Wednesday, March 9th, 2022 by The Brown Daily Herald

SINCE 1891

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 2022

VOLUME CLVII, ISSUE 18

UNIVERSITY NEWS

Orgs. celebrate International Women’s Day Community members reflect on celebration’s activities, importance amid global crises

COURTESY OF ROSLYN CORIZ

The event theme was a reflection on the contemporary women’s movement, according to Director Felicia Salinas-Moniz MA’06 PhD’13. tivities included bingo, an earring making workshop, a raff le and a photobooth. The event is “just one of many things that we do together and we wanted to continue the tradition, especially … as we’re grappling with global crises around the world,” Salinas-Moniz said. It’s great “to still be able to have moments of celebration, moments of love and levity (and) moments of joy.” This year’s event theme, “Unhemmed,” served as a reflection on the contemporary women’s movement, according to Salinas-Moniz. “Many of us are still feeling very frayed at the edges … We wanted to

On Feb. 21, Tougaloo College announced a $10 million donation from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and producer Patty Quillin. The husband and wife intended the donation to bolster the Brown-Tougaloo partnership and strengthen scholarship support for Tougaloo students. Of the $10 million, $5 million will go toward creating scholarships and growing the endowment at Tougaloo, a private historically Black college located in Jackson, Mississippi. The other $5 million will establish the Brown-Tougaloo Partnership Scholarship Fund at the University. According to the press release, Hastings and Quillin’s donation is

see the idea of unhemmed as being very liberatory, being a sort of site for creativity,” Salinas-Moniz said. “To be hemmed is to be bordered, enclosed and restricted. ‘Unhemmed,’ instead, speaks to the process of undoing such structures and imagining what lies in the unraveling – at the ripped edges. Such an unraveling seeks to draw intimacies across unbordered geographies of places and genders.” Andrew Heald, the program director at the Global Brown Center, agreed that the theme is relevant to current global conversations.

SEE WOMEN PAGE 4

The International House of Rhode Island is a nonprofit organization that serves as a community space for Rhode Island’s international students, scholars and visitors alongside their families, according to the organization’s website. Located at 8 Stimson Ave. next to the University’s Swearer Center, the House offers several programs to support the international community in Rhode Island, both for University students and others. IHRI was conceived in 1963 when Bili and Gil Mason, Providence residents at the time, came into contact with a RISD international student during Thanksgiving break, according to Alex Holt ’01, executive director of IHRI. The Masons quickly realized that many members of the international community, particularly students, were facing feelings of isola-

tion during their time in Providence. Bili and Gil began having weekly and monthly events for the international community, and the House was officially founded. “The primary mission (of IHRI) … is to have a place which promotes cross-cultural understanding,” Holt said. As a community center, the House fulfills this mission through events and activities connected to food, music, language and art. “People are getting together for these activities … and forming individual relationships,” he said. While IHRI is open to the entire international community, it focuses on graduate students, visiting scholars and their families. “There are a couple hundred visiting scholars that come to Brown each year, and often they’re not with a cohort group,” Holt said. “They work with one professor … and they’re socially isolated.” Often, spouses and partners accompany visiting scholars and do not find support within the University community because they are not affiliated with the school, according to Holt.

SEE INTERNATIONAL PAGE 4

SPORTS

Tougaloo College receives $10 million donation

BY SOFIA BARNETT STAFF WRITER

Intl. House of RI welcomes intl. students, scholars

BY ISHITAA GUPTA SENIOR STAFF WRITER

UNIVERSITY NEWS

Donation intends to strengthen BrownTougaloo Partnership, expand scholarship

METRO

Community members emphasize importance of center’s offerings, multicultural space

BY SWARAJ AGARWAL CONTRIBUTING WRITER The Global Brown Center for International Students and the Sarah Doyle Center for Women and Gender hosted an International Women’s Day celebration Tuesday afternoon. The event was dedicated to promoting “community and celebration centered around the revolutionary lives of international women,” according to the event description. This event “is so important, especially in our current moment (as) we think about women around the world and everything that’s going on right now,” said Felicia Salinas-Moniz MA’06 PhD’13, director of the Sarah Doyle Center. Salinas-Moniz emphasized the importance of celebrating women’s accomplishments every day of the year rather than just on one day. The two centers have collaboratively hosted the event for the past three years. This year’s fes-

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the largest donation to date given to the 58-year-old Brown-Tougaloo partnership, which was born out of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. This partnership has linked hundreds of students and faculty from both schools through academic, fellowship and research initiatives. Hastings and Quillin have previously donated to HBCUs. In June 2020, the couple donated $40 million to both Spelman College and Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia to increase scholarship and educational opportunities. “HBCUs have been vastly undervalued for a long time,” Hastings and Quillin said in a Feb. 21 press release. “They have an incredible track record of graduating so many Black leaders across the U.S. — doctors, lawyers, engineers and more. By investing in the extraordinary students who attend Tougaloo and Brown, we’re investing in America’s future.”

SEE DONATION PAGE 3

Gymnastics wins against Bridgeport Bears take home second highest team score in program history BY HALEY SANDLOW SENIOR STAFF WRITER The gymnastics team beat the University of Bridgeport at the Pizzitola Sports Center with a season-high team score of 194.600 in a dual meet Sunday. The team’s score was also the second highest in program history, falling short of the program record of 195.175 set in 2016. The team saw multiple individual season highs during the meet, including a score of 9.975 from co-captain Mei Li Costa ’22 on bars. Costa received a perfect 10.000 from one of two judges on bars, the first perfect score awarded to a Bear in any event in program history. “We knew that they had this in them, and it just all came together today,” Head Coach Sarah Carver-Milne said. “They had the right mindset.

Arts & Culture

University News Arts & Culture

Fashion journalist Laura Brown kicks off Brown Fashion Week 2022 Page 2

Brown Taiwan Society Night Market sees record-breaking turnout Page 3

Elton John’s storied career culminates in his final tour Page 5

COURTESY OF STEW MILNE VIA BROWN ATHETICS

The team recovered well from Friday’s quad meet in the matchup against Bridgeport, finishing strong on all four events. They were united as a team. They really were calm and confident throughout the entire competition and kept the energy up, and the results showed.” The Sunday meet followed a quad meet on Friday at Rutgers University, where the team posted a score of 192.825 and finished third behind North Carolina State University and Rutgers University. The team recovered well from Friday’s quad meet in the matchup against Bridgeport, finishing strong on all four events. The team earned

Metro Luis Muñoz discusses gubernatorial campaign with Brown Democrats Page 6

its season best on floor and tied its season bests on both bars and beam. “We understand that everybody’s so exhausted at this point in the season, especially with this weekend’s double meet,” Julia Bedell ’25 said. “But we just went in truly as a united team, and I really do think that helped us … pull out that amazing team score.” Starting on vault, the team recovered quickly from an early fall, hitting

SEE GYMNASTICS PAGE 8

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NEIL MEHTA ’24 DESIGN EDITOR

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 2022

ARTS & CULTURE

Fashion Week begins with former InStyle Editor-in-Chief Laura Brown Brown discusses fashion journalism, how to succeed in fashion industry BY DECLAN JOHNSON CONTRIBUTING WRITER Brown Fashion Week kicked off to a lively start with a virtual interview featuring former InStyle Editor-in-Chief Laura Brown. Known for her profiles of Michelle Obama, Janet Jackson and Hillary Clinton, Brown spent the hour giving students advice on navigating the journalism world and the fashion industry. The event kicked off Fashion@ Brown’s Fashion Week, which will continue with another 18 speaker events and culminate in a runway show March 17 featuring the work of over 30 student designers. Speakers in past years have included Gwyneth Paltrow, Kenneth Cole and Olivier Rousteing. The virtual event hosted over 300 attendees from Brown, RISD and Providence College. It began with an introduction by the presidents of Fashion@ Brown, Emma Rosenkranz ’23, Sydney Taub ’22 and Celia Heath ’22, and was followed by an interview, Q&A and post-event private session for mem-

COURTESY OF FASHION@BROWN

The virtual event, kicking off Fashion@Brown’s Fashion Week, counted over 300 attendees from Brown, RISD and Providence College. bers of F@B. Brown was interviewed by RISD senior Emma Noel, who began the conversation with a discussion about Brown’s ascent through the world of fashion media. Brown spoke of her upbringing in Australia and the leap she took moving to London on a whim to pursue her interests. “I really mythologized magazines. I saw how they could make you dream,” she said. Magazines were “the one thing you had access to back then, and the

imagery was so potent.” Eventually, Brown rose through the ranks and was able to create her own imagery, spending five years as InStyle’s highest ranking editor. In this role, she conceptualized the magazine’s viral cover of the United States’ first Indigenous cabinet secretary, Deb Haaland. Before taking over InStyle, Brown made a name for herself as features editor at fashion magazine Harper’s Bazaar. There, she said, her interviewing style was greatly influenced by the

profile she wrote on Janet Jackson — the first interview Jackson did after her brother Michael Jackson’s death. “We’d never met, and I couldn’t believe that (Janet) trusted me,” Brown said. Interviewing “is a really long game, and, in the end, people will give you more if they feel a rapport with you, if they feel like you’re a person as well.” “What allowed me to square my shoulders in fashion is that I realized it’s not that smart,” Brown continued, lowering her voice to a stage whisper.

“There’s brilliant, talented people who are very smart, but a lot of the behaviors are not smart. Like, ‘I just spent all my rent on this jacket so someone can think I’m relevant tomorrow’ — that’s not smart.” Brown spoke of how she avoided these norms in the fashion industry by “not putting a lot of stock in that bad fashion movie behavior.” In fact, according to Brown, the best way to make it in the industry is to avoid molding to its common archetypes. “You should be enthusiastic and know that your personality is enough,” Brown said. “There’s nothing cooler than enthusiasm in my book because you bring people with you.” She was “so truly and obviously herself,” Rosenkranz said to The Herald. “It was quite inspiring that you can speak your mind and still be in some of the highest positions in (fashion media).” Though not yet formally announced, Rosenkranz also wrote in a message to The Herald that two major figures in the fashion industry will speak later in the series: Beverly Johnson, the first Black woman to be on the cover of Vogue, and Diane von Furstenberg, the prominent Belgian designer of her self-titled brand. Rosenkranz added that the biggest name that will cap off the speaker series is yet to be revealed.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 2022

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS

UNIVERSITY NEWS

Brown Taiwan Society hosts annual Night Market After pandemicinduced two-year hiatus, event returns with record crowd

In a line stretching from Sayles Hall all the way down George Street, scores of eager and hungry students waited patiently to enter the Brown Taiwan Society’s Night Market on Sunday. Normally an annual event, the market took a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19 restrictions. This year, however, the market returned with what BTS Secretary Hailey Chen ’24 dubbed record-breaking crowds.

Lion Dance and Daebak. Night Market is just one of many events BTS hosts throughout the school year, many of them focused on food and performance, she added. “At its core, (BTS is) just a group of people who want to learn more about Taiwanese culture and also get to know other people who have similar interests and or heritage,” Chen said. “You definitely don’t need to be Taiwanese to join, we take anyone who wants to come. We take anyone who wants to get to know a little bit of the culture.” “It was genuinely like that type of market feel, which is cool — especially post-COVID,” said Tanya Qu ’25, who attended the event with her friends. Qu and her group waited outside for

tick in cases early in the school year they had to postpone again until this semester, Chen said. Planning for Night Market begins months in advance, with preparations often spanning at least a semester, if not more, Chen explained. Because many of BTS’ board members weren’t even at college when the last market was held, the group felt a disconnect in its institutional knowledge base that made organizing particularly tricky, she added. “It’s completely student-run,” Chen said, adding that BTS reached out to the Student Activities Office, the Undergraduate Finance Board and Media Services for logistical matters. “But then, we have to rent all the equipment and book the rooms. Those big logistical hurdles have been going on

“Night Market is modeled (on) the urban street markets that are really common in Taiwanese nightlife,” Chen explained. “In Taiwan, you’ve got these really narrow streets and urban areas that are really densely packed with people sampling all the little dishes … Here at BTS, we really wanted to channel that energetic atmosphere into what we thought would be well received here at Brown.” The event took place in Sayles’ Main Hall and brought together 12 of the University’s Asian and Asian American cultural organizations, each hosting a booth featuring different Asian dishes such as scallion pancakes and shaved ice, Chen said. The night also included performances from some of the University’s dance and arts groups, including Impulse,

an hour and a half to enter, a wait she said was “definitely worth it.” “We had six of the security guards and the fire marshal and the police counting for us, and we had almost 800 people enter, but the line (was even longer),” Chen said. Once inside, market-goers were given tickets to use to buy food at the various stalls, said Grace Samaha ’25, another event attendee. “You’re drinking Thai boba and then you’re also watching these performers do insane breakdancing tricks,” Qu said. “It’s like being at a sports stadium and everyone’s cheering for your team. It was a good environment to be in.” The group usually aims to host Night Market within the first two months of school, but due to the up-

for months.” Even on the day of the market, Chen was still running errands to ensure the event ran smoothly. Chen and another BTS member went to Good Fortune, an Asian supermarket in Providence, to “get last-minute dishes,” she said. “Then I showed up (to Sayles) at two, helping move the equipment and figuring out audio services. Then I (ran) rehearsals for all the practicing performers, and then (helped) set up the booths for all the clubs that come at five.” Still, the satisfaction of seeing months’ worth of work come to fruition was unparalleled, Chen said. “As an organizer, to put in hours of work and witness a concept turn into reality is really incredible, especially in

BY LAURA DAVID ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR

COURTESY OF HAILEY CHEN

As many board members weren’t students during the last market, student groups felt a disconnect in their institutional knowledge base. the context of Night Market,” she said. “It’s all about reaching people and having a good time while also appreciating Asian culture.” Now, the team is right back to work preparing for next year’s Night Market. “Last night we had a meeting where we kind of reflected on some of the feedback, both positive and negative, (and) how we can improve for next year,” Chen said. “Because

this is normally a fall event, we are planning on resuming that and going back to doing it at the beginning of the school year.” “None of this could have been done without the support of the Brown Taiwan (Executive Board),” she said. Chen also commended “the other cultural organizations who put in the work to make so many amazing dishes and all the incredible performers.”

DONATION FROM PAGE 1 Carmen Walter, president of Tougaloo College, explained that the donation from Hastings and Quillin is a testament to their commitment to uplifting historically marginalized students and enhancing the financial resources available to HBCUs. “The remarkable personal gift to the historic Brown-Tougaloo Partnership from philanthropists Reed Hastings and Patricia Quillin will transform the lives of Tougaloo College students,” Walters said in the press release. “This donation, setting a new precedent as the largest gift to the Brown-Tougaloo Partnership, is a living testimony to their strong belief in the value of giving, the value of education and the value of HBCUs.” Sergio Gonzalez, senior vice president for advancement at the University, commended Hasting and Quillin’s dedication to supporting underrepresented students. He wrote in an email to The Herald that Hastings and Quillin’s donation will provide new resources to Tougaloo that will allow more students to pursue higher education. “It makes a Tougaloo education accessible to more exceptional students who have great financial need,” he wrote. “The new Brown-Tougaloo scholarship fund also opens up opportunities for Tougaloo students who might not otherwise have thought it possible to come to Brown and continue to pursue research or a graduate degree that aligns with their educational goals.”

COURTESTY OF DAREK ASHLEY VIA TOUGALOO COLLEGE

Reed Hastings and Patty Quillin’s donation is the largest donation to date given to the 58-year-old Brown-Tougaloo partnership, which was born out of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. It will go towards scholarships at both Brown and Tougaloo. President Christina Paxson P’19 expressed her appreciation for the donation, explaining how it strengthens the University and Tougaloo’s shared desire to maximize educational accessibility for every student. “Brown and Tougaloo share a

deeply held commitment to preparing graduates to make a positive impact in their communities,” she said in the press release. “Our shared ideals serve as an unbreakable foundation for a 58-year-old partnership that has yielded important insights for students and scholars, infused

both campuses with new perspectives and provided life-changing experiences for Tougaloo and Brown students.” Gonzalez echoed this sentiment and shared that the donation will prove to be transformative in supporting the next generation of world-changers

from unique lived experiences and histories. “The donors’ transformative gift supports the Brown-Tougaloo Partnership,” she wrote, “and (it) contributes to preparing more leaders from diverse backgrounds who will change the world.”

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS

WOMEN FROM PAGE 1 “I think that one of the things that we really wanted to do with this International Women’s Day is focus on … the conversation around global crises and just the state of the world at the moment,” Heald said. Due to the pandemic, Tuesday marked the first time the event took

place in-person in two years. Given public health restrictions, the celebration was also slightly modified this year, according to Salinas-Moniz. “We usually do a large brunch and we’re known for always having stuffed French toast,” Salinas-Moniz said. Having stopped the tradition due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she said

they hope to bring back the brunch next year. Students who attended the event spoke to The Herald about the importance of the celebration and the opportunities it afforded them. Rachel Schwind, a postdoctoral research associate in chemical engineering, said that events like this celebration allow her to interact with the

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 2022

broader University community beyond her department. “There aren’t a lot of women (in my field), so it’s not very common that I get to interact with many other female scientists or just women” in academia, Schwind said. It’s “good for me to be … in this space and see other people that are either in similar career paths or just other …

students that might want to go down that route.” Lydia DeFusto ’22 noted that the “event is a great opportunity to bring the community together and celebrate the achievements … (of) international women.” “I think it’s really nice to be in the space together, especially (in light of) COVID,” DeFusto said.

INTERNATIONAL FROM PAGE 1 “It’s definitely difficult because you’re completely out of your routine. You don’t know where anything is, you don’t know where to start and you don’t know who to ask,” IHRI Program Coordinator Madison Dankocsik said. The House “operates like a foothold in a new community. We can tell you about some people who are in your situation … where to get groceries … or where to find the best restaurant in Providence that will take you back to a memory of what you like eating.” IHRI also offers programs to ease international community members’ linguistic transitions, according to Dankocsik. These programs are made up of English and foreign language classes, which are often taught by professors from Brown and other universities in the area. Other programs offered by IHRI include six residences for visiting scholars and their families to stay in and numerous cultural events that connect international students with the local community in Providence, Holt said. “In November, we did a Thanksgiving event where we matched international students who hadn’t heard of Thanksgiving … with local families to (help them) experience an American Thanksgiving meal,” Dankocsik said. She also emphasized the willingness of community members to host multiple students. Several members of IHRI’s staff told The Herald about the benefits of having an international community space for Rhode Islanders. “There are different people here who care about … meeting people from different countries and

promoting cross-cultural understanding,” Holt said. “Individuals bring the world to Providence, and you have the opportunity to see the world here … That’s how the community benefits from it,” said John Walker, director of operations at IHRI. The opportunity to engage with the local community and find other members of the international community with shared experiences is what drew Delfina Vernet Ayerza to IHRI. Ayerza, who is from Argentina, moved to Providence in early 2020 with her husband, who is pursuing his PhD in economics at the University. Ayerza heard about IHRI through her husband’s colleagues. “When I came here, I was really alone,” Ayerza said. IHRI “was not only a good place to practice my English, but also to meet new people who are in the same situation and experiencing similar things.” Today, Ayerza co-leads IHRI’s Rhode Island International Spouses Partners and Friends Association. “The idea is to welcome new spouses, partners and international visitors to Brown,” Ayerza said. The group began meeting in person last August and continues to do so every month to share their stories over meals and games. IHRI returned to in-person operations after facing the difficulties of the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, “it was much quieter because a lot of temporary visitors just weren’t coming … and there were people who were stuck here … who couldn’t get back,” Holt said. The appeal of IHRI’s physical community space was

COURTESY OF ALEX HOLT

John Walker, director of operations at IHRI, believes the community bonds formed at the house remained strong during the pandemic. lost in the Zoom format, Holt added. Despite COVID-19 limiting the events that IHRI could host, Walker believes that the community bonds formed at the House remained strong throughout the pandemic. “The friendships that are developed at International House … are quite strong, and people want to come back,” he said. Some of Ayerza’s favorite memories at IHRI were also formed during the pandemic. “Even though (we are) on Zoom, we are creating this kind of bond … and people are willing to … open up,” she said. Ayerza specifically recalled a poetry event in her virtual English class on the topic of personal identity, which she said will always remain special to her. As the House transitions back to

CA L E N DA R

in-person operations, its staff and members are excited for future events. Along with weekly potluck lunches, Dankocsik is looking forward to a Persian New Year celebration March 26. “The International House has partnered with the Iranian Association of Rhode Island … and it’s just going to be a really cool afternoon of dancing and celebrating the vernal equinox and getting ready for spring,” she said. Holt also spoke about the House’s plans to partner with the University to host a talk in April with an Afghan arts group that fled the Taliban. Efforts of collaboration between the IHRI and the University have been welcomed by the Swearer Center, Ashley Greene ’09, director of community partnership at the Swearer Center, wrote in

an email to The Herald. In the past, the Swearer Center has partnered with IHRI through its student engagement programs, Greene wrote. These programs help “provide capacity” to partner organizations like IHRI by connecting them with students interested in filling service roles. At the same time, students are introduced “to real world learning opportunities that allow them to connect with members of the broader community, and to learn and apply competencies that will aid them in their life and work,” Greene added. IHRI also plans to host its first Bonner Community Fellow from the University’s class of 2025. The fellows will help “with communications, social media, helping organize the House … pitching events that we want to do … or just starting to network with members and volunteers that are there,” Dankocsik said. The Bonner Fellowships Program will be another step in solidifying the University’s relationship with IHRI, Greene wrote. “At the Swearer Center and at Brown, more generally, we recognize the importance of creating spaces where people from diverse backgrounds and cultures can be welcomed and celebrated,” Greene added. For Ayerza, the IHRI is the embodiment of this multicultural space. “I feel really grateful to the International House … They are really welcoming and warm,” Ayerza said. “IHRI tries to create a home away from home … That is what International House means to me, and I’m sure (that’s what it means) for all the people in there.”

COVID -19 AT BROWN FEB. 24 TO MAR. 2

MARCH S

Tu 1

W 2

Confirmed Positives

Th 3

F 3

Students in On-Campus, Designated Off-Campus Quarantine Housing

51* 6

FEB. 17 TO 23 Confirmed Positives

88 Students in On-Campus, Designated Off-Campus Quarantine Housing

80* *APPROXIMATE

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 2022

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS

ARTS & CULTURE

Elton John: 74 and still standing Elton John’s 60-year career culminates in “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour BY MAGDALENA DEL VALLE SENIOR STAFF WRITER Elton John, the 74-year-old singer, donned a baby blue suit with a picture of a bedazzled cat on the back of the blazer as he stood on the stage of the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York on March 2. The Brooklyn performance is one stop on his final tour, “Farewell Yellow Brick Road.” He sat at the piano repeating the lyrics, “I’m still standing,” while the audience chanted “yeah, yeah, yeah” back to him. When you’re standing before the legend that is Sir Elton Hercules John, the chorus of his 1983 hit “I’m Still Standing” isn’t merely a catchy refrain — it’s an anthem. The 5-foot-7inch man is still standing after 4,000 performances in over 80 countries in a career spanning six decades. And he is 30 years sober to boot. He is still standing, married and a father after years of society telling him neither of those were options for him as a gay man rising to stardom in the ’70s. And to that we sing “yeah, yeah, yeah.”

John began his American career in 1970 at the Troubadour Club in Los Angeles. Now, he is finishing off the “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour, which started in 2018 before it was delayed because of the pandemic. The tour is set to end on July 8, 2023 in Stockholm. John’s “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” includes tributes to artists such as Marilyn Monroe — to whom John dedicated his hit song “Candle in the Wind” — and Aretha Franklin. He also performed his usual hits like “Crocodile Rock” and “Bennie and the Jets.” The set list provides a sometimes playful, sometimes somber variety in tone. Every song, no matter the subject matter, elicited strong reactions from the audience such as clapping to the rhythm, singing along or swaying to the music. It isn’t just John’s presence that lights up the stage while he performs — it’s his passion. With every stroke of the piano and every note of his song, John exudes love for his art, which he has been practicing since he was three years old when he surprised his family by playing Émile Waldteufel’s “The Skater’s Waltz” by ear. What made John’s performance more special still was his band. Most

MAGDALENA DEL VALLE / HERALD

After beginning in 2018 and being postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Elton John’s “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour is set to end in July 2023 in Stockholm. of his band members had white hair and all of them looked older than 60. Guitarist David William Logan Johnstone — better known by fans as “Davey” — has played next to John since 1971. Nigel Olsson has been with John since 1970. It was clear that everyone on stage shared their love for John’s music. Another one of John’s percus-

sionists, Ray Cooper, left an especially lasting impression. With his tiny black sunglasses, eccentric excitement and a lively tamborine, Cooper stood out despite being positioned all the way in the back of the stage. Being able to see Elton John live today seems unbelievable. While he may not be waltzing from one side of

the stage to another in a very heavy, very feathered costume or jumping up and down while he hits the keys of his piano, John’s concerts have not lost their magic. All John needs is his passion, his piano and his voice. In that order. The big shiny glasses, the bedazzled jacket and the videos playing on a large screen behind him are just a bonus.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 2022

METRO

Gubernatorial candidate Luis Muñoz speaks on campus

Doctor, community activist discusses health care, education, improving state BY WILL KUBZANSKY AND SAMEER SINHA SECTION EDITORS Luis Muñoz, a Democratic candidate for governor of Rhode Island, spoke at a meet-and-greet event hosted by the Brown Democrats Tuesday night. With a crowd of about a dozen, Muñoz discussed his positions on health care, economic development and education — among a number of other issues — while also sharply criticizing the state’s political ecosystem. Muñoz, a relative political newcomer, first ran for governor in 2018 as an independent, receiving 1.65% of the vote in the general election. This year, he is running as a Democrat — and is currently running behind the competition, both in terms of finances and endorsements. Muñoz ended 2021 with just $3,356 on hand — compared to incumbent Gov. Dan McKee’s $844,087 and challenger Nellie Gorbea, the current secretary of state, who had $769,603. And while former secretary of state Matt Brown has the organizing strength of the progressive Rhode Island Political Cooperative behind him, Muñoz only lists four endorsements on his website. Born in Central Falls, Muñoz grew up in a Puerto Rican household with a single mother and graduated from Rhode Island College and the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. He now works as a medical doctor and community organizer in addition to having previously served on the state’s COVID-19 equity council. He identified as a “grassroots progressive” at the start of the event. “I believe change starts locally,” he said, noting that citizens “on the ground” need a voice “at the top” to fight for them. The current political and economic

moment, he added, requires urgency. “Things need to change, and if they don’t change now … we’re going to have big issues in this state,” he said. He also positioned himself as a pragmatist, explaining that he focuses on issues where he believes “results can be produced immediately.” A physician, much of Muñoz’s platform centers on the idea that “health care is a human right.” He criticized the recently proposed hospital merger between Lifespan and Care New England, claiming that “consolidation within health care systems does not increase the quality of care, but does increase the cost.” Muñoz also supports a supplemental wage program, arguing that $15 per hour is not a livable wage. His proposed program would have the state directly supplement wages for small businesses to promote a livable wage and “create a path out of poverty for Rhode Islanders,” he said. Education also came up consistently through the night; Muñoz stated that Rhode Island must uphold its “constitutional mandate to provide equal quality education” for all Rhode Islanders. He said that, as governor, he would fight for Rhode Island students, explaining that “if people don’t want the change to happen, then we’re all going to struggle in this together.” Growing up in Central Falls, he noted that many community members are forced to attend underfunded schools. “There are the same kids in Central Falls who are going to the same high school I did, with the same crack in the ceiling,” he said. “Those are the people who I’m fighting for.” He proposed that the state take poverty indicators and other weighted characteristics into account in the allocation of funds to local schools so that additional support is granted to students in need. Better schools “shouldn’t be a debate,” he said, but “many students are abandoned.” Muñoz questioned why many politicians in Rhode Island tend to come from Classical High School — a magnet school — while

SAMEER SINHA / HERALD

Luis Muñoz, who attended Rhode Island College, ran for governor of Rhode Island as an independent in 2018 but is running as a Democrat in 2022. few attended Central High School. State politicians, he added, should visit lower-income schools to set a precedent that education is a key issue facing Rhode Island. Muñoz also emphasized economic development programs and the importance of ensuring equal access to them. The state, he said, should seize on interest in blockchain technology and cybersecurity to create training programs and attract business — while imagining its “microbusinesses” that employ ten or fewer people as future economic engines of the state. Muñoz cited race as a key issue that is often ignored in Rhode Island politics. “What I’ve noticed in Rhode Island is indifference — passive racism at times,” he said. He spoke about barriers to affordable housing and said that, as governor, he would try to bring more opportunities to the center of Providence as a response to the University’s history of gentrification and displacement. Other priorities for Muñoz include immigrant justice, addressing the state’s housing crisis and ending the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility’s work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

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A major hurdle that remains, he mentioned, is receiving enough donations to qualify for a debate — the threshold for which was $50,000 in 2018. After the event, Edan Larkin ’23, the president of the University’s College Democrats, said that “Muñoz’s team reached out” to the organization. Larkin saw a conversation with Muñoz as an opportunity to speak with someone with a rising stake in local politics. While the College Democrats do not endorse candidates, she said it was an “opportunity for some students, especially those who are invested in what’s going to happen next year” to learn more. “I thought (the event) went well. I thought it was nice to have more of a conversation-based situation, and I thought Dr. Muñoz created a welcoming environment,” she added. “Some students are Rhode Islanders, and some students do choose to switch their voting registration to Rhode Island,” she said, adding that it is important that students are informed on state politics. “We’re only here for four years … but as Brown students, I believe we have a responsibility to understand our impact on the city and what we can do to make sure our four years have a positive impact.”

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At the beginning of the event, Muñoz also noted Rhode Island’s “history of corruption.” Political operatives who “stay in the background,” he claimed, are willing to undermine candidates who “oppose their perspectives.” He later criticized the state’s “power brokers” and political culture that has favored “conservative Democrats.” Progressives, he said, need to “start punching up” — or they face the risk of being “punched down.” “Why is it that a person can come out of nowhere, announce (their candidacy and) raise a million dollars?” he said. “Why is it that a person who’s been organizing, contact tracing, (doing) vaccination campaigns (can) only make $5000?” Muñoz said he still sees a lane for himself in a crowded primary; 25% of votes, he claimed, can win the primary. “Rhode Island has a history of candidates who fight for themselves. I came from a background where it was hard to ignore that everyone was struggling,” he explained. “I like my odds,” he said. “People are sick of insider politics.” Muñoz later told The Herald that despite the financial deficit, his campaign can only “keep plugging forward.”

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 2022

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | COMMENTARY

Liu ’25: Literature needs more non-white sad girls From Sylvia Plath to Lana Del Rey, many women artists have embraced a keen sort of sadness that feels both delicately feminine and inseparable from their womanhood. It is not the kind of sadness that can be gone and forgotten after a few good cries. It is all-encompassing: an illogical, inexplicable sorrow with no real cause and no real solution. It is complex and petty and pathetic. I call this exploration of feminine sadness in art the “sad girl trope.” This trope is particularly common in literature, with modern female authors like Sally Rooney depicting similar archetypes of depressed, unhinged women. If done right, the sad girl trope can be an empowering subversion of the portrayal of one-dimensional women. But the literary sad girl is almost always white, well off and sexually desirable. Thus, instead of empowerment and liberation, the sad girl trope romanticizes a type of feminine mental instability that is only relatable when the subject is not racially or economically marginalized. In other words, the sad girl trope primarily represents wealthy white women while leaving no room for historically oppressed women of color, a literary trend that plays into harmful stigmas about non-white mental illness. In classic literature, Sylvia Plath’s “The Bell Jar” is one of the most well-known and iconic depictions of feminine sadness. In “The Bell Jar,” we see the protagonist battle depression, solitude and ostracization from society. Sadness encompasses and defines the novel. More recently, novels like Ottessa Moshfegh’s “My Year of Rest and Relaxation” similarly explore these themes of sadness and mental instability. The novel follows an unnamed protagonist who uses prescription medications to try to sleep for an entire year in an attempt to escape the grief and dissatisfaction that plagues her life. Sally Rooney’s “Beautiful World, Where Are

You?” and Elif Batuman’s “The Idiot” are other modern novels that parallel this trend in their depiction of female protagonists attempting to navigate confusion, loneliness, apathy and depression. In all of these examples, these women’s identities are defined by their sadness. The emotion dictates the illogical and cloudy ways that they think and feel and act. This is what makes them so relatable — like so many women, they have unhealthy coping mechanisms, lash out in the face of hardship and struggle to navigate a world where everyone else seems to

of color, sadness is tied to centuries of historical racial violence of which their pain is representative. In literature and elsewhere, women of color are not afforded the privilege of being sad just to be sad. The relatability that comes with feminized mental instability and sadness in literature like “The Bell Jar” exists because the characters these tropes deal with are all white. Whiteness is inherently intertwined with femininity. White women remain the beauty standard and the default. The sad girl trope is thus insepara-

“In literature and elsewhere, women of color are not afforded the privilege of being sad just to be sad.”

know what they are doing. This relatability, however, is unequivocally tied to these characters’ whiteness. When women of color are protagonists in literature, their stories often center around their racial identities and the ways they are oppressed and empowered by such identities. In works that feature women of color, sad female protagonists are thus almost always shaped and defined by racial trauma — think Toni Morrison or Zora Neale Hurston. This racial trauma is incredibly important for literature to explore. But it also points to the disparities that exist between depictions of mental instability between white women and women of color. For white women, sadness is feminine and relatable with no root cause or single culminating event. For women

ble from white womanhood. The sad girl trope can only ever represent white women, whose whiteness allows them to be a kind of feminine that women of color could never attain. White women, as standards of societal femininity, are therefore entitled to relate to these complex literary women and see themselves represented in this trope. On the flip side, women of color have been historically represented as undesirable and unfeminine. As opposed to the standard femininity that white women have, women of color are stigmatized as different or uncommon. The sad girl trope is thus strikingly and overwhelmingly bare of any women of color because women of color are not seen as inherently relatable or desirable the way that white women are.

This absence of women of color in the sad girl trope also has harmful consequences on the ways we view and stereotype non-white femininity and mental illness. Today and historically, non-white mental illness has been criminalized within political and social spheres. A lack of sufficient mental health and social program funding, coupled with the over-policing and oversaturated violence that exists within communities of color, have contributed to a culture of treating mental illness within non-white people with brutality, force and incarceration. The absence of women of color in the sad girl trope, by reinforcing the idea that a woman’s mental illness is only relatable when she is white, is thus complicit in this harmful characterization of non-white mental illness. Without literature that features women of color undergoing sadness for sadness’s sake, it is more likely that non-white mental illness will be seen as criminal rather than relatable and as a reason for ostracization rather than a reason for support. Women of color deserve more explorations of feminine sadness and emotional complexity in literature. They deserve to make bad decisions, to be flawed and to struggle with mental illness in ways that are not directly tied to racism or their racial identity. We get sad sometimes, too.

Melissa Liu ’25 can be reached at melissa_y_ liu@brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald. com and other op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 2022

GYMNASTICS FROM PAGE 1 five vaults in a row. Alyssa Gardner ’22 tied her season best of 9.725, Bedell received her season best of 9.825 and Costa rounded out the vault lineup with a 9.775. On bars, Paige Richter ’24 posted a 9.775 to tie her career high, and Taylor Schulze ’25 and Abby Contello ’23 both received season-high scores with a 9.850 and a 9.825, respectively. Costa anchored the lineup, nailing her routine through her dismount. Her performance prompted enthusiastic response from her teammates, who rushed around her once she finished her routine, buzzing and chanting “ten, ten, ten.” Costa’s combined score of 9.975

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breaks the bars record of 9.925 she set earlier in the season on Feb. 5. Altogether, Bruno received a score of 48.975 on bars. “I’m super excited,” Costa said. “I was really trying to just stay present and leave expectations behind, to just do the best that I could today, and luckily it worked out.” On beam, despite a fall midway through the lineup, the Bears tied their season high with a score of 48.150. Lauren Lazaro ’23 kicked off with a 9.650, and Contello and Shulze finished up the event with scores of 9.675 and 9.700, respectively. “We really just want to stay behind each other as best we can,” Costa said.

“We’re cheering as loud as we can for every single person that’s going, whether they make a mistake or not … Our biggest asset is that we really know how to support each other, and that’s how we have a day like today.” The team finished strong on floor with a season best of 48.925. Lazaro kicked off the event with a 9.650, and each gymnast that followed received a higher score than the last. Lauren Kramer ’24 and Angela Xing ’24 received career high scores of 9.700 and 9.825, respectively, and Bedell finished off the event with a 9.875, another season high. “I’m feeling a lot more confident now than even how I felt a week or two ago,” Bedell said. “I’ve just had so many

opportunities to safely compete these routines and this specific vault … and at this point I feel like I’m just perfecting really small details.” “Even at this meet we had places that we could spot that we needed to fix up on, so there is a lot of room for improvement,” Bedell added. “But this meet was a huge confidence boost for our team because it kind of proves to ourselves that we are capable of doing this.” With Sunday’s score of 194.600, the Bears rank fourth out of the eight teams in the Gymnastics East Conference by National Qualifying Score, a statistic based on previous meet scores. NQS is used to determine which teams qual-

ify for the USA Gymnastics Collegiate National Championships in April. According to Carver-Milne, the team’s goal is to win the conference meet March 19 and qualify as a team for nationals. “We’re fighting for a spot at nationals right now as a team, and this is what we needed to do,” Carver-Milne said. “Instead of getting nervous about it, (the team) is fighting for it.” Brown will compete at home against the University of Bridgeport again on Friday, followed by a Sunday quad meet at the University of New Hampshire. The following weekend Brown will compete in the GEC Chmpionships on familiar territory in the Pizzitola Sports Center.