The Miscellany News
miscellanynews.org
Vassar College’s student newspaper of record since 1866 Volume 161 | Issue 4
February 15, 2024
Nights BREAKING NEWS: Emily Mortimer 100 to give address at 160th Commencement dazzles seniors Sufana Noorwez, Sashinka Poor
Maryam Bacchus, Charlotte Robertson
Senior Editors
Editor-in-Chief, Managing Editor
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Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
n Feb. 9, 2024, The Miscellany News was informed by Vassar College that actress and filmmaker Emily Mortimer will address the Class of 2024 at the 160th Commencement. The ceremony is scheduled to take place on May 19, 2024. Notably, Mortimer voiced young Sophie in the English-dubbed version of “Howl’s Moving Castle,” portrayed Nicole in “The Pink Panther” and starred as MacKenzie “Mac” Morgan McHale in HBO’s “The Newsroom.” She was nominated for a British Academy Television Award (BAFTA) for her work as a supporting actress in “The Pursuit of Love,” which she also wrote and directed. She will portray Mrs. Brown in the upcoming “Paddington in Peru” movie. Mortimer was born and raised in Hammersmith, London, and later attended Oxford University, where she studied Russian. Mortimer now resides in Brooklyn, NY, with her husband, actor Alessandro Nivola, and their two children. An interview with Mortimer and The Miscellany News is forthcoming.
ASA hosts Grier lectures on race, literature celebr ation Kathyrn Carvel, Leila Stark
Copy Staffer, Guest Columnist
Clara Alger News Editor
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n Saturday, Feb. 10, Vassar’s Asian Students’ Alliance (ASA) hosted their annual Lunar New Year dinner in the Aula. The space glowed warmly from paper lanterns and string lights. Attendees dined together at circular tables, celebrating the start of the Year of the Dragon. This year’s event had an exceptional turnout. Co-President of ASA Sofia Satuito ’26 noted that they had prepared for about 80 guests but ended up selling around 120 tickets, though they were able to cover for the additional people. The primary student organizers of the night, Emily Tieu ’24, Chi Nguyen ’26 and Claudia Lin ’27 said they began prepping for the event during winter break. In addition to the dinner, the event included palm reading, calligraphy activities and photo stations. One change from last year is that Nguyen proposed to have dinner served family style. When asked about her favorite part of the night, Tieu said, “I think watching everyone eat together,” commenting that she enjoyed seeing people who did not See ASA on page 3
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ow can we define racism today? Professor Miles Grier opened his lecture with this question and was met with a resounding silence. The lecture hall that moments before had felt so large and so sparsely populated became claustrophobic. For a conversation about Black agency and the written word, the room was notably lacking students of color. On Jan. 31, 2024, Professor Miles P. Grier of Queens College came to Vassar to give a lecture titled “Black Residue: Ink and Racial Thinking from Shakespeare to Toni Morrison.” Grier’s lecture was based on his research on the performance history of Shakespeare’s “Othello.” He then combined this study with his research in Black agency and the written word, tying in work from revered literary figures Philis Wheatley and Toni Morrison. He encouraged us to re-evaluate our relationship to the written word and its function as a symbol of oppression. The lecture’s overarching theme explored the authority of the written word and whether it should hold primacy in Westernized society. Grier explained that placing the most authority and value in written text strips people who do not have access to the written word of any agency. Failure to conform to the primacy of the written word denies many people accu-
rate representation and, in turn, credibility. Grier’s research pinpointed the written word as a Eurocentric form of communication; when society emphasizes it as the most prominent form of truth, it ultimately devalues alternate forms of communication and archival knowledge. To begin, Grier introduced us to the Moor character archetype in Shakespeare’s work: a person that is covered or filled with ink, trapped in a liminal space between humanity and markings on a page. He focused on Shakespeare’s “Othello,” which follows a Moorish general in the Venetian army who grapples with the consequences of his racial identity in a predominantly white society. As Othello rises to power and marries Desdemona, his identity as a Moor becomes a focal point for the manipulation and deceit orchestrated by the villainous Iago. The play explores themes of racism, jealousy and the destructive impact of societal prejudices on an individual’s sense of identity and belonging. As one of the first prominent Black literary figures and characterized for his dark—or ink-like—skin tone, Othello becomes the epitome of illiteracy. As Grier deftly explained, Othello is a character that is meant to be read or is someone else’s text; he is never given the agency to become the reader himself. As literacy and the written word holds much authority in our society in what is charSee Grier on page 4
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quintessential Vassar senior experience is 100 Nights, a celebration of the remaining days until Commencement. Though the idea of being so close to the end of our time at Vassar is daunting, many seniors took the event as a chance to forget about looming deadlines for an evening and fully immerse themselves in the fun of solving a murder mystery. In the arc of a typical Vassar career, the Alumnae House may serve many purposes, including a location for department dinners with invited speakers or a place where parents may stay when visiting. However, for many seniors, their first experience with Alumnae House was the dreaded COVID-19 quarantine. Before the days of an open campus or a hotel quarantine, students who tested positive for COVID-19 were placed in one of the rooms in Alumnae House. But those days were far from anyone’s mind on Friday night, as seniors filled the halls of the gorgeous inn. The Senior Class Council had enticed students with varied offerings, including a prosecco bar, jazz, poker and, the main event of the night, a murder mystery beginning 30 minutes after the start of the event. Turnout was high, as was the loyalty to the theme of “100 Nights 100 years ago.” Only a few minutes after 8 p.m., a long line of seniors dressed in suits and slinky dresses, adorned with feathers and pipes, led into the reception area of the Alumnae House. Coincidentally, Alumnae House is celebrating its own 100-year anniversary this year, meaning that the location was more on theme than anyone else. The architecture, gorgeous on any day, was especially appreciated on Friday evening, contributing to the immersive experience. The building itself was decorated to fit the theme as well, with high-top tables topped with real flame candles and even more feathers. Balloons and soft, 1920s-esque jazz completed the ambience for the evening. An unexpected delight was the vast array of snacks freely available in the main room. Though dessert snacks had been promised, the variety of food catered by Twisted Soul exceeded expectations. Savory options, like nachos and pulled pork or tofu sliders, as well as sweet treats including chocolate tarts, mini pavlovas and cheesecake were on constant rotation for hungry students throughout the night. As for the prosecco bar, a free drink was offered to the first 100 seniors who arrived at the event, and excited students lined up clutching their red tickets. The bar offered a variety of prosecco with different mixers, along with a non-alcoholic peach and ginSee Seniors on page 7
Inside this issue
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ARTS
Comedy. Drama. Chicken piccata. Arts Editor Jesse Koblin reviews FX’s “The Bear.”
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HUMOR
Arts Editor Allen Hale takes it upon himself to redraw the U.S. map, extending and combining states as he sees fit.
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Assistant Opinions Editor Jyotsna Naidu urges for sympaOPINIONS thy toward those nightmarish ‘Sephora Tweens.’