The Scarlet
Worcester Muralists Paint the Town at POW! WOW! Festival 2017
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF CLARK UNIVERSITY OCTOBER 6, 2017 | THESCARLET.ORG
By Anna Schaeffer Scarlet Staff
From left to right: Michaëlle A. Trouillot (’20) holds sign that reads “Climate Change, It’s real!” Ashleigh Nongogo (‘18) and Matheus Goncalves (‘19) show their support for the Caribbean. “Why are we paying for the actions of large nations” -Kaiomi Innis (‘19). Photos by Amanda Quiñones.
Politicians and Clarkies Alike Respond to Hurricane Maria By Brett Iarrobino Contributing Writer
As the abnormally active 2017 Atlantic hurricane season conjures its fourth storm, citizens of Puerto Rico are calling out for action as they grapple against the devastation of their most destructive hurricane since 1928. After it made landfall on Sept. 20, 34 of the 78 deaths attributed to Hurricane Maria came from Puerto Rico, and the $98 billion loss caused by the storm can be primarily traced back to the island as well. The fact that Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States and all Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens makes it all the more questionable and disconcerting when one examines the minimal support and attention the federal government has given the
exacerbated island. Puerto Rico’s situation is especially dire due to the extreme poverty that racks their government, which can be traced back to a mid20th century tax break under Section 936 of the Tax Code. This attracted American companies to set up business on the island, who then departed from the country and took thousands of jobs with them after the tax breaks were removed by Congress in the early 2000s. The Merchant Marine Act of 1920 that imposed significant tariffs on foreign imports is another critical attribute to the dire fiscal predicament Puerto Rico finds itself in today, forcing Puerto Ricans to pay high prices for the food they primarily receive from overseas trade. As economic growth crept to a
standstill, islanders abandoned their homes for the U.S. mainland, and as the tax base decreased, the government took on an enormous debt to repay their bills and infrastructure. By June 2015, the governor of Puerto Rico announced their $72 billion could not be repaid, following a year of uncertainty as to whether the country would meet its financial obligations. Since this declaration, there has been virtually no progress in repairing their economic afflictions, and two years later, Puerto Rico essentially declared bankruptcy - budgets for roads, schools, and medical institutions were greatly diminished. The island’s economic ruin puts it in no position to sin-
puerto rico pg. 4
Worcester’s second annual POW! WOW! Festival left masterpieces all over the city in its wake. The festival, which invited local and international artists to adorn the city, featured Worcester native Eamon Gillen and traveling artist Greg Mike. POW! WOW!, named after the Native American term for a meeting or gathering, has brought artists together for a week-long celebration of art, beauty and energy since the summer of 2016. POW! WOW! is not unique to Worcester but is a national group that travels across the country, visiting different cities for art events to create murals. A total of 55 artists contributed to Worcester’s chapter this year. Eamon Gillen has lived in Worcester most of his life. A skater at heart, he took many odd jobs and construction gigs, collecting tattoos all the while. He apprenticed at the Worcester tattoo shop, Crown of Thorns. There, Gillen, who has many tattoos himself, was on the other end of the tattooist’s needle in his mid-twenties. While his tattooing career was budding, he also explored mural works, which he later said was a “good way to explore separate themes and ideas from tattooing in a much larger scale, with a looser, less stressful application.” Gillen created his POW! WOW! mural alongside Greg Mike of Georgia., Drew Merritt of California, and Canadian artist ‘Denial.’ Mike, like Gillen, is deeply entrenched in skate culture, and fuses gritty and incan-
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