Mount Holyoke News – April 14, 2023

Mount Holyoke News

MoZone sponsors third annual More Than An Ally week

BY NINA SYDORYK ’25 STAFF WRITER

Mount Holyoke’s More Than An Ally Week made its third annual return this month, with this year’s theme designated as “Practicing Accompliceship Within & Beyond the Gates.” This theme centers around providing the College’s community with the tools and skills necessary for practicing accompliceship, which can be actualized when they leave the College, hence the title including “beyond the gates.”

“It’s a process of trying to gauge where the campus is in relation to showing up in allyship to each other and then based on that we figure out what resources/events would be more useful for students,” Co-Chair Grae Wason ’23 said of the process of organizing such an event.

Speaking on new dynamics and campus culture, Wason noted an excitement among underclassmen regarding activism. “We saw during orientation with Springies and fall

admitted students [that they] were excited about engaging in allyship, but didn’t always know how to engage,” they said.

This influenced how they thought through and decided on not only this year’s theme, but also the

week’s individual events. Wason noted that “specifically regarding allyship across racial groups, we have seen a lot of energy from white students, but not always an awareness of where to start. This is what motivated us to create the Navigat-

ing White Privilege Dialogue for white-identified students on Friday the 14th.” Three events, sponsored by the College’s MoZone Social Justice Peer Educators, took place over the course of the week of April 10, following the commencement of the 2023 program on Saturday, April 8, with an official panel discussion titled “The Will to Advance: Navigating White Spaces.” This panel and other More than an Ally events highlighted MoZone’s commitment to providing a “space for MHC students to continue self-educating,” according to Wason.

On April 11, the week began with an informal dinner for “BIPOC students to discuss any takeaways or questions from The Will to Advance: Navigating White Spaces in collaboration with the Peer Health Educators,” according to the event details on Embark. Students who did not have the opportunity to attend Saturday’s panel will be able to share their experiences at the College in

other ways.

April 13 saw the authors of the book “Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice,” as panelists in discussion.

This month’s Interfaith Lunch was also held in collaboration with the More Than An Ally Week theme and spotlighted a discussion with Hind Mari, Abed Jaradat, and Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students Marcella Runell, authors of “Teaching For Diversity and Social Justice” (4th ed.), Chapter 8: Religious Oppression. The panelists discussed their individual experiences, on both personal and professional levels, within the social justice education field, within a religious context. In respect of students observing Ramadan and Passover, a Kosher meal was served in to-go containers towards the end of the event.

A book signing and reception event was hosted by the Office of Community and Belonging later that day.

Senate hears E-Board speeches, ratifies All Campus Election results

BY PAIGE COMEAU ’26 STAFF WRITER

On Tuesday, April 11, Senate began with a reading of the land acknowledgment and the agenda. It included E-Board updates, All Campus Elections ratification, updated guidelines from the Ways and Means Committee, speeches for Senate elections, town hall debriefs and open floor. Chair of Senate EJ Jankovic ’23 announced the E-Board updates, which began by stating that the next two town halls would take place on April 18 and April 25 and would feature representatives from LITS and Dining Services. April 25 will also be the last senate meeting of the year. Jankovic also asked that the senators fill out the Princeton Review Survey, which would be emailed to them shortly. They also reminded students of Tiny Business Tuesday, which will take place on April 25, on Skinner Green from 11:30-1:30.

Next, the ACE Committee presented the recent election results. Candidate forms opened on March 6 and closed on March 26, while voting opened on April 3 and closed on April 9. Although voting was publicized through various methods during the voting period, ACE did not meet the quorum, which is the number of votes needed to ratify the candidates. ACE quorum is 50 percent of the eligible voters plus one, but campus-wide only about

10 percent of the student body voted. Due to this, the ACE committee needed the Senate to ratify the vote. Via a Google form, senators were encouraged to vote one of three ways: yes, which meant that the senators believed the ACE committee completed due diligence and attempted to get a quorum, and therefore the results should be ratified; no, which would enable voting to be opened for one more week in an attempt to get quorum; and a third option, which would allow the senators to abstain from voting. After a few minutes, with a two-thirds majority, the senators voted to ratify the 2023/2024 ACE results.

The Senate then discussed new funding guidelines from the SGA Ways and Means Committee, which must be ratified by the Senate to pass. The new guidelines are as follows: a $2,000 cap on speakers and performers per student organization per semester, a $1,500 cap on first aid training per student org per semester, a $300 cap on round-trip air travel per student, a $135 cap on hotel rooms per four students and a $25 cap per student for off-campus food for events. Senate voted on whether or not to ratify these items, the results of which will be announced within the next few weeks.

Following the Ways and Means update, the Senate heard speeches from students running for Senate E-Board positions, which include

Chair of Senate, Chair of Special Interests and Chair of Halls. Two people are running for Chair of the Senate: Julia Keane ’25 and Julia Madonick ’24. Julia Keane’s speech mainly highlighted their experience as a senator and E-Board member, as well as their goals for next year, which are to encourage participation from students and ensure transparency between the senate, the E-board and faculty departments. Julia Madonick highlighted their experience as a member of the 2024 class board

and expressed their excitement to enter a new role. They stated that they want to focus on efficiency, cooperation and inclusion within the Senate. One person is running for chair of special interests: Lillian Wade ’26. As a current first year, Wade underscored their experiences as the Senate’s archivist this year. As the chair of special interests, they hope to ensure every voice from every organization is heard. There are three candidates for the Chair of Halls: Nathania Amadi ’26, Rida Ila-

hi ’26 and Serynn Nowlin ’25, the incumbent. Amadi focused her speech on her leadership ability as an international, low-income student who understands the lack of representation with Residential Life and hopes to work towards positive change on campus. Ilahi, like Amadi, is a current hall senator. Illahi believes that as an international student, they understand the unique perspective of those living far away from their homes. As chair of halls they want to focus on fostering a community where every person is heard and listened to, especially by ensuring that every hall has a senator. Nowlin is the current chair of halls, which they believe gives them the experience necessary to continue the job. They hope to continue to work effectively with the Senate, the E-Board and ResLife to ensure an adequate living environment for every student. After the speeches, Senators voted on the positions, the winners of which will be announced at the next Senate meeting on April 18. After a few minutes of voting, the Senate moved on to debrief the last two Town Halls, which featured ResLife and Student Financial Services. One member stated that the ResLife town hall made them feel as though they were being given excuses rather than being listened to. Jankovic, the chair of the senate, agreed

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Internet Archive lawsuit loss may determine digital libraries’ future

BY OLIVIA WILSON ’24 BOOKS EDITOR

The online lending library Internet Archive, which has operated for over twenty-six years out of San Francisco, lost a multimillion-dollar class-action lawsuit on March 24 against a coalition of major publishing houses. The publishing houses sued in June 2020 over the Internet Archive’s digital distribution of copyrighted books. The case was tried in the Southern District Court of New York under Judge John G. Koeltl, who sided with the publishing houses.

The specific grievance cited by the publishing companies involves Internet Archive’s alleged violation of a practice called “controlled digital lending.” This is a practice followed by library services with online components, like Internet Archive and Libby, that allows digital distribution of copyrighted work, but only up to the combined number of the digital and physical copies of a published work the library has legally acquired. For example, if a library owns three copies of a book, digital or physical, there can only be up to three copies circulated either digitally or physically.

The Internet Archive is not unique in incorporating this model into its practices. Libraries across the country use this model for their lending, rather than negotiating for e-Books with publishers, a standard

in the industry that earns publishing houses millions in royalties. However, the practice has been criticized in the publishing world for depriving authors of their royalties.

The plaintiffs — Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, John Wiley & Sons and Penguin Random House — alleged that the Archive’s “National Emergency Library” initiative was a copyright violation. The Archive marketed the “National Emergency Library,” which operated during the pandemic as physical libraries were closed and students were learning from home, as an alternative to the physical libraries where access was lost due to COVID-19. According to an article by NPR, while the Archive followed more traditional, controlled digital lending practices prior to the onset of the pandemic, the National Emergency Library temporarily suspended its lending waitlist and allowed more readers to check out digital copies than the library’s 18 headquarter locations own physically. The project ran from March 24 to June 16, 2020, when it was discontinued following the lawsuit. The Archive referred to the practice as abiding by fair use laws, while the plaintiffs referred to it as “mass copyright infringement.”

In his decision, Koetl said that established law and precedent were on the side of the publishers. According to the judge’s decision, Internet Archive’s definition of fair use did

not apply to their case. Fair use only protects those uses of copyrighted works as applied to “criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching[,] … scholarship or research.” The archive argued that since the National Emergency Library was a substitute for physical libraries and learning resources, it did not violate copyright law.

Some in the publishing world applauded the judge’s decision. The Author’s Guild, a coalition that offers a variety of types of aid to authors including legal advice and copyright help, tweeted they were “thrilled” with the outcome of the decision and accused Internet Archive of showing a “shocking” amount of disrespect to authors with their policies.

“Controlled digital lending is not controlled nor legal,” an OpEd on the Author Guild’s website proclaims. The Op-Ed also calls the practice a gross misinterpretation of fair use policy.

The Internet Archive’s stated mission is to “provide universal access to all knowledge,” and the nonprofit is known most prominently for its website archival service the Wayback Machine, which holds over 804 billion web pages from up to 25 years ago, some of which are not available for access in any other place online. Like these websites, the Archive also hosts scanned printed materials that have few copies in print. Some supporters of the Archive’s mission fear that this decision places all online

libraries, and online book lending in general, at risk. If controlled digital lending is outlawed, they fear millions of people could lose access to learning materials

In a recent Op-Ed for Inside Higher Education, a group of eight college-level librarians criticized the decision, saying that “the Internet Archive is the most significant specialized library to emerge in decades,” and that the lawsuit “would jeopardize the future of digital li-

braries nationwide.”

The sentiment is similar among Mount Holyoke students. Amelia Ducey ‘24, a student worker for LITS, said of the decision that “having course texts available online is important for accessibility reasons” and that it has “always been silly” to her that eBooks have a one user limit.

The Internet Archive plans to appeal the lawsuit, though a new court date has not yet been set.

Photo by Nina Sydoryk ’26 On Thursday, April 13, the monthly Interfaith Lunch featured panelists for More than an Ally week.

Graphic by Ayo Olowole ’26

Photo by Ella Shelton ’26 Maahi Jaiswal ’24 speaks at the April 11 senate meeting with 2023-24 SGA E-Board candidates.

Ayu Suryawan ’23 and Olive Rowell ’24 awarded prizes at the annual Five College Film Festival

BY MELANIE DURONIO ’26 AND LUCY ISAACS ’25 FEATURES EDITOR | STAFF WRITER

The Five College Film Festival returned for the first time in person since 2019, featuring screenings of films made by students and recent graduates of the Five Colleges on April 1, 2023, at Amherst College. An awards ceremony was subsequently held, in which two Mount Holyoke students were awarded prizes. Ayu Suryawan ’23 won Best Documentary Prize for their film “Loving, Moving Boy” and Olive Rowell ’24 won Best in College for Mount Holyoke with their film “Photo Album.”

“The most rewarding part of the process was really getting to see the student works,” Bianca Hammer ’23, student director of the Five College Film Festival, said. “It’s just exciting to see the kinds of things that students at Mount Holyoke, but also just students across the five colleges, are able to produce [and the] creativity of the messages they’re sharing.”

For as long as Suryawan can remember, they’ve been “compelled to take videos,” which led them to major in Film, Media, Theater with a primary focus on film analysis. However, they found a new appreciation for the medium in their Intro to Production class with Elliot Montague, which gave them the freedom to branch away from “casual filmmaking” and experiment with different formats. It was in this class that Suryawan filmed “Loving, Moving Boy” as a final project.

“Loving, Moving Boy” features the story of Marty Rothberg ’23, and details their first experience presenting as a boy to strangers while attending a basketball camp as a child.

The film is shot in an abstract visual style, connecting various shots of objects, people, and interactions to culminate in an overarching, non-linear story. A voice-over of a conversation between Suryawan and Rothberg plays throughout the film.

Above,

Suryawan described themself as being “someone who is extremely inspired by people I love.” As a trans person, they thought of the friendships and relationships they’ve formed with others in their community while filming.

“I wanted to center around that feeling and idea of trans joy, boyhood and play,” Suryawan said. “I think there’s a lot of sadness and fear around trans people right now. And so I wanted to display trans people as not just victims because they [also] can be lovers … and not these evil, disturbing forces in society.”

Although Suryawan considers themself to be “a pretty shy person,” they submitted “Loving, Moving Boy” to the Five College Film Festival to push themself out of their comfort zone. “It was pretty exciting [to win]. It was also really unexpected … But [I’m] obviously very grateful and happy. And I’m really proud of myself for putting myself out there,” Suryawan said.

Similarly, Rowell made her film

“Photo Album” for an assignment in her Digital Media class. Although she has never taken a formal film class she has been interested in the art form since high school, specifically in stop motion and animation.

“The process requires a lot of pa-

tience and can be insanely frustrating, but the satisfaction that comes with watching your progress slowly add up is one of the best feelings,” Rowell said. “It’s really magical to bring life and movement to a subject that’s usually stationary.”

“Photo Album” centers around Rowell and her Grandmother Alison, Iya, looking through a family photo album created by her Great-Grandmother, Mamo. Rowell incorporated digitally hand-drawn animations to “bring life” to her family’s writings and photos. The piece was filmed on Iya’s 73rd birthday, a week after the passing of Iya’s younger brother, David.

“Because of this, the video emerged from a period of both mourning and celebration. I think the importance of storytelling and remembrance that comes in these times of grief ended up being the main takeaway [of the film], as well as just being really grateful to get the chance to share that time with Iya,” Rowell said.

Suryawan and Rowell’s films were selected from a pool of over 100 applicants by a team of faculty and students, “a record number” according to Hammer.

“I was so unbelievably honored [to win]. … It was such an honor to

have my work alongside all the other [Five] College Students and I had so much fun seeing what everyone else had made. I was pretty nervous to show my video to a big group, but having Ayu [Suryawan] and Marty [Rothberg] there made it much easier,” Rowell said.

This year’s Five College Film Festival continued to serve as an opportunity for students to come together, regardless of their film experience or background, and share stories that matter to them through the medium.

“Media, films, stories, they’re such a great way to humanize people. And I think that when people

see concepts of individuals that they don’t really interact with very much, but only have these societal notions of them, they don’t seem real. But I think stories like the one that I showed in my documentary are just undeniably human and real, and relatable even … [and] I just want to encourage people to diversify their viewing experiences, especially in film,” Suryawan said.

Those interested in watching “Loving, Moving Boy” or “Photo Album” can contact Suryawan through their Mount Holyoke email surya22a@mtholyoke.edu and Rowell through their Instagram account @stufffrommybrain.

Mei Lum ’12 discusses gentrification in New York City’s Chinatown

BY EMMA QUIRK ’26 STAFF WRITER

On Friday, April 7, students, faculty and staff gathered in Hooker Auditorium to listen to Mei Lum ’12, the keynote speaker for Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Heritage Month. While AANHPI Heritage Month is usually celebrated in May, Mount Holyoke celebrates it in April while students are still on campus. This year’s theme is “Rewriting the Narrative.” The goal is to fight against Asian hate and emphasize the achievements, resilience and joy of the AANHPI community.

Lum is the fifth-generation owner of her family’s porcelain business Wing on Wo and Co. and the founder of the W.O.W. Project. The W.O.W. Project is a community-based initiative that focuses on “growing, protecting, and preserving Chinatown’s creative culture through arts, culture, and activism,” according to its website. While at the College, she was an East Asian Studies major. Her family’s store is the oldest operating store in New York City’s Chinatown, which she took over in 2016. At this time Lum also established the W.O.W. Project in order to amplify community voices in light of gentrification and cultural displacement.

Lum began the event, “Art Activism and Community: Fighting Gentrification in New York City’s Chinatown,” by giving a brief presentation about herself, her family’s business and the W.O.W. Project.

Lum brought up Asian American activist and feminist Grace Lee Boggs, highlighting her quote, “The most radical thing I ever did was stay put” and discussed how this notion resonates with her decision to take over the family business. Lum felt strongly that she must continue Wing and Wo to preserve her family’s legacy and the culture of Chinatown.

In 2016, Lum got the opportunity to engage with the Chinatown community through interviews and conversations hosted in her store to discuss concerns. “It was a really resounding message that there was a huge concern about the gentrification and displacement that was happening,” Lum said. Listening to these worries and

people’s reasons for cherishing and staying in the neighborhood changed her perspective. She explained that this “shifted the ways in which I started to think about myself and my own role that I play in encouraging this complex system of gentrification in Chinatown” as well as how “letting [Wing and Wo] go would really impact the block, the neighborhood and what could be in my own power to stop that.”

This inspired the W.O.W. project, which focuses on cultural displacement and, as stated by Lum, considers “how we can preserve and also breathe new life into the traditions and the culture and the art that already exists in our neighborhood.” The W.O.W. project meets in the store, and she believes that this “honor[s] that legacy and that lineage” of her ancestors. It also allows her to consider how the store “could be a sign of politicization, a sign of storytelling, and also cultural production and cultural organizing.”

Despite her desires to maintain aspects of culture and cultural identity, another important facet of W.O.W. is “actively resisting the patriarchal lineage and roots that our neighborhood has and has had in its history” by “creating space for women, nonbinary, queer and trans young people to come and really try to understand their relationships with [the] community,” Lum said.

She expanded on this idea during her conversation with AASIA members Emily Nishikimoto ’23 and Joan Kang ’23. When asked how her experiences at the College influenced her activism now, Lum stated, “Mount Holyoke gave me an opportunity to really be my full self, to make mistakes, to have opportunities of knowing and understanding who I am but also to understand the importance of community and friendships and sisterhood.” Also, the “idea of queerness and queer being something that is an identity that’s also in opposition to everything that is beyond the confines of the systems in place” has stuck with her, Lum said.

It has influenced the way that the W.O.W. Project focuses on having “young queer women, nonbinary, trans, Asian youth at the at the helm of what we’re doing because whatev-

er they create, however they create it is already an act of resistance to our lineage and history and it’s already creating an alternative future for us,” Lum stated. W.O.W. works to do so by creating an arts and activism program called Resist, Recycle, Regenerate.

Lum stated that it is to ensure that “joy and celebration and connection is at the heart of what we do because that keeps that that’s what keeps us sustaining through this work.” She feels that combining art with activism is a way to do this.

Attendees of this conversation appreciated Lum’s commitment to her community. Ajay Sinha, a professor in the art history and architectural studies department said, “What I admired most in Mei Lum is her political commitment. For them, it was not simply a matter of economic success as an individual alone, but a political success for the whole community.”

The event concluded with a lively Q&A, where audience members asked Lum all kinds of questions ranging from how did she build the

W.O.W.

Photo courtesy of Ayu Suryawan ’23

a still from Suryawan’s documentary titled “Loving, Moving Boy,” which centers trans joy.

original

team to her thoughts about the role of femininity in fighting gentrification.

Photo by Emma Quirk ’26 Mei Lum ’12 showed images, above, during her keynote talk at the celebration of Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

Photo courtesy of Olive Rowell ’24 Above, a still from Rowell ’24’s film depicts its subjects, her grandmother and great-grandmother.

Photo by Emma Quirk ’26 Lum, above, is the owner of her family’s porcelain business and the founder of the W.O.W. Project.

African opera ‘Funmilayo’ is a display of varied talents

BY LUCY OSTER ’23 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

Nobody ever wants to pay taxes. The sentiment is in the air — April 18 is Tax Day! — as well as the arts.

“Funmilayo,” the fourth production in the African opera series at Mount Holyoke, explores just one moment in the rich life of Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti: when she fought British colonial rule in what is now present-day Nigeria through protests against a special tax imposed on women in the 1940s.

“Funmilayo” was written, composed and produced by Olabode Omojola, the Hammond-Douglass Five College professor of music, and debuted on April 8 and 9 in Chapin Auditorium. As an opera, the show shares Ransome-Kuti’s real-life story through a variety of means: the classic symphony orchestra and singing expected from Italian opera, as well as West African drumming and dancing. The production also featured many types of performers, including professional actors and students from Omojola’s African Opera in Performance and Practice class. Even the audience was diverse, featuring locals from around South Hadley as well as Mount Holyoke students.

Omojola’s African operas, which he has been producing at Mount Holyoke since 2008, are intentionally a cultural mix.

lonial era,” he stated about his work.

By my own training, I studied traditional African music, I studied Western classical music […] So with this kind of bicultural and bimusical experience I felt I could use a medium that reflects my own experience, but also reflect contemporary experiences in Nigeria and even in the colonial era.

– Olabode Omojola

They are also personal to the professor. “By my own training, I studied traditional African music, I studied Western classical music … So with this kind of bicultural and bimusical experience I felt I could use a medium that reflects my own experience, but also reflect contemporary experiences in Nigeria and even in the co-

“Funmilayo” is relatively simple in its storyline. The opera follows Funmilayo and her supporters singing at the king, Oba Alade, of Abeokuta to lessen the taxes on women. This involves Funmilayo labeling the king as a ‘stooge’ of the British, an observation that is then confirmed in a song that starts with Oba Alade singing before seamlessly transitioning to the British colonial officer. The lyrics say, “The king cannot be questioned,” with the Alake referring to himself and the colonial officer referring to the British king at the time, depicting how the British are manipulating the leader into a colonial pawn.

Funmilayo consistently and clearly analyzes the situation in monologues accompanied by dance. At one point she makes a feminist reading of the situation, arguing that women shouldn’t be taxed due to the amount of upkeep they do in

their families, and, therefore, their communities. Funmilayo is the obvious hero of the opera, and her insistent and didactic demonstrations eventually cause the Alake to abdicate the throne. Omojola stated that part of his inspiration for writing “Funmilayo” came from Mount Holyoke itself. “I’ve been trying to look at themes that resonate with Mount Holyoke’s mission […] and objectives, especially about the role of gender groups that are usually underrepresented or subdued or repressed,” Omojola explained. Funmilayo is a strong woman, and the show sets her up as an important leader in her community. The simplicity of the plot means that the opera excels in its lyricism and music. The orchestra and choir had students from Mount Holyoke as well as outside of the College and was conducted by Chair of Music, Dance and Film, Media, Theater Tianhui Ng, who shared that there were “about 40” students in the orchestra, and the effect of that musical presence is felt during “Funmilayo.”

The production of “Funmilayo” is connected with Omojola’s African Opera in Performance and Practice class. The class, which is a regular 4-credit class, starts in January with a contextual basis. Omojola said the first few weeks involve “talking about historical issues, cultural issues, musical traditions in Africa, colonial rule in Africa, preparing the cultural-historical intellectual background to engage with a work of art.”

The class then transitions from theory to practice. That means the class goes from a two times a week commitment to a lot more, with Omojola saying that the week before the performance that the students “were in Chapin Auditorium at least for three hours every day so that gives you 21 hours, which is maybe [a total of] seven weeks of class?”

Carissa Barry-Moilanen ’23, who stage-managed “Funmilayo,” said that it was “a highly highly intensive process” and that “when we finally came together for that final week and when we got all the tech and the orchestra and the chorus and

the actors and the costumes and everything involved it became a really beautiful piece of art that I am proud to have been a part of.”

That magnificent effort is present in all aspects of the production. It is clear that the actors are giving it their all, and the entire production is clearly highly involved, requiring an intense level of dedication. The costuming, done by Omojola’s wife, is subtle yet elaborate.

The choreography was magnetizing and worked well with the music. There were many scenes, such as the overture and the anticolonial dance near the end, where actors danced to the orchestral music without dialogue for a considerable length of time. Kiera Myrthil ’24, who played Funmilayo for the April 8 performance shared that they felt “very honored to have premiered this opera of [Bode’s]. The storytelling, the tension and conflict resolution is so beautifully done in the score that the dialogue almost seems unnecessary. There is also so much to be said about the intention put into every piece.”

‘The Moors’ was a showcase of top Mount Holyoke talent

BY WOODLIEF MCCABE ’23 STAFF WRITER

“The Moors,” directed by Mount Holyoke College’s own Nicole Tripp ’23, is a surreal dark comedy about a woman named Emilie, who travels to the English moors to become a governess for a family with a child whom she learns does not exist, and the charming man who wrote letters to hire her seemingly doesn’t either. The energetic but neglected younger sister, Huldey, grows quickly attached to Emilie. The maid, Marjory — or Mallory, her identity changes when she enters a new room — is difficult for Emilie to understand, and does not give away any information about this strange home she is in. The elder sister of the house, Agatha, the true author of the letters, weaves a tangled web of manipulation to keep Emilie in the moors.

“The Moors” begins slowly. It is evident early on that this play is a “Waiting for Godot” situation, and Master Branwell, whom Emilie is waiting to meet, will not be making an appearance and perhaps doesn’t even exist. The repetitiveness of the scenery leaves the audience feeling stuck in the moors, just as the characters are. We find the characters moving from room to identical room.

At times, Huldey reads from her diary, where she pens an entry for a new day whenever she feels a new emotion. The tension builds subtly in the first act. Something should be happening, but Emilie is the only one questioning why nothing is. It is not until the first act’s final scene that the plot truly begins to move.

Agatha reveals to Emilie that Branwell is not dead, as she had dramatically revealed before, but instead is chained in the attic until he can provide Agatha with an heir. Bearing this child is Emilie’s true purpose. The energy and pace pick up considerably in the second act, where Huldey becomes the star.

Giving her all in this performance, Olive Benito ’26 was magnetic as Huldey. For a character that is pushed around, she owned the space she was in. Throughout the play, Huldey repeatedly proclaims that she is famous, and after watch-

ing her deliver a musical number, it isn’t hard to believe that she’s a star. Her voice and movement were frenetic and unrestrained, yet she was in total control of the stage and the audience. At the climax of the number, she saw the audience. We had seen her previously as a self-assured tween girl in her room, imagining herself as a starlet, but now she was truly on the stage, her fans cheering for her. It was a perfect convergence of the actor and the character.

The audience she had been performing for became a part of the show for a moment. Members of the audience began cheering and calling out to her, “You’re famous!” And then it was over. Huldey returned to the story and lost her audience.

What “The Moors” achieved was not just a play unfolding, but an experience that demanded that the audience act not just as spectators but as participants as well. We, too, are on the moors, bewildered by what is in front of us. The audience finds themselves asking questions about

the home, the family, and their relationships, as well as the larger purpose of the themes and components of the play such as the musical numbers or secondary story about the Mastiff and the Moorhen. It is these questions that make us participants. The play itself is highly self-reflexive, and Tripp and her cast elevated that element beyond textual analysis and brought it to the atmosphere of the play. The set and costumes gave the play a sense of place and time that was cohesive yet disembodied from any distinct location or time. Like the content of the play itself, the visual elements were eerie yet comical. The parts — the furniture, the styles of dress, the ways of speaking — were individually familiar, and yet the whole was unplaceable. This ability to convey an atmosphere through the set was particularly impressive, considering the only set change was the screen dropping to signify that the characters were on the moors. The interior room was decorated

with strange, off-kilter paintings, one of which was of the missing master of the house, Branwell. One standout in terms of costuming was the childish costume for Huldey. It is unclear exactly how old Huldey is, but her childlike demeanor was well-developed both by the actor and by her costume. The dress she wore for most of the play was in a typical gothic style, but the garish pattern added character to the costume that the acting fully embodied. The other costumes were also well-attuned to their characters.

Agatha was elegant yet cold, wearing a narrow dress in deep purple. Emilie wore two dresses with similar silhouettes. Both were simple but gave her a wonderful flowing movement as she walked. Her costume suited her character — warm, yet naive to the ways of the moors. There were also two non-human characters.

These costumes were also designed to evoke Victorian and Gothic fashion; the Mastiff wore long

mutton chops and press-on nails as claws, and the Moorhen wore a red cap and petticoats under her dress, giving her a silhouette like that of a chicken, without completely transforming her. The animal characters’ storylines were about the expression of deeply human emotions, so their human costumes with animalistic characteristics were well matched to the characters’ self-reflection.

All the actors were in touch with the material, and their chemistry was undeniable. Huldey’s dynamic with the maid, her energetic opposite, drove the second half of the play. Emilie and Agatha’s tense, neglectful lesbian romance was captivating, turning Emilie into a needy lover — Agatha’s controlling, aloof opposite.

The Mastiff and the Moorhen develop their tragic relationship slowly and deliberately. Though it is not hard to see how it will end, the actors did not betray anything. The Mastiff is destined to devour the moorhen, it is what he was made to do. Still, the characters come carefully into each other’s lives, each pushing aside the thought of how it will end between them.

The desperate Mastiff is in denial but not in control, while the Moorhen is practically-minded and still curious. Gina Pasciuto ’23’s over-communicative, emotionally frustrated Mastiff takes advantage of the Moorhen’s lack of vocabulary for her emotions, and Claire Clunis ’25 skillfully portrayed the Moorhen. She is not a fool, but she cannot compete intellectually when she does not have the words for “happy.” The two of them grew toxicity out of nurture in the moors. This story, though independent of the story in the house, was compelling and tragic.

“The Moors” was easily some of the best theater I have seen in my four years at Mount Holyoke. The care and attention that was given to the work were evident. It is one thing to watch a play with talented performers, director and crew. It is another thing to see a play like this one, where it is so clear that those involved loved what they were doing, and poured their hearts into their art.

Photo by Tara Monastesse ’25

From left to right: Olive Benito ’26 as Huldey, Isaiah Woods ’25 as Agatha, Gina Pasciuto ’23 as The Mastiff and Jiwon Kim ’26 as Marjory on stage.

Photo by Tara Monastesse ’25 Mount Holyoke Orchestra Director Tianhui Ng conducts the pit during a rehearsal of “Funmilayo,” an opera about activist Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti.

Graphic courtesy of Summer Redko

Fatal fire at Mexican migrant detention center kills asylum seekers

BY KIERA MCLAUGHLIN ’26

STAFF WRITER raids on March 27, including families, who were then taken to an immigration detainment center that did not have enough food or water for everyone detained.

Content warning: This article discusses state-sanctioned violence and mentions various forms of police brutality.

On March 27, 2023, at least 38 migrants from Central and South America died in a fire at a migrant detention center in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, Reuters reported. According to NPR, a surveillance video, which was posted online, shows detainees trapped in a locked cell while uniformed agents left the building without aiding them. BBC reported that the agents ignored the men trying to escape the fire while they yelled and banged on the door. After the smoke filled the room, however, it is unknown what took place at the facility.

Viangly Infante Padrón, a Venezuelan migrant seeking asylum in the U.S. with her family, told BBC that the agents at the detention center left her husband and other detained migrants “behind locked bars” while they themselves escaped the fire. According to AP News, Pardón continued, saying “[t]here was smoke everywhere. They let the women out and the migration staff, but it wasn’t until the firefighters arrived that they let the men out.” According to El País, there were 68 men total detained in the cell where the fire started at 9:00 p.m.

El País reported that many Venezuelan migrants were targeted by

While the investigation is still in progress, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador claimed that detainees started the fire by lighting up mattresses in protest after learning that they would soon be deported, Reuters reported. Amnesty International released a statement claiming the fire was a consequence of “the restrictive and cruel immigration policies shared by the governments of Mexico and the United States.”

Activists for migrant rights have also issued statements about the fire. Gretchen Kuhner, director of the Mexico-based Institute for Women in Migration, stated that these events “are a horrible example of why organizations have been working to limit or eliminate detention in Mexico,” Reuters reported.

According to El País, on March 9, over 30 migrant shelters and other advocacy groups published an open letter that voiced concerns and complaints about the criminalization of migrants and asylum seekers in Ciudad Juárez.

The letter addressed the abuse and excessive force used by authorities to round up migrants and the way that migrants are targeted by police, without cause, because of their immigration status. According to El País, unrest has been building for months, and on March 12, about

600 migrants protested by standing and blocking the Paso del Norte international bridge that links Mexico and the United States. El País explained that Salvadoran and Honduran migrants stay in migration centers for days, and on March 26, Mexican agents started to make arrests near and around the human rights centers that help migrants.

According to AP News, a Mexican judge has ordered that five people be investigated for their involve-

ment in the fire. The groups included three Mexican immigration officials, a private security guard and a Venezuelan migrant. The four agents at the detention center are being held on charges of homicide by omission and injuries caused by the fire, while the migrant who allegedly started the fire will be charged with homicide and causing injuries, AP News reported.

In reaction to the fire, Edith Olivares Ferreto, the executive director

of Amnesty International Mexico said this is a “reminder of the importance of adjusting immigration regulations to adhere to the recent decision of the Supreme Court of Justice,” Amnesty International reported. Olivares Ferreto also called for “an end to the practices that have caused untold damage, including torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, to thousands of migrants who have passed through these centers.”

United Nations adopts new, more progressive climate change initiatives

would assist the General Assembly, the U.N. and member states to take the bolder and stronger climate action that our world so desperately needs,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres explained to the General Assembly.

The Guardian explained that the Pacific island nation Vanuatu spearheaded this new resolution. Youth activists, law students and Indigenous lawyers from the Pacific were also key in passing this resolution. Vanuatu has been under a sixmonth-long state of emergency. According to CNN, this initiative was started by the student group Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change, who created a petition and shared it with other students and faculty.

BY ELIZABETH MURRAY ’26 STAFF WRITER

The United Nations adopted a new resolution on March 29, 2023, which requested that the International Court of Justice give an advisory opinion on countries’ obligations to combat climate change, a U.N. press release reported. The U.N. also asked the ICJ to weigh in

on the consequences for countries that do not provide aid to efforts that combat climate change. The resolution highlighted developing island nations and the global south as regions that experience the impacts of climate change disproportionately.

The Washington Post stated that a similar resolution was brought to the U.N. in 2011 — by the Pacific island nations of Palau and the Mar-

shall Islands — although this one failed to pass. According to an article by the Washington Post, an advisory opinion from the ICJ will interpret how international agreements apply to climate change and what obligations countries are required to uphold. This ruling will not be legally binding but can be used to pressure governments into taking action against climate change. “An opinion

As a result of the petition, a proposal and letter were drafted and sent to the Vanuatu government. The students then met with the foreign minister, Ralph Regenvanu. The Vanuatu government approved the proposal and brought it to the international stage. “I was very happy to receive that proposal and to commit to advancing it,” Regenvanu said to CNN. This new resolution comes shortly after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group created by the United Nations Environment Programme in 1988 to “prepare a comprehensive review and recommendations” relating to

current climate science, released its most recent report. According to Time Magazine, the report explains that the global temperature will increase by one and a half degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) by the early 2030s and three degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) by the year 2100.

The impacts of climate change are already tangible in the form of natural disasters, such as floods and extreme heat waves, and in the future, we are likely to experience heightened disasters. The report states that current efforts to combat climate change are insufficient and that there will be a need for widespread and rapid change to avoid catastrophe.

According to Human Rights Watch, this new resolution is notable because it frames fighting climate change as a human rights obligation. Because of this, the international courts will now be able to rule that countries that do not fulfill their obligations are violating the human rights of those who live in parts of the world most affected by climate change. “The resolution should demonstrate to the ICJ that U.N. member countries are eager for clear, definitive and well-reasoned answers to crucial questions of state responsibility,” Richard Pearshouse, the director of environment and human rights at Human Rights Watch, stated.

Wall Street Journal reporter stationed in Moscow arrested on spy charges

BY JENDAYI LEBEN-MARTIN ’24 GLOBAL EDITOR

On March 30, 2023, the Russian Federal Security Service announced that they had detained Evan Gershkovich, an American reporter for The Wall Street Journal, and were opening an espionage case against him, The Guardian reported. According to CNN, the FSB has charged Gershkovich with attempting to “obtain state secrets.” Almar Latour, chief executive of Dow Jones, the company that publishes The Wall Street Journal, has staunchly denied this allegation.

Gershkovich, who was based in Moscow as a journalist, is the first American citizen to be accused of and charged with espionage since the Cold War. Gershkovich’s arrest brings relations to a head between Russia and the U.S., which have been strained since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine which began in 2022.

Since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, Russia has become increasingly hostile against foreign media. According to CNN, Gershkovich’s arrest is an indicator of Russia’s increasing crackdown on Western journalism. According to AP News, the Russian government, often referred to as the Kremlin, has

heavily censored and even criminalized journalism and certain social media posts that speak against the government. For example, on March 27, a Russian man was convicted in court for posting criticism of the war in Ukraine on social media. He was sentenced to two years in prison. A campaign of censorship on this scale in Russia has not been seen since the

Soviet regime.

The detainment of an American journalist also speaks to rising tensions between Russia and the U.S., CNN reported. U.S. lawmakers see the rise in Americans detained in Russia as a political tool to place pressure on the U.S. and other Western countries. In a White House press conference on March 30, press

secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that “the targeting of American citizens by the Russian government is unacceptable.”

In the same statement, JeanPierre also issued a warning to American citizens not to travel to Russia. Putin announced in late March that Russia has plans to stall involvement in a new nuclear arms

reduction agreement called the New START Treaty. Some lawmakers, such as Florida Congressman Jared Moskowitz, have expressed that they see the arrests as political bargaining chips, CNN reported. “We are in very dangerous territory with [Putin],” Moskowitz told CNN, “this is all about leverage and so now we have a human life in the balance.”

According to The Wall Street Journal, a prisoner exchange may be the only way to return Gershkovich home. Such exchanges, having recently returned to the global stage, are becoming increasingly difficult. In the past two years, the U.S. has engaged in two prisoner exchanges, one for former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed and the other for WNBA player Brittney Griner. Both Reed and Griner were exchanged for Russian citizens being held in the U.S. on charges including war crimes and drug trafficking. These two prisoner exchanges have reduced the options the U.S. has regarding individuals to release, and figuring out someone palatable enough for the U.S. and valuable enough for Russia has proven to be a challenge. AP News reported that, after a hearing, the Moscow court has ruled that Gershkovich will remain detained until an investigation can begin.

Photo courtesy of Amyyfory via Wikimedia Commons

On March 27, a fire at a migrant detention center in Cuidad Juárez, Mexico, has killed 38 people, resulting in protests from migrant rights activists.

Photo courtesy of W. Bulach via Wikimedia Commons Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested on espionage charges in Moscow, showing Russia’s hostility against foreign journalists.

Photo courtesy of GPA Photo Archive via Flickr

A new climate change resolution, which requests an advisory opinion from the ICJ, has been passed by the General Assembly of the United Nations.

Philadelphia chemical spill reveals water infrastructure weaknesses

BY LILY BENN ’24

On March 24, a latex emulsion chemical spill from a Trinseo Altuglas plant in Bristol, Pennsylvania, caused panic over the safety of drinking water in Philadelphia, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. As of March 28, the water in Philadelphia is confirmed safe to drink. However, the previous Sunday morning, the city of Philadelphia’s officials issued a tap water advisory. This caused many residents of Philadelphia and the surrounding areas to rush to grocery stores to stock up on bottled water to avoid drinking contaminated water, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

According to Plastics Today, approximately eight thousand gallons of the acrylic polymer overflowed the onsite containment system and entered a storm drain.

From this drain, the chemicals flowed into Otter Creek, a tributary that flows into the Delaware River. Philadelphia’s water sources come from the Delaware River and the Schuylkill River. There is only one public treatment plant regulating public city water from the Delaware River, the Baxter Water Treatment Plant, an article from WHYY-FM explained.

According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, as of 2023, there is little research on the effects of ingesting or coming into contact with the three main chemicals released in the spill: ethyl acrylate, methyl methacrylate and butyl acrylate.

There is some evidence of adverse health effects for all three chemicals, but there is little knowledge of their long-term effects.

This is not the first time Trinseo has had chemical spills, The Philadelphia Inquirer explained. In fact, there have been four documented

cases of latex chemical leaks in this area since 2010 under the ownership of the European company Arkema. During this time, the Environmental Protection Agency released a corrective action plan for the Trinseo chemical plant after discovering that groundwater was “contaminated with a variety of organic and inorganic chemicals,” per the Philadelphia Inquirer. The Baxter Water Treatment Plant supplies water to half of the city of 1.5 million people, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. It was closed as soon as city officials learned of the chemical spill, but on the following Sunday, the plant was forced to reopen to maintain regulated water levels, with city officials issuing the aforementioned tap water advisory.

This advisory was revoked the following Tuesday following hydraulic modeling and water sampling showing that the threat of contam-

Historic NASA announcement signals greater diversity in lunar mission crews

BY SARAH GRINNELL ’26 STAFF WRITER

On April 3, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration made history in Houston, Texas, when it announced the four astronauts who will take part in its latest mission, Artemis II. Among the ranks will be the first woman and first Black astronaut to ever embark on a lunar expedition, TIME reported.

According to the BBC, the Artemis II mission marks NASA’s first moon-related journey in 50 years.

As detailed by Time, the crew will fly around the far side of the Moon, the farthest any astronauts have ever traveled in space. The infamous Apollo 13 crew currently holds the record, with a distance of 401,056 km (249,205 mi.) traveled from Earth, Time reported.

According to Time, the mission, preceded by the uncrewed Artemis I, will be a 10-day journey. Artemis I embarked last year for a total of 25 days around the moon to test NASA’s all-new Moon rocket, the Space Launch System, and its crew capsule, the Orion, BBC described. After Artemis II completes its run in this spacecraft, Time says that it will ultimately be followed by a subsequent crew, Artemis III, that will land on the Moon.

The mission, which has been in the making since the last manned mission to the Moon in December 1972 with Apollo 17, has an approximate launch date in Nov. 2024, Time reported. It aims to recreate the 1968 mission of Apollo 8, the first manned expedition to the Moon, the BBC explained. According to NASA, the ultimate goal of the entire Artemis program is to explore and study the Moon anew, this time with more advanced technology, such as the SLS. Per NASA, the crew of Artemis III will eventually “search for the Moon’s water and use it,” study the Moon and test new tools which NASA will eventually use to send astronauts to Mars and revolutionize how humans can work and potentially live on the planet.

As Victor Glover, one of the Artemis II crew, told the crowd at a ceremony in Houston, Artemis “is the

next step on the journey that gets humanity to Mars,” the BBC reported.

The historic crew has already created waves even before takeoff. According to the BBC, the crew includes astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman and Jeremy Hansen. The astronauts creating the most buzz, however, are Koch and Glover, the first female and Black astronauts to go on a lunar mission, respectively.

Koch — an electrical engineer — currently holds the record for most continuous days spent in space by a woman at a total of 328 days aboard the International Space Station (ISS), the BBC detailed. Alongside fellow NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, the BBC reported that she took part in the first all-female spacewalk in October 2019. According to Time, she has participated in half a dozen spacewalks so far in her career.

Per the BBC, Glover is a former U.S. Navy test pilot who joined NASA in 2013 and first took flight into space in 2020. He then spent 138 days aboard the ISS and participated in a total of 4 spacewalks. He was also the “first African American to stay on the space station for an extended period of six months,” the BBC reported, and he will now make history as the first Black person to travel to the Moon.

ination had passed, WHYY-FM reported.

During this period of uncertainty over the safety of half of Philadelphia’s tap water, the city was not able to divert safe water to these residents, WHYY-FM explained.

In city infrastructure, redundancy is the ability to supply safe water in times of crisis via backup systems to all residents of an urban area. It is difficult for most areas to obtain 100 percent redundancy, mainly due to infrastructure problems, especially in Philadelphia.

According to Charles Haas, a professor of environmental engineering at Drexel University, supplying water to all of Philadelphia’s residents from the plants currently in use on the Schuylkill River would require hundreds of millions of dollars to expand the plants or create new plants entirely, as the ones in place do not have the infrastructure to be able to supply water to more people

in case of emergencies, or generally.

Despite how difficult it is to plan and carry out full redundancy, according to Philadelphia’s water revitalization plan, the city is planning to improve its water infrastructure over the next 25 years.

This plan lays out goals and key projects dedicated to improving the quality of water for Philadelphian citizens.

About 400 total projects are in line according to this plan, with the first one scheduled to start in 2026, constructing a connection between the two plants on the Schuylkill River, costing about 2.5 billion dollars.

Trinseo put out a press release on March 26, explaining that Altuglas LLC employees are working with local, state and federal agencies on stopping the spill and cleaning it up. There was no information in this release on how or if the company is working to prevent these spills in the future.

Introduction to In Vitro Fertilization

BY ELIZABETH MAZZARELLI ’26 STAFF WRITER

According to the BBC, Wiseman, also a U.S. Navy pilot, has crewed one previous space mission to the ISS, in 2015. He will be the commander of the mission, with Glover as his pilot. Koch will be a supporting “mission specialist” alongside Hansen, a former fighter pilot for the Royal Canadian Air Force who will make his first space journey with Artemis II, the BBC reported.

Hansen’s inclusion in the crew also marks a significant landmark, as the BBC points out that he will be the first Canadian on a lunar mission. This reflects what NASA administrator Bill Nelson calls in a Time article NASA’s commitment to “[explore] the cosmos with international partners.”

Given that all the previous missions to the Moon were crewed by white men, NASA’s decision to man Artemis II with a historically diverse crew mirrors what BBC described as its “promise to bring greater diversity to its exploration efforts.”

As put by Nelson, Artemis “is humanity’s crew.” With the “Artemis Generation,” NASA hopes to “[usher] in a new era of exploration for a new generation of star sailors and dreamers,” BBC reported. With the first female, Black and Canadian astronauts to embark on the final frontier, these horizons have certainly been expanded.

The Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine elected to award the 2010 prize to Robert G. Edwards, Ph. D. In conjunction with Patrick Steptoe M. D., Edwards developed the process of human in vitro fertilization. The Nobel Committee estimates that infertility, a condition in which abnormalities occurring in both the male and female reproductive systems cause difficulty with conception, impacts upwards of one-tenth of the global population. Edwards and Steptoe recognized this reality roughly half a century ago and set about discovering the practice that, in 1978, allowed the duo to successfully make human life from a Petri dish, implant said embryo in a uterus, and guide their patient through a nine-month gestation period that culminated in the birth of the first test tube baby: Louise Brown.

Penn Medicine distills the process into five prominent stages.

Superovulation describes the period during which the prospective parent receives drugs like Follicle Stimulating Hormone to stimulate egg production beyond the monthly quota of one.

Roughly thirty-six hours before having one’s eggs harvested, yet another dose of hormones is

delivered in the form of an injection intended to increase the maturation rate of the eggs. Then, follicular aspiration is performed. This outpatient surgery involves the insertion of a needle through the vagina to collect the ripened eggs from the ovaries, according to Penn Medicine.

Next, the other half of the genetic material — the sperm sample — is collected. According to Penn Medicine, in order to then filter out the unhealthy sperm, the sample is subjected to a rigorous wash and spin cycle from which only the best emerge.

Insemination, or the joining of the sperm and egg samples, can occur via intracytoplasmic sperm injection, when the sperm is introduced into the egg, per Penn Medicine. The newly formed embryos are monitored throughout the initial stages of development until they become blastocysts within three to five days.

Soon after egg collection, more hormones are given to the prospective parent in hopes of making the uterus more amenable to implantation, when the blastocyst or blastocysts are reintroduced through the vagina, according to Penn Medicine. As the number of embryos increases, so too does the chance of implantation. Two weeks after the procedure, its success can be determined with a pregnancy test.

STAFF WRITER

Photo courtesy of Bruce Emmerling via Wikimedia Commons The Trinseo Altuglas plant leaked latex emulsion chemicals into the Delaware River on March 24, leading to the temporary closure of one of Philadelphia’s two public drinking water treatment plants. The spill led to a bottled water shortage in the city.

Photo courtesy of NASA Johnson via Flickr

The Artemis II crew includes the first woman and the first Black person to go on a lunar mission.

Graphic by Sunny Wei ’23

The Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Center’s opening ceremony in India reveals the country’s continued need for Western validation

terconnected world. However, this representation gains meaning only if it does right by the culture it is trying to represent. Hollywood attendees might have a greater reach on a global audience, but the priority must be to first cultivate a space for the growth of Indian culture and art before bringing in a global dynamic.

This has not been the case. The center’s preoccupation with the West is reflected in its events and agendas for the near future.

Among its first shows, which does include some Indian dance, music and theater, is “Sound of Music.”

While a great musical to watch as well as a great move by Ambani to bring a Tony award-winning show to Bombay, this detracts from her mission to promote Indian culture. Yes, the center must be a global hub that allows Indian audiences to engage with varied cultures and arts. However, we have often made space for the West to have priority.

BY JAHNAVI PRADEEP ’23

OPINION EDITOR

On March 31, 2023, the new Nita Ambani Cultural Center was launched in Bombay, India. As indicated by its name, the center was founded by Nita Ambani, part of India’s elite billionaire business family, to promote, as per the website, a “sensory journey of India’s rich cultural history through costume, performing and visual arts.” As a part of its launch, the Center celebrated a MET gala-style grand red-carpet opening graced primarily by various celebrities and fashion designers, among others. Of its popular invitees, apart from the city’s familiar Bollywood faces, were Western figures Christian Louboutin, Emma Chamberlain, Gigi Hadid, Jeff Koons, Karlie Kloss, Kat Graham, Nick Jonas, Penelope Cruz, Tom Holland and Zendaya.

While the Center is an impressive investment for Ambani to make toward the rich fabric that comprises Indian art and culture, the opening alone reflects an age-old reductive dynamic between South Asia and the Western hemisphere. The opening ceremony, through both its obsession with its new Western guests and its mimicry of Hollywood galas, reflects how Western validation still forms an integral part of South

Asia’s identity formation and reach for global recognition. In this preoccupation with catering to global, or more specifically Western validation, indigenous art suffers the harm of reductive promotion that does no justice to the “rich cultural history” that Ambani boasts of promoting.

As a former British colony, India has a long-standing complicated history with the West. Even after decades of independence, we have always, on a state level as well as on the individual level, had a need to appease the West in order to feel worthy of progress and development.

NMACC becomes one such example in a history of many others.

For example, in an article for The Swaddle in 2022, Devrupa Rakshit discusses the country’s strained relationship with Western validation by examining the Cannes Film Festival and its Indian guests. Rakshit discusses the harsh criticism these celebrities faced from different media coverages, tracing back Indians’ anxieties over their representation on a global platform to a colonial need for Western validation, stating that “It is, perhaps, our history of being colonized for close to a century that often leads us to seek western approval in unspoken ways — like landing roles, no matter how small, in Hollywood movies being considered a feat or a foreign degree prima

facie being deemed more valuable than an Indian one.”

This year alone, India has celebrated wide global recognition for their art and culture. For example, the Dior show took place at the Gateway of India in Bombay right before the NMACC opening. Additionally, previously in the year, India was often in global news, primarily at the Academy Awards, where Indian actress Deepika Padukone presented for the ceremony, Tollywood Film ‘RRR’’s song ‘Naatu Naatu’ won the Best Original Song and Kartiki Gonsalves’ ‘Elephant Whisperers’ won Best Documentary Short Film.

While commendable that India is making forays into previously Western-centric and exclusive arenas, their celebration exists as a part of what Rakshit describes as “our desire to ‘match’ those in structural power — in a show of tacit subservience.” NMACC has a clear desire for this “tacit subservience” in its construction of what comprises the cultural center as well as its inclusion of Western figures. The first evidence of this need manifests itself in the opening ceremony, graced by several prominent Western figures.

Ambani’s goal for the center is to celebrate Indian art and culture. As per India Times, Ambani stated her vision for the center as an “ode to our nation, the cultural center

aims to preserve and promote Indian arts. I hope our spaces nurture and inspire talent, bringing together communities from across India and the globe.” As per another article for LiveMint, Ambani went on to build how NMACC would be a “worldclass center” for “promoting and celebrating our artistic and cultural heritage … In cinema and music, In dance and drama, In literature and folklore, In arts and crafts, In science and spirituality, All of which is India’s intangible national wealth.”

However, Ambani’s focus on promoting this “intangible national wealth” is catered toward seeking validation from the west rather than doing right by the country’s cultural history. The opening show had Western celebrities, but no focus on artists from India who did not come from A-list Bollywood backgrounds. I was greeted with an influx of media coverage specifically targeting the new Hollywood attendees of the event. It was only after a good amount of digging around that I was able to understand the true intent behind Ambani’s new center and the core values it claims to espouse.

On the one hand, it is indeed important for Ambani to create a space where India’s cultural wealth is foregrounded, as a means of properly claiming a space for Indian culture within an increasingly in-

Mount Holyoke News Crossword: April 14

Growing up, I have watched myself and those around me grow up with the assumption that Western art, Western-validated art or anglicized art, seem to be the only form of art that might be considered worthy of being enjoyable or inspiring. Ambani’s move only reinforces this idea of over-highlighting marginalized art forms within the country as a priority. Furthermore, in India, access to Western art and education has historical ties with class privilege. Herein, Ambani creation of the center reinforces a classist space aspiring to Western standards and ignoring the need to embolden Indian arts and culture.

Indian art — performing and visual — is sprawling. Even within the country, not everyone is familiar with arts from different corners of the country. I appreciate what appears to be Ambani’s attempts to include a variety of dance forms for the Center’s upcoming shows. I hope that NMACC’s future endeavors remember the primary goal of the institution and how to best serve it. Amabani must make more efforts to raise awareness of the different forms of art within the country and their meaning for different communities. As one of the wealthiest philanthropists in the country claiming a commitment to promoting India’s rich cultural heritage, she must rethink her approach to celebrating the country’s art forms and creating a space that is inclusive, accessible and representative of the country’s rich tapestry of arts.

BY CATELYN FITZGERALD ’23 SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT EDITOR

Across

1. Extremely large

6. Common infection that can affect the bladder (abbrev.)

10. Avril Lavigne song about being someone you’re not

13. Hold, in a parental fashion

16. School of Mahayana Buddhism that emphasizes meditation

18. College that doesn’t fare well in diversity rankings (abbrev.)

20. Culture prevalent in Louisiana

22. Harry Styles song about men in relationships

27. Third track on “Harry’s House”

30. Pinot ___

33. Non-stick cooking spray

34. Super cool, man

35. Quidditch team position

39. Avril Lavigne song, or an angry outburst

42. Latin abbreviation meaning “and so on”

43. “And at last I see ________” from “Tangled”

Down

2. Pioneer of the abstract movement Af Klint

3. Group that raises money to support political candidates (abbrev.)

4. Simon and Garfunkel hit “______ Rock”

5. “The Hunger Games” male manipulator

7. Slang name for hot gossip

8. Mineral added to some table salt

9. Actor who plays a police chief in “21 Jump Street’’

11. Blacken, in cooking terminology

12. Company based out of Portland Oregon that sells

7 down

14. Pen that saves lives

15. Opposite of an L

17. Deer relative

19. “____ and tear”

21. Pretentious shade of beige

23. “Axel F” singer Crazy ___

24. An IPA with extra A

25. Getting closer to

26. A thematic period of time

28. Having a tendency to do something

Photo courtesy of Fuzheado via WikeMedia Commons

The Nita Ambani Cultural Center opened in Bombay, India last month. However, Pradeep ’23 warns that institutions like the Cultural Center should resist conforming to Western norms and validation.

Mount Holyoke Athletics celebrates NCAA Division III Week

BY LAUREN LEESE ’23 STAFF WRITER

The Mount Holyoke College Student-Athlete Advisory Committee announced several events to celebrate the National Collegiate Athletics Association’s Division III Week, all of which are open to any Mount Holyoke community member. The NCAA is divided into three divisions with different standards and rules to suit different athlete experiences.

Division III, of which Mount Holyoke College is a member, prioritizes academic achievement and well-rounded student life along with a competitive athlete experience.

NCAA Division III Week runs from April 10 through April 16. Amrit Khinda ’25, the SAAC Diversity, Equity and Inclusion subcommittee chair and member of the Lyons’ basketball team, explained the significance of Division III Week for student-athletes at Mount Holyoke.

“DIII week … presents a valuable occasion for all individuals affiliated with a DIII institution to observe and celebrate the profound impact athletics and student-athletes have on campus,” Khinda said. “It is a way to build a better understanding of the DIII student-athlete experience.”

SAAC Outreach and Community Involvement Chair Maddie Millyan spoke about what being a Division III athlete has meant to her. “Being on a team is an experience that I think has helped me in every aspect of my life because I am able to see not just myself grow but my fellow teammates and that is so rewarding,” she said. “The friends and connections I have made as a student-athlete at Mount Holyoke College will stay with me through my entire life, and for that, I am forever grateful.”

This year’s Division III Week also serves to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Title IX, the landmark legislation that prevents sex-based discrimination in federally-funded schools. A poster to commemorate Title IX was set up at the Kendall Sports and Dance Complex entrance for viewing throughout the week.

The display shows the text of Title IX along with statistics about gender equity before and after the passage of the legislation.

In the lead-up to Division III Week, the athletics department celebrated National Student-Athlete Day

on Thursday, April 6. The day was commemorated with a make-yourown energy bar event at the Kendall Sports and Dance Complex.

Several events took place throughout Division III Week. On Monday, April 10, Head Swimming and Diving Coach David Allen hosted a mindfulness session. A Spirit Day event took place on Tuesday, April 11, where participants were challenged to dress as their favorite female athletes. Thursday, April 13 saw the Empowerment Movie Night event, where community members were invited to the Blanchard Great

Room for a screening of the movie “Swimmers.”

Multiple athletic competitions occurred during Division III Week with extra activities for spectators. On Wednesday, April 12, Mount Holyoke Lacrosse competed against Smith College in a home game that featured events and giveaways at half-time. Spectators also had the option to bring or purchase stuffed animals for donation to a women’s and children’s shelter. The final score was 18-8 to Smith. Mount Holyoke Tennis scheduled a home game against Babson College for Friday,

April 14, with games and food provided.

The Athletics Department will provide transportation for spectators who want to watch the two away-from-home athletic competitions scheduled for Saturday, April 15. In the morning, Mount Holyoke Rowing will compete at the Donahue Rowing Center in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. Their opponents include teams from Clark University, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Washington College, Williams College, Connecticut College, Simmons University and Rochester Institute of Technology. Mount Holyoke Track and Field will be heading to the Jerry Gravel Invitational at Westfield State University in Worcester, Massachusetts.

SAAC Programming and Legislation subcommittee chair and Mount Holyoke Rowing athlete Zoe Wolfel ’23 spoke about her excitement for the Saturday competitions.

“All of our races are off-campus, which means that people on campus don’t often get to come see us race,” Wolfel said. “I am really excited for everyone to see what we do.”

Several other events were scheduled going into the weekend. The 2023 SAAC Formal will take place on Friday, April 14 in the Great Room, with food, music and activities for attendees. Millyan, whose SAAC subcommittee planned this event, spoke of her excitement for the formal. “It is going to be a great time to meet new people, try new things and have fun,” she said.

On Saturday, April 15, the Mount Holyoke community will be able to compete in the MHC Community 5K. Division III Week will wrap up on Sunday, April 16 with a Field Day event on Skinner Green.

Club Corner: Mount Holyoke Rugby hosts intersquad scrimmage at home after canceled tournament at the University of Vermont

BY EMILY TARINELLI ’25 SPORTS EDITOR

Mount Holyoke Rugby made the difficult decision to pull out of the University of Vermont’s “Ruggers Supporting Survivors” tournament after the majority of participating teams withdrew from the event, likely the result of a scheduling conflict with the weekend’s numerous major religious holidays.

The tournament, which took place on Sunday, April 9, was a fundraiser for HOPE Works, a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending sexual assault and supporting survivors. It featured speakers and advocates from HOPE Works who delivered a talk before the start of the matchup, as well as UVM’s senior recognition ceremony.

“Our plan was to travel there on Saturday, [and] spend the time we had that day bonding and building community before going to UVM to play on Sunday. We were supposed to play four 40-minute games and would have returned Sunday night,” forwards captain Skye Gorman ’24 said.

Because the six-hour round trip to UVM and back would have required tight carpooling and a hotel

arrangement, all to face off a single Division I team as a Division III school, attending the tournament was no longer feasible for Mount Holyoke. “We determined that it would be better to reserve our team resources rather than travel all the way there to play one game,” Gorman said.

Now, the Lyons look forward to their next competition at Smith College on Sunday, April 16, and their final tournament of the season, Prom Dress Rugby, for which athletes will don their most formal attire at Babson College the following weekend.

thing,” Izzy Jarvis-Stores ’26 explained of the latter. “We just divided the team into three little mini teams, and there were little games and challenges [that we participated in.] It was fun.”

“We had many different team challenges involving kicking, passing, tackling, agility and more,” Gorman said.

It wasn’t a super organized thing. We just divided the team into three little mini teams, and there were little games and challenges [that we participated in.] It was fun.

– Izzy Jarvis-Stores

Despite the change of plans, Mount Holyoke Rugby refused to let the anticipated playing time go to waste. To make up for the missed tournament, the team decided to host an intersquad scrimmage and a variety of team-building activities here at home, including mini-games and “Rugby Olympics.”

“It wasn’t a super organized

Since the team bonding events took place on Easter Sunday, the head coach designed a small egg hunt for the team as one of the activities.

“It was really cute,” Izzy Jarvis-Stores ’26 said. “It was kind of like Field Day in elementary school.”

After the games, Jarvis-Stores said the team was divided into teams of 10 athletes each and played each other in a short but successful game at the rugby pitch outside Kendall Sports and Dance Complex.

“Mount Holyoke won,” Jarvis-Stores joked.

Track and Field competes in non-scoring Amherst Spring Fling meet

BY GENEVIEVE ZAHNER ’26 STAFF WRITER

On Saturday, April 8, Mount Holyoke Track and Field competed in the Amherst Spring Fling meet against Amherst College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Middlebury College, Williams College, Wesleyan University and Brandeis University. While it was a non-scoring meet, several Mount Holyoke team members managed to break personal records while competing.

Tessa Lancaster ’25 finished fourth out of nine competitors in the 5,000-meter run and achieved both a personal best time of 18:25.99 and a fifth-place ranking on Mount Holyoke’s all-time performance record. Emma Doyle ’23 competed in the hammer throw and received a personal record mark of 35.66 meters. Doyle also placed fourth out of 27 competitors in the shot put after throwing a mark of 11.04 meters and third out of 30 competitors in the discus throw after claiming a mark of 32.21 meters.

Other team members who performed personal bests for Mount

Holyoke included Em Tetzlaff ’26, who placed 19th in the discus throw with a distance of 25.11 meters. Abby Elliot ’25 placed 17th in the discus throw with a mark of 25.93 meters and also competed in the shot put and hammer throw. Lucy Sternberg ’23 received a season-best in a triple jump of 9.32 meters and also competed in the 100-meter dash and long jump. Greta Trapp ’25, Olivia Johnson ’25 and Bridget Hall ’24 all ran personal records in the 1,500-meter run, with Trapp coming in at 5:12.42, Johnson at 5:15.23 and Hall at 5:16.22.

Lize Brown ’25 placed 10th in the javelin throw, and teammates Erin Siegel ’25, Chloe Broadwell ’25, Evelyn Bushway ’24 and Kristina Busby ’26 also competed in this event. Seigel placed 17th and Broadwell, Bushway and Busby placed 19th, 20th and 21st respectively.

Mount Holyoke Track and Field will next compete at the Jerry Gravel Invitational at Westfield State University on Saturday, April 15, and Lancaster will represent Mount Holyoke at the Connecticut College Silfen Invitational on

Photo by Emily Tarinelli ’25

NCAA Division III Week gives the opportunity to showcase the accomplishments of student athletes through activities and transportation to games.

Photo courtesy of Lyn Sleimann ’24 Mitsuki Ito ’26, pictured above, plays rugby at the Mount Holyoke College intersquad scrimmage.

f HOROSCOPES f

BY CARRIE LEWIS ’23 & MADDEN LACOSTE ’23 HOROSCOPE WRITERS

March 21 – April 19

Do you have games on your phone? It’s alright if you don’t, but we all need a break sometimes. Take yourself a little less seriously. Download Candy Crush.

Do: Swipe| Don’t: Tap

April 20 – May 20

Don’t let salty water stop you from swimming in the ocean. Or is it deep water you’re afraid of? Sometimes, reading a book on the sand is enough. Find solace in the simple things.

Do: Breed | Don’t: Read

May 21 – June 20

Wear flip-flops during this nice weather.

You are wearing your mind on your feet. Some things are better when you decide with your instinct. Walk on the grass barefoot the next time you need to make a big decision.

Do: Rubber | Don’t: Slam

June 21 – July 22

There isn’t much you can’t do. Get a little boogie into your walk this week. We all love your moves! Spend more of your time in nature.

Do: Negotiate | Don’t: Truffle Fries

July 23 – Aug. 22

I like when you wear pink. Do your best to expand your horizons this week. Is there something you’ve been wanting to do? Don’t let a new color frighten you. You are braver than you know.

Do: Topless | Don’t: Shrink

Aug. 23 – Sept. 22

How many people have you been waiting on this week? Don’t let others take time from yourself. You already know the right answers. Eavesdropping into strangers’ conversations will also help you gain perspective.

Do: Nostalgia | Don’t: Graphic novels

Mount Holyoke

Senate votes to ratify 20232024 elections results, cont’d

Sept. 23 – Oct. 22

The light is beautiful, but it still burns. This dichotomy is enchanting. How can two contrasting things happen at the same time? That’s your job to find out. Scream into the abyss this week.

Do: Take a lap | Don’t: Boating

Oct. 23 – Nov. 21

What drives your unfriendly tendencies? Just because you don’t know how people react doesn’t mean that you should ignore those around you. If you clear your vision, you will see that others are excited to receive your waving hand.

Do: Snort | Don’t: Speak

Nov. 22 – Dec. 21

You are like a black licorice jelly bean. The people who love you are entrenched in adoration for you. However, the people that don’t are strong in their belief about you. You need to work on being satisfied with both people.

Do: Stars | Don’t: Wean

Dec. 22 – Jan. 19

How many stars are in your constellation? Sometimes it’’s best not to count, and just enjoy the view. Take some time to relax in the grass.

Do: Hydrate | Don’t: Starve

Jan. 20 – Feb. 18

You are at the precipice of a cloverleaf. There are four paths you can take. How will you choose? Trust yourself to know the right one for you. It will only be right when you are settled with your ability to make good choices.

Do: Brain | Don’t: Hypersensitivity

Feb. 19 – March 20

What do you consider yourself good at? Is it something you like? No matter what, you should try to focus on that thingy. It will lead you to what you actually like. Your lucky color is brown.

Do: Crayons | Don’t: Nitrous Oxide

News

Mount Holyoke News is an independent student newspaper written by and for Mount Holyoke College students since 1917.

Executive Board

u CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

to. Jankovic, the chair of the senate, agreed that it could be seen that way. When asked about the tax workshop hosted by SFS, the senators generally felt positive.

The Senate then began open floor, a portion of the meeting where senators and representatives are invited to share their thoughts and opinions on various issues. The representative for the Mixed Identity Student Collective announced that they would be holding open hours at the Unity Center on Friday, April 14, from 2-4. The representative for the Student Athletic Advisory Committee stated that as this week was DIII week there are tons of events and games going on. She advised students to check Instagram or Kendall Sports and Dance Complex to find event times. The International Student Organizing Community announced the upcoming Korea Night event.

The senator for MacGregor Hall proceeded to bring up a concern that they had seen students around campus feeding and chasing the geese, something the senator fears

will provoke conflict as the geese mate and have babies. The E-Board stated they will work on creating more awareness of “geese etiquette” around campus, possibly through signs or social media posts. The representative for the MHC Democrats raised a question about the parking at Gorse Children’s Center, which has many sizable pot-holes.

The E-Board agreed that the parking lot was an issue and promised to bring it up to the administration.

Another member asked about a recent Student Life announcement postponing the use of the firepit for the foreseeable future. A member of Student Life, present at the meeting, responded, saying that as there is currently a red flag warning across Massachusetts — a weather alert that signifies an increased probability of fire — and that the local fire department asked the school not to use it. The Senate closed with a few reminders from the SGA E-Board. They reminded students that the coming week would be More Than An Ally Week, hosted by MoZone Peer Educators, that the Drag Ball is coming up this weekend and that the Senior Ball is the following Saturday, April 22.

Editor-in-Chief Sophie Soloway ’23

Managing Editor of Content Emma Watkins ’23

Managing Editor of Layout Jesse Hausknecht-Brown ’25

Copy Chief Lydia Eno ’26

News Tara Monastesse ’25 & Bryn Healy ’24

Arts & Entertainment Eliška Jacob ’24 & Lucy Oster ’23

Opinion Jahnavi Pradeep ’23

Books Olivia Wilson ’24

Global Shira Sadeh ’25 & Jendayi Leben-Martin ’24

Sports Emily Tarinelli ’25

Publisher Ali Meizels ’23

Managing Editor of Web Artemis Chen ’25 & Michelle Brumley ’24

Business Manager Katie Goss ’23

Human Resources Hannah Raykher ’23

Editorial Board

Features Jesse Hausknecht-Brown ’25 & Melanie Duronio ’26

Science & Environmental Catelyn Fitzgerald ’23

Photos Rosemary Geib ’23 & Ali Meizels ’23

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Publication Guidelines

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Web Editors Maira Khan ’25, Aditi Menon

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