Monday, September 26th, 2022

10th student in 7 months is struck with projectile

jectiles fired from vehicles near campus.

ARTS & CULTURE

Student DJs turn tables on College Hill

BY ELYSEE BARAKETT SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Late on a Thursday night in March, Kamyar Mirfakhraie ’25 was walking to a pick-up soccer game when he felt something hit his jacket. He looked up to see four people in a black car shoot ing pellets at him — and then felt one strike his hand.

“My first instinct was to brush it off … physically it wasn’t too bad,” Mir fakhraie said. “But psychologically, that was the more damaging part. All of a sudden a car drives up and attacks you and you can’t even really fight back. You’re just a victim.” The incident left red welts on his hand.

Since that incident, the Department of Public Safety has sent emails about nine other students being struck by pro

DPS sent an email to the Univer sity community about the most re cent incident on Sept. 17. According to the report, three students walking on Angell Street were struck by pro jectiles fired from a car driving north on Brook Street. The projectiles hit one student in the head and two in the throat, though none sustained injuries, the email said.

Rodney Chatman, vice president for public safety and chief of DPS, said that projectiles fired on College Hill fit into a national trend. He noted a Tik Tok challenge from the spring which involved participants firing projectiles — such as Orbeez balls, a brand of ab sorbent water beads, and pellets — at bystanders.

The incidents near campus have not been clustered on certain days of the week or in specific areas, Chatman said. Instead, they are “randomly popping up, which makes it difficult for us to have a meaningful strategy beyond (sharing

BY MAGDALENA DEL VALLE SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Manny Quezada ’23.5 learned the basics of DJing from his best friend while attending high school in New York. He was quickly hooked – he soon purchased a controller, a de vice DJs use to mix music, and be gan practicing on his own, using his experience in guitar and piano to shape his craft.

Quezada starred in his first gig at a friend’s rooftop party in New York. When he came to Brown, Quezada brought his passion for DJing and making music with him, moonlighting across campus as a student DJ.

An emerging student side hustle on campus, it is not uncommon for student DJs to spin at College Hill parties, lighting up the night with their own mix of songs. Whether they do it for spare cash or for their

M. soccer secures comeback win vs. Siena

love of the art, Brown’s student DJs have left their mark on the local music scene.

Learning the craft

When John Finberg ’24 trans ferred to Brown from Haverford College this fall, he brought his DJ kit with him. Finberg began mixing music in middle school and said that while he did not enjoy middle school dances, he always looked up to those playing the music.

“I was like, ‘Wow, that dude up

there is sick,’” Finberg said. “He’s the energy behind this event (and) I wanna be there.”

Finberg went on to DJ a silent disco alongside a professional DJ as his first official event in middle school, where the duo played into headphone sets worn by individual attendees. The attendees used the headphones to switch between the sets, the headphones indicating by color which set they were listening to.

Football falls to Harvard despite comeback attempt

over Brown, with Bruno’s most recent victory dating back to Sept. 25, 2010.

BY NICHOLAS MILLER SENIOR STAFF WRITER

With a goal ruled out and two power ful strikes clanging against the post, standout winger Kyle Gee ’25 did all but score during the men’s soccer team’s 2-1 victory over Siena College Saturday night at Stevenson-Pincince Field.

Despite his blank on the score sheet, it was Gee’s speed, dizzying skill moves and precise crosses that carried the Bears to a comeback win.

Most notably, Gee delivered the assist for the game-winning goal in the 83rd minute, when his free kick from near the half line floated just over the Siena defense and dropped onto the foot of onrushing defender Za kary Lawal ’23, whose one-touch volley whizzed past the Siena goalkeeper.

“That kid’s amazing. This man is one of the best players I’ve seen in my life and he proves it … every single day,” Lawal said of Gee.

In the first half, Siena controlled

most of the possession, with Brown setting up two banks of four behind the ball, allowing the Saints to pass around their backline.

“Siena is a really good team. They really want to keep possession and they want you to come out and press to then open up spaces,” said Head Coach Chase Wileman.

But in the 15th minute, Bruno’s midfield line was broken, and the Saints, who attacked through the flanks all game, created an overload on the right side. Siena wingbacker

COURTESY OF BROWN ATHLETICS

Jasper Schone Vogtengen entered the penalty box and drove in a low cross, after which forward Bilal Hersi beat the Brown defense and poked the ball past goalie Henrik Weiper ’26.

On the opposite end, the Bears’ offense was stagnant, creating few chances for the front two, Charlie Ad ams ’24 and Kojo Dadzie ’24.

For a moment the Bears thought they had drawn level when the Siena goalkeeper mishandled a cross, allow

BY LINUS LAWRENCE SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Roars emanated from a crowd packed into the bleachers of the Richard Gouse Field at Brown Stadium on Saturday afternoon as the football team (1-1, 0-1 Ivy) attempted an improbable comeback against Harvard (2-0, 1-0 Ivy) — fourth quarter, fourth down, the Bears down by seven with 38 yards to the end zone and 15 seconds on the clock.

As the Crimson’s defensive line charged, quarterback Jake Willcox ’24 threw a pass that sailed just beyond the reach of receiver Graham Walker ’24, hitting the grass just inches in front of the end zone.

The incomplete pass sealed Brown’s fate, with the Bears turning the ball over on downs and allowing Harvard to run out the clock to seal their 3528 win. Saturday’s contest marked the 11th straight matchup Crimson won

The loss came despite an exhila rating final quarter in which the Bears scored 21 unanswered points, reviving a game that seemed all but over when Harvard jumped out to a 35-7 lead early in the third quarter.

“The maturation of this team is really something that is fun to see,” Head Coach James Perry said. “We’ll learn from this and build from it, but I’m really proud of our players.”

The Bears had a difficult first half, struggling on both sides of the ball. The offense compiled just 112 total yards, with kicker Christopher Maron ’25 missing a 45-yard field goal at tempt on Brown’s only first-half trip into Crimson territory. Meanwhile, Bruno’s defense allowed three touch downs, two of them by passes from quarterback Charlie Dean to receiver Kym Wimberly, Jr.

Harvard’s dominance carried into the third quarter, when they pulled off a remarkable flea flicker on the first play of the half from scrimmage, leading to an 81-yard touchdown pass from Dean

Affected students say incidents have left them feeling unsafe as DPS investigates

SPORTS Rivalry matchup draws more than 9,000 spectators as Bears lose 35-28 in Providence

Three DJs discuss how they explored their craft, making music for students at Brown

ASHLEY CHOI / HERALD

SPORTS

Attacking flair from Kyle Gee ’25 provides impetus for Bears in 2-1 victory

The Bears fell to the Saints 3-2 last season away in Loundonville, N.Y., but secured a comeback victory Saturday.

“It was such a blast,” he recalled. “They were all green” — the color which indicated they were listening to Finberg’s set. Finberg also channeled his DJ skills throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, creating “Friday night mix es” and playing them for his friends on Zoom.

Chris Schuetz ’26 began his DJ ca reer at age 17 and performed regularly at an upscale lounge in his hometown Miami starting in his junior year of high school.

Like Finberg, Schuetz refined his DJ skills during quarantine after he pur

chased a DJ set with his cousin. They enjoyed playing with the machine and, though he said “it wasn’t anything se rious” at the time, he continued to ex periment across genres, mixing techno versions of Shakira.

Forging a place on campus

At Haverford, Finberg took his skills to his dormitory basement and played sets for his college friends. As his sets rose in popularity, he began to receive invites to DJ and emcee opportunities on campus, which he hopes to find in Providence. For now, he said he DJs in his room and takes advantage of every opportunity that

comes his way.

DJing has become a passion for Quezada, who said he “can spend hours mixing music and not getting bored.” With his recent success, Quezada has also branched out into the greater Rhode Island community by DJing parties off campus.

During a recent party, Quezada not ed that a neighbor from the venue he was performing at heard his set and reached out to ask if he wanted to DJ a party for them. For Quezada, opportu nities often come up like this — through successful performances, word of mouth and the connections they forge with the student body.

Still, Quezada noted that there are times when performing feels sepa rate from the social scene of a party, and he sometimes decides to turn down gigs just to spend time with his friends. Other times, he takes breaks during sets to experience the party first-hand.

Schuetz said he occasionally turns down DJing opportunities to enjoy par ties as an attendee. When he does take on the DJ role, though, he does not see himself as missing out. Once he’s in the DJ booth, he said, any hesitation disappears and he feels it is exactly where he’s meant to be.

Finding meaning in the music

For all three student DJs who spoke with The Herald, pursuing DJing has brought them a sense of expression and fun.

Schuetz emphasized the importance of the DJ at any event. “Music is a super, super underrated part of the party,” he said. “If the music is bad, I really don’t think people can have as much of a good time.”

For Quezada, there is a special pride that comes from seeing attend ees’ reactions when a specific song comes on. “I don’t really do it for the money,” Quezada said. “I just love doing it.”

level.

ing Gee to poke the ball into the goal. But the referee ruled Gee had fouled the goalie, eliminating the goal and ensuring the Bears entered halftime behind.

“I wasn’t upset or angry at halftime. I said, ‘Keep at it and keep at it, let’s not open ourselves up,’ ” Wileman said.

“I (felt) really good that we’ll get one and then after that we’ll have all the momentum.”

In the second half, the Bruno of fense came alive and proved Wileman’s prediction to be prophetic.

After having a much larger por tion of possession, the Bears began to launch a relentless series of promising attacks.

In the 47th minute, a volley from defender and captain Taha Kina ’24 off of a free kick from Gee flew just wide of the post.

Shortly afterward, forward Jamin Gogo Peters ’26 sent a low cross past the face of goal that a Saints defender cleared away just before Dadzie could reach it.

Peters played most of the first half on the right wing, but soon into the second half, he was moved to Adams’ place in the forward pair, a change that launched Peters into more dangerous advanced positions.

Wileman eventually switched to a back three, allowing the Bruno midfield to push higher. “That puts a lot of num bers forward and allows you to press and be a little more direct,” Wileman said.

Gee, meanwhile, had been moved to the left wing amid the shuffle of the Bears’ front four, which allowed him to cut in on his favored right foot. After skating past two defenders just outside the box, Gee unleashed a biting curler that thudded against the outside of the far post.

“I got to play on the left side. That’s where I like to play. I like cutting in,” Gee said. “I feel like I had the outside back (beat) pretty easily.”

But just two minutes later, Brown finally broke through on Peters’ left boot. Adams cut in from the left wing and fired a shot that was blocked. It dropped to Peters, who took a touch to bring the ball to his left foot and rocketed a half-volley into the top corner of the goal, bringing the Bears

“That play is nothing that I did,” Wileman said. “That is a special play from a special player to get us back in the game.”

After the goal, Brown switched back to their original formation but con tinued to put pressure on the Saints’ defense. Ten minutes later came Gee’s free kick that Lawal received.

“I made the run, was open, tried to toe poke it in and it just happened to go in. It’s amazing,” Lawal said.

In the 86th minute, Gee again just missed getting on the score sheet, when his left-footed shot from Dadzie’s through ball struck the near post. But the additional score was not necessary, as the Brown defense held on for the remainder of the game.

Gee said the near-misses were “a little bit” disappointing: “On the first shot I … thought I was going to curl it in, and on the second I definitely thought I was going to score.”

Still, the victory was extra signifi cant for the Bears, as it came against a team that had defeated them last year. “We lost 3-2 (last year), and they kind of celebrated in our faces and rubbed it in, so (it’s) good to get a result at home,” Lawal said.

The victory is also Brown’s second in a row before heading into Ivy League play with a game against Columbia next Saturday.

“We’ve been a little bit up and down, which is expected, with this being my first year,” Wileman said. “I think we’re in a really good spot.”

information) with our community mem bers and our officers,” he said.

There have been no reported in juries caused by the projectiles, but Chatman said that they still have the potential to cause physical harm and noted that “people can be emotionally devastated” by these occurrences.

Madeline Wachsmuth ’25 was walk ing back with a group of friends from a student performance in April when multiple people present were struck by projectiles. The incident made her feel less safe while walking around campus, she said.

That night, a brown car sped to ward Wachsmuth’s group near the Biomedical Center on Brown Street, slowed down and opened its windows, she said. Someone from the car fired a BB gun into the crowd, prompting the group to dodge the pellets and scatter, Wachsmuth said. While no one was hurt, she described feeling “intense anxiety” in that moment.

Marcos Montoya Andrade ’25 was walking with a group of friends down Brown Street last April when a white car fired pellets at the group. Since then, he has continued to hear about people being hit by projectiles. When ever a car speeds by, he and his friends get scared.

“You always have that fear,” Mon toya Andrade said. Wachsmuth ex plained similarly that when cars slow down near her — even if just stopping at a stop sign — she finds herself won dering if they pose a threat.

Earlier this month, Wachsmuth wit nessed the aftermath of another group of students being shot with BB guns outside of Josiah’s. She did not see any notification of the incident until a few hours later — and said that “it would have been nice to get that notification sooner.”

Montoya Andrade’s incident in April was one of three reported to DPS that

night, according to the email sent to the student body. When he called DPS to report the incident, he said he was “stunned” to hear that they already had received reports about similar oc currences from that night. “It felt like they didn’t really do anything about it,” he said.

“For the students, it doesn’t really

feel like (DPS has) done much,” Mon toya Andrade said. “I get these emails, and we always laugh about it because we’re like, ‘dang, this is really never going to end?’ ”

Chatman said that “through some investigative efforts on our own, we’ve been able to identify cars, and we’ve passed that information on to Provi

dence (Police Department).”

In response to the incidents, Chat man said that DPS has reallocated staff to have a greater presence in areas where people have reported cars firing projectiles. DPS communicates closely with PPD, Chatman said, and he urged any concerned community member to make a report immediately.

“We want to get to a place where our community members trust us enough to report things when they are just sus picious,” he said. “When we facilitate communication with our community, it makes the community safer.”

Additional reporting by Emma Madg ic.

VICTORIA YIN / HERALD

Marcos Montoya Andrade ’25 was one of several students to have been struck by a projectile in the past several months. When he called DPS to report the incident, he said he was “stunned” to hear that they already had received reports about similar occurrences from that night.

to receiver Ledger Hatch. The Bears responded quickly and scored for the first time when Willcox tossed a short pass to running back Stockton Owen ’25, who evaded Crimson defenders as he sprinted along the sideline for a 49yard touchdown.

“That throw to Stockton is a great expression of what we’re trying to do,” Perry said. “Just throw a flair pass. We’ve got good ballplayers; they’ll do good things with it.”

But Brown’s momentum didn’t hold for long, as less than a minute later Crimson running back Aidan Borguet answered with his own long touch down rush, finding the end zone from 33 yards out for Harvard’s fifth score of the game.

“We know that their backs are good backs,” said Bears captain and lineback er Junior Gafa ’23. “To be able to try and make them one-dimensional and force them to throw the ball around was a big thing for us.”

At the end of the third quarter, it seemed Brown had scored a touchdown on a pass from Willcox to Walker, but a controversial incomplete ruling on the field was upheld after review.

Everything would change for the Bears in the fourth quarter, with their defense holding the Crimson scoreless and their offense convert

cox to Allan Houston III ’23 and Wes Rockett ’23.

“You don’t need a PhD to figure out yards against those guys don’t come easy,” Perry said. “Then when we did start to move the ball and score … the defense handled that maturely. They knew they needed some stops and they gave great effort.”

Willcox and Rockett also connected on what may have been Brown’s most memorable play of the afternoon: a spinning catch at the sideline with un der a minute left in the game.

Rockett was one of Willcox’s top receivers on the day, finishing with four catches for 43 yards and a touchdown. Fellow receiver Hayes Sutton ’23 led the team with seven catches for 44 yards while Walker had five catches for a team-high 51 yards. Willcox ulti mately completed 31 of 55 passes for 284 yards, three touchdown passes and one interception.

“It was really nothing special,” Willcox said of the Bears’ second-half turnaround. “We just executed what was called and things started to work out. We settled down a little bit, but we were fighting hard and things just started” to come together in Bruno’s favor.

He added that the team tried not to “go crazy and make the big play all at once,” and instead “play our game and run what’s called.”

COURTESY OF CHIP DELORENZO / BROWN ATHLETICS

To have increased attendance was “awesome,” quarterback Jake Willcox ’24 said. “We love the support (and) we’re happy everyone’s coming out. (We hope) we can get it like that every game.”

“They’ve already put the hard work in. They’re very obviously a good football team. They practice like a good football team.”

A series of beneficial calls also aided Bruno in their fourth quarter run, in cluding an offensive pass interference on Harvard. On a separate play, a flag

The game marked the second time in a row the Bears have finished in dramatic fashion with a strong late push since the start of their season. In their opener Sept. 16, the team won a double overtime thriller against Bryant University.

Though they came up short this 9,000 fans in attendance throughout the game.

Getting Published: An Interview w/ Dr. Myrto Aspioti 11:00 am Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center

TOMORROW’S EVENTS

HUGs Lunch + STEM Lunchtime Conversation Series: Nadya Mason 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Lippitt House 103

Recovering Stories of Indigenous American Enslavement 2:00 pm Digital Scholarship Lab in the Rockefeller Library

To have increased attendance was “awesome,” Willcox said. “We love the support (and) we’re happy everyone’s coming out. (We hope) we can get it like that every game.”

The Bears’ season will continue next Saturday when they face the University

LCDS presents Daniel Rothman 4:00-5:00 pm 170 Hope Street

EEOB Tuesday Seminar Series 12 pm Biomedical Center 291

The Economic Outcomes of Na tive Groups in Argentina 4-5 pm Stephen Robert ’62 Center, Leung Conference Room

ARTS & CULTURE

‘Barbarian’ breathes new life into world of horror

BY FINN KIRKPATRICK SENIOR STAFF WRITER

It can be easy to lose faith in movies these days — Netflix mints a new forgettable rom-com every week, and HBO Max is on a rapid path to lose its reputation as the one quality stream ing service. Sometimes it seems that everything is Marvel and nothing is good. Look into the headlines too deep ly, and you will quickly become a film pessimist calling cinema a lost cause. But sometimes it can be best to just move beyond the noise, make your way to a real movie theater with popcorn and an Icee and see a movie that you know nothing about but will inevitably blow your mind. That is to say, go see “Barbarian.”

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what “Barbarian” is about without giving away the grand picture that is only re vealed at the very end. It’s a horror film that will constantly keep you guess ing over what the horror actually is. It leaves trails of breadcrumbs towards dead ends the audience follows with such intensity that they will be com pletely blindsided by the truth that has been lurking in the shadows the whole time. The movie is strung together by this pattern of subverting expectations, and yet each new bombshell feels just as fresh as the last. “Barbarian” grabs the collar of the viewer and drags them along, making them think they have some form of say over the narrative, un til they are left as helpless as the victims of this film’s mysterious antagonist.

The film begins inside a car on a rainy night in Detroit, Michigan. Tess Marshall (Georgina Campbell) is about to check into her Airbnb, but

she finds no key when she opens the lock box at the front door. She then sees a light switch turn on and a man sit down at the dinner table. After ringing the doorbell, he opens the door and reveals that there has been an error in booking and they have both rented out this house for the night. The man introduces himself as Keith (Bill Skarsgård) and, after failing to find an open hotel room, they decide that it is best to sleep in the same house, with Keith taking the couch and Tess taking the bedroom.

The film starts with a slow burn, but in this calm before the storm the movie plays with the viewer’s mind. Through a combination of subtle but highly ef fective cinematography and a dialogue chock-full of ambiguity, viewers are left unsettled in the beginning but not entirely sure why. The movie knows its

audience expects something to go awry, so it makes them wait and wallow in the masterfully crafted discomfort for as long as possible.

Of course, the story eventually does take a turn. To avoid spoiling the film, nothing more can be said other than you should find a way to see this movie in a packed theater.

“Barbarian” breeds one of those rare audience moments where everyone is experiencing the same strange cock tail of emotions and each beat of the narrative draws the perfect reaction. The film is wonderful on its own, but with the energy of an equally terri fied, confused and excited crowd, it becomes something very few movies can even strive to be.

But fear isn’t the only feeling evoked by the film: It boasts some of the best laughs of the year as well. The pitfall

with most horror films is that there has to be a certain degree of absurdity in the narrative, and most times this absurdity is handled with unneeded seriousness. “Barbarian” knows when it gets absurd and leans into it without corrupting the eerie atmosphere that it sets so well. The laughs do not take anything away from the screams, just as the screams do not ruin the laughs. It is a perfect symbiosis that allows this film to distance itself from the rest of the pack.

All of this is backed up by inventive and meticulously crafted directing from Zach Cregger. Cregger is a former mem ber of a sketch comedy troupe and this is shockingly his first-ever solo direct ing endeavor. Much of the movie takes place in extremely dark environments, yet there is such endless expression in every frame. The usage of anamorphic

lenses also creates some really tense and jarring scenes. All of this is com bined with acting that, antithetical to much of the horror canon, feels human. It’s emotional without being exploit ative and lighthearted without taking away from the gravity of the movie.

The film is structured more like a Russian doll than a straight line. From this outer shell of an Airbnb mixup, layers are slowly upacked bit by bit, with each new shell exposed being more shocking than the last. “Barbarian” is something more than just a great hor ror movie that subverts expectations and leaves you on the edge of your seat — it’s a treatise on the magic of movies and how that magic is best to be consumed in a dark room full of strangers all staring at a 30-foot-wide screen ready to watch something truly special unfold.

Skilled directing, fascinating plotline sets film apart from mediocre horror flicks

COURTESY OF 20TH CENTURY STUDIOS

“Barbarian,” a new horror film directed by Zach Cregger, successfully crafts a story that keeps audiences on the edge of their seats. The film focuses on Tess Marshall, who arrives at her AirBnb to find that she has to share it with Keith, a man who has also rented it for the night.

Campus comedy organizations serve laughs at ‘Big Comedy Feast’

Joint comedy show spotlights campus comedy groups, publications

BY STELLA OLKEN-HUNT UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR 175 students flocked to MacMillan Hall Friday the “Big Comedy Feast” a show comedy campus. Starla Sons, Out of Bounds Sketch Comedy, IMPROVidence, Brown/RISD Stand Comics, The Rib and The Brown Noser performed with satirical flair to intro duce the greater community to Brown’s comedy scene.

A night of comedy

The night began with a sketch about the royal families of The Brown Noser and The Rib fighting over the forbidden love of two of their members, followed by a quick poem from Lucy Lebowitz ’24, one of The Rib’s members.

“What do I need? A DM from Adam Levine? A meet-cute on the Main Green?” Lebowitz said, referencing re cent alleged affairs by the lead singer of Maroon 5.

Longform improv group Starla then came onstage to perform a scene from a made-up 1986 film called “Cheer Up Charlie.” The scene began with an un happy young boy named Charlie taking a pottery class for the first time and quickly turned into a comedic segment featuring sexual innuendos from a talking mound of clay.

Shortly thereafter, members of The Brown Noser briefly introduced their publication, jokingly adding that they run “15 hospitals across the Northeast” and own a “small nuclear reactor.”

IMPROVidence performed next. Af ter taking a word from the audience, the group burst into improv scenes ranging from a woman swimming in a sewer to a longform scene involving

two Etsy shop owners fighting the fian cee of their shared romantic interest in outer space. Next, a member of Brown/ RISD Stand Up rattled off anecdotes about sea shanties, car ads and his first-year roommate who was on the football team.

Out of Bounds Sketch Comedy closed with a skit about a grief thera py session where stories of just-passed loved ones sounded suspiciously like childhood cartoons. The group then poked fun at the children’s show “Blue’s Clues” and 2013-era Jennifer Lawrence.

Preparing for the show

Owen Ryan ’23, a member of Starla, said this year’s “Big Comedy Feast” is not the first time comedy groups on campus have come together to host, produce and perform a joint showcase.

“Last year, Henry Block ’22.5 (a member of IMPROVidence) and I want

ed to do a joint show between IMPROV idence and Starla,” Ryan said. This idea led to the creation and execution of the first large joint showcase: “The Big Comedy Blowout Sale.”

This year, Una Lomax-Emrick ’23, a member of IMPROVidence, was “the driving force,” Ryan said. “They want ed to do it again, so they texted me about it.” The name, the “Big Comedy Feast,” was the result of creative brain storming.

“Una and I were just kind of throw ing names around via Facetime and … we just kinda rolled with the things that came into our brains. There was really not a lot of inspo behind it,” said Dana Herrnstadt ’24, a member of IMPROV idence. “It was kinda weird, so we liked it, and then everyone else liked it too.”

“We all liked it immediately,” said Out of Bounds member Maddie Groff ’23. “I had friends who graduated last

year who were in the comedy groups who were like, … ‘Who made this up? It’s so funny.’ ”

After the show

For many organizers and audience members, the show was a success.

“We don’t often get a chance to work all together,” said Annie Cimack ’23, co-editor-in-chief of The Brown Nos er. “We have a good time and we like supporting other groups. It’s just good for the overall comedy scene at Brown.”

“This is my first year actually being in a comedy festival. I thought it went really well,” said Ari Cleveland ’25 of IMPROVidence. “I laughed my little heart out. It was just beautiful.”

“It was a really responsive audi ence,” Groff added. That is “always a good indicator that they’re having a good time, which means we’re having a good time, which means it’s a great

environment” overall.

“I thought it was great. I love watch ing the audience’s reactions,” said at tendee Caroline Sassan ’24. “I would love to catch as many shows as I can.”

“I never went to the comedy events throughout last year, so I really wanted to go to this one,” said Juliana Morgado Brito ’24. “I’m not much of a comedy person, but there were some really fun ny moments there.”

Morgado said she enjoyed the im prov groups in particular. “As a theater person, I’m really terrified of improvi sation. It was really nice to see people doing improv, and doing improv well,” she said.

Morgado said she would “totally” go to future comedy events, especially if they are at the end of the semester. “Having a chill moment to laugh and be with the community (during finals) would be really nice,” she said.

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Several campus comedy groups and publications joined forces Friday for a joint show. Performances included skits about Etsy shop owners fighting in outer space and 2013-era Jennifer Lawrence.

Fang ’26: Health influencers can do more harm than good

The videos are all the same: A thin, conventionally attractive person poses in front of a mirror before the screen cuts to a beautifully staged bowl of oatmeal. The next shot is lunch, a colorful salad, and then dinner, a mix of grains and greens. Bonus points if “macros”— the grams of carbohydrates, protein and fat — are featured in the caption below.

I scrolled through dozens of these “What I Eat in a Day” posts on Instagram Reels during the pandemic, vicariously living the life of wealthy, 25-year-old health influencers. Ev erything seemed so clean, green and perfect. If only I could just eat oats and protein bars and go to the gym like them!

However, social media rarely shows the whole truth. In reality, the superficially healthy lifestyle promoted by social media’s food influencers is hardly perfect. Although seemingly harmless and entertaining, “What I Eat in a Day” posts and the toxic diet culture ideals they perpetuate can lead to unrealistic health standards and potentially damaging consequences for viewers.

Seeing what someone else is eating nat urally invites comparison between the view er and the content creator’s diets. Constant comparison, especially when the creator’s diet is unattainable or unrealistic, may lead to dissatisfaction and lower self-esteem. Both factors have been linked to eating disorders and disordered eating habits.

Sarah Adler, a clinical psychologist and associate professor at Stanford University’s Department of Psychiatry, noted in a Huffing ton Post interview that “the visual image of a smaller-bodied person is enough to lead peo ple to compare themselves to it. The human brain is hard-wired to make comparisons, re gardless of how healthy or unhealthy our re lationship is with food.” When social media’s definition of health is being thin and consum ing green smoothies each day for breakfast, such comparisons can be particularly prob lematic, as each person’s nutritional needs are different.

Social media’s version of health also omits

foods that carry cultural relevance for mil lions of people, as the vast majority of health influencers are white. The lack of representa tion of cultural foods can lead individuals to believe that those dishes are not part of a bal anced diet, even when such foods are nutri tionally valuable and help connect individuals to their familial histories and traditions.

Further, the authoritative voice many pop

another. People of different genders, ages, health backgrounds and social situations all have different needs when it comes to eat ing. “What I Eat in a Day” posts and social media health culture both disregard the com plexity of these individual dietary needs and prescribe a one-size-fits-all treatment for health. These videos are not only unrealistic for those who cannot access the same food or

health space on social media. A study by a team at the University of Glasgow in 2019 found that the majority of health bloggers in the United Kingdom “could not be considered credible sources of weight management in formation.” The possibility of misinforming large audiences is significantly concerning considering the impressionable young age of many Instagram users, who may be more vulnerable to adopting poor eating habits in pursuit of following the advice of a famous health influencer.

Ultimately, viewers of “What I Eat in a Day” posts must be sure to view them with awareness of the information the content cre ator is spreading and the potential negative effects of the content, especially if the viewer has a history of an eating disorder or disor dered eating habits. In an interview for Well + Good, registered dietitian Isabel Vasquez rec ommends “noticing what thoughts the vid eos bring up,” self-reflecting and reframing negative thoughts in a “more positive light, whether it be celebrating cultural foods or showing compassion towards (oneself).”

ular health influencers utilize when broad casting nutritional advice contributes to a flawed cause-and-effect relationship between diet and physical appearance. When an influ encer shows off a thin, toned body at the be ginning of a meal plan post, it is insinuated that following the influencer’s diet plan will lead a person towards a conventionally at tractive body type. This may lead individuals to replicate influencers’ diets at the cost of their own nutritional needs.

The science behind health and diet is complex, with much research still debating the relationship between diet, body type and health. What is clear, though, is that nutri tion is highly individualized and cannot be easily copied and pasted from one person to

lifestyle choices as social media health in fluencers, but are potentially physically and mentally harmful as well.

Perhaps the most concerning aspect of the recent proliferation of “What I Eat in a Day” videos is the lack of scientific research to back up the many promises of weight loss and growth of lean muscle mass they include. Even though a diet regimen may not be spe cifically promoted in “What I Eat in a Day” posts, titles such as “What I ate today to lose weight” followed by a paragraph of health ad vice naturally position content creators as the arbiter of nutritional information, even when the influencer is basing health advice on an ecdotal evidence.

This trend is pervasive throughout the

On the creator’s side, social media influ encers must be aware of their platforms, audi ences, educational backgrounds and the po tentially damaging impact of the content they create for social media users. Often, it can be better to say nothing at all, especially when one does not have the proper educational background to give nutritional advice. Food choices do not dictate health or happiness, and to advance that idea is a massive over simplification of what health means to each individual person. So go forth, have your cake and eat it too.

Juliet Fang ’26 can be reached at juliet_ fang@brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald. com and other op-eds to opinions@brown dailyherald.com.

“Although seemingly harmless and entertaining, ‘What I Eat in a Day’ posts and the toxic diet culture ideals they perpetuate can lead to unrealistic health standards and potentially damaging consequences for viewers.”

Volleyball suffers loss to Yale in Ivy League opener

BY ADIZA ALASA STAFF WRITER

The volleyball team (4-6, 0-1 Ivy League) played its opening conference game at home Friday night and suffered a tough loss to Yale (9-1, 1-0) in five sets. After leading 2-0 in the first two sets, the Bears were overtaken by the Bulldogs. Yale, the only Ivy League team which defeated Brown during the Bears’ 13-1 2021 season, defeated Brown 3-2.

The Bears narrowly took the first set 28-26 after an offensive battle. Brown opened the match hitting .368, and the Bulldogs did their best to compete, hit ting .302. Brown earned an 18-12 lead, but Yale answered with a 7-0 run that left the Bears down one late in the set. After several rounds of back and forth, Bruno found itself down 23-21.

The Bears fought back and scored four of the next five points, thwarting a set point and notching the score at 2524. Yale returned to set point at 26-25 after a kill and an attack error by Brown.

Beau Vanderlaan ’25 stepped up and had back-to-back kills for the Bears, followed by a Yale error that allowed Bruno to take the opening set.

Brown’s offense found its rhythm in the second set, hitting .562 and holding the Bulldogs to -.036 on the defensive end. Three blocks by the Bears kept the momentum going in Bruno’s favor. The first block came from the combined efforts of Gabby Derrick ’25 and Kayla Griebl ’25, and the last two came from the duo of Vanderlaan and Kate Sheire ’24. After the third block, the Bears owned the set, winning handily 25-12.

Yale’s defense curved Brown’s of fensive flow in the third set, holding the Bears to .111. Despite lacking on the offensive front, the Bears scored three consecutive points late in the set to tie the score at 22, but Yale scored the next two points to win the set 25-23.

Yale jumped to a 6-0 lead in the fourth to take control. While struggling

to hit held Bruno back, the Bears made some ground and ultimately lost the set to Yale 25-22.

The final set to 15 points was marked by back-and-forth runs. Yale took an 11-8 lead, and Vanderlaan and Sheire answered with back-to-back kills to bring the Bears within one point. Yale won the next three points to create a match point, which Brown fought off, but the Bears could not manage to over come the deficit and lost the set 15-11.

Head Coach Ahen Kim remains op timistic about the team’s future even after the loss. Despite falling in the Ivy opener, “I’m confident that they’re going to respond,” Kim said. “It was the most normal we’ve looked and felt in a long time. I think we have to un derstand what the new normal is and that teams are going to come after us.”

As the defending Ivy League Cham

pions, Kim said the team has a tendency to chase perfection, but he encourages them to just focus on improving.

“My expectation for this team is not to go 13-1 from here on out. … It’s going to be about who can attack better and who can play better volleyball in November, regardless of the record,” Kim said. “The goal is to get better every week, keep attacking (and) be (in) your best form no matter how big the crowd is or how tight the match is.”

Although Cierra Jenkins ’24 missed most of the pre-season due to injury and is still adapting to playing with her team, she performed well for the Bears Friday, posting 10 kills in the match.

Jenkins said the team’s confidence after winning the first two sets — a con fidence that she said ultimately result ed in the team losing the match — is something the team needs to work on.

The loss “just makes us need to get back in the gym and work on staying ahead,” Jenkins said.

Kim also said the team is working to adjust its mindset when it takes a lead after two sets. “The reality is we have to start all over again. We have to build again,” he said.

“Let’s be clear, winning a volleyball match is hard,” Kim added. “You go up 2-0, you have to know the other team is going to do something to fight back. We have to be okay and patient to play a long game.”

“It’s a new season. There are new goals,” Jenkins added. “This season is (about) taking one game at a time and not looking forward to the future, just going into practice every day, working on getting better at one thing and then taking it into the match.”

Vanderlaan, who led Brown with

17 kills, shares Kim’s optimism about the trajectory of the season despite the initial Ivy League loss. She noted that the Bears’ ability to fight back in close sets marks their tenacity in the face of adversity. “The first set proved to me how far this team has come this season, and I’m really proud of us for pushing through that,” Vanderlaan said.

“Every mistake that we made is a learning opportunity,” she added. “I think we did a good job adjusting; we just had to do a little bit more.”

Vanderlaan looks forward to return ing to Ivy League play Friday night at Cornell. “This game (against Yale) just proved to me what this team is capa ble of, especially during those first two sets,” Vanderlaan said. “We can only go up from here.”

The Bears will face Cornell in Ithaca Friday at 7 p.m.

Yale rallies from twoset deficit to defeat defending Ivy League champions

COURTESY OF ERICA DENHOFF / BROWN ATHLETICS

Yale was the only Ivy League team that defeated Brown during the Bears’ 13-1 2021 season. “Every mistake that we made is a learning opportunity,” said Beau Vanderlaan ’25. “I think we did a good job adjusting; we just had to do a little bit more.”