Tuesday, February 13, 2018

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SINCE 1891

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2018

VOLUME CLIII, ISSUE 15

WWW.BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM

Pulitzer winner visits Cogut Institute Alok Vaid-Menon delivers intimate performance Vaid-Menon’s moving reading brings poetry to LGBTQ Center’s Queer Legacy Series By DIVYA MANIAR SENIOR STAFF WRITER

BENJAMIN TORUÑO / HERALD

Applebaum addressed ideological uniformity and political polarization as a product of hyper-partisanship, as the second speaker of the Greg and Julie Flynn Cogut Institue Speaker Series Monday.

Anne Applebaum of Washington Post discusses the state of U.S., global politics By DYLAN MAJSIAK SENIOR STAFF WRITER

U.S. democracy is not alone in debating conflicting facts, but follows

a global trend of polarizing even the most common debate or narrative, said Anne Applebaum — Washington Post columnist and Pulitzer Prize-winning historian — in her lecture Monday in Pembroke Hall. Applebaum’s speech on disinformation and hyper-partisanship within U.S. and global politics represented the second event of The Greg and Julie Flynn Cogut Institute Speaker Series.

Through her work as a historian, Applebaum has studied instances of the media being used to manipulate citizens but became interested in the “resurgence of new forms of Russian disinformation campaigning in Eastern Europe” about five years ago, she told The Herald. Some audience members, such as Grace Monk ’18, said they attended » See COGUT, page 3

The LGBTQ Center brought poet and performance artist Alok Vaid-Menon to Rites and Reasons Theatre last Friday for an event in the Queer Legacy Series. Featured on various media platforms such as HBO and the New York Times, Vaid-Menon is internationally renowned for their unique voice as well as their use of art and expression in challenging the gender binary. This year’s Queer Legacy Series is themed “Queering Across Borders.” According to Je-Shawna Wholley, assistant director of the LGBTQ Center, this theme arose from the increasing importance placed upon borders in today’s sociopolitical climate. “We hear a lot in the news about walls and difference and otherizing people,” she said. Vaid-Menon’s performance weaved elements of comedy and improvisation into their hard-hitting and evocative poetry. This included a multimedia performance of a selection of poems,

with a focus on work from their collection “Femme in Public.” Vaid-Menon’s topic aligned with the theme of the series, according to student programmers Eileen Cruz ’20 and Nicole King ’19. While in the process of selecting potential events to bring to campus, Vaid-Menon stood out as “the energy that we (needed),” said Cruz. Wholley said that the intention behind this year’s programming was to “debunk this idea that borders separate us.” “We really wanted an opportunity to celebrate difference, and nonWestern ideas of what it means to be queer and trans,” she added. Other events in the series, including “Undoc-QT ARTivism: Creating Beyond Borders” and “Queer Xicano Chisme: On Queerness, Patriarchy, Nationalism, and the Future,” follow in the same vein of bringing attention to the intersections of identities and the importance of unity. The juxtaposition of humor and vulnerability in the performance conveyed a narrative that was all at once bitingly satirical and deeply moving. “They incorporate a lot of comedy, and I think they do a really great job » See POET, page 3

PW’s ‘Julius Caesar’ showcases femme perspective Performance rejects traditional phallic symbols, allows actors to present offstage identities By LIYAAN MASKATI SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Production Workshop’s imagining of “Julius Caesar” exudes power — evident from the play’s very description: “This is (not) Rome — Haec Roma nostrarum est: This is a space (un)recognizable. Here we are womxn, femmes and more. Here, we are of many races. Here we use words like ‘lovers,’ ‘sisters’ and ‘countrywomxn’. Here is space enough to hold all our love and all our violence. This is (not) Rome — Here is our Rome.” Directed by Caroline Sprague ’20, “Julius Caesar: Femmes, Romans, Countrymen” is a production of “Julius Caesar” set in an “intersectional,

ARTS & CULTURE

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all-femme” world, according to PW’s website. While the work follows the original plot line of Julius Caesar’s assassination, characterizing it as just another conventional production would be far from accurate. Indeed, its distinct femme-centric approach is in stark contrast to the original texts of most Shakespearian works, in which male characters are primarily designated lead roles — a gender imbalance that is especially evident in “Julius Caesar.” The word “womxn” — instead of “women” — was intentionally used to undermine the male-centric mindset that underpins the world, said stage manager Bella Cavicchi ’21. This interpretation of Julius Caesar was conceptualized by Sprague, whose guiding principle was “why not,” said Beth Pollard ’21, assistant director. “Why not have a full womxnand femme-identifying production of ‘Julius Caesar’? There’s no reason why there shouldn’t be,” Pollard said. While the absence of men may seem incongruous in Caesar’s Rome, » See CAESAR, page 2

COURTESY OF ALEXANDRA HANESWORTH

Erin Malimban ’19 played the role of Brutus in the production “Julius Caesar: Femmes, Romans, Countrymen,” which ran from Feb. 9 to Feb. 12 in the Production Workshop’s Downspace.

WEATHER

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2018

ARTS & CULTURE Afro-Cuban artist influenced by creative upbringing, displays work across Rhode Island

SCIENCE & RESEARCH Research shows that factories’ enforcement of standards generates higher revenue

COMMENTARY Cardoso ’19: Trump’s infrastructure plan both inadequate and ineffective

COMMENTARY Steinman ’19: Olympics distract from political upheaval, reminder of international cooperation

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