Observe Issue 4 Fall 2026

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The Student Voice of Fordham Lincoln Center

What Fordham Students Need to Know Before the 2026 Midterms By ALEENA SIDDIQUI Asst. News Editor

With Election Day less than three weeks away, New Yorkers are preparing to vote in races that could reshape the balance of power in Washington and determine the direction of state government. On Nov. 3, voters will choose their representatives in New York’s 12th Congressional District, Attorney General and Governor’s races. For Fordham students, this election cycle is particularly relevant. The Fordham Lincoln Center campus falls within New York’s 12th Congressional District, where a competitive Democratic primary last spring turned an open congressional seat into a debate over artificial intelligence (AI) and campaign financing. Micah Lasher, the Democratic nominee, will go up against Republican candidate Caroline Shinkle. see MIDTERMS page 4

October 21, 2026 VOLUME XLVII, ISSUE 4

First ICE Shooting in NYC By MICHELLE WILSON News Editor

GRAPHIC BY LUCIEN FISCHER/THE OBSERVER

Democrat nominee Micah Lasher and Republican nominee Caroline Shinkle race for the empty congressional seat in the 12th Congressional District, Fordham Lincoln Center’s backyard.

Around this time last year, on a frigid November night, 100 flickering lights proceeded down Fordham Road. Voices raised in song and prayer; numb fingers clutched rosaries and candles. Members of the Fordham and St. Nicholas of Tolentine Church communities gathered to advocate for the protection of immigrants after the surge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids began in early 2025. Since that evening, marked by solemnity and profound hope, ICE’s activity across the nation escalated to the detaining of thousands in detention centers, violent clashes with protesters and several fatal encounters. see ICE SHOOTING page 3

Pope Leo XIV ‘represents an America that is disappearing’ By MICHELLE WILSON News Editor

David Gibson, the director of Fordham’s Center on Religion and Culture, delivered the 18th annual Julio Burunat Memorial Lecture, “A Global Pope For a Global Church: Leo XIV and the Paradox of an American Papacy,” on Oct. 18 on the 12th floor of the Lowenstein Center. The talk focused on three questions: “Why was Leo XIV elected? What does it mean for the global Catholic Church? (And) What does it tell us about American Catholicism?” Seventeen months ago, Pope Leo XIV’s election by the College of Cardinals shocked the world. The idea of an American pope had previously been considered impossible because of fears around consolidating U.S. power

and the conflation of the Church’s interests with American ones. Under President Donald Trump’s administration — of which political and religious leaders across the world have been critical — the idea seemed even more farfetched. This was exacerbated after the president tweeted artificial intelligence-generated photos of himself as pope just days after the late Pope Francis’s death. Rationale for Leo’s ascension by Vaticanists called Leo the “least American of Americans.” Gibson’s answer qualified this notion, arguing that Leo, being a pan-American, multilateral pope, represents a vision of what the best of America — and the best of the Catholic Church in the U.S. — used to or could be. see POPE LEO page 5

LUCIEN FISCHER/THE OBSERVER

Seventeen months ago, Leo stepped out onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica to give his first public speech as pope.

NEWS PAGE 2

AI Anxieties

Fordham and NYC question artificial intelligence developers

SPORTS & HEALTH PAGE 6

The Bats Strike

Gotham FC takes on Angel City FC for Hello Kitty match

COURTESY OF CASON DOYLE

Left to right: Quintavian Rhinehart (Chris), Ella Rayne Goldstein (Jessie), Krystle Jazmine (Cynthia), Trudy Cohen (Tracey) and Dylan Stern (Jason) in Fordham Theatre’s “Sweat.”

Blood, ‘Sweat’ and Tears

By GRACE PAK Staff Writer

Fordham Theatre kicked off its 2026-27 season this month with Lynn Nottage’s “Sweat.” In the first Mainstage show of the year, actors took on the roles of urban factory workers in their 40s who are wrestling with poverty and prejudice. The play delves into how economic pressure can forcibly divide a community. Set in a Reading, Pennsylvania bar, “Sweat” is an ensemble piece about a trio of middle-aged factory coworkers and friends, along with their children. In scenes set in 2000 and 2008, the women drink, argue, celebrate birthdays and ultimately turn against each other after one leaves the factory floor for a managerial position. K. Lorrel Manning, award-winning director and Fordham professor, guided the young actors through developing their older characters. Though FEATURES PAGE 8 - 9

Nonchalant Nobelist

Poet, classicist and professor wins Nobel Prize

the play is set less than 30 years ago, Manning found there was a significant gap between his knowledge of the period — having lived through it — and that of the actors, who had not. “I’m jokingly saying things like, ‘You remember NAFTA?’ ‘You remember the crisis of 2008?’” Manning said. “They look at me dumbfounded like, ‘No, we weren’t around.’” Nineteen-year-old Krystle Jazmine, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’29, was only one year old in 2008. Jazmine played Cynthia, an African American woman promoted to supervisor after more than 20 years at her factory job. Cynthia’s white coworkers and friends become jealous and resentful of her promotion. She stands at the play’s intersection of race and class. Jazmine at first found it difficult to embody Cynthia, a woman two decades older than she. Her rehearsal OPINIONS PAGE 11

Beyond the Binary

Unpacking rampant misconceptions about gender identity

process required her to closely study mannerisms, posture and voice that would be more representative of older, working-class women. But, ultimately, she found that the key to a realistic performance was not thinking of it as a performance at all. “My favorite part was getting into the physicality of (the character) and trying my best to not perform it and more so just live it,” Jazmine said. “I got too much in my head about, ‘How would a 40-year-old woman react to this?’ … I think I just had to make Cynthia my own.” Determining how Cynthia’s race impacts her relationships with her friends allowed Jazmine to connect more deeply to the character and portray her with authenticity. While she recognizes that the characters are all united by economic hardship, Jazmine said that Cynthia’s race distinguishes her challenges from those of her friends. see 'SWEAT' page 13

ARTS & CULTURE PAGE 14

Films Aplenty

NYFF brings throng of movie lovers to Fordham LC’s backyard

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News October 21, 2026

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THE OBSERVER

Can We Rely On AI?

Fordham and the NYC Council each hosted panels of experts to deliberate on the risks of AI By SOPHIA STEPHAN Asst. News Editor

Fordham’s Human-AI Assurance and Innovation Lab (HAAI) hosted a panel of experts to discuss artificial intelligence (AI) industry development on Oct. 15 on the 12th floor of the Leon Lowenstein Center. The event was held amid rising public concerns and legal deliberation, including the New York City Council hearings on Oct. 5 and 16. The Council convened its entire membership to deliberate on AI safety and regulation standards. City agencies, experts, whistleblowers and AI leaders were subpoenaed to testify as witnesses to the exponential growth of AI models and concerning reports regarding their activity — including unauthorized intrusions into neighboring servers, cyberattacks and fabricating data. Julie Menin, speaker of the Council, and Carmen De La Rosa, chair of the Committee on Technology, led the questioning. They were joined by city agency representatives inquiring about subjects relevant to their proposed bills, including public disclosure, impact reports, prohibiting deceptive representations, shutdown capabilities and third party validation processes. “This hearing is not about stifling innovation,” Menin said. “The true intent is to ensure that innovation happens responsibly, that the government does its job to protect the public as the technology advances.” Menin called on three whistleblowers from AI companies to testify before the Council. James Coxon, a former Anthropic and OpenAI researcher, was the first to give a statement. Coxon announced his resignation from Anthropic on X on Sept. 8, writing that such tech development companies were “gambling with our lives.” Daniel Kokotajlo, former governance researcher at OpenAI and current executive director of the AI Futures Project, and Alex Turner, former Google DeepMind’s AI safety research scientist, joined the hearing via Zoom. Both said they shared Coxon’s concerns, stressing the unpredictability of recursive AI. Recursive AI refers to advanced AI models that can improve upon themselves based on their predecessors. Turner said in his opening statement that this could yield “AI (models that) are intelligent beyond our comprehension.” According to Anthropic, AI models cannot yet fully improve themselves autonomously, but the capability “could come sooner than most institutions are prepared for.” Kokotajlo said he finds the rapid development of generative AI troubling, given how little evidence developers have that it remains aligned with human goals, particularly now that it can write its own code. “There are some concerning trends that point towards our ability to notice misalignment problems getting even more degraded in the future,” Kokotajlo said, quoting a former coworker who confessed that they “barely look at raw code anymore.” Turner also spoke about Google’s “broken commitments” regarding data privacy and its ties to federal agencies. Turner said that “Google sells cloud services to the agencies involved” in the fatal shootings of Minneapolis residents Renee Good and Alex Pretti in January. After learning this, he and his fellow employees led a campaign demanding the company refrain from making another federal deal

with the Pentagon. They were unsuccessful. Menin then turned to how the U.S.’s AI development falls in the global race for AI progress. She specifically asked how they propose the U.S. can keep pace with China’s AI development while imposing responsible safeguards. Turner’s response rejected the premise of the question. He said that, while there “are many actions we can take which would not slow us down in any potential race … we are racing to build and grow our own adversary here at home. … Misaligned AI is everyone’s adversary.” Kokotajla agreed, particularly stating that AI leaders cannot be trusted with the economic and political power they stand to gain from recursive AI. “Even if, hypothetically, these tech CEOs managed to maintain control of their super intelligent AIs that are recursively self-improving. … I don’t think we should trust them with that control. I think there is a very real chance that they could use it to become dictators or oligarchs here in the United States,” Kokotajla said. In recent months, reports on Chinese AI models reflect major developmental progress. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, newer releases suggest that the improvements are “part of a pattern of Chinese labs catching up quickly,” and that the models are “now close enough to the frontier that they can compete with U.S. models in many real-world tasks.” Policymakers have thus expressed concerns about controlling AI strategy leaks from American companies and improving cost-efficiency to compete with China’s cheaper models. “I think the real question is over the coming years: What fraction of our research efforts and our computing power are dedicated to (developing AI morality) rather than naive economic incentives?” Coxon said. Following testimony presented by the whistleblowers, Menin called representatives of leading AI development companies Anthropic, Google, Meta and OpenAI to speak. The Council subpoenaed these companies the week prior to the hearing, along with SpaceX (who did not appear). During the hearing, Menin said that the Council would be pursuing SpaceX’s AI division’s violation of their subpoena in court. SpaceX later agreed to testify in a subsequent Oct. 16 hearing. The panel of representatives included: Logan Graham, head of the Frontier Red Team at Anthropic; Alice Friend, Head of AI and Emerging Tech Policy at Google; Shane Cahill, director for privacy and AI legislation at Meta; and Morgan Dwyer, Head of Policy Development and Operations at OpenAI. Menin began the line of questioning by asking the panel what they think the odds are of “something cataclysmic happening” because of AI. Dwyer said that she did not know and did not think it mattered, given that no technology comes without risk. Menin pushed back, arguing that assessing risk levels is necessary for understanding whether or not an AI model is trustworthy. She then asked the representatives if their companies have acquired insurance for catastrophic risks or chosen not to publicly disclose instances of rogue AI. Graham replied that “there are incidents all the time of many different natures.” The other panelists answered with similar ambiguity, which Menin found to

PHOTOS BY ELISA LUNA ENRIQUEZ/THE OBSERVER

The panelists brought their experiences in legal, technical, software and executive work to answer questions on the controversial evolution of AI systems.

Two executive orders on AI were passed by the Trump administration, which revoked the Biden administration’s eight guiding AI principles and renamed the technology “super intelligence.”

be “troubling at best.” The representatives refused to swear under oath that their models would always comply with safeguards and that they would not release models that fail validation tests, saying they could not speak on behalf of their companies. SpaceX AI testified in the second, Oct. 16 hearing, represented by AI policy leader Gabriela Castillo Madrid. Menin and De La Rosa (the moderators) asked Madrid questions similar to the previous hearing. Madrid often claimed she was “not aware” of any company errors the Council inquired about. “(Your unawareness is) hard to believe,” De La Rosa said. “At the crux of this issue is trust and the public’s trust. When you all come before us and do not answer our questions, or purport to not know, it erodes the public’s trust. And that is part of the problem and how we got here.” When Menin addressed the controversy surrounding Grok AI, whose “spicy mode” was allegedly being used to produce sexualized depictions of real people without consent, Madrid insisted that Grok “has strict controls in place to prevent the sexualization of children or real people.” She then said that the technology had alerted law enforcement of about 100,000 of these instances. “If you had to report, (as) you mentioned, 100,000 instances, doesn’t that mean … that the technology allows it?” Menin said. Madrid replied that the technology allows them to detect bad actors, and said that there would “always be bad actors and folks trying to get around safeguards.” Fordham’s HAAI addressed

such issues of user safety the day before SpaceX’s testimony. Their panel, Trustworthy AI in Action, invited five business and technology professionals to discuss AI security and its evolving risks. The event, co-moderated by HAAI director Wenqi Wei and co-director Yilu Zhou, aimed to “bridge the gap between industry and research” over AI development and its potential regulation. Diana LaMorie, Fordham alumna and Enterprise Compliance Manager at Two Sigma financial services, brought a lawyer’s perspective to the discussion. She said that having “somebody who is exercising real judgement … where it matters” is a key factor in frontier AI development. “We’ve come such a long way in just this very short time, and from a legal and compliance perspective I just can’t stress enough that it comes down to accountability and evidence, not just good intentions,” LaMorie said. Ping Yan, AI Engineering Leader at HackerOne, said that because they know what happened in rogue AI incidents such as OpenAI’s attack on HuggingFace, tech developers can “harden (their) systems and build the necessary controls.” Given this insight, Yan said she is “not super concerned” with possibly having to bring misaligned AI models back under human control. Naomi Kadish, Head of Responsible AI Policy at Palantir Technologies, said that investing in the issues developers already know are risks — including cybersecurity, algorithm biases and breached data privacy — will make AI developers “much better positioned to handle them when they come up.”

David Lin, founder and Chief Executive Officer of AI-powered finance services company Linvest21, said that securing an edge in the AI industry means that “whatever you try innovation-wise, it comes with a risk.” In short, his argument was: “No pain no gain.” Lin said that he feels the AI industry has turned into a “national, competition-driven business” where developers are pressured to keep pace with other international companies “as opposed to maintaining … national productivities, innovations (and) so forth.” It is “understood that there’s an inherent danger,” and addressing it “requires international cooperation,” Lin said. One audience member asked the panel how young starters in the technology industry may make themselves heard in instances of conflicting personal views or objective understandings with superiors. Jorge Martinez Navarrete, Head of the Innovation Unit in the United Nation’s Office of Information and Communications Technology, pointed out that every working professional regardless of age is seeing the AI industry develop at the same time. “They have to do the same learning that you have to do because the technology is changing so fast,” Navarrete said. “So, I would see it as an opportunity, and I think you’re not necessarily at a bad moment in history. Probably I would say you’re at a great point in time for starting a career.” The future of AI policy under the New York City Council remains to be seen.

THE OBSERVER

www.fordhamobserver.com

October 21, 2026

News

3

New Yorkers Call for Accountability After ICE Shooting

Protests continue after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents shot a man last week in Marble Hill ICE SHOOTING from page 1

The mortality rate of those in ICE custody has more than doubled since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term; the agency reported 33 deaths in 2025 and 24 so far in 2026. This figure may be lower than the actual amount due to the removal of certain reporting requirements in June. The backlash over ICE’s use of excessive force intensified in New York City after agents shot Oscar Belgal in his car on Oct. 8. Belgal was shot in the neck by officers in plain clothes and masks at around 4 p.m. in Marble Hill. At the time of the shooting, he just picked up his five-year-old son from school and brought him to McDonalds. The child was in the backseat and was unharmed. That evening, thousands took to the streets in protests across the city, and at least five people were arrested. Demonstrations have continued over the subsequent weeks. Federal officials allege that Belgal refused to leave his car when asked and began accelerating toward two government vehicles, causing them to fire in self-defense. New York Police Department (NYPD) Commissioner Jessica Tisch said that at least one officer fired a total of seven shots.

“ New Yorkers have

witnessed far too many acts of violence by a rogue federal agency and untrained agents that operate with impunity .”

Kathy Hochul, New York State Governor

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani joined several other New Yorkers in pushing back against this narrative. Mamdani called for ICE to be abolished, as he has before at a press conference the evening of the shooting. “What happened today was an outrage. Tonight, a five-yearold child sits traumatized and terrified. … Tonight, New Yorkers across the five boroughs are asking whether their civil liberties will be respected, whether law and order is supposed to look like a man carrying a long gun, wearing a mask,” Mamdani said. “This is an agency that must be abolished.” New York State Governor Kathy Hochul released a similar statement that night: “New Yorkers have witnessed

PHOTOS BY LUCIEN FISCHER/THE OBSERVER

The New York Immigration Coalition, which represents over 200 immigration advocacy organizations, plastered flyers like this one across New York City.

far too many acts of violence by a rogue federal agency and untrained agents that operate with impunity,” Hochul said. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a statement saying Belgal is an undocumented immigrant with a criminal history who they suspect has ties to the Trinitario gang in the Bronx, NY. In 2023, Belgal received five years of probation after pleading guilty to robbery charges. In August 2025, he was charged with criminal drug sale and pled not guilty in a case that is still open. Other residents of Marble Hill said this image does not align with their perception of Belgal, who said they were unaware of his criminal background and knew him simply as a neighbor. Belgal was discharged from the hospital the evening he was shot and is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. On Oct. 13, a federal judge temporarily blocked his deportation in response to a petition filed by immigration advocates. Questions remain over the particulars of the shooting. Federal officials claimed to have identified themselves, while Belgal’s lawyer said they did not declare themselves as ICE agents until after having fired on Belgal. Belgal is yet to receive surgery as of Tuesday night. What has the public’s response been? Some called for the firing of Tisch due to the NYPD’s response to protesters on Oct. 8. Others accused Mamdani of not doing enough to restrict ICE. However, a decision to remove ICE from New York City would have to be made by the federal government. Lear Kelmendi, Fordham

College at Rose Hill ’28, attended one such protest outside New York-Presbyterian Allen Hospital, where Belgal was being treated for his injuries and hundreds gathered in support. Demonstrators converged on an NYPD vehicle leaving the hospital, blocking it from moving. Kelmendi believed an ICE agent was inside. The NYPD pushed protesters away to clear the way for the vehicle. Kelmendi described police conduct as “very, very aggressive.” The group was later joined by a larger crowd of protesters. Police put up barricades in front of the hospital to encourage the throng to disperse, which is when things escalated again, resulting in the five arrests. “I narrowly avoided being shoved to the ground,” Kelmendi said. “(NYPD officers) were shoving people to the ground, pushing people. … The police were fighting. We had no idea what was happening with the man who was in custody.” Kelmendi, who lives close to Marble Hill, said that the shooting made the threat of ICE violence feel much more real. “It’s not some sort of abstract concept anymore. People are getting dragged out of their homes in New York City. … Who knows what’s going to happen next? Who knows if they actually kill someone this time? Are we just going to wait until that happens? Something has to be done to prevent that,” Kelmendi said. What specific NYPD reform would New Yorkers like to see? Frustration over NYPD conduct is palpable on and off campus, a sentiment heightened by the recent shooting. On Oct. 13, a small group of demonstrators rallied on Fordham Road

Last week on Oct. 8, Oscar Belgal was shot in his vehicle by ICE agents in Marble Hill.

to advocate for the Communities United to Reject Brutality (CURB) Act as “our ability to defend our neighbors is jeopardized by police violence,” according to an Instagram post by the New York City Young Democratic Socialists Alliance. If passed, the CURB act would ban crowd-control tactics like kettling (corralling protesters into an enclosed space), tear gassing and indiscriminate pepper spraying, as well as create new oversight methods. The act would also ban the Strategic Response Group (SRG), a specialized rapid-response unit of the NYPD, from being deployed at protests. The CURB Act aims to protect First Amendment rights and said the SRG is a “notoriously violent rapid response unit with a bloated budget, biased training, and an established pattern of brutalizing New Yorkers.” The act would not disband the SRG. In accordance with city legislative processes, for the CURB Act to move forward, Council Member Oswald Feliz, chair of the Committee on Public Safety (which oversees the police department), must schedule a hearing, which he has not yet done. The act could be passed without a hearing if it reaches a supermajority of 34 co-sponsors. Organizers said that the rally — aiming to put pressure on Feliz to schedule a hearing — was originally going to be held right in front of his office, but the NYPD blocked off the area at Feliz’s request. Demonstrators gave speeches about their experiences with police violence at protests and how they feel the CURB Act would create a safer environment for New Yorkers exercising their First Amendment rights. Micaela Martinez, Director of Environmental Justice and Research at South Bronx Unite, spoke at the rally detailing the police violence she underwent during Black Lives Matter protests in June 2020. Martinez was one of 300 people violently corralled and later arrested by the NYPD in Mott Haven, a neighborhood in the South Bronx, during peaceful demonstrations. Martinez was one of the plaintiffs in the Payne, et. al., v. Mayor Bill de Blasio, et. al. suit against the city and a number of individuals for their role in police brutality during the 2020 protests. A $512,000 settlement was reached in May 2024, though additional litigation is ongoing. As a result of the agreement, a new four-tier protocol was created dictating police response at protests and limiting SRG deployment to higher-tier protests.

How has federal legislation allowed the crackdown on immigration to ramp up to its current scale? Emerson Argueta, the associate director of the Feerick Center and head of its Immigration Justice Project (IJP), offered some insight into this subject. The IJP offers free, limited-scope legal advice to people seeking asylum, trains volunteers and organizes service trips to the U.S.-Mexico border. Argueta said ICE may have been enabled to act on a street where children were being let out of school due to a February 2025 DHS directive that reversed protections limiting enforcement in “sensitive” areas. These areas include schools, hospitals and places of worship. While the shooting did not take place on a school campus, it is still, “an example of how some of these guard rails are being lifted,” Argueta said.

Argueta said he believes that the changes to immigration policy constitute a fundamental undermining of core Constitutional values. ICE cannot enter private property without a warrant. What does this mean for Fordham students? The university has stated that, because Fordham is a closed campus, ICE agents cannot freely enter. But if they were to obtain a judicial warrant, the university would have to comply with federal law. In 2023, under former President Joe Biden’s administration, the IJP mostly helped people with initial asylum applications. Now, according to Argueta, there have been more requests to amend applications and appeal deportation orders, as well as more people seeking advice who aren’t in court proceedings. Argueta said the Trump administration is “moving full steam ahead with erosions to due process in immigration court.” These changes include wholesale denials of fee waiver requests for asylum appeals, which cost $1,060, despite demonstrated fiscal need and increasing pretermission — the denial of asylum without a full hearing — practices. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act significantly increased asylum application fees, with asylum appeals going from $110 to $1,010 (adjusted again in 2026 to $1,060) and the introduction of a new annual asylum fee of $100 (for pending applications). Argueta said he believes that the changes to immigration policy constitute a fundamental undermining of core Constitutional values. Another worrying change to immigration policy, for Argueta, is racial profiling by ICE. In August 2025, the Supreme Court allowed federal agents to stop people based on their “apparent race or ethnicity,” “speaking Spanish or speaking English with an accent,” “the type of work one does” or their “presence at a particular location” where “illegal aliens are known to be picked up for work” such as an agricultural site, bus stop, day laborer pickup site or car wash. Looking toward the second half of Trump’s presidency, the future of ICE activity remains a subject of great contention and great concern in New York City and beyond. *Read the full version of this article online.

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News October 21, 2026

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THE OBSERVER

2026 Midterms: The Races Shaping New York and Congress

The 12th congressional district, attorney general and governor’s races explained MIDTERMS from page 1

Meanwhile, current Attorney General Letitia James faces Republican candidate Saritha Komatireddy, while Gov. Kathy Hochul is seeking reelection against Republican Bruce Blakeman. The campaigns have increasingly centered on national political figures. Hochul has portrayed Blakeman as a “Trump puppet,” while Blakeman’s anti-socialist messaging associates the governor with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. This back-andforth reflects a broader question in this year’s elections: Will voters prioritize candidates’ policy proposals or their relationships with polarizing political figures? 12th Congressional District Race New York’s 12th Congressional District encompasses the top of Central Park down through midtown. Democratic Rep. Jerrold Nadler, who has held various roles in Congress since 1992 and the 12th congressional district specifically since 2023, announced in September 2025 that he would not seek reelection. Assemblymember Micah Lasher, endorsed by Nadler, won the Democratic primary for the seat on June 23. Lasher will face Republican Caroline Shinkle in November. Her campaign has focused on lower taxes, private-sector growth and public safety, while Lasher’s emphasized affordability, housing, child care and climate policy. The district’s strong Democratic voting history positions Lasher as the favorite. Lasher secured the Democratic nomination with 38.9% of votes, closely followed by Assemblymember Alex Bores’s 34.9%. The crowded field featured nine total candidates, including political commentator Jack Schlossberg, attorney George Conway and public health researcher Nina Schwalbe. The primary was notable for the millions of dollars spent on competing ad campaigns. According to an investigation by the Los Angeles Times, rival political groups tied to major AI companies funded competing ads for and against Bores, making the Manhattan race a battleground in the tech industry’s fight over AI regulation. Bores, a former employee at Palantir — a company that builds AI-powered software for governments and businesses — sponsored the Responsible AI Safety and Education (RAISE) Act, a

state law requiring advanced AI developers to disclose safety protocols and report serious safety incidents. The measure became a focal point in the advertisement fight, with attack ads bringing up Bores’s previous employment at Palantir. Critics of the advertisements argued that they attempted to undermine Bores by connecting him to the same government practices he had criticized.

This race matters to the Fordham Community beyond the simple fact that they can vote in it. The spending illustrated how, as lawmakers debate AI regulation, AI companies and their investors have poured money into political campaigns to influence rules on safety, privacy and corporate responsibility. The outcome of the November elections could influence whether Congress pursues stricter oversight or favors a less restrictive approach to AI development. This race matters to the Fordham Community beyond the simple fact that they can vote in it. Members of Congress vote on federal funding for research and student financial aid. They also influence legislation regarding immigration, the economy, data privacy and the technology companies whose products students increasingly use in their academic and professional lives. The outcome of the election also matters to students who plan on staying in New York after graduation. Federal housing programs and tax incentives influence the availability of affordable housing, while federal transportation funding helps support infrastructure. Although Manhattan’s rent regulations and subway service are primarily controlled by city and state government, Congress still plays a role in the economic conditions affecting young adults. Attorney General Race The race for New York attorney general pits Democratic incumbent Letitia James against Republican challenger Saritha Komatireddy, a former federal prosecutor. The attorney general runs the state Department of Law, which represents New York in legal matters. James, first elected in 2018, has become nationally recognized for investigations of powerful institutions and legal challenges to President Donald Trump’s administration. Supporters view her as a

forceful advocate for New Yorkers, while critics argue that her office has devoted too much attention to national political disputes. Challenger Komatireddy is campaigning on public safety, fraud prosecution and government accountability. Her background as a federal prosecutor is central to her argument that the attorney general should prioritize enforcing state law and protecting taxpayers. The candidates faced off in a televised debate, hosted by Spectrum News NY1 on Oct. 8, where the two clashed over their career history and competing visions for the office. Komatireddy criticized James for focusing on President Trump rather than public safety. “She’s never prosecuted a criminal case in her whole career,” Komatireddy said during the debate, questioning James’ experience with criminal enforcement. James defended her record and criticized Komatireddy for avoiding criticizing the Trump administration. “You, unfortunately, have not said anything critical of this administration,” James said. The attorney general’s decisions can directly affect New Yorkers through investigations of deceptive business practices, civil rights enforcement and legal challenges to government policies. This can impact students in cases related to consumer fraud, discrimination and other legal concerns.

They also disagreed over energy policy. Blakeman argued that clean energy mandates contribute to rising utility bills and will bring fracking back to New York, where it is currently banned. Hochul defended the state’s clean energy goals while promoting alternate energy sources as supplements. The candidates’ disagreements also extended to immigration enforcement. Hochul criticized federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in Nassau County, while Blakeman defended local cooperation with federal authorities. Their competing positions reflect a larger debate over how state and local officials should handle ICE. Mamdani weighed in on the race on Oct. 15, releasing an advertisement supporting Hochul’s reelection bid and criticizing Blakeman’s positions on Medicaid and child care. Mamdani called Blakeman a “bad apple” and argued that his policies would hurt New Yorkers. For Fordham students, the practical implications of the governor’s race exceed campaign rhetoric. The governor proposes the state budget and negotiates with the legislature over funding for public transportation, housing programs, education and health care. These decisions affect the cost of living in New York and the opportunities available to students entering the workforce.

Governor’s Race The race between Democrat Kathy Hochul and Republican Bruce Blakeman has increasingly revolved around the candidates’ political associations, alongside disagreements over energy costs, immigration and public safety.

What do polls reveal about the coming midterms? Polling averages show Gov. Hochul leading challenger Blakeman, although the size of her advantage varies across surveys. Beyond New York, other high-profile Senate races could also shape which party controls Congress, including a closely watched contest in Texas. Democratic state Rep. James Talarico is challenging Republican Ken Paxton for a U.S. Senate seat. Talarico, a former teacher and Presbyterian seminarian, has focused his campaign on affordability and challenging political and corporate power. Paxton, Texas’ attorney general and a Trump ally, has built his political career around conservative policies. He was impeached by the Texas House in 2023 over allegations of misconduct but was acquitted by the state Senate. A poll conducted by Marist University from Oct. 8 to Oct. 11 showed Talarico leading Paxton 47% to 45%. The results demonstrate how competitive the race has become in a state that has not elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 1988. Meanwhile, in Michigan, Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed, a former Detroit health department director, is challenging Republican Mike Rogers in the state Senate race. The New York Times’ polling tracker shows a closely contested race, with recent polls placing the candidates within a few percentage points of each other. The narrow margins make Michigan a key battleground in the fight for Senate control, as Republicans seek to defend their 53–47 majority. The races in New York are part of a larger battle over control of the federal government. Republicans currently hold narrow majorities in both chambers of Congress. Democrats are seeking to regain control in November. Democrats need a net gain of four seats to win the House majority. The party’s path depends on competitive districts across the country.

Hochul criticized Blakeman’s alignment with Trump, while Blakeman blamed the governor for New York’s affordability challenges. The candidates faced off in their only scheduled televised debate on Oct. 13, where they clashed over immigration enforcement, crime, utility costs and their records in office. Hochul criticized Blakeman’s alignment with Trump, while Blakeman blamed the governor for New York’s affordability challenges.

ADRIANNA PIZZUTA/THE OBSERVER

Fordham Lincoln Center students can begin early voting at the Westport Apartment Building at 831 10th Avenue on Oct. 24.

GRAPHIC BY DURGA DESAI/THE OBSERVER

The Senate presents a different challenge. Republicans hold a 53–47 majority. Democrats need to flip at least four Republican-held seats to reach a 51-seat majority, or three seats to produce a 50–50 split, assuming they retain their current seats. However, a 50–50 split would not give Democrats control because Republican Vice President JD Vance would cast the deciding vote in a tie. The stakes extend beyond party control. Congress determines federal spending and legislation involving student financial aid, immigration, health care and technology regulation. A change in the House majority would shift committee leadership and oversight of the Trump administration, while Senate control would influence federal judicial confirmations and executive branch appointments. The Nov. 3 elections will determine who represents Manhattan in Washington, who leads New York’s legal system and who governs the state. Early voting begins Saturday, Oct. 24. Students can vote in-person at their local ballot site or by mail via absentee ballot. The deadline to request an absentee ballot in New York is ten days before an election (Oct. 24 for the midterms). Midterm elections often receive less attention than presidential elections, but their outcomes can substantially change the direction of government. For Fordham students, understanding the candidates, their records and the policies they support is an important first step toward deciding which direction they want their elected officials to take.

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October 21, 2026

Why Did American Pope Leo XIV Get Elected?

News

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David Gibson answered this question and discussed what Leo’s papacy means for the global Church POPE LEO from page 1

“(The cardinals) were voting for an American who represents an America that is disappearing,” Gibson said. “(They) chose an immigrant, multi-ethnic internationalist who prizes dialogue and charity, and mixes high ideals with principled pragmatism, just as America is turning on itself, led by an impulsive egotist who puts his personal gratification over the public good; a president who revels in cruelty and vulgarity and is pushing America to close its gates and build walls — to expel the alien within and alienate allies abroad.” The “ultimate paradox,” for Gibson, lies not in the fact of an American papacy, but in how the U.S.’s “moral soft power” has degraded whilst the nation has retained its “political or military hard power.” He referenced the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in July 2025, which various humanitarian and journalistic organizations linked to hundreds of thousands of deaths. For cardinals around the world, Gibson said, the end of USAID was “a matter of life and death.”

“ American Catholicism is a church of immigrants, much as America is a nation of immigrants.”

David Gibson, Director of Fordham’s Center on Religion and Culture

Trump, Gibson acknowledged, is supported by a faction of American Catholics including Vice President J.D. Vance. His talk spoke to a deep division among American Catholics that has only intensified in recent years. It was clear what side Gibson stood on. “American Catholicism is a church of immigrants, much as America is a nation of immigrants. That is the country and the church that combine to produce an American pope, just as that nation is taking a nativist turn and just as that church is cutting off from an increasingly diverse global community,” Gibson said. “Perhaps the question that Leo’s election ought to prompt in us is not how American and how Catholic he is, but how American and how Catholic we are.” Gibson said he sensed that Robert Prevost (Leo before he

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Two years ago, University President Tania Tetlow and Fordham Board Chair Armando Nuñez met Pope Leo at the Vatican.

took on his papal name) “was elected precisely because he is an American.” Emilce Cuda, an Argentine theologian and Roman Curia official, compared Leo’s ascension to the selection of Pope John Paul II in the 1978 conclave. Born in Poland, John Paul II was chosen to navigate the geopolitical pressures of the Soviet Union. His historic nine-day pilgrimage to his home country helped inspire moral resistance against Soviet communism. Several cardinals have expressed a similar wish for Leo’s papacy. Cardinal Maung Bo of Myanmar said in an interview with ABC News that he hopes Leo will be able to “build a bridge and can have a dialogue with Trump.”

Francis appointed Robert Prevost as the prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops in 2023 and, later that year, elevated him to cardinal. As pope, Leo has followed in the footsteps of his predecessor and taken synodalia as a focus. The practical rationale underpinning Gibson’s overall analysis is twofold: The recent papal election comes at a point of profound change in the Church,

and Leo aligns with a lot of the qualities that the cardinals were looking for in the next pope (liberal, international, the right age, healthy…) The lecture followed the Oct. 13 announcement that Leo received surgery for lung cancer. He has since left the hospital and appears to be recovering well. The event closed with a prayer for Leo’s health. Earlier in the event, Gibson joked about the timing of his talk. “If you think of Pope Leo in these days, pray for him. I was praying for myself a little bit earlier this week. I’m thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve got to change the entire lecture.’ Part of the whole dynamic of this election which I’m talking about was, ‘Oh, we finally got a healthy pope for the first time in 35 years.’ Oops, check that. Get me a rewrite. But that’s how it goes. As journalists, we need to adapt,” Gibson said. Gibson described the “Goldilocks” age for popes as between 69 and 71. This way, a papacy will last 10 to 15 years (which cardinals deem an appropriate turnover), and the pope is likely to be in good health during that time. The cardinals did not want a pope that would appear weak. They did want a pope who would continue Francis’s work of synodalia, meaning “walking together,” an approach to the Church focused on community and collaborative discernment. Francis appointed Robert Prevost as the prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops in 2023 and, later that year, elevated him to cardinal. As pope, Leo has followed in

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Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle was considered a leading papal candidate in the May 2025 conclave that unexpectedly elected Leo.

the footsteps of his predecessor and taken synodalia as a focus. His papal name echoes Pope Leo XIII’s work for workers’ rights during the second Industrial Revolution. Leo’s first encyclical (a public letter) “Magnifica Humanitas” is concerned with “safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence.” Leo has also spoken out against war and for the protection of immigrants, in line with the social teachings of Francis.

The College of Cardinals has changed markedly over nearly five decades. Leo used his background as a Chicago native who moved to Peru as a missionary in his advocacy for migrants. “My own story is that of a citizen, the descendant of immigrants, who in turn chose to emigrate,” Leo said. “All of us, in the course of our lives, can find ourselves healthy or sick, employed or unemployed, living in our native land or in a foreign country, yet our dignity always remains unchanged. It is the dignity of a creature willed and loved by God.” As a papal candidate, Prevost was attractive for his international experience and membership in the Order of Saint Augustine (a monastic order rooted in the teachings of Saint Augustine of Hippo), meaning he “knows how to live in community (and) has a very global universal outlook,” according to Gibson. Leo holds Peruvian citizenship, having spent about a third of his life there. He is fluent in English, Spanish and Italian. This was favorable to many cardinals who, Gibson said, are tired of the Vatican’s historic partiality toward Italian, even as English increasingly becomes the universal language of the Church. In his first speech as pope from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, Leo addressed the public in all three languages. “(Leo also) has a great sense of humor. He does the Wordle every day. Admittedly, that was not on the cardinals’ minds, but that was on my mind. I like that a lot,” Gibson said. Gibson was also candid throughout his lecture about the politics behind a papal election, despite the doctrinal rhetoric that the Holy Spirit selects the pope. As Gibson put it: “It’s not a Ouija board. This is a human institution.” A new pope is elected by a two-thirds supermajority of the

College of Cardinals in a secretive, multi-step conclave. However, much deliberation occurs during the General Congregations — formal, daily meetings where the cardinals discuss the state of the Church and its needs going forward, after a pope’s death or resignation and prior to voting. Two of the major factions in the College of Cardinals, according to Gibson, pushed for candidates other than Leo: Italians, who favored Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and conservatives, who favored Cardinal Peter Erdo. However, Gibson said, the majority of other cardinals were looking for a pope who was neither Italian nor a conservative. Leo fit both of these requirements. Leo also used to work in the Roman Curia, the Vatican’s administrative body or, as Gibson called it, the “human resources” and “talent recruiting” department. So, many of the cardinals already knew Leo. Notoriety was especially important, according to Gibson, because this year’s conclave featured the largest and most international group of cardinals in the Church’s history, with 135 voting-eligible members from 71 countries. Cardinals over 80 cannot vote, but exert their influence by speaking in the General Congregations. The College of Cardinals has changed markedly over nearly five decades. When John Paul I was elected in August 1978, 23% of the 111 cardinals were from Italy and 10% were from Africa and the Middle East. This year each group made up 14%. The Papacy has shifted as well. John Paul II — elected later in 1978 after his namesake and predecessor’s brief 33 day papacy — was the first non Italian pope in 450 years. Benedict XVI was the first to resign in about 600 years, and Francis was the first Jesuit pope. In May, Leo made history again. Gibson described these changes as a “slate wiped clean” for the Church, citing a relevant Francis quote: “We are not living in an era of change, but a change of era.” Having such a large, diverse group of cardinals who did not know each other or speak the same language made predicting the next pope all the more difficult. Still, early betting odds did not even feature Leo in the top 12, and he remained quite an unexpected choice until near the end of the conclave. Gibson explained that the College of Cardinals is sometimes called “the Senate of the Church,” but it is “actually the reverse.” In the U.S. Senate, governors are elected and work together closely in Washington, D.C. for six years. “In the College of Cardinals, they’re named a cardinal by the Pope. You come to Rome for a few days, you get a red hat, you go back to Indonesia or Mongolia or Syria, and you hardly ever come back again until a Pope dies or resigns. … You don’t know each other,” Gibson said. “So what are you looking for? You’re looking for major themes. You’re talking to people about who might carry the Church forward at this time.” It is from this milieu that Leo emerged as the sitting pope. Gibson’s talk was followed by a brief audience Q&A and a dinner. The Burunat lecture honors the late Dr. Julio Burunat, a professor of theology and philosophy at St. Thomas Aquinas College. Burunat was also a twotime Fordham alum, where he earned both his doctorates. His wife, Dr. Silvia Burunat, was present at the event.

Managing Editor Cora Cost

Sports & Health

October 21, 2026 THE OBSERVER

Bats and Angels on The Pitch

Gotham FC takes on Angel City FC at Sports Illustrated Stadium By LUCIEN FISCHER Photo Editor

Gotham FC’s Sam Kerr and Angel City FC’s Savannah King butt heads for possession of the ball.

Women’s soccer teams Gotham FC and Angel City FC collaborated with Hello Kitty for a themed match, featuring an appearance from Hello Kitty herself.

Spectators’ eyes were trained on the match, eagerly waiting to see if their team would win; the result was a 1:1 draw.

Before home matches in New York or New Jersey, Gotham FC ceremonially lights a torch modeled after the Statue of Liberty.

Angel City FC player Emily Sams plays as the team’s defender and was part of the squad that took home the gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

The stadium groundskeepers inspect and repair the field during halftime to patch up turf that had been torn up by players’ cleats during the match.

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October 21, 2026

Sports & Health 7

USWNT Takes on Spain in International Friendlies Three Gotham Football Club players were called up into the team’s roster

from their deficit in the second half the game ended in a 2-0 defeat for the U.S., starting their two-match series against Spain with a loss. In the press conference that followed the game, Hayes was asked about what her approach would be for the next friendly against Spain. “If you give them too much respect in certain areas of the pitch, they will punish you. But equally, have belief in our abilities, especially in the final third,” Hayes said.

By ISABELLA MASCHA Contributing Writer

As fans poured in and Audi Field’s stadium filled, tension and excitement mounted. For the first time in almost four years, the U.S. Women’s National Team (USWNT) faced the Spanish National Team in an international friendly. The two teams faced off twice over the course of the week. The first occurred on Oct. 10 at Audi Field in Washington, D.C. The USWNT battled fiercely in the first match. Its key contributors were Sophia Wilson and Alyssa Thompson who, with their pace and ability to create chances, kept the fight alive against Spain. New York’s own Gotham Football Club player Rose Lavelle was on the field for a total of 66 minutes with 25 passes completed, 19 of those being key passes. Her completion rate was around 76%.

PHOTOS BY ISABELLA MASCHA /THE OBSERVER

Head Coach Emma Hayes spoke of maintaining confidence following the U.S. Women’s National Team’s loss.

The games against the Spanish national team, who are currently the reigning FIFA Women’s World Cup champions, proved to be a good challenge for the U.S.

“ If you give them too

much respect in certain areas of the pitch, they will punish you. But equally, have belief in our abilities, especially in the final third.” Emma Hayes, Head coach of USWNT

Another key player from Gotham was Tierna Davidson, who held the back line. She had a total of 10 defensive interventions, four duel wins and one shot on goal. She played the full 90 minutes to anchor Head Coach Emma Hayes’ defensive scheme. Hayes started the game with a 4-2-3-1 formation, and her lineup featured Claudia Dickey as the goalie with Avery Patterson, Kennedy Wesley and Emily Fox joining Davidson in the back line. Lily Yohannes and Lindsey Heaps were the defensive midfielders, and attacking midfielders Lavelle and Thompson were joined by Trinity Rodman. Wilson was the only forward. Spain’s Head Coach Sonia Bermúdez contrasted Haye’s defensive scheme with a 4-3-3 formation. In a press conference after the match, when asked whether her decisions for the game were planned in advance or based on what was going on in the game, she said that “you have to coach the game as you see it.” Hayes’

Tensions threatened to boil over throughout the game, leading to multiple yellow cards for both teams.

decisions were based on what was actively happening in the game rather than creating a substitution plan or instructions beforehand. Within the first three minutes of play, midfielder Patri Guijarro scored a brilliant goal for Spain from outside the box with an assist from Edna Imade. This immediately put pressure on the U.S. to take action. The USWNT kept trying to press the Spanish backline with lofted passes and through balls to the wingers. However, Spain continued to prevail. In a quick play down the wing, Eva Navarro capitalized and scored in the 14th minute. This was tough for the U.S.

For a team that was consistently at the top of women’s soccer, trailing by multiple goals within the first 15 minutes was uncharacteristic.

Emily Sonnett, a center back for Gotham FC, was out due to a seasonending knee injury she suffered in July. Even though Spain won the first of the two games, key players were missing on the pitch

Despite the loss on Oct. 10, the U.S. Women’s National Team competed with tenacity to keep the game close.

with four of their top starters left off the games rosters — Clàudia Pina, Vicky Lopez, Cata Coll and Mariona Caldentey — all of whom were forced to sit out due to injury. Despite the American trip proving successful for Spain with one victory and one draw, there continues to be questions about how the outcome of these games would have changed if these starters had been available to play. Much like the Spanish national team, the USWNT struggled with injuries. The U.S. was missing key players Sam Coffey, Emily Sonnett and Naomi Girma, who have proved to be crucial on the back line. Sonnett, a center back for Gotham FC, was out due to a season-ending knee injury she suffered in July, which ended her seasons with both teams. Returning to the first game, there were two important opportunities in the game that could have changed the score. In the 52nd minute, Sophia Smith scored off a through ball, which was later called offside. If allowed, Smith’s goal would have finally gotten the U.S. on the board, cutting the lead in half. Although the goal was called offside, the effect after the half was noticeable. Both teams began to play with more aggression. In total, one red card and four yellow cards were given out in total. Yellow cards for Spain were issued to Lucia Corrales and Salma Paralluelo, while Rodman and Yohannes each received one for the USWNT. The red card was issued to Athenea del Castillo after she was accused of hair-pulling. Despite the USWNT’s attempts to recover

The second game was played on Oct. 13 at Subaru Park in Chester, Pennsylvania. The USWNT improved on the initial loss to Spain; the second game resulted in a 2-2 draw. Both teams played in a 4-3-3 formation. Spain scored two early goals in the first half, and the U.S. equalized with two of their own in the second. Overall, Spain was quicker to move the ball around and relieve the pressure that the U.S. was putting on them. The Spanish defense pressed the U.S. early when the U.S. had the ball, resulting in an overall lack of coordination. The Spanish team cohered better, seeming to know exactly what they were doing and which moves their teammates would make to get them the ball. The Spanish team looked like a team that plays together consistently; they have played together for many years and the team maintains a consistent lineup every international break. Another factor contributing to their cohesive nature is that many players on the Spanish national team play together for a single team, FC Barcelona. Although the latest transfer portal disrupted Barcelona’s strong hold on the Spanish roster, as multiple players now represent different teams, many Spanish national players still share many minutes together on the pitch outside of representing their country. On the other hand, during this international break, the U.S. roster consists of players from 12 different NWSL teams and four overseas teams. As someone who grew up watching the USWNT completely dominate women’s soccer, it’s painful to see results like these. Despite the personal disappointment as a fan of U.S. soccer, the games against Spain are a testament to the constant evolution of women’s soccer, with new teams receiving the resources and recognition they deserve. The games against the Spanish national team, who are currently the reigning FIFA Women’s World Cup champions, proved to be a good challenge for the U.S., especially as both teams prepare for the World Cup next year in Brazil. Early friendly minutes are extremely useful to the development of this new USWNT since if they qualify for the World Cup, they will have to face top-tier teams like Spain. It is important for Hayes as a coach to see where the team faced challenges and adjust her strategies for cases like these.

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Arts & Culture October 21, 2026

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Won a Nobel? ‘Yikes.’ Writer, classicist and poet extraordinaire Anne Carson’s reaction to her win was lukewarm, but not altogether unprecedented By MICHELLE WILSON News Editor

nne Carson was sweeping her white kitchen tile in Reykjavík, Iceland — a country she favors, in no small part, for the emptiness of its landscape — when her phone rang. She did not pick up. Only at the insistence of her husband did she call back, and the Swedish Academy informed Carson that she had won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature — her one-word response to her agent: “Yikes.” Carson, often referred to simply as a poet, is also a writer, classicist, translator and professor. But none of these words adequately describe her life or work. Her writing is mysterious, epigrammatic and effortlessly lyrical. Perhaps its most singular quality is Carson’s absolute refusal to appeal to her audience. Most readers will pick up a copy of her work and have no idea what she is talking about for much of it. And she is so brilliant that she not only gets away with it, but is celebrated for it. Carson has published numerous books and poetry collections, many of them blending classical Greek scholarship with verse and narrative. She is perhaps described in her own words from a rare, 2013 profile from The New York Times as a “visiting (whatever).” As elusive as she is on the page, the real-life Carson seems to come straight out of another age, if not another planet. She has taught classes in ancient Greek, attention, artistic collaboration and more across several universities (often alongside her husband Robert Currie), assigning exercises such as “Burn something, use the ash” and “Improve a hotel.” She has an ongoing childhood desire to be Oscar Wilde — erudite and elegant — which she said is yet unachieved (though, by those parameters, that assessment seems inaccurate).

The Swedish Academy said she was awarded the Nobel “for her bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature.” She is a private person and has done few public interviews. Her books almost never feature an author photo and have only the barest of author profiles. Originally from Canada, Carson lives in Ann Arbor and spends time in Iceland every year (where she became a citizen in 2022). She loves swimming and painting. There is a beautiful interview on YouTube, “Life Is Not Fair,” where she discusses her recent Parkinson’s diagnosis. She wrote the essay “Beware the man whose handwriting sways like a reed in the wind” on the devastating impact it had on her lifelong love for handwriting. Carson is nearly universally beloved in the literary world. The feverish, near-reverent pitch of her acclaim stands somewhat in contrast to her physical presence. For instance, in 2018 after a performance of her play “Antigonick” (a retelling of Sophocles’s “Antigone”), Carson was compelled (much to her

chagrin) to participate in an audience Q&A alongside Judith Butler, who played the tyrant Kreon. Most of the questions were about Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, and Carson largely declined to speak except, puzzlingly, to deliver a joke about otters.

When asked in a 2016 interview with The Guardian to define poetry, she said that, “If prose is a house, poetry is a man on fire running quite fast through it.” But when asked if poets choose their craft or if it chooses them, her response was that she “preferred drawing, but wasn’t very good at it.” “‘Where do otters come from?’ she asked, and then without pause or inflection delivered the punch line: ‘otter space.’ The crowd roared with laughter. Carson smiled slightly,” an article from The New York Times reads. Regarding her Nobel win, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy Ingrid Carlberg said that Carson, who was “listening to the wind” when she called, was “taken by surprise, but very happy. I could hear that in her voice.” Given the deadpan demeanor which Carson is so often described to have, Carlberg’s description is a little funny to imagine. Carson certainly has no lack of awards, having previously received MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships, a PEN award, a Lannan Literary Award for Poetry, two Griffin Poetry Prizes and more. The Swedish Academy said she was awarded the Nobel “for her bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature.” An excellent example of this is her book-long essay “Eros the Bittersweet,” a lyrical meditation on the paradoxical nature of romantic love. Carson begins with a fragment from the poet Sappho: “Eros once again limb loosener whirls me / sweetbitter, impossible to fight off, creature stealing up.” She then moves into a winding discussion on love and loss through various Greek myths. Carson’s work in its rare instances of simplicity is equally disarming. Lines like “When Law left I felt so bad I thought I would die” (from her poem “The Glass Essay”) would be painfully cliche from another writer. From Carson, who just waxed poetic about the “blue and green lozenges of April heat,” they feel devastatingly true. The next line is immediately self aware: “This is not uncommon.” Some accuse Carson’s deeply referential, obscure writing of being pretentious. Her self-awareness, and the particular humorous slant to that line (and so much of her work), are perhaps the best defenses against this. “The Glass Essay” is a 38-page poem that constructs a meditative foil between a breakup and the life of Emily Brontë. It is an outpouring of devastation delivered with a sort of academic detachment, punctuated by the particular brand of irony that characterizes much of Carson’s work.

Carson’s rare public comments similarly do not take writing too seriously. When asked in a 2016 interview with The Guardian to define poetry, she said that, “If prose is a house, poetry is a man on fire running quite fast through it.” But when asked if poets choose their craft or if it chooses them, her response was that she “preferred drawing, but wasn’t very good at it.” Of craft, she said: “I don’t think about it. I think people should just quit that stuff. Just think about something and follow it down to where it gets true.” Of the relevance of classical stories to modern audiences, she said: “I don’t think I’m interested in relevance.” Of poetry’s potential as a form of memorialization, she said: “I do not believe in art as therapy.” All of Carson’s writing defies genre in some capacity. Her 2001 poetry collection “The Beauty of the Husband” describes itself as a fictional essay told in 29 tangos. Carson does not explain this, save for a line on the back cover: “(This) is an essay of Keats’s idea that beauty is truth, and is also the story of a marriage. … A tango (like a marriage) is something you have to dance to the end.” The book is a fantastic introduction to Carson, being perhaps the most straightforward of her work (despite what the summary may lead readers to believe). Carson’s refusal to pigeonhole herself shows up in smaller ways, too. A standout poem of hers, “Short Talk on Pain,” is, according to itself, “not a poem” but “a billboard for frozen green peas.” Even the “About this Poem” section for the (not-a-) poem is a sort of poem. Carson complicates the term. “This box is for a statement about the Poem. / Surely a poem is what remains unboxed. / And although the first sentence above may sound merely procedural, / yet you see its necessity for appreciating the second sentence. / On the untidy border between those two / lies everything you want the Day to give you. / I hope it does,” she wrote. Carson’s writing reveals her deep investment in pushing the boundaries of what literature can do. It also reveals her appreciation for existing works. Almost all of her writing is filled with references spanning from arcane moments of Greek mythology (for which she is most well-known)

to a May 20, 1765 diary entry by Emily Tennyson’s grandmother on her wedding day: “Finished Antigone, married Bishop.” Carson quoted the entry after being asked if she values brevity. She answered by giving, as she described it, a “Short Talk on Brevity.” This was also a self-reference; her response harkens back to her “Short Talks.” It can thus be observed that reading Carson requires a (somewhat futile) act of translation, of parsing through her many layers of meaning to come to a comprehensible interpretation(s). Interestingly, she might not like the use of the word “translation” here. Carson does a lot of literal translation work from ancient Greek to English — notably her 2002 Sappho poetry collection “If Not Winter.” In an interview with The Paris Review, she described the space between an original work and its translation as a ditch,

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Sartre’s letter and nomination were only recently revealed in 2015, after Swedish Academy archives were opened. The Academy keeps all information about the selection of its awardees secret for 50 years. Boris Pasternak

two roads that are not quite equivalent, and around them all these floating possibilities for alternate readings. Carson really likes r e a d i n g translator footnotes, which is to say that she is deeply interested in contradiction (holding, not resolving it). Emily Dickinson, Carson said, “make(s) use of that ditch within (her) own language,” and she loves Dickinson’s work for its “untidy, unresolved entirety.” (This is interesting because Dickinson’s poetry, with its neat meters, is not exactly known for particular structural or conceptual experiments.) The two poets share a fascination with volcanoes, having repeatedly used them as poetic images. Carson’s obsession with volcanoes began while she was painting because “Volcanoes are dead easy to paint” (according to a The Guardian interview). Scandals, Snubs and Refusals, Oh My! (A History of the Nobel Prize in Literature) Carson is not the only Literature Nobel winner to have a less-than-exuberant reaction to being awarded the prize. Doris Lessing British novelist Doris Lessing is the most famous example. A viral video

shows reporters stopping her outside her home in London to get her reaction to winning the 2007 Nobel. She asked what they were photographing and, on hearing the news, said “Oh, Christ.” She then exasperatedly waved the journalists away (they did not comply) and turned around to thank her cab driver. “I’ve won all the prizes in Europe, every bloody one, so I’m delighted to win them all, It’s sort of the whole lot. It’s a royal flush, okay?” Lessing said. When a reporter insisted on the weight and significance of the award (beyond the numerous others she has won), she responded with characteristic dry humor: “You see, you’re saying it all for me. Congratulations.” Like Carson, Lessing’s fans were perhaps more delighted by her win than she was. Born in 1919 in Persia (modern-day Iran) and raised on a farm in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Lessing witnessed the direct consequences of colonialism, which fueled her life’s artistic and political work. Her rejection of these systems led to her temporary involvement with the Communist Party and later activism against nuclear weapons. Her work thematically addresses how dehumanization occurs and why people allow themselves to remain complicit in oppressive structures. Lessing is now considered one of the most influential writers of the late 20th century. Jean-Paul Sartre In 1964, French existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre became the first person to ever freely reject a Nobel prize. The Academy recognized Sartre “for his work which, rich in ideas and filled with the spirit of freedom and the quest for truth, has exerted a far-reaching influence on our age.” By the time they voted on him, Sartre had already mailed a letter declaring his intent to decline the prize, should he win, which arrived too late. This was not as scandalous a decision as it may immediately appear. Sartre also rejected any other official honours offered to him for fear they would compromise his writing. “A writer who adopts political, social, or literary positions must act only with the means that are his own — that is, the written word … all the honours he may receive expose his readers to a pressure I do not consider desirable,” Sartre later said to the press. Sartre added that he particularly agonized over the prize money (at the time, 250,000 Kr) because of the good that money could do if donated to the right cause. Today, the Nobel awards 12 million Kr, or about $1.2 million. The exact circumstances of

Russian writer Boris Pasternak was forced to decline a Nobel by the Soviet Union in 1958, to his great disappointment. He was named a laureate for his singular novel “Doctor Zhivago,” which follows the lives of Yuri Zhivago, a physician and poet, and the two women he loved during the Russian Revolution. The book was barred from publication by the USSR in 1955 for its anti-Soviet messaging. A translated version was published in Italy in 1957, a radical act for the time. Pasternak also wrote poetry collections and autobiographical work, but the novel was his magnum opus, the product of decades of intermittent work. He was thrilled to have won and initially sent a telegram accepting the award. The Soviet government retaliated swiftly. He was banned from traveling to formally accept the award on punishment of permanent exile, and wrote another telegram turning the award down. His son Evgeny Pasternak’s memoirs chronicled how this affected his father. “I couldn’t recognize my father when I saw him that evening … Pale, lifeless face, tired painful eyes, and only speaking about the same thing: ‘Now it all doesn’t matter, I declined the Prize,’” the memoir reads. Evgeny accepted the award in his father’s stead 31 years later. Bob Dylan Folk singer-songwriter Bob Dylan’s win is a bizarre case. In 2016, he became the first (and so far the only) musician in history to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. The backlash was immediate. Critics argued that the decision distorted the definition of literature and took away the opportunity from a deserving, “real” writer. Scottish novelist Irvine Welsh famously called it “an ill conceived nostalgia award wrenched from the rancid prostates of senile, gibbering hippies.”

The Nobel Prize in Literature is a sort of tragicomedy of errors and omissions. It causes some measure of controversy almost every year, far exceeding the other categories, with numerous particularly outrageous moments. The Academy framed Dylan as a poet. Dylan himself never weighed in on if he considered his work literature. Dylan did not respond to the announcement of his Nobel for days, ignoring repeated Academy phone calls. The following month, the Academy announced that he would not

October 21 2026

Arts & Culture

be attending the prize ceremony in Stockholm due to “pre-existing commitments.” Patti Smith ended up performing in his stead. Academy rules stipulate that awardees must deliver a lecture within six months of the ceremony or forfeit the prize ceremony. He finally delivered his lecture on June 5, 2017, five days before the deadline, to a small group of Academy members. That was the end of the “Dylan adventure,” as Sara Danius, then secretary of the Swedish Academy, called it. (Technically, Rabindranath Tagore is another lyricist who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913, making him the first non-European awardee. He was also an author, playwright, philosopher and composer, so he was not explicitly recognized as a musician awardee, but rather for his poetry. Tagore had significant influence on Bengali literature and art, and composed the Indian and Bengali national anthems.) Snubs and Other Scandals The Nobel Prize in Literature is a sort of tragicomedy of errors and omissions. It causes some measure of controversy almost every year, far exceeding the other categories, with numerous particularly outrageous moments. Those listed above are only a smattering. The controversies are certainly exacerbated by the fact that prizes in science address highly specialized research that the general public would not be able to weigh in on. Literature is free (or burdened, depending on who you ask) of such constraints. Some of the Nobel’s most controversial snubs include Leo Tolstoy (despite five nominations), Marcel Proust, George Orwell, Vladimir Nabokov, James Joyce, Mark Twain, Anton Chekov, Virginia Woolf, Franz Kafka and Jorge Luis Borges. For a time (particularly, the early 20th century), the award was rightfully accused of sexism and Eurocentrism. To this day, of 123 laureates, only 19 are women (though, recent years have seen an alternating pattern of men and women). Only 31 are not of European nationality. The Nobel Prize in Literature has seen scandals in commission, too. The most notable was when Peter Handke, an Austrian writer who publicly denied the Bosnian genocide during the 1990s war in the Balkans, was awarded the prize in 2019. Almost 60,000 people signed a petition to revoke the award. The governments of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Turkey all formally condemned it, and the ambassadors of Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Turkey boycotted the award ceremony. Ironically, this came after a 2018 scandal so outrageous that, after many judges resigned in disgust, the year’s prize was cancelled. An Academy member’s husband was credibly accused of rape and sexually assaulting at least 18 women. He was also accused of financial misconduct by leaking the names of the winners to bettors. The 2018 and 2019 prizes were jointly delivered the following year. The Nobel Prize in Literature, despite often finding itself at the centre of controversy, was an unquestionable success this year. The literary world celebrates Carson’s well-deserved (and arguably well overdue) win.

Author’s Note:

Carson is my favorite writer. Her brilliance cannot be contained on this page. If nothing else, I suggest you read this excerpt from a 2013 The New York Times profile, which was my first introduction to Carson. She is discussing her feeling of alienation from the writing of her verse-novel “Red Doc >,” which, at the time, had just been published. I have since reread the passage upward of 20 times. I still have no idea what she is talking about, and I am still awestruck: “1 a particle is a thing in itself. a wave is a disturbance in something else. waves themselves are probably not disturbed. 2 there are some big particles inside Red Doc> — of information (ice), of grief (mother), of caprice (musk ox mind) — but by the time i wrote them down i had moved out to the condition of wave. 3 maybe i’m just saying that i’m a tough old bugger. 4 remember Monica Vitti saying, I can’t watch the sea for a long time or what’s happening on land doesn’t interest me anymore”

DESIGNED BY ROOP SOMAL

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Editor-in-Chief Leeya Azemoun

Opinions

October 21, 2026 THE OBSERVER

The Online War Against Women

Surface-level commentary enforces detrimental views of women

Online Editor Sofia Strelnikova

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If we flood the internet with substantial conversation, it will force change — we won’t be able to dismiss women any longer. Every single person has an implicit bias against women woven into them from our patriarchal society, and it will be perpetuated unless we face the discomfort of calling people out. Rather than posting generic words on our platforms, we can instead force people to confront their sexism, even if it may seem to be dismissible, such as commenting on a woman’s body in an objectifying manner, flirting when it is clearly unwanted, or calling a woman “dramatic” or “wrong” until a man agrees with her. These “small” actions we excuse or do not call out sufficiently compound into cases like the one at Cornell, with 50 other men who sat complacently on their phones, not saying anything when one of the seven alleged rapists sent out a message reading “free p—y.” This didn’t happen simply because men are inherently rapists, or that it’s just nature that they see women in this derisive, sexualized light. It’s because of how society raises men, and social media often enforces these skewed ideas of women. Not only do they grow up with media that shows women as submissive objects simply existing for the pleasure of men, but it is also how

Editor-in-Chief Leeya Azemoun

Managing Editor Cora Cost

AUBREY LAYLA HANKIN Contributing Writer

e are approaching cases of crimes against women in a painfully insufficient and therefore dangerous manner. Recently, just like everyone else on the internet, I opened my phone to Instagram and was instantly flooded with Jane Doe’s case against seven Chi Phi fraternity men who, she alleged, sexually assaulted her at Cornell University. To put it bluntly, I only follow people who share at least partially similar political morals, and still, something was off about the way people were posting on their stories about the case. I mostly saw plain, commentary-free posts or reposts with just a few words asserting how horrifying the situation is. I agree with the sentiment to an infinite extent, but what’s being said in these posts isn’t enough. I felt uncomfortable with these posts and the trend-following behavior they exhibited. Just like with every other big headline, there is a cycle of simply reposting random graphics and other people’s words on one’s story with little to no analysis or original thought added to it. When a headline is exhausted of reposts, the discussion around it comes to a halt as we wait patiently for the next tragic event to occur, so we can selectively speak out against immoral acts, only to follow it with silence yet again. Why are we waiting for another woman to be brutally assaulted in order to inspire conversation among our peers? Why, when we finally discuss the normalized violations of men against women, do we blindly go along with everyone else, choosing to make certain cases viral instead of consistently engaging in critical thought through our posts and in our daily lives? Constantly, men make supposedly “harmless” comments toward women, and on the rare occasion when someone responds to an arguably small, yet harmful action, they are seen as “sensitive” or called out for “reading too much into it.” When I have participated in this rhetoric, even other women have made me feel stupid for calling out behavior that is demeaning to our gender.

Observer the

Creative Director Durga Desai Layout Editor Roop Somal Photo Editor Lucien Fischer Asst. Photo Editors Elisa Luna Adrianna Pizzuta Copy Editors Georgia Bernhard Lara Popovic News Editors Mackenzie Cooper Michelle Wilson Asst. News Editors Aleena Siddiqui Sophia Stephan GRAPHIC BY TOBY GUI/THE OBSERVER

Broad statements posted on social media such as “I stand with Jane Doe” do little to contribute to meaningful conversations that could shift how we think about women.

they are taught to consume this media and the sexist rhetoric surrounding them. Men grow up not receiving the space to be vulnerable, resulting in a lack of self-reflection and, subsequently, a lack of critical analysis of the world around them. Social media is a space where they can and should be prompted to think more critically when their feeds encourage and incorporate real discourse. Many find the culture of social media surface-level and dangerous to encourage, and to some extent, this is true — we are usually utilizing social media in a performative manner, making tragedies into trends to prove that we are moral people who contribute to the political and social sphere. If people are just reposting generic posts or headlines without commentary or original thought, this will only contribute to the cycle of men blindly going along with what society has told them growing up. But I have seen some posts that successfully give multiple perspectives to consider when analyzing a political event or a case like Jane Doe’s. Social media has the power to spread intellectual, analytical thinking that interrupts the ingrained sexism we are taught to hold, and which we see on these platforms themselves. If this type of behavior is normalized and men are exposed to these deeply passionate points of view from women, they may start to empathize with the stories of those directly affected by sexism on a daily basis (which is all women). We are failing to use these platforms to our advantage. If we flood the internet with substantial conversation, it will force change — we won’t be able to dismiss women any longer. We could be calling out others and ourselves online, and we can work toward shifting how we view women in every aspect of our society by starting conversations that some are too scared to have in face-to-face interactions. Social media connects us around the globe, fostering a wealth of ideas and perspectives. It has immense potential to change and open minds, including those who are raising children, shaping the minds of future generations and influencing how they perceive women. Thus, when I see incomplete thoughts paired with a graphic about the alleged rapists of Jane Doe, I feel triggered by the severe lack of conversation questioning why men are too scared to call out other men who are torturing women without consequence. If we actually start to discuss the true root of this consistent behavior on public platforms with words that are accessible to a wide span of people, viewers will therefore begin to engage in self-reflection on how their own thoughts are influenced by systemic misogyny. We should write our own unique perspectives on such events instead of just reposting someone else’s words (this can be especially beneficial if it is

actual analysis or educational content paired with theory), which can broaden others’ perspectives and inspire people to develop more complex views. This can influence each person’s behavior in daily life, as it teaches the habit of closely examining each event and considering lived experiences.

When women shout bravely to the internet that Jane Doe’s rape isn’t unique, it teaches those who are close-minded that this is a systemic and dire issue that we are facing. We could even start actual discussions on how we can approach systemic sexism and how we can shift our behavior by posing questions to viewers, whether through a question box on Instagram or collaborative livestreams that invite the audience to participate alongside the host while focusing on a specific issue. In the case of Jane Doe, some take the opportunity to bring up their own experiences of sexual assault or harassment, showing the world that this case isn’t unique — in fact, it’s very common. Women are consistently dismissed and thrown to the side when they allege that they have been raped, abused or harassed. In fact, Jane Doe’s case happened two years ago, yet only resurfaced recently because when the original report of the seven men’s alleged crimes was brought to the Tompkins County District Attorney, he decided the case did not meet the legal threshold for criminal charges under New York state law. When women shout bravely to the internet that Jane Doe’s rape isn’t unique, it teaches those who are close-minded that this is a systemic and dire issue that we are facing. It prompts others to wonder why this is happening and what we can actually do about it. Slowly, this widespread, publicly written commentary shifts the extent to which excusing men is normalized, as we face how every single one of us is affected by the way women are perceived. We will eventually raise more and more men to see women not as submissive bodies, but as equals. This is only possible if we fight against the social anxiety of saying something more substantial than safe and easy declarations, even if it is against a subtler action that is deemed “harmless” at first glance. We cannot succumb to the fear of what other people will think of a comment that may seem sensitive or overdramatic, because if we do, we are complicit in the constant, fatal threat to women that we are fostering men to hold.

Arts & Culture Editor Indira Bush Lainey Collier Features Editor Ikma Inusah Fun & Games Editor Damian Grove Asst. Fun & Games Editor Emaan Ehtasham Fact Checker Jack Brudecki Social Media Editor Sofia Schreiber Asst. Social Media Editor Emaan Ehtasham Podcast Producer Shine Alagba Business Manager Katie Hariprashad Editorial Adviser Richard Rosen

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October 21, 2026

Opinions

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What You Should Learn From Nonbinary People

Understanding nonbinary identity isn’t actually that complicated and can enrich your understanding of yourself GEORGIA BERNHARD Copy Editor

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o one really seems to understand what being nonbinary is. Sure, most people in progressive spaces are aware of the concept of they/them pronouns and the apparent association between nonbinary people and whipping up artisan coffees. But ironically, despite the conservative fixation on nonbinary identity, otherwise inclusive people don’t seem to know much else. As my mom posited one day, “Is it, like, a guy who wears makeup or a girl with short hair? Or someone has a bunch of facial piercings?” Contrary to (unfortunate) popular belief, having a weird haircut or being named Sock isn’t what makes someone nonbinary, nor is it anything else you can wear.

I think a helpful, albeit simple, description is that being nonbinary means that one doesn’t identify as strictly being a man or a woman. Some seem to believe that being nonbinary just means that somebody dresses androgynously or, maybe otherwise, gets their clothes mostly from Hot Topic. Although many nonbinary people like to include both typically masculine and feminine elements in their wardrobe, being nonbinary isn’t about somebody’s sense of style, just as a woman isn’t a woman solely because she may wear a dress. One rung above this shallow understanding of nonbinary identity is the idea that being nonbinary is one and the same as using they/them pronouns. This is rooted in some reality: Many nonbinary people go by they/them pronouns. Furthermore, they are “not binary” pronouns, in not being connoted as strictly male nor female, as pronouns like “he” and “she” often are. It certainly is true that pronouns are connected to your feelings about your gender. A transgender man uses he/him pronouns because he is a man, for instance. Pronouns do carry meaning. However, unless you think the freedom to prefer

certain pronouns is a psy-op to destroy civilization or something of the like, we can agree that they’re ultimately up to what the user prefers. For example, someone can be nonbinary and go by she/they, they/he, he/she or even she/her pronouns if they happen to feel comfortable with them. In fact, many nonbinary people go by any pronouns. To touch upon one example mentioned, someone who, say, lived life as a woman and grew used to she/her pronouns can realize that they don’t see themselves as a woman and come to identify as nonbinary. But that individual might be more comfortable continuing with what pronouns they’re accustomed to. Nothing else can determine your gender identity — no tendency towards dress or behavior — other than what gender identity, and particular relationship to it, makes you feel comfortable. Now we’re aware; being nonbinary isn’t about what pronouns you use. So what does being nonbinary mean? I think a helpful, albeit simple, description is that being nonbinary means that one doesn’t identify as strictly being a man or a woman. Here, “strictly” means something crucial. There may be people out there who feel as though they cannot identify as nonbinary because they feel some connection to being a man or being a woman (or both), though they still don’t feel comfortable with strictly being one or the other. However, it’s overly simplistic to assume that nonbinary people feel no identification whatsoever with manhood or womanhood. To speak from my personal experience, I still feel a connection to womanhood, and other nonbinary people I know share a similar feeling. I grew up as a girl, and today, I go through the world being viewed by most people as a woman. I don’t identify as a woman, but I also don’t feel zero association with womanhood because, the way I see it, it has shaped my life whether I like it or not. There are nonbinary people who do, in fact, feel a complete lack of connection to either binary gender, which is just as reasonable. But for many people who identify as nonbinary, such as myself, there is a fluidity involved in their identity. To address the array of terms associated with nonbinary identity, to be honest, most people I have met typically tend to identify mainly as nonbinary.

PHOTOS BY LUCIEN FISCHER/THE OBSERVER

Nonbinary people aren’t all the exact same; being nonbinary means something different to everyone who identifies with it.

Frankly, it seems to me that those most opposed to gender experimentation are usually the ones obsessed with niche gender identities. Such individuals might point to elaborate lists of 72 genders, or highlight instances of young people online experimenting with such niche labels, to attempt to make nonbinary and transgender identity seem like a joke or a sideshow to an audience of people completely unfamiliar with the topic. And it’s often successful; if I were a middle-aged mom on Facebook, seeing the term “omnigender” would probably make me black out, honestly.

You can’t write an exact formula explaining why you love someone, why you listen to a favorite band or why you might pick a certain pair of socks on a given day. You just do. We should be able to extend this logic to gender, too. But the truth is that the vast majority of people do not use these labels. And for the ones that do — who cares? If 16-yearolds are made comfortable by discovering a certain label, how is that not a positive outcome from the person (who was most

Nonbinary identity can allow people to see how multifaceted gender can actually be and enrich their own relationship with gender.

likely another 16-year-old) creating this label? With something as confounding and frustrating for everyone as gender can be, a person made just a little more comfortable by terms or neopronouns they found online should be seen as a good thing. Being nonbinary is about an internal sense of one’s gender, as is any gender identity. As I write this, I can hear my dad, somehow all the way from New Jersey, shout out, “What the hell does that mean?” Well, if he can hear me from New York, I’ll explain. If you ask yourself, “What makes me feel like my gender?”, you probably don’t have one particular answer — at least not a simple one. Or for others, it may be better to ask, “What makes me feel like I’m not a different gender?” To ask a woman or a man what makes them feel like a woman or a man would likely elicit the response, “I don’t know … I just feel like one.” Most cisgender people wouldn’t have a simple answer to this question. I’d say that nonbinary people aren’t different. Some may be able to construct a description of what not feeling like solely a man or a woman, feeling like a mix of the two, or feeling like neither at all is like. But gender is complex; all things involving feelings and internal senses are. You can’t write an exact formula explaining why you love someone, why you listen to a favorite band or why you might pick a certain pair of socks on a given day. You just do. We should be able to extend this logic to gender, too. No one, including nonbinary people, should be forced to explain the complexities of what they’re drawn to and feel comforted by in order to have their preferences taken seriously. Most of us are already well aware that similar emotions and inclinations can’t be cleanly explicated, regardless of how this may violate our desire for simplicity. Simply put: What makes someone nonbinary is that they identify as nonbinary. There are nonbinary people who only wear feminine clothing; there are nonbinary people who only wear masculine clothing. Just like there are stud and butch lesbian women who primarily wear masculine clothing, for instance, clothing doesn’t determine gender identity — such women are still, of course, women. Similarly, there isn’t one set of pronouns that all nonbinary people go by. What you’re comfortable with being referred to as isn’t the final word on how you feel about your gender.

Some may not have profound feelings about their being a man or a woman but are still fine identifying that way. Someone else may feel the same exact way, but they find comfort from those feelings of disconnect in identifying as nonbinary. In my view, it’s this comfort that comes from identifying as nonbinary that makes someone nonbinary. Nothing else has the final say in your gender identity — including any preferences in wardrobe or behavior — other than what makes you feel comfortable.

If you feel comfortable with your gender already, but have feelings surrounding it that you haven’t ever really interrogated, you should explore that, too. If you think identifying as nonbinary could make you feel comfortable, explore it. You don’t need to dress in any certain sort of way to qualify as a nonbinary person. You don’t need to institute they/ them pronouns if you don’t feel inclined toward doing so. If you feel comfortable with your gender already, but have feelings surrounding it that you haven’t ever really interrogated, you should explore that, too. For instance, it might just be that you need to remind yourself that social norms surrounding gender shouldn’t determine how you behave and present yourself. You certainly don’t need to be considering identifying as nonbinary or another transgender identity to explore your relationship to gender. Everyone has a gender, so everyone has a relationship to one. Just as you’re benefited by (and should be) thinking about your feelings regarding any other part of life, you should have a basic understanding of how you feel about your gender. Nonbinary people are more than pronouns and a haircut, just like a man is more than an aversion to having a bedframe. They are people deserving of your respect, and people that you should seek to understand. Moreover, everyone could learn something vital from nonbinary (and all transgender) people: introspection into one’s gender and introspection into one’s self. And, finally, one can learn the self-respect required to care about how one feels in the first place.

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Opinions

October 21, 2026

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THE OBSERVER

To Make Rent or Harry Styles

A night ‘dancing with all of our friends’ at Madison Square Garden is worth budgeting for, joy should not have to wait until rent gets cheaper DOVE AJMANI Staff Writer

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lick. Click. Click. The sound of nails on keyboards filled the room in one of my communications classes. I looked up from my laptop and saw every face brightened by the same pale blue light I knew all too well. Forget class. Every person in the room was immersed in the Ticketmaster queue for the hopes of seeing Harry Styles at Madison Square Garden (MSG). At this moment, we were no longer classmates. We were competitors. Style’s 30-night run at MSG has turned an ordinary class into a ticket-buying operation. With New York City serving as his only stop in the U.S. in 2026, missing it was not an option. My attendance was nonnegotiable, but Tickemaster’s cooperation was another question. For weeks, Styles fans, otherwise known as “Harries,” prepared for this every moment. Some lit candles. Some confided in their astrologists. Others followed Dua Lipa’s step-by-step manifestation guide, repeating affirmations as if Styles tickets could be summoned through positive thinking alone. Extensive measures were taken; I made spreadsheets, while my friends replaced their Wi-Fi routers and we all used multiple devices to get into the queue, hoping for twice as many chances. The type of rituals that were often reserved for religious ceremonies, weddings and even funerals are now being used in hopes of gaining concert tickets. As society becomes less and less community based, concerts are serving as an apparent substitute for community gatherings. Some may not understand the vision or the credit charge. But this kind of connection is a necessity, not a frivolous expense; this experience is worth paying for. These spaces are sacred places for people to lose themselves in the music and occasionally in a sea of feather boas and sparkly cowboy hats. Music has always united people, even when listeners have different interpretations of a specific song. While some fans may see a reflection of themselves in the lyrics, others could simply enjoy the beat. I may even sing every word at the top of my lungs, despite never experiencing anything remotely similar, but that has never stopped me from enjoying the moment. It’s a beautiful experience because when the stage lights dim, everything that sets us apart fades away.

Some may not understand the vision or the credit charge. But this kind of connection is a necessity, not a frivolous expense; this experience is worth paying for. For the next few hours, thousands of strangers are connected through song and dance. The arena becomes their church, the setlist serves as their scripture and Styles leads the sermon. With togetherness and

PHOTOS BY ADRIANNA PIZZUTA/THE OBSERVER

Nothing beats the thrill of winning the Ticketmaster war after a long, arduous battle.

The experience of seeing Harry Styles live on his Together, Together tour is one I couldn’t afford to miss.

love filling the walls of MSG, I can understand why some fans view concerts and fan culture as something akin to a religious experience. In the end, it’s not just about hearing songs — it’s about feeling like we belong to something bigger than our own playlist. The sale began;, some triumphed, while many others faced a seat map only to discover that going through the queue did not mean they could afford what was waiting on the other side. Some fans were able to secure seats, while others learned a valuable lesson about peak consumerism by receiving fraud alerts from their banks or by maxing out their credit limits. Many lost the war, but that did not stop them from seeing Styles. Their journey for securing tickets has only just begun. Instead, it directed them to a new type of market where the price of a single ticket could equal that of the newest iPhone. Securing tickets for many Harries was only one step in the process. Those coming from out of state and even abroad had other financial considerations such as travel and hotel costs. Fans booked hotels far in advance without even having tickets; some would call it mere delusion, while others would phrase it as pure dedication. Either way, plans were set in motion. A ticket comes with a seat, a date and an experience to look forward to. The total cost is easier to avoid thinking about, especially when the excitement is immediate and the credit bill is not. Fans were no longer

planning a night out; they were planning a militarized strategy that involved flying across state and country lines, draining their savings, yet still needing to have enough to indulge in his merch and pop-up experiences. The expense was real, but so was the value of being there.

After all, if you can’t ever afford to own a home, you might as well rent out a seat or two or even secure a spot in the pit at MSG for a couple of hours instead. All of this is coming at the expense of many necessities, such as rent for the month. Affordability challenges have made homeownership harder for Gen Z to achieve. It feels more like a bucket list item than my next step, since while apartment hunting in New York City makes Ticketmaster battles seem like child’s play. Buying a concert ticket will not solve those pressures, but putting joy on hold until the housing market becomes affordable is an absurd practice in itself. Experiences like concerts are worth making room for, even on a tight budget. There is no guarantee of an encore; your favorite song could be cut from the setlist or worse they stop touring. Plus, you’re only this young once. After all, if you can’t ever afford to own a home,

you might as well rent out a seat or two or even secure a spot in the pit at MSG for a couple of hours instead. Once the seat map loads, the reality of this choice sets in. Some tickets reached around $1,100, which is nearly one-quarter of New York City’s median monthly rent. In the past month, the median rent in New York City was around $4,600. At this rate, one ticket could cover roughly eight days’ rent. For some fans, “Harry Styles or rent?” is not a rhetorical internal battle but an actual budgeting decision. That sacrifice hits Style’s younger fans harder — especially Generation Z (Gen Z). A study found 42% of Gen Z adults live paycheck to paycheck, and another 24% have skipped events with friends to manage rising costs. But joy shouldn’t have to wait for a better economy. A Styles concert is just not another concert; it’s a transcendental experience worth planning and saving for months in advance. Those of us wounded in the Ticketmaster war were not ready to surrender; giveaways became the next front in the fight for a ticket. Many were posted on social media, and fans were quick to embrace the embarrassment of tagging multiple friends and posting multiple giveaways on their stories for an extra entry. For every fan who wins a complimentary pair of tickets, thousands of others surrender their digital soul. Fans were willing to like, share and repost their way to the top in hopes

of being the next chosen one. Some Harries have even gone so far as to create additional Instagram accounts for extra tickets. A ticket is worth pursuing, but creating another digital identity just to become a promotional account crosses the line. An online presence should reflect you, not a list of giveaway requirements. Styles is not personally associated with these giveaways, but that hardly matters. His name alone carries so much weight that fans are persuaded to hit follow on unfamiliar brands, download suspicious apps, allow promotional emails to keep coming indefinitely and accept that their data will be given away. While the winner gets a dream concert experience, the losers will be met with spam emails until the end of time. The extra accounts and endlessly scouting for more entries becomes a second job, without a paycheck, and most of the time, without a ticket. The intense attachment to Styles may seem ridiculous, but that is hardly a new phenomenon in fan culture. Styles inspires the same devotion I have for his forerunners: Prince, George Michael and David Bowie, each with a distinct sound and flair that makes them inimitable. Styles is a wild card, combining the flashy outfits, likable personality, social activism and memorable discography of the popstars who came before him without feeling like a mere impersonation. Styles honors the greats while giving a new generation an icon of their own. As someone who has struggled with openness and representation, I find clarity in songs like “Golden” and “Aperture.” Styles’ discography reflects different chapters of my life. Yes, the connection may be parasocial, but the comfort his music brings is real. By centering togetherness and love in his music and even his tour names, Styles creates an even stronger bond with me. His “Together, Together” residency at MSG offers more than a concert. It’s a welcoming space to make friends and find community among people who share a love for his music. This residency is an act of love that Harries like myself cannot miss. Despite the odds being stacked against us, Harries keep enlisting for another shot at tickets. I survived the Ticketmaster trenches with my personal data intact, but with multiple taps open across every device, all of my Apple products have seen active duty in the pursuit of victory. At this point, many others and I are way too deep to wave the white flag now. As my friends’ inboxes flood with constant nothingness from unfamiliar brands and their phones buzz with notifications about new giveaways opening each day. Between creating accounts and hunting for giveaway entries, they and countless others are clocking in for an additional shift with no guarantee of making it through the arena’s doors. I glanced at my phone and saw two notifications. One wais from my bank: a low balance warning. Another wais from Ticketmaster. The subject line had three words — those three words everyone wants to hear at least once: “You got ’em.” Styles, I’ll see you at The Garden on Oct. 28.

Arts & Culture Editors Indira Bush Lainey Collier

Arts & Culture

October 21, 2026 THE OBSERVER

‘Sweat’: A Blue-Collar Community on the Rocks

Fordham Theatre students tackle race and class on the Mainstage in Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play ‘SWEAT’ from page 1

Without considering the racial dynamics at play, Jazmine said it is impossible for the other characters, or the audience, to understand Cynthia. Her identity as a Black woman is fundamental to the character’s lived experience. “If you don’t see my Blackness,” Jazmine said, “then you don’t see me.” In crafting Cynthia, Jazmine drew on the experiences of the women close to her. She grew up surrounded by her mother, grandmothers and great-grandmothers, who Jazmine said made sacrifices so that she could succeed. Jazmine imagined Cynthia’s family and ancestors as she developed the character, drawing parallels between the backstory she created and the women in her own life. “Because of Cynthia’s parents’ and her grandmothers’ and her family’s blood, sweat and tears, she was able to do what she did,” Jazmine said of Cynthia’s decision to take the promotion. While Cynthia breaks race and gender barriers in her rise to management, she also breaks the trust of her friends, leaving them feeling betrayed. Ella Rayne Goldstein, FCLC ’28, played Cynthia’s friend Jessie. She explained that, to her, the play is about community. Unlike Cynthia or their trio’s third friend, Tracey, Jessie does not have children or family. “Her community is everything

COURTESY OF CASON DOYLE

Factory workers flock to a Reading bar after their shifts in “Sweat.”

to her. She doesn’t have much else,” Goldstein said. “The bar is a community place and all of these people, in some sense, are kind of family … that’s why Cynthia’s actions hit in such a negative way for everyone, because it feels like she is abandoning them.” “Sweat” highlights how powerful capitalists sow division among the working-class community, especially along racial lines, diverting attention from the exploitative system. The play’s characters are all factory workers — the owners and executives never make an appearance. When the union is locked out of the

factory after rejecting proposed pay cuts, Goldstein said that this absence is what directs Jessie’s anger toward Cynthia. “The people that are really the ‘big bads’ of this story aren’t there,” Goldstein said. “We don’t have the people who run the mill there to yell at … so someone has to take the brunt.” Despite instances of violence, slurs hurled and bigotry propagated, Manning agreed with Goldstein. The play’s characters are not in control; they can only work within the flawed systems that surround them. “There were no villains in this

play,” Manning said. “They’re all victims of capitalism and this need for people to make more money … Now, this pales in comparison to what we’re going through.” Throughout the play, Nottage highlights the collapse of the American Dream as the working-class characters bear the burden of the factory’s economic shifts. Both Manning and his assistant director, Adriana Braganza, FCLC ’29, echoed Manning by noting that the play speaks directly to modern-day conditions. Though written 11 years ago, and set 15 years before that, the play’s commentary on capitalism and

economic disparity continues to be relevant. “I was so glad that I was able to take on this opportunity and to actually put on a show that I feel like lines up with my values and what’s going on in the economic and political state of the world,” Braganza said. The directors also emphasized that their goal was not for the audience to pity the characters or their circumstances. Rather, they focused on depicting the conditions of the community with candid realism. Braganza worked with actors on visualizing other characters in the play’s world and developing thought processes that connected their lines of dialogue. Manning gave the actors a better understanding of the play’s temporal setting by compiling a research document on the period and coaching actors in one-onone meetings where they dove deeper into each character. “I like giving (actors) the power to create their own version of that character,” Manning said. “It’s my job as a director to basically sculpt it into something that’s going to be presentable to the audience.” Through the team’s prioritization of realism and their dedication to demonstrating the characters’ humanity, young actors deftly grappled with the play’s weighty themes of race, community and class. “Sweat” ran in Pope Auditorium from Oct. 8 to Oct. 16.

Old Work and New Possibilities at the Limón Dance Company’s 80th Anniversary Season The Limón Dance Company makes a case for their rich history and their exciting promise for the future By INDIRA BUSH Arts & Culture Editor

When José Limón and Doris Humphrey founded the Limón Dance Company in 1946, American modern dance was already turning audiences’ ideas of what dance could be upside down — it was coming down to earth in more ways than one. Humphrey herself created the idea of “fall and recovery,” experimenting with gravity instead of trying to float above it like the ballerinas of the past. Dancers took off their pointe shoes and tutus in favor of bare feet and simple, less-constrictive clothing. Above all, the subject matter changed; dance could be about more than dying swans and palace dramas; it could be about the human experience. The Limón Company played a pivotal role in this era that changed American dance forever. As dance became a place to discuss real human struggle, Limón, a Mexican immigrant, founded his company on the idea of the “search for commonality.” Eighty years later, the Limón Dance Company must do more than just uphold a legacy of quality performance; it has something to prove. Can a company founded on representing the human experience continue to resonate, generations later? The person tasked with answering that question is Artistic Director Dante Puleio. For their 80th anniversary season at The Joyce Theater, running from Oct. 6 to Oct. 11, Puleio focused on a specific group of people: the company’s artists. In the director’s

PHOTO COURTESY OF LIMÓN DANCE COMPANY

“Join,” a new commission by Azure Barton, is an exciting look at the future of the Limón Dance Company.

note in the program he described the works selected for the program as “love letters to dancers.” The program opened with Limón’s 1958 piece, “Mazurkas,” a series of short dances — an entrance, five solos, three duets, a trio, a quartet, a septet and a fullgroup finale — set to a live pianist. In a post-performance conversation between Puleio and Alison Manning, co-executive director of the Harkness Dance Center at 92NY, Puleio revealed that this full performance of “Mazurkas” had not been seen since 1964. Getting all the pieces on stage this season took months of difficult resurrection work, including interpreting old video-footage, some of which had no audio. While bringing the whole performance of “Mazurkas” back on

stage is undoubtedly a special treat for longtime fans, the work feels unfortunately aged in the current dance landscape. In the entrance, the dancers curtsied to one another and their pianist, an obvious but cheery opening. The dances that followed were similarly heartwarming, yet cliche. In a duet, Joey Columbus and Olivia Mozie displayed an air of hopeful love — he lifted her into the air and she gazed down adoringly. Columbus and fellow dancers Ian Debono and Stephen Haley performed a lively trio, clicking their heels and saluting one another, a timeless note of camaraderie. In the quartet, the women intertwined arms with a youthful playfulness. The finale gives “Mazurkas” a tidy ending. There is plenty of partner work

and a bow at the pianist (Michael Scales). “Mazurkas” is nothing if not a showcase of what a joy it can be to dance with a friend. While “Mazurkas” is joyful, it is also idealistic and simplistic. Limón choreographed the work as a tribute to his dancers after a trip to Poland post-World War II. He meant to capture the “indomitable vitality” he witnessed, but that vision does not feel as accessible to audiences today. While “Mazurkas” may feel like a note from the distant past, the Limón Dance Company does not. The program’s second piece: “Join,” a new commission for the company by Azure Barton, was proof. Like “Mazurkas,” the piece was meant as a gift to the dancers (this time for those of the 80th anniversary season). Barton

took inspiration from a passage of Limón’s writing on Humphrey’s lost work, “Orestes.” A contemporary work grounded in modern dance lineage, “Join” was proof that the Limon Company is still at the helm of dance innovation. The piece opened with the dancers standing in a line, armin-arm. They then embraced one another, swaying back and forth. For all the ways that “Mazurkas” was sweetly cliche, “Join” was vulnerably beautiful — less about admiration and more about mutual need. In a recurring motif, the dancers wrapped their arms around and attempted to jump on their partner. While their partner stayed still, they continued to attempt to latch on, as if to say, “Catch me, catch me.” For all its emotional power, “Join” was also a welcome showcase of the company’s technicality. In an incredible stunt, one dancer seemed to float above the crowd, and then, with complete abandon, fall into the fellow dancers who caught her. In another moment, the dancers reformed their original line and simply stepped front and back, switching their arms up and down in a synchronized pattern — a powerful simplicity. The piece ended with the dancers in another shared embrace. Barton’s work is stunning, but more importantly, a point was made. Limón changed dance forever with his search for commonality. What that means to audiences today has shifted, but the company can too. Limón’s work will always have its place in dance history, but the Limón Dance Company is so much more.

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Arts & Culture

October 21, 2026

www.fordhamobserver.com

THE OBSERVER

NYFF Celebrates an Inspiring 64th Year

In its two week long run at the Lincoln Center, NYFF open up the doors for both American and World premieres By SAM LOCKWOOD Contributing Writer

For 64 years, the New York Film Festival (NYFF) has celebrated cinema and culture worldwide, drawing in directors from all over the globe to share their artistry with eager audiences. In an 18-day-long extravaganza of feature films, shorts and discussions with directors, NYFF finds its home at one of New York City’s prime locations: Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts — coincidentally a block away from the Fordham Lincoln Center (FLC) campus. This fall season, the festival had one of its biggest years yet, holding the world premiere for Tony Gilroy’s “Behemoth,” starring Pedro Pascal. The festival also featured other notable films such as James Gray’s “Paper Tiger” and Jordan Firstman’s directorial debut “Club Kid,” both of which premiered at Cannes Film Festival earlier this spring. NYFF prides itself on being a non-competitive space for filmmakers to share their craft with others. There are no awards, no cut-throat prestige on the line, just directors, creative teams and loving audiences eager to support live cinema. Tickets are available to the general public, and although they can be rather pricey, the message is clear: Live cinema should be accessible and enjoyable for everybody. Upon walking into Alice Tully Hall for “Behemoth”’s world premiere, attendees were instantly encapsulated in a world of creativity, with posters hanging from every wall, and a vibrant merch stand. Packed shoulder-to-shoulder with film lovers buzzing in anticipation, the theater felt incredibly alive — an experience that has been difficult to come across since the pandemic. A first-time NYFF-goer,

performance major Angelo Durante, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’30, noted the impact the setting had on the experience.

Firstman’s authentic and modernized take on the classic fatherhood plot flips the narrative on its head, hashing out an entirely new, unexpected story. “It’s the whole environment and atmosphere that make it a different experience. You feel special going to see these films,” Durante said. Luxurious is the perfect word to describe this feeling. Attendees can feel excited to be present and able to see these films early. The absolute dedication to this experience shared amongst the crowd was obvious. There were tourists who had traveled from across the country, even the globe, all there to experience the festival and get a peek at the next season of film. It was not long before the lights dimmed and Tony Gilroy emerged onstage with a few members of the cast. “This is my neighborhood film festival,” Gilroy said, beaming from the stage. “I’ve lived here my whole life.” Gilroy was so full of life, he seemed to exemplify exactly what the festival is really about: giving back to the community and uplifting new artists. It is nearly impossible to pin down the exhilarating energy around the festival and put it into words. “Behemoth” was not the only wonderful experience

NYFF64 posters lit up around the Lincoln Center at the Performing Arts.

Tony Gilroy onstage at Alice Tully Hall with cast members of “Behemoth.”

offered by NYFF. In fact, a week or so before the festival truly kicked off, I had the opportunity to attend an industry screening of “Club Kid,” which proved to be an unforgettable ride. At first, I felt out of place, sitting among industry professionals with press passes and journals stacked with critiques. However, as soon as the title card came onto the screen, I felt right at home. That is one of the most dreamlike elements of the moviegoing experience: No matter who you are when you walk into the theater, the moment you take your seat in the audience, everything else melts away. You become a part of something greater, a larger community. You find yourself laughing, clapping or even crying with total strangers. For a split second, you forget about everything outside the walls of the theater, and these strangers become familiar friends. Watching “Club Kid,” audiences found themselves living through that same kind of catharsis. Making a splash at NYFF following its much buzzed-about debut at Cannes, the film serves as a love letter to queer culture, especially impactful amid a period of heightened targeting of the community in our politics. I found myself going back-andforth between belly laughing and wiping tears from my eyes. Based on the sniffling sounds and roars of laughter around me, it is reasonable to assume I was not the only one. Firstman’s authentic and modernized take on the classic fatherhood plot flips the narrative on its head, hashing out an entirely new, unexpected story. “(Club Kid) was really great, really funny. I thought it touched (different) generation’s kind of humor. This woman beside me was laughing at some jokes, and then wasn’t laughing at the jokes

ADRIANNA PIZZUTA/THE OBSERVER

SAM LOCKWOOD/THE OBSERVER

ADRIANNA PIZZUTA/THE OBSERVER

New York Film Festival 2026 ran from Sept. 25 to Oct. 12.

that I got, but it still connected everybody,” Durante said. When we think back to movies such as “Obsession” or “Backrooms,” this point becomes even clearer. Young directors are not just inheriting the industry; they are working to change it and make an impact in the world. Firstman’s work in “Club Kid” is not just excellent, it is vital for the world right now. We need stories told by fresher artists, and I am more than pleased with NYFF for honoring such touching narratives and helping share them. “You have ‘The Odyssey’ or ‘Disclosure Day,’ and the household directors that you (can) see,” Durante said. “But you also have these new refreshing (movies) that are taking risks, telling stories that haven’t been told, and that’s what’s so special.” In an era of younger artists and filmmakers, attending the FLC campus plays a large role in opening up a world of opportunities. It is shockingly convenient; I would find myself leaving class and walking straight across the street to see another screening at the same festival that others were traveling miles to be a part of. It is the kind of jarringly optimistic experience that makes you think, “Only in New York.” Film and television major Chara Blagrove, FCLC ’28, also capitalized on Fordham’s proximity by securing a position as a volunteer for the NYFF development team. “It’s always such an exciting time of the year that I’ve always wanted to be a part of,” Blagrove said. “There’s just a positive energy because people feel as though their enjoyment is guaranteed.” She is not wrong. The energy is incomparable to any other cinematic experience. It is lively and beyond inclusive, which is perhaps a product of NYFF’s distaste for competition. Everybody is truly just happy to be there, and there is not a trace of pessimism; anybody can come. “It felt like a really perfect group of people coming together from all different walks of life,” Blagrove commented on the

open environment of the festival. “I met a woman who always comes down to Lincoln Center when she sees there’s something free, and she heard there was a free (director) talk that day and simply just wanted to see what was happening.”

It is lively and beyond inclusive, which is perhaps a product of NYFF’s distaste for competition. Plus, there is absolutely no catch — it really is that simple and spontaneous. While tickets for Opening Night or Main Slate screenings can stretch as high as $100, the vast majority of the festival is incredibly affordable, with tickets for Spotlight Screenings such as “Bucking Fastard” or “The Debut” for about $50; director talkback events are free to attend for anybody. There is something for everyone, whether you are a cinephile with a large budget who wants to curate a specific schedule, or a busy college student who just wants to be a part of the festival when there is time between classes. There is an enigmatic freedom you feel when you exit a good movie, as if your perspective on life has shifted in an inexplicable and yet permanent way. Walking down Columbus Avenue after a showing, surrounded by a truly diverse and ecstatic crowd, one feels this catharsis without fail. It proved to be an artistic experience unlike any other, one that students will certainly be raving about. It is opportunities such as this that make New York City such a prominent creative capital of the world. When the opportunity is in your backyard as a Fordham student, why pass it up? Although the festival has just wrapped up its twoweek-long run, it is never too early to start planning for next year.

THE OBSERVER

www.fordhamobserver.com

October 21, 2026

Arts & Culture

15

The City That Never Sleeps, Or Always Waits?

Does New York City’s hustle culture contradict its love of lines, or is waiting a badge of honor? “I think (waiting in line) is half of the experience, honestly, especially with family or someone really close,” said Dior Gueye, Fordham College at Rose Hill ’30. It is not only New Yorkers who are waiting in lines. Popular tourist spots like Katz’s Delicatessen have always had long lines full of out-of-town visitors. Nowadays, however, endless lines are an unavoidable stop in a tourist’s itinerary.

By ZOË HSU DOO Contributing Writer

If an impatient claustrophobe’s hell existed on Earth, it would be SoHo on Saturday during New York Fashion Week. Sidewalks and streets were packed shoulder-to-shoulder, while security corralled people towards what turned out to be a regular store: no exclusive drop, no one-day-only experience, nothing special. Past the stanchions was Brandy Melville, a chain apparel brand, yet nobody seemed bothered by the waiting. In New York City, even getting in now requires a line.

Now instead of the obstacle it once was, the line has become part of the product being sold. The newest social phenomenon to take over the city is line culture. Three decades ago, “Seinfeld” built an entire episode in season two, “The Chinese Restaurant,” around the misery of waiting for a table. Now instead of the obstacle it once was, the line has become part of the product being sold. The craze traces back to social media, the appeal of exclusivity and the experience of waiting itself. So why are New Yorkers obsessed with waiting in lines? Rooted in social media’s algorithmization of hype, a line epidemic has emerged. Most food vlogs on TikTok follow this formula: “Is the viral (product) actually worth the three-hour wait?

In a city whose main personality trait is unrelenting urgency and efficiency, patience is a new emblem of success. EDEN KLEINFELD/THE OBSERVER

Sneakerheads queue outside Salomon’s New York City flagship on Oct. 10, 2026, waiting for the exclusive Feid x Salomon “The Green Star” drop.

Let’s find out!” Influencers are constantly recommending the next big thing, and as a result, consumers are drawn to the longest line. Regardless of quality, wait time is now the standard of excellence that businesses strive to achieve. Crowded sidewalks are the best advertisement a business can ask for. TikToks of lines wrapping around the block convince hordes to join the queue instead of discouraging them. Even getting a sweet treat now means deciding to wait forever for frozen yogurt at Mimi’s or ice cream at Caffé Panna. During the Dot Cakes craze, the average wait time at Butterfield Market

was two hours with a limit of two cakes per person. The never-ending lines create a sense of exclusivity, a public display of the privilege of having hours to spend waiting. Crowd-controlling security guards are a fixture of SoHo apparel stores, just as present as the mannequins in window displays. This added intensity further creates a scarcity mentality, with not enough goods, space and time to go around. The fear of missing out kicks in. The popular mentality being, “If everyone is waiting, then maybe I should too.” During pop-ups, limited sales and one-day-only deals, lines

are expected or encouraged, even. This behavior is translated to chain businesses, like Blank Street and L’Industrie Pizzeria, where the same product is sold a couple streets over. The good itself is not rare, yet the wait suggests that it is. New York City’s obsession with exclusivity has made scarcity often more valuable than quality. Waiting in line is now a part of the experience, expected for beauty pop-ups, matchas, restaurant reservations, limited edition merchandise drops and sample sales. Doubling as a social event, being able to post the end product is boasting about having the endurance to wait in line.

With social media as one of the driving forces of this social revolution, many influencers are directly fueling the resistance. Matt Peterson built his TikTok following by boycotting lines and highlighting restaurants without them, tapping into the widespread exhaustion of line culture. Smaller creators have also joined in. Melody Zhu, who posts as @ tofueeats on Instagram, runs a series titled “I think line culture is overrated,” showcasing smaller restaurants with little to no wait. In a city whose main personality trait is unrelenting urgency and efficiency, patience is a new emblem of success. With time as currency, maybe lines are the one place New Yorkers stop, because the wait is the ultimate accomplishment.

Does ‘Digger’ Have Any Rigor? The question is not as straightforward as it seems; it is just as convoluted as its screenplay not exactly subtle, and critics noted that Iñárritu can be heavyhanded. On the other hand, the concept is niche and interesting. The best way to describe the type of presentation “Digger” as a film puts forth is ‘’raw unfiltered layered comedy that requires deep nuance to understand.”

By ARYAN GANDHI Contributing Writer

In his illustrious acting career, Tom Cruise has hung off the side of a plane, climbed the tallest building in the world and jumped a motorcycle off a cliff. In his latest movie, he put on a fat suit, a grey wig and a Southern drawl. One might walk into the theater with their popcorn expecting an action movie. Instead of his typical stuntpacked rollercoaster, “Digger” gives viewers a dark comedy about the end of the world. Released in theaters on Oct. 2, “Digger” is directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, who is the third filmmaker in history to win backto-back best director Oscars for “Birdman” and “The Revenant.” Iñárritu calls his newest film a “comedy of catastrophic proportions,” and has been planning it for 10 years. Cruise plays Digger Rockwell, a wealthy and oblivious oil tycoon whose drilling in Greenland knocks an ice shelf loose from a glacier and threatens to cause a global disaster. Digger then scrambles to save the world he helped break. The supporting cast is stacked with actors like Riz Ahmed, Sandra Hüller, Jesse Plemons, Michael Stuhlbarg, Emma D’Arcy and John Goodman, who plays the president of the United States. Film connoisseurs may want to find out why a movie with this much star power is being debated all over the news and social media platforms. The answer is simple: The audience is equally divided on every aspect of the movie despite its immense star power. Some critics are in love. Matt Neglia of Next Best Picture said

Some people will walk out of the theater calling it a masterpiece, and others will walk out asking for their money back.

A sharp turn in Cruise’s career, “Digger” is being met with mixed audience reactions.

it is Cruise’s most dynamic role in years, while another review predicted Digger Rockwell will go down as one of his great late-career performances. Variety’s Clayton Davis admitted the film is not what people are expecting, but said he respects the swing.

For a man who is used to people lining up around the block, that is a rough weekend. Others are not so kind. Several critics and moviegoers have labeled the movie as just downright bad and hard to sit through.

The box office tells a similar story. According to The Star, “Digger” had Cruise’s worst opening in nearly two decades, pulling in about eight million dollars in the United States and Canada, and another 20 million globally. For a man who is used to people lining up around the block, that is a rough weekend. However, it is clear that Iñárritu and Cruise were swinging for the fences. Cruise has said he has been a fan of Iñárritu since “Amores Perros” in 2000, and he even admitted wearing the fat suit was harder than hanging off an airplane. This is also Cruise’s first movie since “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” and since receiving an honorary Academy Award. A man with nothing

LUCIEN FISCHER/THE OBSERVER

left to prove decided to prove something anyway. One genre that utilizes the effects of actors disappearing into surprising roles is Indian films. In “Jawan,” Shah Rukh Khan plays both the father and the son, and the movie shows how the same actor can act completely differently. Seeing Cruise in the “Digger” trailer — buried under prosthetics, dancing in cowboy boots and speaking in a drawl — had that same effect. Whether you like the movie or not, you cannot say he did not commit to the role. The story also hits close to home for a generation that talks about climate change often but rarely sees it covered in a Hollywood comedy. An oil tycoon whose drilling sets off a catastrophe is

Film Threat’s Chris Gore called it the biggest swing of Cruise’s career and said it will either blow your mind or leave you wanting for more or wish you had none of what “Digger” the film offered. That is probably the most honest review out there. “Digger is not a movie made for everyone to enjoy. It is made to be talked about, argued over and debated at the lunch table, and in that sense it has already succeeded.’’ Some people will walk out of the theater calling it a masterpiece, and others will walk out asking for their money back. It remains to be seen whether audiences will warm up to “Digger” in the coming weeks, or whether it will drift away like the ice shelf in its own plot. Either way, it is a rare movie that dares to be weird in a year full of sequels. If you are tired of the same old blockbusters, this one is worth a look — it should not go unnoticed any longer.

Fun & Games Editor Damian Grove

un & ames

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67 BY DAMIAN GROVE & LARA POPOVIC

Across 1. Comes after heart or tooth 5. ____py-Doo 10. Ethnic identity of “Lepterica” director Đorđe Kadijević 14. “Supernatural” recap: “The ____ so far” 15. “American Horror Story” actress ____ndra Daddario

16. The golden ____ in “Harry Potter” 17. “The ____ator” can read your mind 18. Wannabe vampires might shop at Hot ____ 19. Paquin of 33-Across 20. *Hungarian star of 1931 film “Dracula” (2 Wds.) 22. Tampers, as “Saw”’s Hoffman to traps 23. “People are Strange” band The Do____

24. Biome surrounding Hotel Transylvania 26. Catherine of ____ 30. Sound for Leatherface’s chainsaw 32. ____ Features company behind the 2024 remake of 41-Across 33. *What vampires Bill Compton and Eric Northman might drink? (2 Wds.) 38. He was murdered by his brother Cain 39. The devil’s offerings? 40. Romania might be a stop on a “____ summer” trip 41. *Recurring “Spongebob” gag character that famously flickered the lights on and off 43. When holy, this liquid can burn bloodsuckers 44. A ____ of blood to the head 45. Demanded by an outlaw in a Western 46. “What’s your favorite scary movie?” movie 50. Broadway’s “Beetlejuice” song: “Ready ____, Not Yet” 51. Winter in “The Lost Boys” 52. *Irish gothic horror author (2 Wds.) 59. Solo, as a wolf 60. Spooky adjective that describes a foggy night 61. Complexion of a vampire 62. What vampires live for? 63. “Young” genre for books like “Twilight” 64. Actress Fanning in 2017’s “Mary Shelley”

65. 1948 comedy “Abbott and Costello ____ Frankenstein” 66. Like many trick or treating bags 67. An iconic Bauhaus song claims 20-Across is this

Down 1. Siouxsie and the Banshee’s “____ian Knights” 2. 2023’s “Renfield” uses this drug for a protection circle against Dracula 3. Solid ice precipitation 4. Mode who makes costumes in “The Incredibles” 5. Roman god of agriculture 6. What too much cholesterol does to the arteries 7. Haunt again, for short 8. World War II’s ____ Powers 9. Mollifies a beast 10. “The Boys” actor Anthony 11. Count von Count’s orange neighbor with a yellow roommate 12. What the phone does in 46-Across 13. Brag 21. Rooms for British souls to rest? 25. Sign of a ghost in a photograph 26. “Livie,” to “Vampire” singer Olivia Rodrigo (2 Wds.) 27. Industrial metal band Die Krupp’s “____sapien” 28. Passes with flying colors

29. Recently renamed “____ of America” 30. One with this sin would find themselves in Dante’s Fifth Circle 31. October browsing section of a certain streaming platform: “____ween” 33. The Mad Hatter’s party drinks 34. New York City subway sign: “Do not ____ on the door” 35. Horror buffs know the ins and ____ of the genre 36. Black and white cookie 37. Place for Fordham residents to say “trick or treat!” 39. What a gorilla plays in a famous Cadbury ad 42. Most vampire films are set in the Victorian ____ 43. Where one might go to read vampire fanfics: ____pad 45. In “Happy Death Day,” the day ____ every time the main character dies 46. Stephen King’s “____’s Lot” 47. Garlic in this form can repel a vampire 48. Bella Swan’s mother 49. Apply force 50. 2022 grin curse movie 53. Adapt an old horror classic again, say 54. Stuck in __ ____ (2 Wds.) 55. Positioned article in a newspaper, for short (Hyph.) 56. Green veggie 57. Purnell of “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” 58. Hugh Grant in A24’s “Heretic”

A Bloody Fortune BY LARA POPOVIC

This semester, you’ll make sure your GPA matches your blood type (even though Fordham’s grading scale only goes up to A). Even as the second most common blood type, your hard work will make you stand out from the rest!

Comic

Interview With a … Vampire? BY LARA POPOVIC

Congrats! With type A blood, you’re less likely to be a mosquito’s type. But with a plus comes a minus, as you can only receive O- or A- blood. Even so, when life gives you a minus, take a look at the big picture and find a plus. You may be the third most common blood type, but your above-average test scores will teach you the importance of experiences over grades. Don’t forget to be positive; taking action beats perfection! Making up only 2% of the population, remember to not be negative this spooky season. Embrace your individuality, and during hard times, remember that brighter days will find you again. As a universal recipient, your openness is your most striking quality. You may attract a lot of random kindness from strangers, with only more luck lying in your future. As an ideal donor for plasma, don’t forget that every deed comes back, and helping people is also in your veins! As one of the rarest blood types, you’re one of a kind, and you know it. However, don’t let your pride make you too comfortable. To succeed, remember to still give it your 100% … unless you’re donating blood. As one of the blood types highest in demand, don’t forget how valued you are. As a type O, you’ll experience lower risks for coronary heart disease. But be wary, because you’re still at risk for autumn heartbreak. Only able to receive donations from your own kind, you keep your circle small. But as a universal donor, many are drawn to your generosity. Proceed with caution, and don’t give too much to the wrong person too soon. A name inspiration for one of gothic metal’s seminal bands, don’t forget to treat yourself, because you’re a steal! GRAPHICS BY DAMIAN GROVE & LARA POPOVIC