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LATINIDAD, PRIDE, AND THE WORK AHEAD: PEÑALVER INAUGURATED AS GEORGETOWN’S FIRST LATINO PRESIDENT By Sophia Jácome and Sydney Carroll

DOES GEORGETOWN HAVE A GUCR PROBLEM? By the Editorial Board

Contents

October 9, 2026 Volume 59 | Issue 4

Editor-In-Chief — Sydney Carroll Managing Editor of Content — Sophia Jácome Managing Editor of Operations — Chih-Rong Kuo

news

Building an inauguration: Georgetown prepares for a once-in-a-generation ceremony SEHR KHOSLA AND BRIDGETTE JEONARINE

internal resources Executive Manager for Staff — Imani Liburd Executive Editor for Resources, Diversity, and Inclusion — Kyndall Jackson Assistant Editor for Resources, Diversity and Inclusion — Bridgette Jeonarine Editor for Sexual Violence Advocacy and Coverage — Olivia Fanders Service Chair — Ryan Goodwin Social Chairs — Alex Lalli, Sehr Khosla Archivist — Elizabeth Foster news Executive Editor — Justin Higgins Features Editor — Bridgette Jeonarine News Editor — Sehr Khosla Assistant News Editors — Sabriya Attia, Minhal Nazeer, Bennett Gilhuly Assistant Features Editor — Evan Schleck

features

“Outwit, Outplay, Outlast”: What it takes to survive Georgetown Survivor

Overlooked and underfunded: A glance at Georgetown’s club sports coaches

Quinn’s fall playlist

halftime leisure

sports

LILA GIZZIE AND WILLIAM PANARELLA

on the cover

FRANCESCA KAMALI

Does Georgetown have a GUCR problem? EDITORIAL BOARD

voices

Stand by Jane Doe: What we continue to get wrong about sexual assault

voices

I joined the Taylor Swift Cult. Here’s what I learned.

ALEX LALLI

CHIARA VOLPI

FEATURES

editor@georgetownvoice.com Leavey 424 Box 571066 Georgetown University 3700 O St. NW Washington, DC 20057

leisure

PAULA SANTANASTEININGER AND SARAH CHERLIN

SOPHIA JÁCOME AND SYDNEY CARROLL

All Things Go: A first-timer’s review and a veteran's assessment

editorials

Latinidad, pride, and the work ahead: Peñalver inaugurated as Georgetown’s first Latino president

QUINN ROSS

“sandbox gtown” MAGGIE ZHANG

“‘But at the end of the day, here I am, a first-generation Latina student at one of the best universities in the world, about to watch the first Latino president be inaugurated,’ Cruz-Suarez said.” PG. 8

The opinions expressed in The Georgetown Voice do not necessarily represent the views of the administration, faculty, or students of Georgetown University, unless specifically stated. Columns, advertisements, cartoons, and opinion pieces do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or the General Board of The Georgetown Voice. The university subscribes to the principle of responsible freedom of expression of its student editors. All materials copyright The Georgetown Voice, unless otherwise indicated.

THE GEORGETOWN VOICE

voices

The blueprint: Tinashe’s Popstar reminds us she isn’t new to this JACOB GARDNER

opinion Executive Editor — Alex Lalli Voices Editor — Colby Kelly Assistant Voices Editors — Aaron Pollock, Maddy Sweet, Hudson Witte, Alise Fingal Editorial Board Chair — Darin Eberhardt Editorial Board — Imani Liburd, Kamran Darnall-Hirani, Paige Benish, Phoebe Nash leisure Executive Editor — Alex Hwang Leisure Editor — Quinn Ross Assistant Editors — Ryan Goodwin, Karcin Hagi Halftime Editor — Joaquin Martinez Assistant Halftime Editors — Elizabeth Adler, Alexandra Risi sports Executive Editor — Stella Linn Sports Editor — Eileen Weisner Assistant Editors — Vince Gude, Aubrey Butterfield, Julia Maurer Halftime Editor — Lila Gizzie Assistant Halftime Editors — Megan Geiger, Gabriella Matute, Anna Cordova design Design Editor — Shabad Singh Cover Editor — Maggie Zhang Spread Editor — Jacqueline Pan Assistant Design Editors — Michelle Wang, Riya Sundaram copy Copy Chiefs — Isabella Baldwin, Madison Weis Assistant Copy Editors — Lila Wesner, Sonia Pensa, Avi Qin multimedia Multimedia Executive — Olivia Fanders Podcast Executive Producer — Katie Reddy Podcast Editor — Stefani Mucianio Photo Editor — Julia Carvalho online Online Executive — Maysam Ider Social Media Editor — Lucy Montalti business General Manager — Amber Bai Assistant Manager of Alumni and Outreach — Elyse van Houten support Contributing Editors — Paige Benish, Phoebe Nash, Michelle Lee, Elaine Clarke, Pia Cruz, Katie Doran, Emma Cameron Staff Contributors — Apara Chandavarkar, Anusha Chowdhuri, Lara Crorie, Massimo D’Onofrio, Wade Evitts, James Foundos, Elle Marinello, Alexandra Hamilton, Michelle Lee, Aidan Munroe, Rory Myers, Christina Pan, William Panarella, Mahika Sharma, Chiara Volpe, Peyton Webb, Bradley Wong, Hannah Yu

it’s inauguration day! by chih-rong kuo; WMagic by vapara chandavarka; layout by lucy montalti and shabad singh; back cover photos by the georgetown voice and courtesy lauinger library

It’s Inauguration Day! By Chih-Rong Kuo - Published on https://crosshare.org 1

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ACROSS 2 First name of Georgetown’s current president 7 Kindergarten fundamentals 9 Japanese alternative healing practice 11 Stage accessory 12 Costs 13 Rapper ___ Shakur 15 Mag. execs 16 With 2A, President of Georgetown University 18 Old, informally 19 Exists 22 To show off 24 Cry of surprise 26 “We Got the Beat” band 28 Dressy ball 30 Maritime force 31 Place to exchange vows 32 Bad day for Caesar 33 Georgetown’s first lay president

DOWN 1 Sudden 2 Language spoken in Panama 3 Landing 4 King, in Portuguese 5 Carrot-cube cutter 6 Approved 7 Rosé and Bruno Mars' 2024 hit song 8 Manage 10 “Insecure” star Rae 14 Fried squid 17 Latvia neighbor 20 Interim president following 33A 21 Couch 22 Strong suit 23 Old-time exclamation 25 “___ your horses!” 27 Part of CBS: Abbr. 29 What The Georgetown Voice produces

NEWS

Building an inauguration: Georgetown prepares for a once-in-a-generation ceremony BY BRIDGETTE JEONARINE AND SEHR KHOSLA GRAPHICS BY PAUL KANG; LAYOUT BY SHABAD SINGH

ore than three months after beginning his tenure, Georgetown University is preparing to inaugurate Eduardo M. Peñalver as its 49th president on Oct. 9. The ceremony—Georgetown’s first in 25 years—will mark the latest entry in a tradition stretching back through generations of university leadership. Georgetown’s last presidential inauguration was in 2001 for President emeritus John J. DeGioia, beginning his 23-year tenure. His ceremony took place in downtown D.C. at the Daughters of the American Revolution Constitution Hall. The first documented inauguration ceremony was of President Alphonsus J. Donlon, S.J., in 1912 in Healy Hall. A quarter-century after DeGioia’s inauguration, and a full century after Donlon’s, Georgetown’s campus and the logistics of inaugurating a president have evolved. Unlike DeGioia’s inauguration, Peñalver’s will take place entirely on Georgetown’s Hilltop campus. “The campus was very different back then [and] had different spaces available,” university Secretary Marie Mattson said in an interview with the Voice. “Now that we do have this big space, it’s nice to celebrate right in your house, right? So, we decided to have it here on campus.” The day is scheduled to begin with a Mass in Gaston Hall at 10 a.m. for select guests, followed by an open-invite formal installation ceremony in McDonough Arena at 3 p.m. and a reception at the recently opened Hoya Hotel. The inauguration is organized by Georgetown’s Board of Directors, which selects and appoints the university president. The Office of the President, which includes the Office of Presidential Events, has led planning since January 2026, three months after his presidency selection. The Mass, which highlights Georgetown’s identity as the oldest Catholic and Jesuit institution in the U.S., will be held in Gaston Hall rather than Dahlgren Chapel—a decision made by organizers to accommodate a larger crowd. “Obviously we needed a bigger space than Dahlgren, but we wanted to stay on campus because our whole thing is to have this be with ‘the family’ on 4

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campus,” Mattson said. “So Gaston was an easy pick, and it’s a very pretty, solemn space.” As for the liturgical aspect of inauguration day, Mattson said there is still some logistical planning regarding seating arrangements, biblical readings, and the procession order. The Mass will be officiated by Fr. Michael Castori, S.J., Bishop of Honolulu, a longtime friend of Peñalver’s. 25 priests from across the globe will also be seated at the altar. The installation ceremony, Mattson said, is “less prescribed,” since it’s not a religious ceremony, and has considerably more parts that require strategic planning and attention to detail. McDonough Arena, the gymnasium primarily used for Georgetown basketball and volleyball games, will be transformed into an inaugural hall for the first time since the 1969 inauguration of Robert J. Henle, S.J. There will be a newly constructed video wall behind the stage presenting original, day-to-day footage of Georgetown’s campus and students. Mattson compared the visual production of the ceremony to that of televised awards shows. “Like when you see a live production on TV, say, the Emmys or the VMAs or something like that, there’s a video component to bolster the experience of the audience,” she said. The Georgetown Inauguration Orchestra, specifically assembled for the ceremony, will perform. The 16-piece live orchestra will be conducted by Luke Frazier, conductor of the American Pops Orchestra, and will include professional musicians from Frazier’s orchestra and from around D.C. At the start of the ceremony, there will be remarks by students, faculty, and alumni leaders: Darius Wagner (CAS ’27), president of Georgetown University Student Association; Keaton Ballard (GRAD ’27), president of the Graduate Student Government; George Luta, president of the Faculty Senate; Teresa Mannix, president of the Staff and Academic and Administrative Professionals Advisory Council; and Gail Gillis-Louis (CAS ’75), president of the Alumni Association. The inauguration is expected to have a procession of between 350 and 400 individuals, a combination of

Georgetown faculty and distinguished faculty members from other higher education institutions. The procession follows a traditional order, with representatives from other universities arranged according to when their institutions were founded. From arranging regalia to determining where each participant sits, Mattson said, “there’s just a bazillion of those little teeny details” that organizers hope attendees never have to think about. “You have to have somebody there to make sure they all brought their regalia, and they have to be put in order by the beginning of their school,” Mattson said. “So you have to know which schools were founded when and make sure those representatives are in the right space.” For Mattson, who spent 20 years as the Vice President of Development, Special Events and Volunteers at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, managing an event of this size is familiar. What is less familiar is curating a memorable experience for a community that has not encountered an event of such stature. “We haven’t done it in 25 years, so it’s just trying to be creative,” Mattson said, while also producing “something that’s special for President Peñalver.” Mattson said she hopes Peñalver will feel welcomed by the Georgetown community and that attendees will notice the intentionality of the ceremony. “You want to make sure that it’s a solemn occasion, but you certainly don’t want it to be a dreary occasion,” Mattson said. “You want it to be very hopeful and joyful because it’s a really special time for Georgetown.” Beyond the ceremony itself, Mattson hopes the inauguration will reinforce attendees’ sense of connection to the Georgetown community. “When you go away from a celebration like this, you should feel engaged,” Mattson said. “You should feel a part of the community.” #

FEATURES

"Outwit, Outplay, Outlast": What it takes to survive Georgetown Survivor BY FRANCESCA KAMALI

GRAPHICS BY BRADLEY WONG; LAYOUT BY LUCY MONTALTI ven if you have never watched CBS’ that [...] everyone was voting me out.” “Survivor,” the name itself probably She attributes this to a lack of connection brings a certain image to mind: somewhat with her tribe. malnourished people standing on an Votes are blind. Each survivor steps out island beach, wearing bandanas and of the room to write their vote on paper— carrying tiki torches. Well, swap sandy an homage to the show. The Jeffs then read beaches for an Intercultural Center out each vote to the group. The survivor (ICC) classroom and a real bonfire for a with the most votes must extinguish their YouTube projection, and you’ve made it torch, whose fire represents their life. In to Georgetown Survivor. the case of a tie, players plead their case to The popular reality game show has their teammates and another vote is held become a cultural hallmark since its between the two of them. debut in 2000, enough so that it has been The betrayal and trickery that go into adapted into a game at college campuses fighting for one’s spot at tribal council have across the United States. Survivor arrived even led to verbal fights and outbursts. at Georgetown in 2021, and now on The need to deceive and to simultaneously its ninth season, the club offers both pursue and mask self-interest quickly watch parties and the opportunity to be weeds out the more diplomatic players. immersed in the game. In the end, this tactical scheming made At the beginning of each semester, 18 Holmgren more of a target. She said that “survivors,” undergraduate and graduate trying to get another player voted out, students across years and schools, are along with her lack of Survivor knowledge, selected from the applicant pool to form is what led to her downfall. “I realized I three tribes, or groups of players, that could not really keep track of whatever must work together. This fall, contestants nefarious lying or gameplay I was trying to were placed into either the Nile, Danube, do,” Holmgren said. or Amazon tribes by board members According to her, the Survivor (called “Jeffs,” in reference to Jeff Probst, superfans were already ahead. “People are the show’s host) through personality in it to win it.” assessments to build compatible and ageUnlike TV’s Survivor, players don’t mixed tribes. spend their off-days hunting to survive. Each Sunday, the tribes compete in But as the season goes on, Georgetown challenges that test their mental and Survivor President Mia Price (SOH ’27) physical resolve. For the losing tribe, has seen players instead meet up to plan Sunday evenings are spent at tribal council, strategy, hang out, or hunt for idols: small where the team must pick one player to wooden tokens hidden across campus that vote out. can grant players immunity. At the second tribal of this season, that Price recalled one dramatic idol hunt player was Josephine Holmgren (CAS ’30). during season six of Georgetown Survivor “I was blindsided at tribal,” Holmgren that she didn’t learn about until months later. said. “I realized as soon as I stepped in “[The player] mentioned it so casually, but he was like, ‘One time I was looking for an idol and a squirrel bit me and I had to get a rabies shot.’” While Georgetown’s Survivor is far more tame than the physically demanding television show, it doesn’t stop challenges, or players, from getting as intense. This season, players were tasked with a hide-andseek challenge where they had to search for the Jeffs in the pouring rain.

For Braden Clements (CAS ’30), this challenge felt the closest to one that would appear in the actual show. “I was running around like a madman trying to look for these people,” Clements said. “I was physically, truly exhausted.” The Jeffs test players’ stamina in more than one way. “The first season I was on the board, we did a challenge where we put them in a classroom and they had to listen to ‘Dior’ by Pop Smoke on repeat and [the] last one to leave the classroom [would win],” Price said. “And they were in there for, I think, seven hours.” Around halfway through the season, the three tribes are disbanded and players take on challenges independently. All players go to tribal council and are at risk of elimination. To win the game, a player must be voted sole survivor by a jury of eliminated players, beating out the two other finalists. Finalists must plead their case, and then each jury member can question the finalists or try to sway the rest of the jury, according to Gianni Brescio (SFS ’28), Survivor’s outreach coordinator. Charlie Cutler (SFS ’29) got involved in game planning after playing his freshman fall. Now, he serves as wellness chair, a position created to make sure things don’t get too heated. His advice for future contestants is the same as the other Jeffs: keep your alliances quiet. Failing to do so is why Cutler was voted out of the game last fall. “When people know how close you are [to other players], that immediately puts a target on you,” Price said. Still, the time survivors spend together is about more than competition: for some former players, the game introduced them to their closest friends, even if they began as enemies. “People I helped to vote out [are] now my roommates, are now people [...] I will be friends with for the rest of my life,” Price said. The thrill and strategy may draw players in, but the people make the game. “Community is really the biggest aspect of why I’m still involved,” Cutler said. “[It’s] why I love it so much.” ! OCTOBER 9, 2026

EDITORIALS

Does Georgetown have a GUCR problem? BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD | GRAPHICS BY PAUL KANG; LAYOUT BY LUCY MONTALTI

The editorial board is the official opinion of The Georgetown Voice. The editorial board operates independently of the Voice’s newsroom and the General Board. The board’s editorials reflect the majority opinion of the board’s members, who are listed on the masthead.

eorgetown University College Republicans (GUCR) is the organization on campus that—almost—everyone seems to love to hate. Every few months, some kind of commotion breaks out about GUCR’s most recent deviance and hijinks. Likely, some member of the club or the club itself makes some reactionary statement that inevitably falls under one of the “-isms” and/or blatantly derides some minority group. This then elicits a strongly worded statement from a handful of other campus organizations and maybe even an email from Georgetown itself promising students that such hateful speech is not welcome at this God-fearing institution. It’s a routine that works pretty well for everyone involved, GUCR included. Students get a reliable punching bag and punchline. Student groups like Georgetown University College Democrats (GUCD) can prove their clout by dunking on their archnemesis; Georgetown gets to play savior; even GUSA can get in on the action as the socalled voice of Georgetown students. As for GUCR, all press is good press. Opposition to their cause just proves their point of the “Left’s” intolerance of alternative viewpoints and how indoctrinated so many

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students have become. Thus concludes the cycle of GUCR’s reactionary statements. What else is to be done, after all? That is, until it begins again. With many of GUCR’s deplorable positions, the answer appears to be clear: we ought to debate about it! As they have made abundantly clear in recent weeks, a debate suits GUCR splendidly. Not only does this ‘free discourse’ legitimize GUCR’s bigotry by treating its dehumanization as equally defensible, it in fact elevates a statement like “illegal aliens have no right to be in our country” to a plausible position which must be disproven, shifting the burden of proof onto noncitizens, and those with a shred of empathy for them, to prove their humanity. When some individuals must justify their participation in our so-called ‘free’ market of ideas, it suddenly does not look so free and democratic after all. Our zone of discourse, especially at a school like Georgetown, will always be saturated with those who can access these conversations: people with the means to be here. Those who have never had access to Georgetown and similar aristocratic institutions—AKA, the vast majority of people—all have legitimate concerns, yet they often go unheard. A staggering degree of removal often separates the subject, or subjects, of debate from the people debating it. In the U.S., it took a live-streamed genocide in Palestine for people to consider that maybe we should stop sending bombs to their oppressors, and still students at Georgetown want to debate about whether Palestinians deserve to have their mortal concerns taken seriously. This is no open market of ideas, and it never was. If nothing else, this should dispel the myth that civil discourse will save us. However, if you’re looking for us to call for students or the university to topple GUCR, you have come to the wrong place. Yes, there is an argument that groups like GUCR play a role in legitimizing a fascist leader like Trump, but GUCR is not leading some right-wing political awakening among Georgetown students, much less beyond the campus. Trump doesn’t need a coalition to tell him to deport people; logistical and legal barriers like pesky due-process invocations are simply preventing him from deporting faster. And sure, Fox News will gladly field complaints about nonexistent Charlie Kirk lookalike contests, but these moments don’t

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culminate in policy or social change. GUCR is not the problem, they’re a symptom of a much larger one. Stopping them won’t be the cure, though it could help. For our campus community, student groups saying that any portion of students are unwelcome here does not bode well. Someone should tell Georgetown administrators that big ceremonies at Nationals Park will not make it any easier for students—already marginalized in our country—to feel any more welcome as part of the Georgetown community when they are unashamedly told by their peers that they are not welcome here, and Georgetown fails to meaningfully respond to those statements. Nevertheless, if Georgetown really wants to overcome the hateful speech that comes from the margins of its student body, it must address the tacit hierarchy of humanity it teaches. This is a much more insidious form of structural violence and one which translates more directly into harmful policy outcomes. Georgetown’s steadfast commitment to mainstream economics— such as required microeconomics and macroeconomics courses—encourages students to treat economic exploitation as a natural necessity, which conveniently justifies Georgetown’s own exploitation and normalizes training students to enter morally bankrupt, but highly profitable, occupations. In effect, the school implicitly encourages students to value their own lives over the lives of others, particularly those who are least able to defend themselves. Concepts like universal human rights exist to guard against this ethical failure, but they become useless when they are discretionary. In an environment where self-interest routinely trumps empathy, reactionism and hate are inevitable. Valuing human life can be learned and unlearned. Encouraging students to do the former is impossible if the school’s actions and pedagogical practices do not follow the same framework. GUCR should face consequences for their statements because some views don’t deserve respect nor tolerance, but without more fundamental change targeting Georgetown itself, GUCR will be the least of our worries. Georgetown does not have a GUCR problem—Georgetown has a Georgetown problem. !

VOICES

Stand by Jane Doe: What we continue to get wrong about sexual assault BY ALEX LALLI DESIGN BY SHABAD SINGH

Content warning: this article discusses rape and sexual assault

he past couple of weeks have been brutal for women. It’s impossible to turn a corner without hearing more about the “Cornell 7,” a recently reopened case from Oct. 2024 alleging the seven-hour drugging and gang rape of an anonymous Jane Doe in Cornell University’s Chi Phi fraternity house by seven members— one of them, Matthew Ingalls, was supposedly her friend. Since Doe filed a lawsuit on Sept. 14, women on social media have made clear that this is far from a morbid anomaly. The devil is truly in the details, and a closer look beyond the blatantly horrific nature of the case reveals a fatal cultural misperception of sexual assault (SA) that demands reexamination. The specifics of this case are appalling. After one of Doe’s alleged perpetrators, Jonathan Newell, texted “free p*ssy” to a group chat of 57 Chi Phi fraternity brothers, men started snorting lines of ketamine off Doe, treating her like a pool table, before repeatedly raping her incapacitated body, making her feel like a “sex doll/worker.” Over the course of the assault, the group chat remained silent, except for comments like, “shop still open?” Needless to say, Jane Doe is the survivor of an atrocious crime. And yet, resurfaced texts between Doe and one of her alleged rapists have forced the public to reckon with the nuanced experience of SA survivors. After the incident, one of the frat brothers reached out to Doe, writing, “I just wanted to apologize for how things went down the other night,” to which Doe replied—mere days after her assault—“At the end of the day non [sic] of the sexual stuff was illegal and honestly I really liked being with u.” By emphasizing the incident’s “legality,” Doe appears fixated on how her perpetrator will feel and the legal implications of what he did to her. Such a reaction, while normal—sexual assault survivors may reassure their abusers for reasons of safety, dissociation from the incident, guilt, etc.—is perhaps a result of men’s personal “victimization” post#MeToo, where they have lamented needing to tip-toe around women for fear of “accidentally” assaulting them. To be clear, you do not stumble into sexually assaulting someone. Intoxicated or not, if you care for someone’s well-being and enjoyment, you will not hurt them or,

at the very least, you will allow them the space to voice their discomfort and adjust immediately. Doe’s alleged rapists did not demonstrate even a shred of desire to protect Doe—their actions and texts reflect this. They treated her entirely as an object to degrade and exploit for their own pleasure, and no debate over Doe’s consent will change that fact. I’ve spoken with many women in my personal life, both at Georgetown and other schools, who have been with men they didn’t feel comfortable with. During these conversations, the term “gray area” frequently comes up in an attempt to describe these complex interactions. But too often, the gray area doesn’t refer to whether or not they were violated, but whether there is evidence to prove it. These incidents, as they’re recounted to me, frequently occur close to home— within classes, clubs, or friend groups— it’s upsetting, but numerous women have recounted a time they tried to voice discomfort with a person, only for the larger group to deem it “too complicated” to confront. Many of the women I’ve talked to believe that they made a poor decision, not the person who hurt them. They assume that because they didn’t do everything possible to prevent a situation they never anticipated, they were to blame. In reality, that’s almost never how SA plays out. Because these incidents often take place at college with alcohol involved, women may also feel their intoxication invalidates their experience. And it doesn’t help that in states like New York, where this case is taking place, rape laws have a “voluntary intoxication loophole,” making it difficult to claim inability to consent unless you’re “totally comatose,” Ann Olivarius, an attorney, told Time Magazine. Some journalists have treated the legal gap as license to blame Doe. A frankly disgraceful USA Today article by Ingrid Jacques, for example, makes a distinct point of blaming Doe’s horrific experience on her alcohol consumption. “Jane Doe, who was 20 at the time, apparently takes zero responsibility for her actions,” Jacques writes. “The lawsuit lays out that—on her own accord—she consumed ‘10 standard drinks’ within three hours before she “stumbled” to the frat house—also her own decision.”

When is voluntary intoxication ever an invitation to rape? We all know a woman who has experienced this and the guy involved—most certainly, he moves on without a care. She likely has to see him, talk to him, pretend to like him even though she wishes he would go away, because everyone else likes him, even if his behavior with women is questionable, and it would just be too hard to speak up. It’s simpler to blame oneself. It’s hard to know what to do in a moment like this. Certainly, administrative action or structural changes are paramount—in addition to the fact that rape laws often swing in favor of abusers, the Department of Education has recently revived a Title IX rule that weakens protections against sexual assault in education. But real social change may also come down to the interpersonal. Sometimes, the most you can do for a friend who’s been sexually assaulted or had an encounter that didn’t feel right is to talk them through it, validate their perspective, and call it as you see it—that can mean more than you know. On the other hand, the way the men in your life treat the women around them matters. I hesitate to call the Doe’s alleged rapists “monsters,” because they are everyday people, and calling them monsters exempts them from the choices they made, choices that are far more normalized than monstrous. And just because others haven’t, or may never, do what these men did to Doe doesn’t mean they don’t operate off of a similar mindset, watch the same media, or promote rhetoric that enables men to commit these crimes and come away unscathed. It’s not the job of women to educate men on how they can’t assault us. It has to be a collective and ongoing conversation, one where men don’t tolerate or reward each other’s poor treatment of women, one that calls for more inclusive and productive avenues of justice and healing, and most importantly, one that promotes comfort and safety for women to be able to share their experiences without questioning how they will be received.#

OCTOBER 9, 2026

FEATURES

Latinidad, pride, and the work ahead: Peñalver inaugurated as Georgetown’s first Latino president BY SOPHIA JÁCOME AND SYDNEY CARROLL

DESIGN BY MICHELLE WANG

hen an email was sent to the Georgetown community on Oct. 15, 2025 announcing the selection of the university’s next president, some read the announcement for his qualifications, while others looked for his start date. Renato Llontop Calosi (SFS ’24) was fixated on a single letter. “President Peñalver, he has the letter ñ in his last name, so immediately you identify, ‘Okay, he’s either Hispanic [or] Latino,’” Calosi said. Calosi was correct: when President Eduardo Peñalver takes his seat onstage at his inauguration on Oct. 9, he will become Georgetown’s 49th president, second lay president, and first Latino American president. Calosi, an alumnus originally from Lima, Peru, said that seeing someone like himself represented at the highest level of university leadership was exciting, especially because he was a part of a vibrant Latino community while on campus. “Something that we really like to say about Latinos [is] no matter where we’re born, where we are, we all are part of the same family,” he said. “I think Georgetown really, really, really should be proud of this.” Peñalver’s father immigrated to the U.S. in 1962 from Cuba, while his mother is the daughter of Swiss immigrants. In an interview with the Voice in August, Peñalver spoke about being Georgetown’s first Latino American president, noting that he’s long been a trailblazer. “When I was at Fordham, I was the only Hispanic professor there, I believe, and then at the law school, and then the same thing at Cornell and the University of Chicago. That’s familiar territory. [I was] the first person of color to be Dean of Cornell, and then first layperson or 8

THE GEORGETOWN VOICE

person of color to be president of Seattle University,” Peñalver said. “It’s part of what animates my leadership,” he added. “[It’s] important that I do well because that sort of creates opportunities for the people who are coming up behind me.” Ahead of Peñalver’s inauguration, the Voice spoke to community members about what this first means for Latinos and the broader Georgetown community. Other ‘firsts’ Peñalver is Georgetown’s first Latino American president, but Georgetown has had a previous president born in Latin America. Born in Michoacán, Mexico— then known as “New Spain”—in 1779, José Antonio López S.J. was the first Latin American president of a U.S. university, though he was of Spanish heritage. Robert Emmett Curran, a professor emeritus of history and author of several books about Georgetown, said that López experienced a rapid ascent to becoming Georgetown’s acting president in 1840 before dying in 1841. “[López] becomes interested in becoming a Jesuit, so he becomes a novice, enters the society, and eventually gets assigned to Georgetown, and in 1839 when [President] William McSherry dies from cancer, he becomes the acting president,” Curran said. Decades after López, Georgetown’s 29th president Patrick Healy became the first president of color in 1874. Healy’s father enslaved his mother, who was one-eighth Black, making Healy onesixteenth Black. While Healy publicly passed as white, his fellow Jesuits and administrators at Georgetown were aware of his racial background. Catholic superiors in Rome had previously rejected him as a presidential candidate because of his “special background,” but eventually acquiesced. “The university certainly knew what they were doing, but the general public did not, because Patrick Healy basically passed,” Curran said. “It’s kind of a very convoluted, reluctant way in which Patrick Healy becomes, what has been claimed as the first president of color in any major university.” Since Healy resigned from the presidency in 1882, Georgetown has not had another president who is known to have been a person of color. Representation on campus Georgetown’s class of 2029 is 9.38% Latino, compared with 20% of the U.S. population. As a result, representation for many—from students to faculty members—can feel sparse. Years ago, director of graduate studies for Spanish Linguistics Victor FernandezMallat arrived at the Hoya Hotel, excited

to meet his colleague for a discussion on Spanish linguistics. Instead, he was mistaken for a driver picking up his client. Fernandez-Mallat found this experience particularly upsetting because it happened on his own campus. “That’s an experience that is traumatizing,” Fernanzez-Mallat said. “It wouldn’t happen to a young white person, so why did it happen to me? I don’t think it happened to me because I’m young. I think it happened to me because I am Latino and I look Latino.” As a child of immigrants who moved to Canada after the 1973 coup of Chile, Fernandez-Mallat often finds himself being the only Latino in spaces on campus and the broader world of academia. “One thing that I’ve struggled with my entire life in academia is the imposter syndrome,” he said. “Most of the people that I know in my family are not college professors. My best friend drives trucks. There’s nothing wrong with being a truck driver, but it is important to also have people in other spaces and in other offices.” After learning of the new president in an announcement email, Fernandez-Mallat felt an immediate connection to Peñalver. “I am happy to have someone with his name, someone that looks like him, because he looks like he could be an uncle or a friend of an uncle at a party,” he said. He hopes people like himself and Peñalver can be that figure for Latino students on campus. Julian De La Paz (SFS ’15) is a member of the Board of Governors for Georgetown’s Alumni Association (GUAA) and recently joined a group that is working to start a Latine Alumni Council within GUAA. When he saw Peñalver announced as president, he was “elated.” “When I was a student, I really didn’t see a lot of that representation, at least in the classes that I took within the SFS. And that's something that I hope has changed for students,” De La Paz explained. “When I see him at the helm of the university now, it tells me that things are already changing.” De La Paz, who interviews prospective students as part of his role in GUAA, said that he thinks Peñalver’s role at Georgetown will absolutely serve as motivation for some students to apply or commit to Georgetown, as it shows that they have a place on campus. “Students want to attend an institution where they not only feel supported, but they also see that support in their leadership,” De La Paz said. “If I were a prospective student today [...] President Peñalver would definitely be a cherry on top to why I would want to be a student.” Latino students remain cautiously optimistic Calosi feels like what he’s already seen

FEATURES of Peñalver’s leadership style, even on social media, is very reminiscent of the Latino communities he’s been around his whole life. “When it was move-in day, you could see him charming, talking to the students, helping them to move in, moving stuff with them. I think that’s something very, very Latino in some ways, because we’re very friendly—we don’t have this barrier between roles,” Calosi said. Gogo Estrada (CAS ’29), an international student from Ecuador, is an active member of Ballet Folklorico Méxicano de Georgetown and Latin American Student Association, the RA for the Spanish-speaking floor, and studying Latino Studies in the college. Through these roles, he has had the opportunity to meet President Peñalver. “He’s been very nice to us,” Estrada said, “He’s been a very positive change, at least branding-wise, for the university. A very outspoken person that really seems to, at the very least, be engaging with the community.” While he was excited to see a change from previous presidents, Estrada still remains cautiously optimistic about Peñalver’s presidency. “I do find it a little bit worrying the lack of mention of anything related to the actual workers here at the college, the challenges [regarding] immigration, and the different challenges that are presented to international students or workers,” Estrada said. Despite this perceived inaction at Georgetown, Peñalver has had a history of leading his Latino community in advocacy work. As an undergraduate student at Cornell in 1993, he led a four-day long sit-in called the “Latino Cornellians’ Day Hall Takeover,” which led to the creation of the university’s Latino Living Center and increased funding for their Latino Studies program. However, Estrada believes that the most pressing issues facing the Latino community on campus have yet to be addressed. The Georgetown Coalition for Workers Rights (GWCR) is running a campaign to amend Georgetown’s Just Employment Policy that they believe is failing to address the concerns of workers, many of whom are Latino. Following two directives from the Trump administration, Georgetown international students have also been denied the ability to gain experience through internships unless they are required to graduate. Estrada worries that Peñalver’s inactivity on these issues is an indication that he does not intend to act with his Latino background in mind. “Representation without action is

meaningless,” Estrada said. “If we are only focused on coloring our issues over with a new coat of paint, instead of fundamentally changing the paint and surpassing the challenges that many in our community may face here, then there’s no point.” Progress amid difficult times for Latinos Mariela Cruz-Suarez (CAS ’28) also shared Estrada’s caution. “You can have a Latino leading a Fortune 500 company or any other institution, but if they are not drawing from their Latinidad to be responsive to Latinos’ needs and everybody else’s needs, it doesn’t matter,” she said. Cruz-Suarez also explained that being Latina on campus can be isolating, and she hopes that Peñalver will help create more spaces for Latinos to feel welcomed on campus. “Because there’s a smaller amount of us, there also tends to be a smaller amount of us in leadership positions or in different clubs,” she said. “I hope that he is open to listening to Latino students on campus, immigrant or not, international or not, and is able to get our opinions, our ideas, our thoughts to build more opportunities for us.” As a daughter of Honduran and Mexican immigrants, Cruz-Suarez said that the learning environment for

Latinos has become increasingly difficult to navigate as Trump’s rhetoric on immigration enforcement leaks into conversations on campus. Recently, the Georgetown University College Republicans joined the Mass Deportation Coalition, endorsing their advocacy for the deportation of millions of immigrants.

“I know the pain they’ve caused when it comes to ripping families apart,” Cruz-Suarez said. “The anti-immigrant rhetoric still affects people in my community, still affects my parents because they are immigrants. And as a daughter of immigrants, I take that verbiage very seriously. I take those words very seriously. They’re painful to me, and it can be scary and sad knowing that my peers would look down on us.” Even though she remains skeptical, Cruz-Suarez said that on inauguration day, she will be celebrating this historic moment. “You may call us criminals. You may call us drug addicts. You may call us all these nasty things. But at the end of the day, here I am, a first-generation Latina student at one of the best universities in the world, about to watch the first Latino president be inaugurated,” Cruz-Suarez said. “You can paint us in a bad light all you want, but we will continue to prosper.” # OCTOBER 9, 2026

SPORTS

Overlooked and underfunded: A glance at Georgetown’s club sports coaches BY LILA GIZZIE AND WILLIAM PANARELLA

DESIGN BY KATIE REDDY

n 2009, Deven O’Crump joined the Penn State women’s club rugby team having never touched a rugby ball. Just a few years later, she found herself moving to San Diego to train at the Olympic Training Center with the USA Women’s National Rugby team. O’Crump competed until 2018, after which she took up refereeing and eventually coaching for the Georgetown University Women’s Rugby Club team. Georgetown’s Advisory Board for Club Sports (ABCS) provides funding for club teams, but limits it specifically to transportation, equipment, and other game-associated costs—not compensation for coaches. The Voice sat down with club sports coaches to discuss their philosophies and what it means to coach for a university that does not pay them. For O’Crump, rugby fosters community and commitment. She attributes many of the every-day professional skills she uses in her work at Johns Hopkins University to the accountability and team support she learned throughout her playing career. She strives to incorporate the same lesson into the Georgetown program. When describing her core coaching philosophy, O’Crump says, “It’s a club sport, [so] it really is about engagement and making people welcome, like they have a home, and we’re a team where everyone is accepted [...] when we come to rugby, we are just there to play rugby.” A diverse set of players not only crafts rugby’s crucial sense of community, but it also plays into a strategic advantage. Games are played either 7v7 or 15v15, with the former demanding speed for a 14-minute match and the latter emphasizing endurance over 80 minutes. Last season, the Georgetown program competed in 15s, and although they have returned to playing 7s this year after graduating a large class, O’Crump’s focus on inclusivity has played an immense role in continuing to maintain the program’s numbers. Similarly to O’Crump, Jordan Tippitt, the women’s ultimate frisbee coach, began playing ultimate frisbee in 2009 in undergrad at the University of Mississippi. Following a short break from the sport, Tippitt joined a club team when he moved to New York.

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After helping to found Third Rail Ultimate in Manhattan in 2018, a nationally-competitive youth ultimate team, Tippitt moved to D.C. There, he joined Ant Madness, a mixed-gender club ultimate team in the DMV, where he met then-captain of the Georgetown women’s ultimate team, Sarah Mihm (CAS ’22). Tippitt joined the women’s ultimate coaching staff in 2021. Tippitt has had to navigate similar difficulties in building up the women’s frisbee program. Like in rugby, few players enter Georgetown with playing experience. When he first arrived five years ago, Georgetown’s A-team ranked 108th of 256 in the nation, and Mihm was the only player to previously complete an entire college season. In the spring of 2026, they finished in the top 20. Tippitt’s coaching philosophy has thus played a crucial role in this upward trend. First, he teaches constraint-based learning. “The idea is you keep the context of the sport within the skill building. [...] The other part of integrating players,” he says, “is building the culture of a growth mindset.” Whether that means a dropped disc or a poor throwing decision, Tippit believes that making “loud mistakes”—from the most seasoned returners to the youngest rookies—is the key to a deep, well-oiled, and long-lasting women’s frisbee program. While O’Crump and Tippitt have built success in their programs, many of the 34 other club sports teams offered at Georgetown don’t have the privilege of a coaching staff. That lack of guidance doesn’t necessarily affect a team’s ability to be successful, but almost certainly has an impact on the magnitude of that success. The men’s club soccer team is one of those programs. In an interview with the Voice, Lucas Suarez (MSB ’27), a B-team captain, provided insight into how the lack of coaching staff affects his team’s performance. Suarez joined the men’s club soccer team his junior year after a two-year stint on the men’s ultimate frisbee team, which does have coaches. He mentioned that soccer does not necessarily need a coach to teach the basics of the sport because

many players come in with experience. That said, he also shared that he “would absolutely change it and have some coaches if [they] could.” Suarez made it clear that not having a coach “very much affects how we play.” As a result of this lack of support, the team must have 5-6 captains during the year to handle everything from referee coordination and field reservations to training schedules and budgets. This puts a lot of pressure on students to manage logistics as opposed to fostering a focus on athletic ability. As Suarez also mentioned, the responsibility lies with those captains to pass down leadership roles and ensure the club continues to succeed. Both A and B teams reached the club soccer national championships last spring, and the A-team traveled to nationals last fall. Coaching for O’Crump and Tippitt never grew out of a money-related desire. Yet when varsity men’s basketball head coach Ed Cooley makes upwards of $5 million dollars leading a team that posted a 16-18 losing record last season, it highlights the disparity between club sports coaches’ contributions and associated compensation. The men’s club soccer program’s continued prosperity shows that while a coach for a sport like soccer, popular for many in their youth, is not a requirement to succeed, students like Suarez still wish they had that added support. For programs like frisbee and rugby, it’s a question of how increased university support can positively affect their influence and whether it’s absolutely necessary to teach skills and build a successful program. “It would be nice if there was some support for coaches. I’m a believer that if you support coaches, it attracts higher quality coaches. It makes the coaches more able to invest,” Tippitt said. O’Crump agreed. “If Georgetown, either the club [team] or the university, wanted to make a more prevalent team [...] paying the coaches would definitely allow the coach to put more into the team,” she said. #

LEISURE

QUinN’s faLl PlaYliSt BY QUINN ROSS GRAPHICS BY QUINCY STANLEY; LAYOUT BY SHABAD SINGH

all—the season that brings us impossibleto-guess Halloween costumes, towering piles of amber and crimson leaves, and the (in)famous PSL. The ecstasy of summer is gone, and the devastation of winter has yet to approach. So, what better way to fill the void than with music? Track one: “Elderberry Wine” — Wednesday Upon hearing the gentle, Americana guitar sound on “Elderberry Wine,” I am instantly transported back to driving through the beige and maroon Arizona desert with photo editor Julia Carvalho (CAS ’29). The summer heat was suffocating, so we escaped into the air-conditioning of our friend Milo’s apartment; my SUV with our friend Grace wailing Audrey Hobert in the backseat; and to In-N-Out booths. Each was so outrageously chilled, it may as well have been fall.

Looking back, I should have procured some elderberry wine to pair tastefully with a fan blasting in my face. Track two: “No Name #3” — Elliott Smith This track is criminally underrated, despite appearing in Good Will Hunting (1997). It’s stripped back and simple, yet Smith’s iconic, multi-layered whisper vocals and the nervous squeaks of his chord shifts create a mesmerizing, dense atmosphere. “No Name #3” welcomes us from fall into the imminent, dark winter; it beckons us to enter the dreary embrace of night, leaving the arguments of yesterday to hibernate and start over again tomorrow. Track three: “Meat Grinder” — MF DOOM & Madlib “Meat Grinder” was the first MF DOOM song I ever heard. Back in the olden days (tenth grade), I blasted Madvillainy (2004) on my way to school as raindrops drizzled on my windshield. The creepy, Frank Zappasampled intro, the shuffling drums and fat bassline, and the whining slide guitar trickle under DOOM’s fluid verses like October fog in Albuquerque, my hometown. Try listening to this song while stubbornly sipping an iced coffee and shivering relentlessly—I

guarantee you’ll feel as badass as I did when I made the Madvillainy album cover my lock screen. Track four: “abyss kiss” — Adrianne Lenker The gap between fall and winter is difficult to bridge, but “abyss kiss” does it effortlessly. As Lenker’s warbly voice soars over the deep timbres of her guitar strings, she reimagines ordinary experiences as deeply meaningful. The silent, unspoken tensions between arms and body, trees and sky, and lips are everyday expressions of the love we feel, but the space between is so vast. We should learn to cherish the space between this fall, because it’s what makes a hug, a view, a kiss, significant. Track five: “Haldern” — Black Country, New Road When I was the congregation song leader at Faith Lutheran Church back in Albuquerque, I always rolled up to the five o’clock service bumping Black Country, New Road. On my drive home, I basked in the all-encompassing swell of the clarinets and violins and pianos and screams and cries of “Haldern,” gazing at the periwinkle fall sky after sunset. The track-long, desperate crescendo to madness ends in silence, a breath before the next song. Fall is the breath at the end of “Haldern,” a time to take in the slow crescendo of the seasons. Track six: “Givenchy” — fakemink The bells of the Healy clocktower become louder as the leaves change. Is this true? No. They ring every day, every fifteen minutes, all year. I seem to notice them more in fall, and if “Givenchy” is playing in my earbuds, the bells engulf me with their meditative bronze chimes. The grungy beat mixed with fakemink’s signature raspy, pitched-up voice forms an oddly somber tone behind his lyrics about getting Givenchy and money. Fall can make you feel weirdly melancholic, but if you trust fakemink, you’ll feel like you’re stepping out in Givenchy. Track seven: “In the Devil’s Territory” — Sufjan Stevens “Chicago,” “Come On! Feel the Illinoise!,” and “Casimir Pulaski Day” were big in my house growing up. Digging through Sufjan’s discography on my own, I was intrigued by “In the Devil’s Territory” on Seven Swans (2004). I’ve always found the banjo and piano percussively chanting under Sufjan’s hymn magical. The wave of noise peaks when whirring, space-age beeps chime

in, and there’s something unequivocally autumnal about being in a field surrounded by pumpkins, slowly being abducted by a U.F.O., while Sufjan sings about death and the afterlife. That’d be a vibe. Track eight: “California Dreamin’” — The Mamas & The Papas Ok, you got me. This song is about winter. But, if you mix the brown leaves and the doom and gloom of winter with the dreamy Los Angeles sun, the result is something roughly similar to autumn in Georgetown— you can quote me on that. This track is infinitely transportable—I rediscovered it through Chungking Express (1994), where it accompanies the characters’ adventures through Hong Kong. It universally represents the longing for somewhere sunnier, happier, and better, but maybe we don’t have to be in L.A.—we can make our dreams real where we are now. Track nine: “Disorder” — Joy Division Ian Curtis really hit the nail on the head when he yelled, “Feeling feeling feeling feeling feeling feeling feeling.” But fall is for feeling AND spirit. Plunky bass, empty snares, hazy guitars, slightly atonal vocal proclamations, and whooshing noises put Joy Division and goth music in the public eye. Put on that black eyeliner, chase after that black cat, and watch Nosferatu (1922) on repeat. It’s fall— get goth, get spooky! Track 10: “just score it” — OsamaSon This wouldn’t be a playlist by Quinn Ross if there wasn’t an OsamaSon song on it. “just score it” was released on Oct. 14, 2024, officially making it an autumnal song. OsamaSon fires bars rapidly over jerky 808s and acid-washed synths in this hyper, ragerap anthem. I recommend blasting this everywhere you go—in the shower, as you walk to class, at work, in the library—to let EVERYONE know you’re really “in that mode” this fall. ! Listen to the Voice’s Fall Playlist on Spotify, YouTube Music, or Tidal. OCTOBER 9, 2026

LEISURE

All Things Go: A First-Timer's Review and a Veteran's Assessment BY PAULA SANTANA-STEININGER AND SARAH CHERLIN DESIGN BY ELLE MARINELLO

rom Olivia Rodrigo’s Daisy Chain Fields Festival to All Things Go, music festivals have become not just a showcase of talent, but a promise of community. All Things Go welcomes anyone who is willing to welcome its ethos in return, creating an inclusive space especially for women and queer people. As two first-years seeking that sense of community, we arrived in this city with two polar opposite relationships to live music. One of us, a habitual concert attendee hailing from Long Island, was accustomed to finding a kind of ritual in the crowd. The other, a victim of the live-music desert that is suburban Florida, was much more accustomed to music as an intimate, individual experience. But we left with a collective understanding: this was our community—one that didn’t come with a condition or a uniform. Day one: Starting off on the right beat After a couple stops on the Metrobus, a long train ride, and a slightly shorter Uber, we finally arrived at the magical woodland outdoor amphitheater in the suburban neighborhood of Columbia, Maryland. Opening the festival with midday sets on Friday, artists including Stella Lefty and Rico Nasty, performed as audiences began to trickle in. But crowds didn’t flood in until Rainbow Kitten Surprise (RKS) took the main pavilion stage. The alternative folk-rock band played several of their hits along with songs from their latest project, bones (2025). Ela Melo, the band’s lead vocalist, commanded the stage, showcasing the raw, emotive quality of her voice and her powerful yet gritty tone. RKS got the crowd moving with standout performances of tracks like “Cocaine Jesus” and “Painkillers.” The band ended their set with an impassioned rendition of “It’s Called: Freefall,” complete with a death drop by Melo as the song spiraled into its explosive closing guitar riff. Following RKS, Slayyyter drew a massive audience to the Chrysalis Stage, the festival’s secondary performance location adjacent to the main pavilion. The sense of community among 12

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concertgoers was palpable, as the mass of people ready to “CRANK” it danced freely along to her electropop hits. The crowd was especially enthusiastic about her performance of “brand new chanel$,” a recent release from this summer, immediately followed by the iconic “BEAT UP CHANEL$.” Once Slayyyter’s performance came to a close, the crowd made a mass exodus back to the main pavilion in preparation for the worship-adjacent experience of witnessing Ethel Cain live. Cain is a master of creating an eerie, southern gothic-inspired atmosphere at her shows, with a mostly barren stage, save for some foliage reminiscent of a Florida swamp surrounding her microphone. She seamlessly blended her mainstream, fan-favorite hits, such as “Crush” and “American Teenager,” with her signature slow-building, droneheavy soundscapes. Under the cover of a pitch-black sky and actually visible stars—a welcome sight and rarity since the start of our time in D.C.—Mitski entered the stage as Friday’s main headliner. Her visceral performance of “Working for the Knife” hit us especially hard, as entering college has forced us to grapple with the harsh reality of trading in childhood dreams and creative pursuits in favor of a stable job. Juxtaposed with a slow yet powerful performance of the piano-driven ballad “Circle,” the distinct thumping beat of “Washing Machine Heart” caused the crowd to erupt. In the final performance of her current era, she played “Pearl Diver” from her debut album Lush (2012), forcing anyone within a five-mile radius into an emotional reckoning. Day Two: Where there’s rain, there’s a rainbow The warmth of community established on the first day proved useful when the weather took a turn on day two. While we traded our bedazzled outfits for ponchos and rain boots, the electricity that

intensified with every set remained alive and well. Starting off our Saturday afternoon, Grace Ives took the Pavilion Stage and reminded everyone how cathartic it can be to discover new music. From the opening beats of “Avalanche” to the ensuing confessional lyrics of “Dance With Me,” it’s safe to say we are still hooked. But just as the weather ebbed and flowed, so too did the intensity of the sets.

Suki Waterhouse, the epitome of a “cool girl,” took the air out of the venue, making everyone wonder whether they wanted to be her or be with her. The confidence with which she sang “Supersad” was effortless, injecting us with a confidence of our own. Closing with the anticipated “Good Looking,” she left us with the kind of exhilaration and dreamy-eyedness you get only from the two most intoxicating forces—true love and live music. MUNA claimed the stage as if it were their birthright, jumpstarting the spirit of the festival. The band’s energy created the most lively and engaged audience at the main pavilion so far. During “Anything But Me,” which lead singer Katie Gavin jokingly introduced as “a song about horses,” Gavin kicked an inflatable pet horse into the audience, one of several traditions the band regularly incorporates into their shows to foster community among listeners. As the audience passionately sang along about rollerblades, mini skirts, and queer love, MUNA’s performance of “Silk Chiffon” perfectly encapsulated the vibe of All Things Go: a celebration of queer joy and the power of finding community in music. While some may point to the forecast as evidence for the rain’s end after MUNA’s set, we’re more inclined to believe it was the relentless, glitter-covered aura of Zara Larsson. From the moment the stage turned into a beach and her instantly recognizable bedazzled bikini came into view, the crowd seemed to meld into one as we chanted “Midnight Sun.” Bringing a tonal shift from the bright, summery pop of Larsson, The Hayley Williams Show took the audience through her experiences with heartbreak, disillusionment with fame, and the freedom of releasing a solo LP and touring separately from her band. As Paramore’s lead singer, she was eager to introduce her solo work to unsuspecting listeners. She certainly succeeded in turning us into fans, with hardcore-influenced

songs like “Parachute” and “Ice in my OJ” immediately being added to our playlists post-concert. Her high-energy stage presence and raw, emotional songwriting created a perfect mix to end the night. Day three: More to the music By Sunday morning, the dreaded post-concert depression had started rearing its ugly head. Violet Grohl entertained these frustrations with her angst-injected “Bug in the Cake,” channeling the crowd’s collective dread as they bobbed their heads back and forth. Despite the inevitable discussions around nepotism as Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters frontman’s daughter, she left no question of her talent and filled the stage with an air distinctly hers. CMAT later brought a completely different genre to the festival, taking the main stage with her Irish country roots. Her theatrics and unabashed humor were equally present in her songs, striking the venue with the utmost awe as she sang “When A Good Man Cries.” With a voice that demands to be heard, its rawness became an unlikely, but complementary counterpart to her theatrics and the cheeky unseriousness of “Take A Sexy Picture of Me.” Taking a break from the humor so intrinsic to her craft, CMAT also took an opportunity to express her love and hope for the people of Palestine as she strummed her guitar, exercising music's power to bring reality back into focus and find solutions in community–a theme central to the festival. Wolf Alice brought the grunge back to the stage soon after with a distinctively embittered set, as guitars combined with Ellie Rowsell’s distinguishably ethereal yet equally angry whisper vocals. “White Horses” was performed with a calculated chaos, while “Just Two Girls” brought a playful empowerment to the women in the audience. Perhaps most anticipated of their set was the legendary performance of “Don’t Delete the Kisses.” Almost as if made specifically for a coming-of-age movie, the performance made it hard not to imagine oneself in a montage, running through a city, falling in love and feeling everything so acutely. It was electrically cinematic, a romanticism only music can infuse into life. Throughout the day, the festival continued to introduce us to new music, force us to appreciate artists we’d never fully visited, and breathe new life into old favorites. From Tiny Habits’ meticulously layered vocals to Flipturn's hopelessly romantic guitar

synths, the festival overwhelmed us with the amount of talent packed into one venue and the way each artist could make the stage their own. As the last day transitioned from emerging to mainstream artists, Remi Wolf debuted the unreleased title track of her imminent album “Mud,” managing to keep the audience as captivated as during her performance of “Soup” despite our not knowing the lyrics. Wolf took a second between sets to give an impassioned speech, saying, “There’s nothing else like this,” a sentiment that seemed to hang over the crowd as we took in just how quickly a festival could turn thousands of strangers into something resembling a community. But Wolf was only a taste of what the night had in store for the crowd, who rushed to the Chrysalis Stage for Lola Young. After her collapse midperformance at last year's All Things Go festival in New York, Young took a moment to address “the elephant in the room,” as she called it, noting how she had been in a bad mental state the previous year, but was grateful to be back at All Things Go, once again finding joy in performing. To this, the crowd responded by chanting her name in support. Young took a second to soak in the support that reverberated through a venue of thousands, transforming into a singular unit in that intimate moment. With every song, the crowd grew louder, almost breathing as one, crescendoing with the eagerly awaited “Messy” as the audience nearly drowned out Young's voice. The crowd rallied not only around her music but around the artist herself. The sense of community culminated when the closing artist, Brandi Carlile, brought CMAT back out to sing “I’d Want U” from CMAT’s debut album. Wearing Wolf Alice’s merchandise, these two country-adjacent artists gave a final hurrah, embodying what All Things Go fostered all weekend long: boundaries blurred, artists becoming fans, and the audience becoming artists as they breathed new life into the music. Across genres, identities, and musical relationships, the weekend showed us all how grounding it is to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. For three days, we weren’t anything but part of the crowd, coming together for one thing and one thing only: All Things Go.!

OCTOBER 9, 2026

VOICES

I joined the Taylor Swift Cult. Here’s what I learned. BY CHIARA VOLPI DESIGN BY LUCY MONTALTI

t one point in my life, I would’ve done anything for Taylor Swift. Six years ago, I spent most days carefully crafting friendship bracelets and manically hunting for Easter eggs online while I was supposed to be learning about parabolas in Zoom class. Although I’ve changed immensely since then, I still love Taylor and her music; however, the release of The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore (2026) has left me feeling distanced from Swiftiedom. Before the world’s most powerful fanbase crucifies me, allow me to explain my credentials: at the peak of my obsession, I found myself embroiled in a Taylor Swift cult on TikTok (2020 was a dark time). I was THE fan, and I haven’t fallen out of love with her music—I’ve simply fallen out of a deeply parasocial attachment that ultimately kept me from building real connections. At 13, amid the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, I felt extremely isolated. I knew my classmates only as boxes on my screen and spent most of my hours scrolling through TikTok to fill the void of connection. I found myself intensely envious of influencers who seemed above the restrictive rules that kept me at home, so I started copying their Los Angeles lifestyle from my room. I produced at least five videos a day, building a fanbase of people I would never actually know. The euphoric buzz from likes and followers slotted in for any real kinship I lacked. I quickly found my niche within the Swiftie community, especially with the release of my GOATs: folklore (2020) and evermore (2020). I made hundreds of videos ranking my favorite Taylor songs, unraveling convoluted Easter eggs, and LARPing as a heartbroken, angsty teen. The more videos I made, the deeper my obsession with Tay grew (on a nickname basis, obvi). This online relationship was different from the one I held with influencers. It wasn’t envy or longing; it was a craving—to know her in the way her music knew me. At their most extreme, fandoms can resemble a kind of religion. We share a mythology around a sacred text and fight sectarian battles with theological precision. I know this because I was the 14

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extreme and worshipped Tay in every way. One afternoon, I was scrolling through my favorite hashtag (#Kaylor) when I began seeing videos discussing this “cult.” “Are you a real Swiftie? Do you want first access to all the newest Taylor news? Join the Cult!” Naturally, I had to join and vie for the attention of the most famous person in the world. The entrance fee was simple: change your profile picture to that one meme of her in front of a burning building, and pledge to protect and serve our God, Tay—no matter what. The Cult checked all the usual boxes: a shared language, questionable rituals, common enemies, and most importantly, a community. The sad, isolating days of Zoom class didn’t matter because online, the Cultists lauded me for my Tay obsession. Then as fast as I drank the Kool-Aid, life forced me to spit it out. As bans were lifted and I faced a new reality of re-learning how to meet people IRL, my parents forced me to delete my account. I was devastated to lose my status in the group. However, being pushed out of my cult life allowed me to open my eyes to what genuine relationships and closeness looked like. I never actually knew Taylor; none of us did, but the internet makes it remarkably easy to confuse familiarity with intimacy. This is the fundamental paradox of parasocial relationships. They feel so deeply personal, precisely because they aren’t reciprocated. We love the allure and mystique of the icons we think we know, without ever seeing the truth of their personalities. A lyric like, “I’m begging for footnotes in the story of your life,” from “tolerate it,” felt so painfully specific to my own experience. That feeling doesn’t mean Taylor knows me; it means she’s created something that lets millions of people feel understood without giving much of her true self in return. Despite my regrettable time in the Cult, I don’t think parasocial relationships are inherently bad. Music helps people understand themselves because it can articulate emotions they

can never verbalize. As a Cultist, I met so many people in the same position as me: isolated, lonely, and desperate for purpose. I even started a podcast about Swifties from all walks of life who found solace in our mutual love of TayTay (the only listeners were my parents). Still, the limited connections and friendships were real, even if our understanding of Taylor had no grounding in reality. But we should acknowledge that the deep social power of fandoms can lead us to conflate personas with real people, fostering a toxic mob mentality in defense of a figure we can never truly know but look to for purpose. We should focus on learning where to draw the line between appreciating an artist and believing you own them, between finding community through a celebrity and making them the foundation of your identity. So yes, I don’t love The Encore, but maybe it’s not just because I fundamentally disagree with the idea that a song about Travis Kelce’s youknow-what is “good pop.” I’ve learned to find fulfillment in the real relationships around me, instead of something parasocial. I don’t think thirteen-yearold me was wrong to find comfort in Taylor; I’m grateful she carried me through a dark period of my life. I just think I eventually learned the difference between being comforted by someone I admired and believing I knew them. !

LEISURE

Tinashe’s Popstar cements her as one of the greatest BY JACOB GARDNER GRAPHICS BY RIYA SUNDARAM; LAYOUT BY SHABAD SINGH

or years, Tinashe has occupied a strange position in pop music: she is frequently more influential than she is famous. K-pop fans have spent years joking that she is perpetually “on the moodboard,” a reference point for everything from choreography and visuals to the sleek, R&B-inflected pop sound that has become increasingly popular. The joke has become persistent enough that Tinashe was recently directly asked about it. Her response was unbothered; being the blueprint is a privilege, proof that her ideas have entered the broader creative conversation. When Tinashe began teasing a new era this past summer, the conversation returned alongside her. The observation is flattering, but it also speaks to something slightly odd about her career—she has often sounded like the future without always being granted the status that tends to accompany it. Popstar (2026), her eighth studio album and first released through Nice Life Recording Company, Atlantic Records, and Tinashe Music, does not seem interested in correcting that history. Instead, it turns the contradictions of Tinashe’s career into the subject itself. The album opens with “Sunglasses,” where she declares “music is my religion” before disappearing into a wall of percussion and electronic noise. It is an appropriate introduction; Popstar collapses the distinctions between Tinashe the singer, dancer, producer, writer, and performer. She said that she considers herself the “through line” connecting the album’s many influences.

In fact, genre seems to be beside the point. “Nobody Wanna Dance Anymore” folds murky club sounds into the tidy structure of commercial pop; “Pillow Fight” compresses its flirtation and sticky keys into barely two minutes; “Cloud 9” veers toward hazy electronic R&B before the entire album falls into acoustic guitar. The shifts throughout the album are conspicuous, but they never feel arbitrary. Rather than adopting each genre as some new identity, Tinashe treats them as dialects of the same musical lexis. This sonic freedom is meaningful given how long she spent fighting to maintain it. Tinashe built her early solo career through mixtapes before signing to RCA, where she was confined to a narrow R&B lane. After leaving the label, she remained independent and spent years releasing music with considerably more control, though with fewer resources. While Popstar marks her return to a major record label, she seems to have retained creative agency to a noticeable extent. Tinashe openly enjoys pop stardom but refuses to sell the fantasy that it comes effortlessly. “Too Easy” is a satirical boast, the title itself insisting that everything comes naturally while the production is so tightly constructed that the opposite is obvious. Tinashe has always been skilled at concealing the difficulty of her craft, but here, that quality becomes part of the conversation. “Crash Out” confronts this tension. “The American dream is outdated,” Tinashe sings, before turning toward the people “sittin’ on the internet hating.” This line is particularly comedic because it is so nakedly contemporary; even the fantasy has been updated to include an audience watching from the cheap seats, ready to decide whether or not your time is up. But Tinashe does not position herself above this audience; she is just as invested in the machinery she is mocking. There is no disappearing from the internet, no transcendence of the discourse. She can only metabolize it into a chorus. This is what texturizes Popstar and distinguishes it from the all-too-familiar complaint about the burdens of fame. Tinashe rarely pauses to explain why fame is exhausting, and instead embeds the exhaustion in the music. “Twentyfive Eight” imagines a life so consumed by work that even the calendar cannot accommodate it. “If you win the rat race and you come in first place, then you’re

still a rat,” she observes. A clever joke, indeed, but the song keeps returning to the much less humorous realization underneath: achievement does not necessarily make the machinery feel less mechanical. Ambition is both what she wants and what she cannot quite escape. Such ambivalence lands differently coming from Tinashe, whose career has been an unusually visible battle of attrition—years of independent releases, label frustrations, periods of renewed attention, all leading to the viral success of “Nasty” in 2024. Popstar, therefore, does not possess the glossy naivete of a newcomer discovering celebrity for the first time. Tinashe knows exactly how much labor is involved, which makes tracks like “Empty Stadium,” where she sings about not wanting to “die underrated,” so unnerving. The fear is not failure, but obscurity after all the work is done. An empty stadium is almost too perfect an image: the dream has been constructed in full, an enormous room with rows and rows of chairs. The only question left is who will fill them. Eventually, the album lowers the lights on “Heavy Weight.” After nearly 40 minutes of shape-shifting production, she sings about carrying something she “can’t put down,” and the song leaves little for her persona to hide behind. Tinashe addresses the pressure of taking responsibility for others in her life—identifying herself as the “oldest daughter”—while simultaneously revealing the ramifications of having nowhere to set her own burdens down. It is a surprisingly fitting ending for an album so preoccupied with influence. Tinashe spent years supplying other artists with pieces of the blueprint: a taste for genre collision, dance-floor instincts, and the conviction that a pop performer can create their own musical ecosystem. Popstar is not an argument that Tinashe invented any of these things, but a reminder that she has been assembling them into a coherent language for a very long time. And, despite the fact that artists seem to pop up left and right knowing it, none of them speak it the way she does.! Voice’s Choices: “I’d Rather Be Alone,” “Pillow Fight,” “Heavy Weight”

OCTOBER 9, 2026