot of people have said how much they appreciate our presence in the community and how committed they are to making sure that we are able to continue meeting and reading and studying … and that they will not allow anything like this to ever happen again,” he said. “Whether (the NSC-131 members) intended to or not, they have, fortunately for us, raised the profile of the ability of our organization and our library to share (our) message,” he added. Community support was especially visible in a Feb. 23 rally against the neo-Nazis across the street from the library, which was attended by Gov. Dan McKee and activist leaders, according to reporting from WPRI. NSC-131 took credit for the attack in posts on Gab and Telegram, a Herald review of both sites found. The two platforms are favored by far-right extremists for their relative lack of con-
COURTESY OF RED INK COMMUNITY LIBRARY
To celebrate the anniversary of the publication of “The Communist Manifesto,” the Red Ink Community Library held readings of portions of the pamphlet. tent moderation. NSC stands for Nationalist Social Club, and 131 is alphanumeric code for Anti-Communist Action, according to the Anti-Defamation League, a nonprofit organization which focuses on combatting antisemitism. Peggy Shukur, deputy regional director of ADL’s New England branch, wrote in an email to The Herald that the group’s events have gradually become larger and more frequent. “Their demonstrations are … now every other week rather than every month,” she wrote. Shukur also noted that the group’s demonstrations now consist of “20 to 25 (members) per event,” while
previously the group could only muster six or seven members for a demonstration. Regarding the group’s tactics, Shukur wrote that “they are deliberate in targeting public events in a particular way, often through a march to the demonstration site in particular uniforms. They try to project a particular aesthetic.” Shukur wrote that in addition to targeting radical bookstores, the group has focused recently on opposing anti-racist and queer events and organizations. In January, NSC-131 held demonstrations outside a Boston hospital working to improve racial equity in healthcare
and a Portsmouth, N.H. drag show. Harrison Tuttle, executive director of Black Lives Matter Rhode Island Political Action Committee, said that his initial reaction to the news was “disbelief that we would have neo-Nazis so openly in Rhode Island.” Tuttle attributed the group’s increasing boldness to growing far-right sentiment across the country, as well as elected officials who have received the support of far-right groups, such as former President Donald Trump. “I really do believe that America is coming to a boiling point that could no doubt be attributed to Donald Trump,” he said. “Although these elected officials are
the two countries, Hill predicted that Putin will try to assume control of Ukraine as quickly as possible to avoid domestic pushback and disruption: “This is his version of blitzkrieg.” Yet despite the crucial role that approval ratings play — and their potential fragility — Hill said she thinks any internal pressure Putin faces will be insufficient without international efforts, especially since his “ratings went through the roof” after the annexation of Crimea in 2014. “Putin’s gotten rid of most of the opposition — either they’re sitting in jail like Navalny or they’ve been rolled up and exiled,” she said. “I think, really, it’s going to have to come from external pressure and pushback.”
not directly connected to these far-right groups, their impact on the conversation and the rise of fascism is extremely concerning,” he said. “There is no greater threat to Americans than white supremacist groups,” he added. “If we cannot … come out and treat Nazism as the threat that it is, then what are we going to respond with? Nazis are a direct threat to not only our democracy but also the lives of people, as evidenced outside of Red Ink Library.” In a virtual community safety forum held Feb. 26 and attended by The Herald, library members and Mount Hope residents discussed possible improvements to discourage and respond to potential future attacks. Suggested solutions included a mandatory minimum attendance number for events to avoid being outnumbered, strengthening the library’s glass door, having designated security at events and building ties with other local organizations. Congressman David Cicilline ’83, a democrat in Rhode Island’s first congressional district, wrote in a Feb. 22 press release that he was “absolutely sickened by the image of a swastika waving in the streets of Providence.” “Hate groups like neo-Nazis and white supremacists have no place in our city,” Cicilline wrote. “The rise of neo-Nazis, white supremacy and antisemitism in our country is not something we can afford to ignore. This hatred and last night’s attack are a scourge on our community, and we must all condemn it in the strongest terms.”
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2022
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS
3
ARTS & CULTURE
John Mulaney triumphantly returns to Saturday Night Live Mulaney’s fifth time hosting features sequels to previous popular sketches BY REBECCA CARCIERI ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR Comedian John Mulaney hosted “Saturday Night Live” for the fifth time in an especially funny episode Feb. 26. After hosting in April 2018, March 2019, February 2020 and October 2020, he is one of three hosts in Saturday Night Live history to achieve this honor in less than four years. To make matters even more unique, he is also only the fourth SNL writer — and not a cast member — to host the show, joining the ranks of comedians such as Conan O’Brien and Larry David. The show commenced in an incredibly moving fashion. Instead of a typical comedic cold open, the cameras revealed members of the Ukrainian Chorus Dumka of New York, which sang the emotional hymn “Prayer for Ukraine.” At the end of the song, it was revealed that the candles placed in front of the chorus spelled out “Kyiv” in honor of the victims of recent Russian attacks against Ukraine. It is rare that such a sentimental approach is taken during an SNL cold open, barring notable exceptions such as the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the Sandy Hook school shooting. Following the emotional opening, Mulaney made his appearance in his typical full-piece suit and handheld microphone. His monologue featured stand-up comedy bits from his current comedic tour “John Mulaney: From Scratch.” Mulaney made allusions to his highly publicized and complicated year, including his experiences going through a drug intervention, breaking up with his dealer and parenting his 12-week-old son. As always, Mulaney
COURTESY OF NBC UNIVERSAL MEDIA (WILL HEATH PHOTOGRAPHER)
In his opening monologue, John Mulaney alluded to the struggles he faced in the past year, including a drug intervention and parenting a newborn son. brought an element of humor to otherwise serious experiences. Mulaney’s stand-out moments of the night were the sequels to sketches from previous hosting gigs. His past four times hosting, Mulaney’s episodes have featured a musical rendition of popular broadway songs in silly scenarios where someone makes a frowned-upon choice, such as a man ordering lobster from a run-down diner and causing the cast to erupt into the soundtrack of Les Miserable in the 2018 sketch “Lobster Diner.” In the latest addition, “Subway Churro,” a man surprises everyone by buying a churro in a subway station. Immediately, singing cast members come out as assorted characters that one might see in a subway station — such as a man masturbating and a personified mysterious liquid. Tunes from “South Pacific” and “Fiddler on the Roof” are among the songs spoofed in the sketch. Mulaney and the cast members gave a
fantastic musical performance. Another highlight of the night, “Cupid Shuffle,” was a follow up to the 2019 “Cha Cha Slide” sketch. In the previous skit, Mulaney joined Ego Nwodim at her cousin’s wedding. This time, he joined her for her family reunion. In both sketches, Mulaney feared that he would be uncomfortable and feel out of place, but ultimately the audience discovered that he coincidentally knew more people than his partner and blended right in — especially on the dance floor. In Saturday’s sketch, Mulaney even was wearing a “Robinson Family Reunion” t-shirt, something that not even his partner was gifted. In a star-studded moment, Mulaney was introduced to an exclusive SNL honor in the sketch “Five-Timers Club.” In a format reserved for five-timers, Mulaney is brought into a fancy room and given a special five-timers jacket. In this sketch, however, Mulaney is met
COURTESY OF AMIRI NASH
The Black Star Journal’s first publication released Feb. 25 was 20 pages and included writing and artwork from Black creatives across campus.
BSJ FROM PAGE 1 prominent … not everyone has access to (BSJ) for various reasons.” His article emphasized both visibility and invisibility to honor the “Black life that will not be relegated to this newspaper.” The 20-page publication, distributed at the gala, includes works by Black writers and creatives including Mayers and Amuh. The full publication was distributed in print at locations
throughout campus. The Black Star Journal was founded in order to document everyday Black life on campus while platforming Black student creators, according to Nash and Thompson. “I was thinking about history, archives and being able to access the dayto-day presence that Black students (at Brown) live,” Nash said. “I didn’t see that happening around me … and I thought the perfect way to (do it) was to
document stories and preserve history while giving Black students on campus a chance to see themselves reflected in the media.” There aren’t resources “that detail what it’s like to be Black at Brown,” Thompson added. “Blackness has a very expansive definition … and we’re hoping to add to that definition by releasing this paper and giving people a place to feel seen and heard.”
with other impressive five-timers Steve Martin, Candice Bergen, Paul Rudd, Elliot Gould, Tina Fey and Conan O’Brien. The combination of these comedic legends gave a performance that shined through. The skit consists of all of them talking about the club, and how it feels less special with so many people being initiated, before they all agree that it is a special honor. The simple dialogue between the stars brought some of the greatest laughs of the night, especially with Conan O’Brien saying, “Live from New York: It’s Saturday Night,” a phrase always said in the beginning of the show, not so close to the end. The acting talents of Mulaney and cast member Cecily Strong were evident in the sketch “Blue River,” where they portrayed an over-zealous couple trying to convince their friend to switch to a different brand of dog food. While this might not sound funny initially, the absurd nature of Strong and Mulaney
and their passion for dog food made it hard to not laugh out loud. There were some second-tier sketches in the show. “Monkey Trial,” a sketch where Mulaney is a monkey who is also a judge, was very simple. The sketch consisted of a trial between a woman and another monkey. While the concept might seem pretty strange, the highlight was Mulaney’s complete commitment to the part, which few others could successfully pull off. “Nickelodeon Show” takes a look back at old episodes of “You Can’t Do That on Television” with a focus on the outdated nature of the conversations, such as suggesting that the reason why someone doesn’t have a boyfriend is because their parents are divorced and they are color blind, as well as the inconsistencies with the nature of Nickelodeon’s infamous slime. The cast did an incredibly effective job portraying kids from the 1980s in their demeanor and reaction to the slime. The sketch “COVID Dinner Discussion” portrayed an over-exaggerated conversation some might have with their friends about COVID. Friends with varying points of view share their perspective on the pandemic, ranging from mask mandates to vaccines with elaborate reactions from the others, such as Mulaney pulling out a tooth. While it was realistic and current, it fell flat unlike the aforementioned sketches. Although this episode was a highlight of Saturday Night Live’s 47th season, there were some sketches that weren’t as powerful as others. Other aspects of the night, such as “Weekend Update” and independent comedy group Please Don’t Destroy’s “Good Variation,” while entertaining, could not compete with the other sketches of a truly exceptional show. The success of Saturday’s episode should remind everyone that even after Mulaney’s difficult year, he still is the man many love.
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | COMMENTARY
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2022
Bahl ’24: The drawbacks of our modern media habits On a trip home this weekend, I — for the first time in a long time — found myself sitting down to watch something on an actual television screen. I had never seriously considered buying a TV for college, but it was jarring to me how little I noticed the absence of one. I initially thought to attribute this to my busy university schedule or new hobbies, but I consume more media than ever. I may no longer rely on a classic television set, but the podcasts I listen to on the way to class, the Netflix original shows I watch on my phone during study breaks and the TikToks I scroll through before bed are ready substitutes. Cable TV and older forms of entertainment have quietly given way to streaming and social media. Although tech-fueled changes in our media consumption patterns may seem innocuous or even helpful, entertainment’s easy accessibility and greater integration into our lives saps the meaning it once had for us. Cable TV hasn’t become entirely passé as of yet, but it is safe to say that it is on the decline. With the explosion of broadband (meaning new compression techniques and an increase in available bandwidths) in the early 2000s, athome internet became relatively common. Video streaming became a viable service to sell to households. While criticisms about cable have always existed, there wasn’t always an alternative way to relay high-quality video at a reasonable speed before broadband. But today, broadband technology has more than taken off. When I think of media entertainment, what comes to mind are popular video sharing social media apps as well as on-demand streaming services that provide comparable content to cable. In fact, since 2015, the
percentage of Americans who use cable or satellite to watch TV has dropped 20 points, from 76% to 56%, a decrease which was especially pronounced among adults under 50. By contrast, streaming services saw a significant uptick during the same period, and social media applications seem to have emerged as a major entertainment medium for Gen Z.
tainment experience I once had. I’ve found that entertainment always being an arm’s length away makes it numbing. We end up taking it for granted. Sometimes, I find myself playing TV shows in the background while I do mundane tasks, just to fill the silence. I’ll watch every YouTube video some influencer has posted one day and not remember their name
“Engaging with media half-heartedly sentences us to unsatisfying and forgettable entertainment experiences.”
I grew up loyally following my favorite cable TV shows on a weekly basis for entertainment. Even so, the transition to spending hours on my Instagram “Explore” page, binging entire series on Disney+ and following my favorite YouTube creators has felt relatively seamless. After all, these options are easier and more flexible than older entertainment mediums, as you can stream your favorite content whenever and wherever you like. However, the more immersed I get into social media and streaming services, the more I feel like that overwhelming convenience takes something away from the enter-
the next. And who hasn’t spent hours on their “For You” page only to be unable to later recall a single TikTok they watched? These are signs of us unintentionally devaluing the media we consume. This hurts not only those who are creating it, but also ourselves — entertainment is supposed to make us happy, and if we inhibit our ability to appreciate it, we are missing out. As Malena Colon ’24 suggested in her Feb. 18 piece in post- Magazine, we once cherished our media more because we had the supposed inconvenience of having to anticipate each installment in a show.
CA L E N DA R
Streaming services seem to agree with this assessment, at least to some degree. After a rise in shows being consumed in full-season installments several years ago, many streaming platforms are reverting back to a weekly release schedule for some shows. And from Disney+’s “WandaVision” to Showtime’s “Yellowjackets” to HBOMax’s “Euphoria,” there’s no shortage of shows generating online buzz while they’re airing. In my personal experience, developing that ritual of dedicating a specific time and day to a particular show makes you even more attached to it. If streaming services can pick up on the increased engagement we have with media when we are intentional about it, it seems that we should be able to apply the same intentionality to the rest of the media we consume. Whether it’s a new TV show obsession or the cornucopia of content that is TikTok, this means being mindful about connecting with our chosen forms of entertainment – from selecting them to taking pleasure in them to even retaining ideas they left us with. Engaging with media half-heartedly only sentences us to unsatisfying and forgettable entertainment experiences. This behavior isn’t inherently wrong, but we shouldn’t prevent ourselves from getting as much joy out of entertainment as we can. At the end of the day, even if technology enables us to access media conveniently, it means nothing if we end up enjoying it less. Anika Bahl ’24 can be reached at anika_ bahl@brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald. com and other op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com.
COVID -19 AT BROWN FEB. 17 TO 23
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80* FEB. 10 TO 16 Confirmed Positives
236 Students in On-Campus, Designated Off-Campus Quarantine Housing
189* *APPROXIMATE
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2022
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS
5
SCIENCE & RESEARCH
Religious leaders, U. researchers study Alzheimer’s prevention Collaboration to include underrepresented communities in Alzheimer’s research BY JARED ZHANG SENIOR STAFF WRITER University researchers and local religious leaders are working together to study Alzheimer’s in an ongoing collaboration called U.S. POINTER. In an effort to build trust and increase participation among Black Americans, researchers and religious leaders have formed a partnership and are utilizing a faith engagement model. “If you want to make sustainable change, you must start at the center,” said Lamonte Williams, faith engagement director for U.S. POINTER and Pastor at Diggs Memorial United Holy Church in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. “The center for the African American community has long been the Black church.” Alzheimer’s research is not sufficiently inclusive of America’s diverse population, according to Williams. While African Americans are at the highest risk of Alzheimer’s and related dementias, they are underrepresented in the data. “Only 11% of the participants in the study are people of color,” Williams said. This number at the New England site is much lower than the 30% goal, he added.
“People don’t want to feel taken advantage of — they are nervous about what the data will be used for and how it will be interpreted,” said Katrina Byrd, infectious disease physician and U.S. POINTER community advocate. African Americans are two to three times more susceptible to Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias than white individuals, and Hispanics are 1.5 times more susceptible, Marcus Hill, U.S. POINTER Lead Recruitment Specialist, wrote in an email to The Herald. Our recruitment involved intentional diversification to “better represent our communities and … ensure that if the POINTER intervention is successful then (it will be) applicable across broad cultural differences for long-term implementation,” he added. The study focuses on lifestyle interventions to prevent Alzheimer’s, said Steven Salloway, professor of Neurology and Psychiatry and the site principal investigator for New England. “Forty percent of the risk for Alzheimer’s or dementia could be mediated by a healthier lifestyle … such as vigorous exercise, Mediterranean type diet, social stimulation, brain training and good heart health,” Salloway said. U.S. POINTER aims to see if these lifestyle modifications can enhance memory and prevent memory loss in these conditions, he added. The study is being conducted at five sites across the country — Chicagoland, Houston, New England, Western North
DANIELLE EMERSON / HERALD
Despite Black Americans being at the highest risk for Alzheimer’s, they compose a very small percentage of research participants in studies related to the condition. Carolina and Northern California, Williams said. Participants at each site volunteer to engage in the study, he added. “It’s important to recognize that faith-based leaders are trusted voices, especially when you’re trying to increase participation among people of color,” said Howard Jenkins, the POINTER Consultant for the faith-based community and President of the Rhode Island Minister Alliance. We need familiar community leaders that can build trust where historical-
ly there has been little, Jenkins said. “Faith leaders are the gatekeepers to the community,” he added. The faith engagement model has two goals in Rhode Island — to leverage the communities’ trusted voices to increase diversity and raise educational awareness, and positively impact those who are most affected by Alzheimer’s, according to Williams. The church is a unique place that is able to reach a broad audience with people from different cultures, ages
and socioeconomic status, Byrd said. A positive experience with the study has the potential to even reach outside the church community and increase participation from underrepresented populations in future clinical trials, she added. “This is a generational influence we are trying to make,” Jenkins said. This study can yield benefits that will positively impact generations that come after us, he added.
SPORTS
Men’s basketball defeats Columbia 81-74 on senior night Jaylan Gainey ’22 has career performance during last home game at Brown BY GABRIELLA SARTORI SENIOR STAFF WRITER The men’s basketball team (13-15, 5-8 Ivy League) defeated Columbia (4-21, 1-12) by a score of 81-74 on Saturday. Jaylan Gainey ’22 had a career-high 25 points, as well as 12 rebounds and a single-game program record of eight blocks. To complement Gainey, co-captain Tamenang Choh GS had 17 points, eight rebounds and seven assists. Kino Lilly Jr. ’25 had 13 points, and Dan Friday ’24 had 12 points. Perry Cowan ’23 chipped in nine points and five assists and saw more time on the court than in prior games with key players Kimo Ferrari ’24 and Paxson Wojcik ’23 sidelined due to injury. The Bears started off the night honoring their five seniors who started the game: Choh, Gainey, co-captain David Mitchell ’22, Noah Meren ’22 and Tyler Brown ’22. Choh had the longest career as a Bear out of the five, spending five years with the team and playing four seasons due to the pandemic cancellation of the 2020-21 season. Over his Brown career, he has etched his name in the program record books with 1,309 career points, making him the 12th all-time leading scorer after his senior night performance. “It didn’t really hit me yet, I’m just
COURTESY OF BROWN ATHLETICS
Co-captain Tamenang Choh GS had the longest career out of the five seniors, spending five years with the team and playing four seasons after the 2020-21 season was cancelled because of the pandemic.
trying to stay present,” Choh said. “It did kind of hit me a little bit when the family started getting introduced on the court (before the game) and walked out there to me; that hit me hard. It’s crazy — I came here at 18 years old and grew up with this program. I’m so happy I came here and became the person I am today.” The Bears and the Lions kept it
close all game, but the Bears posted a strong second half to secure the win. There were six lead changes in the game, all of which occurred in the first half. Brown had a four-point lead with 17 minutes remaining in the first period but was unable to hold onto it. Columbia jumped to a six-point lead with two and a half minutes left. Lilly Jr. hit back-to-back threes to close the
deficit, but the half ended at 39 apiece, despite Cowan sinking a full-court shot after the buzzer sounded. The Bears were never able to truly pull away from the Lions, but they built up their largest lead of the game — 10 points — at the 13:59 mark in the second half. Gainey was producing on both ends of the court to open the second period, scoring with a dunk just 23
seconds into the frame and blocking a shot on the defensive end during the next possession. From that point on, the Bears maintained the lead. After Bruno went up by 10 following another Lilly three, Columbia fought back to diminish the lead and tie the game at 56 with 10 minutes remaining in the half. Cowan hit a three coming out of a timeout on the next possession to push Brown back in front, a lead they held for the rest of the game. Lilly’s fourth three of the night put the Bears up 76-68 with 2:35 remaining, and the eight-point deficit was too much for Columbia to overcome. Brown sealed the victory with its final five points coming from the free-throw line, earning the seniors their last win in white jerseys on the Pizzitola Sports Center court. “I’m gonna miss this place a lot,” Gainey said. “It’s been a great four years that I have been here, and it is really starting to hit me.” Gainey’s eight blocks in the game put him at 61 total on the season, a new career high, and 123 in his career, bumping him up to third place all-time in the program record book. “I thought Jaylan was incredible offensively (and) defensively on the glass,” said Head Coach Mike Martin ’04. “We had some great individual performances, and these guys are not only great players, but great people ... Our program is in a much better place because of them being with us.” The Bears will play their final regular season game next Saturday, March 5 at 7 p.m. away against Yale.
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | COMMENTARY
6
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2022
Slusarewicz ’23: Spite is a great motivator, until it isn’t Editor’s note: Due to a printing error, the following column was not published in its entirety in the Feb. 25 print edition of The Herald. The Herald regrets the error. I started writing because there was a time in my life when it looked like I would never be able to communicate clearly. In my early years, my older sister was often the only one who could understand what I was saying, while others did not, despite how hard I tried to make them listen. Usually, I was least coherent when I most desperately wanted to express myself, so I would break down into tantrums instead. In kindergarten, my parents enrolled me in speech therapy, which helped but didn’t fix the problem. I was diagnosed with learning disabilities when I was a senior in high school, but my constant feelings of frustration and incompetence while growing up left their mark. Even now, I struggle in class to put my thoughts into words and often ramble far too long in a misguided attempt to compensate. Most debilitating is the constant haze of fear that no one understands what I am saying. Much of my current writing ability can be attributed to spite, and I’m grateful that anger helped me with my disability. However, over time I’ve come to realize that the goal behind my writing shifted from saying something meaningful to exposing what I perceived to be the willful misunderstanding of my meaning by those who claimed to listen. In other words, instead of providing an outlet for self-expression, writing morphed into yet another means of isolation — a tool for validating my world view warped by a lifetime of frustration. Spite has the power to combat adversity, but if misused,
it can also disintegrate a person physically and emotionally from the inside. Spite is an overwhelmingly popular motivator. Stamped on agendas, embroideries and llama magnets, “Motivated by Spite” is clearly a phrase inspiring enough to drive profits, owing to the pleasurable and productive catharsis of spite. In an evolutionary sense, spite is used
happens if you internalize the anger after you accomplish your goal? What happens when you don’t know anything besides proving others wrong? Finding intrinsic motivation can be difficult, especially when grappling with trauma. It’s easier to stick with what works. However, holding onto disproportionate anger is ultimately detrimental, regardless of
“Spite replaces the joy of achievement with righteous indignation and lasting anger redirected at a new goal or at yourself. Once spite stops being empowering, you must challenge your relationship with it.”
to punish selfish behavior for the sake of the group. Furthermore, both children and adults have been shown to sacrifice their personal interest in order to reduce the unfair advantage of others. In other words, people reject inequity out of spite, even if they have something to gain from it. These studies indicate that spite may play an important role in developing cooperative and competitive behavior. Personally, without spite, it’s likely my spirit would have broken before I’d even had the chance to write my experiences down. But what
how productive it feels. Short term, ruminating over grudges increases negative emotions and physiological stress responses, while reflecting on forgiveness reduces the physical stress symptoms and increases perceived control. Furthermore, if left unchecked, grudge-holding is associated with long-term symptoms such as heart disease, stomach ulcers, headaches and chronic pain. Chronic stress also compromises the immune system. On the other hand, letting go of anger, often through forgiveness, is a critical part of healing trauma and leading a fulfill-
ing life. I would consider myself an advocate for spite, but with limits. While invigorating, spite drains emotional resources. When accomplishment is solely a response to the low expectations of others, it can leave you questioning whether you actually care at all. Spite replaces the joy of achievement with righteous indignation and lasting anger redirected at a new goal or at yourself. Once spite stops being empowering, you must challenge your relationship with it. Although I haven’t completely worked through these problems, I have discovered a mindset that has helped. I began reflecting on how much of my passion is rooted in anger and figuring out the places where it’s not. I realized there were actually two reasons I started writing. The louder reason was the need to justify myself to people who wouldn’t take the time to understand me. However, beneath that, the steadier core of my motivation was that my sister listened, so I knew that being understood was possible. I write because I want to connect with people. Those two things may seem similar, but the difference is how I feel about them — the former is rooted in frustration, while the second is rooted in hope. My advice is that once spite loses its luster, find your hope, nurture it and try to let go.
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.
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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2022
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS
7
RECRUITMENT FROM PAGE 1 some Tier A club sports, including fencing, squash and rugby, have relationships with the Office of Admission that allow informal recruiting to take place, Silverman said. “There might be a squash player interested in applying to Brown but also interested in competing in squash,” Silverman said. “We would share that information for admissions to consider. It’s a little different than what a varsity program might experience.” Those relationships can lead to a higher rate of admission for some athletes that are not on varsity teams — even if the process isn’t as formal as the varsity process, according to Silverman, as well as club athletes and coaches who spoke with The Herald. The Herald reached out to coaches and players from every Tier A club team, some of which were demoted from varsity to club status in 2020 as part of the Excellence in Brown Athletics Initiative. The methods of recruiting varied significantly from team to team, ranging from letters of recommendation to the Office of Admission from coaches on behalf of prospective athletes to recruitment by current team members at the semesterly activities fair. Tier A club teams: Men’s rugby, men’s ultimate frisbee, men’s skiing Laflamme said that he completes a write-up for each prospective athlete he is interested in adding to the team. Admissions considers this write-up as one part of the holistic admissions process; there’s no “free pass” into the school, he added. “We see a strong benefit in providing that information to our admissions partners, but there’s not the same level of sophistication and organization” as in varsity recruitment, Silverman said. “We’re really just providing information, and hopefully it’s a benefit to Brown admissions in developing each class year that enters Brown.” In class of 2026 early decision admissions, 8 out of 17 rugby applicants were accepted, Laflamme said. This is a 47% acceptance rate, significantly higher than the overall class of 2026 early decision acceptance rate, which was 14.6%. Laflamme’s average acceptance rate between early and regular decision from year to year is around 23%, he said. But “it’s tough to predict because I don’t have recruitment slots,” Laflamme said. In class of 2025 early decision admissions, Laflamme said that 32% of the athletes he scouted were accepted.
SGA FROM PAGE 1 candidate to campaign,” Cui said. Raman said that SGA also hopes to increase the transparency of elections and make it “easier for students to understand what we’re doing” in student government. According to Caplan, SGA aims to clarify the goals and roles of each branch in the student government community, both for the benefit of the groups and for the student body. Additionally, increased communication will allow the three branches to update each other on work progress and areas of collaboration while avoiding repetitive or confusing emails to the student body, Cui said. When a student reaches out to one
The University’s class of 2025 early decision acceptance rate was 15.9%, The Herald previously reported. In an email to The Herald, Dean of Admission Logan Powell wrote that the University only reports overall admission rates for early and regular decision, and that he could not comment on the admissions rate referenced by Laflamme. Powell noted that the Office of Admission works closely with Laflamme to “identify scholar athletes who meet our very high standards of admission.” “Recruited club sport athletes go through the exact same admissions process as all students and are expected to have the same superlative academic credentials and demonstrated ability to contribute in positive ways to the Brown community,” Powell added. Because the University has such a high volume of applicants, informal recruiting helps admissions officers shape incoming classes, Silverman added. “I think what our coaches generally provide is insight into the application pool that might otherwise not be there.” Men’s rugby is divided into a competitive group and a developmental group, which require varying levels of skill and time commitment. Laflamme said that it’s important that his athletes put their academics first and can switch between groups depending on other commitments. Academic and athletics flexibility is made possible by rugby’s status as a club rather than varsity sport, he added. When you’re on the rugby team, Laflamme said, “you really get the best of both worlds.” Because there is no formal recruiting, “you still have to have the scores and essays for yourself, which I think really yields to a cool club culture,” Daniel Archer ’23, men’s rugby captain, said. “Everyone’s really into their academics. It’s really nice to be around a bunch of guys who are really passionate about studying and about playing rugby.” Other club athletes who spoke to The Herald detailed different recruiting processes for their teams. Men’s ultimate frisbee, which has never been a varsity sport, engages in informal recruitment processes for its higher-level A Team. But the team’s recruitment techniques do not involve the admissions office, Jacques Nissen ’23.5, frisbee team captain, said. Unlike with other club sports that participate in informal recruiting, the men’s frisbee coach — a volunteer — is not involved in the recruitment process, Nissen said. Instead, interested
branch with concerns, the other two groups can also help address them, Raman added. SGA “is sort of like an avenue for us to work on events or policies as an entire student government,” Cui said. SGA also enables UCS to work with the other two branches more closely. A specific benefit for UCS of increased collaboration with other branches is having a consolidated list of events that will be easier for students to navigate, Dai said. According to Raman, the creation of SGA will allow UFB to make “more informed decisions” about the funding UCS and CCB receives. The new group will help CCB communicate the specific needs of each class year to UCS and UFB, Zhang said.
DANA RICHIE / HERALD
In class of 2026 early decision admissions, 8 out of 17 rugby recruit applicants were accepted, said David Laflamme, men’s rugby coach. students can reach out to a team captain or students they know on the team such as old high school teammates or rivals and arrange for a visit. “Most of the recruiting is done through existing connections,” Nissen said. Out of 24 people on the team, Nissen says about 75% played frisbee in high school and four to five visited the team before enrolling at Brown. Nissen personally spent time with the frisbee team before deciding to go to Brown. During his junior year of high school, Nissen, who is from Washington, D.C., messaged one of the then-captains of the men’s frisbee team. Later that year, Nissen visited Brown to join the team for a practice and evaluate the team culture in order to make a decision about whether he’d be interested in joining the team if he were accepted at Brown. Although Nissen believes in the importance of recruitment to the team, he also reflected on what people without an ultimate frisbee background bring to the team. “I do think it’s important,” Nissen said of the team’s recruitment processes. “But one thing that makes ultimate great is it’s really easy to pick up the sport and learn across four years of college. Each year we get three or four people who come from other high school sports, and by the time they graduate senior year, they’re a complete player.” “If everyone on the team ends up being recruited, it removes that aspect of the sport that we really enjoy,” Nissen said. While the women’s skiing team was demoted to club status in 2020, men’s skiing has always been a club team. Neither team has a coach. According to Maguire Anuszewski ’23, men’s skiing captain, there is no recruitment process prior to prospective skiers arriving on campus.
This year, Anuszewski said the team “advertised at the club fair, and then from there, athletes would sign up.” Demoted Tier A club teams: Squash, golf, men’s fencing, women’s skiing Brown demoted 11 teams from varsity to club status in 2020 as part of the Excellence in Brown Athletics Initiative. Because of the change in status, one such team, squash, receives no funding from the University, including for new men’s squash coach Arthur Gaskin’s salary. His salary is funded by donations from alums and parents, Gaskin said. He said he still recruits athletes to the program, but the process has changed dramatically. Like Laflamme, Gaskin has a “relationship” with the admissions office, but as a club sport, the squash program no longer has formal recruiting spots. Because he was hired in November 2021, his first opportunity to recruit was for the 2022 regular decision cycle, which will admit applicants to the class of 2026. He has submitted the names of two athletes he hopes will be accepted to Brown. He said he won’t know if they are accepted until April when regular decisions come out. “It’s going to be tough,” Gaskin said of maintaining high levels of talent on the team without official recruiting spots. “We’re going to have a smaller pool of people from which to draw.” Men’s and women’s golf also transitioned from varsity to club status as part of the Excellence in Brown Athletics Initiative. Men’s and women’s golf Head Coach Michael Hughes said he has not yet engaged in informal recruiting processes. Hughes noted that after the team’s transition, all eight male varsity players opted to return and play for the club team. The golf teams each typically bring seven individuals to competitions.
“I was fortunate enough to have all the varsity players on the men’s side continue to want to compete,” Hughes said. “I had no need to recruit for this or next year.” Because only three student-athletes decided to continue playing on the transitioned women’s golf team, Hughes said that he “will be focused on spreading the word on campus to find interested women to join our team so we may field a complete women’s team next fall.” Nathan Andrews ’24, a member of the men’s fencing team, was recruited before the team transitioned from varsity to club status and underwent an informal process — similar to what a prospective fencer for the men’s team might go through today, according to Andrews. He was informally recruited because the formal recruitment spots were filled by other fencers. “I emailed the coach and then we talked. I sent him my SAT scores and some of my results,” Andrews said, and the coach “talked to the admissions office.” Fencing Head Coach Alex Ripa did not respond to requests for comment from The Herald. Charles Alaimo ’25 is also on the men’s fencing team. Though he was a competitive fencer in high school, he was not planning on fencing in college, and thus, only joined the team after he saw the men’s fencing booth at the activities fair. “I ended up walking on … because (men’s fencing) is a club team now,” Alaimo said. According to Alaimo, the men’s fencing team shares the same coach and funding as the women’s team, which is still varsity. According to women’s skiing team member Athena von Bothmer ’25, women’s skiing was a D3 team until its demotion to club status. The team size was kept small this year due to the varsity-to-club transition, von Bothmer said. The team still races D3 schools such as Babson, MIT and Amherst. According to von Bothmer, some of the members of the team were recruited when the team was still varsity. When von Bothmer arrived on campus she exchanged emails with the captain. “I talked to the captain before trying out to see how much of a time commitment it would be and what level the team was,” von Bothmer said. “After that, I sent in some videos of me skiing and racing and shared any experience. That turned out to be enough for me to be on the team.”
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | COMMENTARY
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2022
EDITORIAL
Required courses must be accessible For many students, vying for a spot in a popular class is a shopping period tradition — begging professors for overrides, getting their names onto waitlists and crossing their fingers that a spot will open up. Some amount of competition is expected, as spaces are limited. But when these highly popular courses are required for a concentration, students need to be able to reliably register for them. The University must make required classes more accessible to ensure that students can pursue any concentration they desire. The problem is widespread, spanning various departments at Brown. Literary Arts and Visual Art courses are notoriously hard to get into. And high-demand classes in these concentrations are often prerequisites, like VISA 0100: “Studio Foundation,” an art course required for students hoping to take a class at RISD or essentially all upper-level classes in the Visual Art Department. If an intended concentrator can’t make it into a required course within their first few semesters, the delay can deter students from attempting the concentration altogether. And the problem goes beyond prerequisite classes: Sometimes, concentrators are only able to enroll in an introductory-level course late in their Brown careers, after they have already taken the higher-level courses it was meant to prepare them for. For example, the International and Public Affairs concentration recommends that concentrators take a required foundational course in their first four semesters. However, for tracks like Development or Security, completing these foundational courses within the recommended first four semesters is out of reach for many students. IAPA 1200: “Foundations of Security” has a 40-student cap and is offered only once a year. This semester, about half of the class consists of juniors and seniors, according to Courses@ Brown, leaving less room for the sophomores and first-years the class was intended for. Concentrators should not have to put off taking classes meant to provide “a common set of questions, ideas and perspectives that students can then use as a basis for their selection of electives” until late in their progression through the degree.
solutions. As long as concentrators are still struggling to register for required classes, these fixes are not enough. There are several ways the University could make high-demand required courses more accessible. First, the enrollment limit could be raised, allowing more students to take a given course. This might not be an ideal solution for workshop or seminar courses, but it could work well for others. Second, more sections of a course could be offered in a semester, preserving class sizes but raising the total number of students who can enroll. Third, required courses that are offered only annually — or even less often — could be offered every semester, giving students more frequent opportunities to find a spot. In combination, these changes could go a long way toward ensuring that concentrators can take the classes they need, when they need them. We acknowledge that expanding access to courses is easier said than done, constrained by factors such as teaching assistant availability and classroom space. But when the problem is so pressing and pervasive, the University should address it. Academic exploration is made more difficult by the inaccessibility of courses to concentrators and non-concentrators alike. Those who are interested in a course but don’t need it to graduate may be pushed out by those who do, or vice versa. Students who might be considering a certain concentration could be discouraged, abandoning it for something more available. This shouldn’t be the case. By making required courses more accessible to students, Brown will empower students to fully pursue their passions, whatever they may be. —Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board. This editorial was written by its editor Johnny Ren ’23, and members Catherine Healy ’22, Caroline Nash ’22, Augustus Bayard ’24, Devan Paul ’24 and Kate Waisel ’24.
Some of these courses deal with an overload of interested students by random lottery, first-come-first-serve waitlists or strange priority systems. But these are not sustainable
ARTS & CULTURE
Jude Sandy brings August Wilson’s ‘Gem of the Ocean’ to Providence Play chronicles African American experiences while slavery was living memory BY AALIA JAGWANI SENIOR STAFF WRITER In 1979, August Wilson made history when he wrote his first version of the play “Jitney.” He didn’t know at the time that this play would launch the 10-part series that would turn him into who The New York Times deemed “theater’s poet of Black America.” The 10 plays in the series “The Pittsburgh Cycle” each chronicle the African American experience in a different decade of the 20th century. One of the last plays he wrote in the series was chronologically the first, set in 1904. It is this precise historical moment four decades after emancipation –– but while “slavery was still living memory” –– that provides the backdrop for “Gem of the Ocean.” “Gem of the Ocean” ran at the Providence theater Trinity Repertory Company Feb. 24 to 27. The show was directed by Jude Sandy ’05 MFA ’09, who received his bachelor’s in Africana studies and theatre arts at the University and his master’s in acting at the Brown/Trinity MFA program. The play follows guilt-driven Citizen Barlow (Christopher Lindsay MFA ’21) as he seeks out Aunt Ester (Rose
COURTESY OF KENNETH C. ZIRKEL VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Aunt Ester’s living room comprised the single set of the play, making its scope inherently domestic and intimate. Weaver MFA ’00), a well-known spiritual guide and formerly enslaved person, to cleanse his soul. Ester leads Citizen on a journey to the City of Bones, the home of enslaved Africans who never made it to America. She folds the bill of sale from when she was sold as an enslaved person to make a paper boat, which Citizen names the Gem of the Ocean. Sandy’s directorial prowess is clear throughout the production. With Aunt
Ester’s living room comprising the single set of the play, its scope is inherently domestic and intimate — even as it addresses the plight of recently freed enslaved peoples who continue to be exploited in the labor force after they migrate to the North. Having been denied education and resources, they find only menial jobs for low wages and are overcharged for crowded, scanty living accommodations. To powerfully address these vast, multifaceted is-
sues exclusively through interactions that take place in the living room of a 285-year-old woman could not have been an easy feat — but it is one which Sandy accomplishes with skill that becomes increasingly clear through the nuances of movement and reactivity within the living room. The cast’s mastery of movement matches Sandy’s prowess, bringing a new dimension of vivacity to the setting. Liz Morgan MFA ’13 perfect-
ly embodies a build-up of frustration alongside a steady determination in her character Black Mary, captured strikingly through her persistent cleaning and shuffling across the room. Lindsay conveys the desperation of Citizen clearly in both his movement and words. Equally distinctive is Weaver’s Aunt Ester. Her brilliance is in her voice, from her cadence in the delivery of every line of dialogue to her visceral scream, which will ring in the ears of the audience long after they leave the theater. But it is in the culmination of movement and sound in the climactic scene of the play that this production excels at most, as Citizen embarks on his spiritual quest to the City of Bones, guided by Aunt Ester. The other characters’ increasingly loud singing accompanies his fearful and overwhelming journey until Citizen faces the truth that haunts him in complete silence. Wilson’s works have entered the fabric of this country’s history. Not only have they become classics themselves, but they have also expanded the definition of the American legacy by creating space for the African American experience in American theater. Attempting to bring his powerful words to life, then, is inevitably an ambitious endeavor — but it is one that Sandy accomplishes commendably, bringing in his own voice while still allowing Wilson’s to shine through.